There are 50 sovereign countries in Europe[0], you named 9, so that just illustrates my point. And that doesn't even include nations that have no independence, often taken away during reigning of neighboring empire.

0. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Europe

Those I named, had by far the majority of the european people in them. And what is your point linking to current european states, when were speaking of historic europe?

And that not all the people them were happy patriots, sure - thats common in empires. (and I don't like empires btw.) But the ordinary person was pretty much pro empire at that time. And that meant also conquering and ruling other nations and people.

You left out the Duchy of Kurland and Semigallia, now part of Latvia, who had a colony in Africa. Everyone can play.