"The empire on which the sun never sets." A saying that stood true for quite a while before the sprawling empire of Great Britain began to recede. At one point, it owned 22.43% of the world's land area, maxing out with 458 million people.
It wasn't that long ago that the British Empire was at it's peak. In 1922 it owned over 13 million squared miles of land and 20% of the world's population. At that point it passed the Mongol Empire for the largest empire in history. Mongolia held 22.29%, or 12.74 million squared miles, of the world when it peaked in 1279.
Portugal and Spain heavily focused on world exploration during the Age of Discovery in the 15th and 16th centuries. Envious of the wealth they were finding, England began establishing colonies in the Americas and Asia. Britain lost some of their oldest colonies when the colonies won the American War of Independence.
The second World War devastated the British empire. They were essentially bankrupt by the damage and anti-colonial movements were on the rise everywhere. During the Cold War, they agreed for peaceful disengagement from colonies once a stable, non-Communist government was established. Britain lost most of their colonies this way and have receded back to their small corner of Europe.
