which european country has the largest colonial empire
Colonial empire The British Empire, consolidated during the period of British maritime hegemony in the 19th century, became the largest empire in history by virtue of the improved transportation technologies of the time. At its height, the British Empire covered a quarter of the Earth's land area and comprised a quarter of its population. During the New Imperialism, Italy and Germany also built their colonial empires in Africa.
Spanish Empire The Spanish Empire (Spanish: Imperio español) was one of the largest empires in history. At the time, it was not known as that by Spaniards, but rather the Spanish Monarchy (Monarquía española) with the monarch ruling kingdoms in Spain, the possessions of the king in Italy and northern Europe, and in the "Spanish Indies," its New World territories.[1] From the late fifteenth century to the early nineteenth, Spain's kingdom of Castile controlled a huge overseas territory in the New World.[2] The crown's main source of wealth was from gold and silver mined in Mexico and Peru. The empire reached the peak of its military, political and economic power under the Spanish Habsburgs,[3] through most of the 16th and 17th centuries, and its greatest territorial extent under the House of Bourbon in the 18th century. The Spanish Empire became the foremost global power of its time and it was the first to be called 'The empire on which the sun never sets'.