Does the phrase “The empire on which the sun never sets”
ring any bells with anyone? It should to all people who like to read and
research into Western history. It is the basest on which all modern powers
tried to live by. The phases can be traced
back to Herodotus' Histories and the
Persian Empire. The first real usage of the phrase was in the early 16th
century. Charles I of Spain used it to describe his new Empire. He had Spain
and all of its colonies. He was soon elected to be Holy Roman Emperor. He
gained the Holy Roman Empire or most of Germany. His son Philip II of Spain may
have lost the Germany territories but gained so much more but gained so much
more. He took Portugal and her colonies, chucks of Italy and the Dutch homeland
and new territories in the Pacific. Then his daughter Catherine Michelle landed
more lands in Italy from her husband. During the 19th century the
phrase was moved to the British and their empire. All this phrase means is a
large empire the crosses a lot of land, form one side of the world to the next.
I have a few maps to help in your understanding. The first map is the Spanish and the second is the British map.
