Before revision: The European countries of the modern era that are most remembered as colonial empires are the United Kingdom , Spain, Portugal , Italy, Netherlands , France, Germany and Belgium .
After revision: The European countries which had the most colonies throughout history were:United Kingdom (130), France (90), Portugal (52), Spain (44), Netherlands (29), Germany (20), Russia (17), Denmark (9), Sweden (8), Italy (7), Norway (6) and Belgium (3) .