For the record I am talking about colonial France, not napoleonic france. So we view the aformentioned empires as some of the greatest in history but is it warranted? Sure they conquered huge amounts of land but they took most of it from weak Native American and African tribes. Are they really on the same level as the Romans ottomans, Mughals , Chinese, Persians, Greeks etc? The latter had smaller empires but they fought against opponents that were nearly their equals.
It's mainly a matter of perception. In the heavily Western influenced cultures today, there is a lot more emphasis on studying the West rather than the East, at least in the West.
On the other hand, in Asia, there is a pretty hefty emphasis on Asian history rather than the West. All in all, it's less a question of 'which empire is greater' and more one of 'which geographic area should I focus on?'