The empire on which the sun never sets Totally Explained

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==Spanish Empire (1492-1898)==
The phrase "The Empire on which the sun never sets" was first used to describe the Spanish Empire in the 16th century, and originates with a remark of Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor (Charles I of Spain), who declared "in my realm the sun never sets."
When Charles was king, Spain had an enormous empire which included the Kingdom of Castile and León (with all its American possessions - all of the Americas, except Brazil, parts of Canada and the southwestern part of the United States), the Kingdom of Aragon (with all its mediterranean possessions - including Sicily, the Balearic islands, Sardinia and the kingdom of Naples), the Netherlands and others.
But the empire would become even greater with King Philip II of Spain, the son of Charles I and Isabella of Portugal. When King Henry of Portugal died, Philip II was recognised as King of Portugal in 1581, in a personal union of the crowns. He now owned all his father's possessions (except the Holy Roman Empire) and all the Portuguese Empire (Brazil, Ceylon, Portuguese India, Portuguese Africa, Timor, Macau, Madeira and Azores, amongst others). The Philippines were also obtained by Spain in 1565 together with insular territories such as Guam and the rest of Mariana Islands, and the Caroline Islands. The joint Portuguese and Spanish empire was maintained until 1640, while Philip IV was king, when Portugal again reverted to a Portuguese royal dynasty, the House of Braganza.

British Empire (c.1497-1997)

In the 19th century it became popular to apply the phrase to the British Empire, especially during the Victorian era, when British world maps coloured the Empire in red or pink, vividly highlighting British imperial power spanning the globe. The 19th-century politician Lord Salisbury complained that the £1.5 million spent on colonial defence by Britain in 1861 merely enabled the nation "to furnish an agreeable variety of stations to our soldiers, and to indulge in the sentiment that the sun never sets on our Empire". A Sri Lankan news source credits Colvin R. de Silva with coining the famous response: "That's because God doesn't trust the British in the dark".
Although the phrase has fallen out of British political usage, it remains true today that the sun still doesn't set on the British overseas territories or the Commonwealth Realms of which Elizabeth II is head of state.

United States of America (1898-Present)

From the mid-19th century, the phrase can be found applied to Anglophone culture, explicitly including America as well as Britain, for example in a speech by Alexander Campbell in 1852. It subsequently was applied specifically to the American sphere of influence; an early example is an article of 1897 which "boasted" that "the sun never sets on Uncle Sam". One recent textbook expanded: "Today ... the sun never sets on American territory, properties owned by the U.S. government and its citizens, American armed forces abroad, or countries that conduct their affairs within limits largely defined by American power." Although the United States no longer has any possessions further west than Guam or east than the Virgin Islands, it currently has military presence in Iraq, Afghanistan, Germany, Japan, South Korea, Diego Garcia and many other countries. The phrase is sometimes used critically with the implication of American imperialism, as in the title of Joseph Gerson's book, The Sun Never Sets: Confronting the Network of Foreign U.S. Military Bases. But it can also be intended positively, for example in acknowledging the world-wide scope of American commercial power.

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