<P> 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 . </P> <P> 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 and the Soviet Union, became the largest contiguous state in the world, and the modern Russian Federation continues to be so to this day . Russia today has nine time zones, stretching across about half of the world's longitude . </P> <P> The British Empire, consolidated during the period of British maritime hegemony in the 19th century, became the largest empire in history by virtue of the improved transportation technologies of the time . At its height, the British Empire covered a quarter of the Earth's land area and comprised a quarter of its population . During the New Imperialism, Italy and Germany also built their colonial empires in Africa . </P> <P> After the Boxer Rebellion in 1901, Imperial China made concessions to the Eight - Nation Alliance (all the Great Powers of the time). By the end of the 20th century most of the previous colonial empires had been decolonized . </P>

Which european country has the largest colonial empire