<Tr> <Td_colspan="3"> Warning: Value not specified for "continent" </Td> </Tr> <P> The Spanish Empire (Spanish: Imperio español) was one of the largest empires in history . It reached the peak of its military, political and economic power under the Spanish Habsburgs, through most of the 16th and 17th centuries, and its greatest territorial extent under the House of Bourbon in the 18th century . The Spanish Empire became the foremost global power of its time and was the first to be called the empire on which the sun never sets . </P> <P> The Spanish Empire originated during the Age of Discovery after the voyages of Christopher Columbus . It comprised territories and colonies of the Spanish monarch in the Americas, Asia, Oceania and Africa, as the Greater Antilles, most of South America, Central America, and part of North America (including present day Florida, the Southwestern, and Pacific Coastal regions of the United States), as well as a number of Pacific Ocean archipelagos including the Philippines; and it lasted until the early 19th century Spanish American wars of independence, which left only Cuba, Puerto Rico, Guam, the Marianas, and the Philippines and various territories in Africa still under Spanish rule . Following the Spanish--American War of 1898, Spain ceded its last colonies in the Caribbean and the Pacific to the United States . Its last African colonies were granted independence or abandoned during Decolonisation of Africa finishing in 1976 . </P> <P> The dynastic union between the Crown of Castile (which included the kingdom of Navarre after 1515) and the Crown of Aragon by the Catholic Monarchs initiated a political, religious and social unity to become the first modern state in Europe, known as the Catholic Monarchy . During this period, the Spanish sovereign acted as monarch in a unitary manner over all his territories through a polysynodial system of Councils, although his power as king or lord varied from one territory to another, since each territory retained its own particular administration and juridical configuration . The unity did not mean uniformity . Therefore, under this political configuration, irrespective of the denominations given to the "dynastic union" existing from 1580 to 1640, the Portuguese realm kept its own administration and jurisdiction over its territory, as did the other kingdoms and realms ruled by the Spanish Habsburgs . Nevertheless, some historians assert that Portugal was part of the Spanish monarchy at the time, while others draw a clear distinction between the Portuguese and Spanish empires . </P>

How much land did the spanish empire cover