(Nagasaki) in East Asia, amongst other smaller or short-lived possessions. During its Siglo de Oro, the Spanish Empire had possession of Mexico, South America, the Philippines, all of southern Italy, a stretch of territories from the Duchy of Milan to the Netherlands, Luxembourg, and Belgium, parts of Burgundy, and many colonial settlements in the Americas, Africa, and Asia. Possessions in Europe, Africa, the Atlantic Ocean, the Americas, the Pacific Ocean, and East Asia qualified the Spanish Empire as attaining a global presence. From 1580 to 1640 the Portuguese Empire and the Spanish Empire were conjoined in a personal union of its Habsburg monarchs during the period of the Iberian Union, but beneath the highest level of government, their separate administrations were maintained. Subsequent colonial empires included the French, English, Dutch and Japanese empires. By the mid-17th century, the Tsardom of Russia, continued later as the Russian Empire, the Soviet Union, and modern Russian, became the largest contiguous state in the world and remains so to this day. Throughout the 19th and early 20th century, by virtue of its technological and maritime supremacy, the British Empire steadily expanded to become by far the largest empire in history; at its height ruling over a quarter of the Earth's land area and 24% of the population. Britain's role as a global hegemon during this time ushered in a century of “British Peace”, lasting from the end of the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars to the start of World War I. During the New Imperialism, Italy and Germany also built their colonial empires in Africa. Timeline The chart below shows the span of some European colonial empires. Black lines mark the year of the empires largest territorial extent of land area. Red represents that the empire is at that time a monarchy. Blue represents that the empire is at that time a republic. List of colonial empires : Belgian Empire (1908–1962) (1908–1960) Ruanda-Urundi (1922–1962) Belgian concession of Tianjin (1902–1931) British Empire (1707–1997/present) Evolution of the British Empire; English colonial empire (1585–1707) Possessions in Europe British Cyprus British Malta British Ireland United States of the Ionian Islands Possessions in Africa British Somaliland (1884–1960) British Egypt (1914–1936) Anglo-Egyptian Sudan (1899–1956) East Africa Protectorate (1895–1920) Kenya Colony (1920–1963) Uganda Protectorate (1894–1962) Tanganyika (territory) (1922–1961) Protectorate of Nyasaland (1893–1964) Protectorate of Northern Rhodesia (1924–1964) Colony of Southern Rhodesia (1923–1965), (1979–1980) Bechuanaland Protectorate (1885–1966) British Nigeria (1914–1954) British Gold