page_title: The empire on which the Sun never sets
section_title: British Empire
hierarchical_section_title: The empire on which the Sun never sets / British Empire
caption_attribution_description: English: Map of the British Empire in 1919 showing all the territories, including the dominions, colonies, protectorates and mandates, ruled or administered by the United Kingdom and its successor states during that year. Français&#160;: Carte de l'Empire britannique en 1919 illustrant tous les territoires, tels que les dominions, colonies, protectorats et mandats, gouvernés ou administrés par le Royaume-Uni ou ses États successeurs cette année-là. Español: Un mapa de todas las afirmaciones oficiales territorial del Imperio Británico que se celebró en 1919 que identifica qué tipo de celebración estaba presente en todas las posesiones durante ese año. Deutsch: Eine Karte aller offiziellen territorialen Ansprüche des Britischen Empire, die es im Jahre 1919 hatte, nach Art der Besitzungen in diesem Jahr. فارسی: نقشه بیمورد از همه ادعاهای ارضی رسمی امپراطوری بریتانیا که در سال 1919 که برای شناسایی نوع برگزاری در حال حاضر تمام اموال در آن سال برگزار شد. Português: Mapa de todos os territórios reclamados pelo Império Britânico, em 1919, que identifica o tipo de presença britânica no local naquele ano.
context_page_description: The phrase "the empire on which the Sun never sets" has been used to describe certain global empires that were so extensive that it seemed that at least one part of their territory was always in daylight. This grandiose statement is typically a hyperbolic boast of an empire's reach, but it has also been interpreted in a literal sense.
  It was originally used for the universal monarchy of the European and American dominions under Emperor Charles V. The term was then used for the Spanish Empire of Philip II of Spain and successors, in the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries. In more recent times, it was used for the British Empire, mainly in the 19th and early 20th centuries, a period in which the British Empire reached a territorial size larger than that of any other empire in history. In the 20th century, the phrase has sometimes been adapted to refer to the global reach of American power.
context_section_description: In the 19th century, it became popular to apply the phrase to the British Empire. It was a time when British world maps showed the Empire in red and pink to highlight British imperial power spanning the globe. Scottish author, John Wilson, writing as "Christopher North" in Blackwood's Magazine in 1829, is sometimes credited as originating the usage.  However, George Macartney wrote in 1773, in the wake of the territorial expansion that followed Britain's victory in the Seven Years' War, of "this vast empire on which the sun never sets, and whose bounds nature has not yet ascertained." 
  In a speech on 31 July 1827, Rev. R. P. Buddicom said, "It had been said that the sun never set on the British flag; it was certainly an old saying, about the time of Richard the Second, and was not so applicable then as at the present time." In 1821, the Caledonian Mercury wrote of the British Empire, "On her dominions the sun never sets; before his evening rays leave the spires of Quebec, his morning beams have shone three hours on Port Jackson, and while sinking from the waters of Lake Superior, his eye opens upon the Mouth of the Ganges."
  Daniel Webster famously expressed a similar idea in 1834: "A power which has dotted over the surface of the whole globe with her possessions and military posts, whose morning drumbeat, following the sun and keeping company with the hours, circles the earth with one continuous and unbroken strain of the martial airs of England." In 1839, Sir Henry Ward said in the House of Commons, "Look at the British Colonial empire—the most magnificent empire that the world ever saw. The old Spanish boast that the sun never set in their dominions, has been more truly realised amongst ourselves." By 1861, Lord Salisbury complained that the £1.5 million spent on colonial defence by Britain 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".
caption: The British Empire in 1919, at its greatest extent with presence on all continents
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