The historical phenomenon of
colonisation is one that stretches around the globe and across time. Modern
state global colonialism, or
imperialism, began in the 15th century with the "
Age of Discovery", led by
Portuguese and
Spanish exploration of the
Americas, the coasts of Africa, the Middle East, India and
East Asia. The
Spanish and
Portuguese empires were the first
global empires because they were the first to stretch across different continents, covering vast territories around the globe. The phrase "
the empire on which the sun never sets" was first used for the Spanish Empire in the 16th century. During the late 16th and 17th centuries,
England, France and the
Dutch Republic also established their own overseas empires, in direct competition with each other. The end of the 18th and early 19th century saw the first era of
decolonization, when most of the European colonies in the Americas gained their independence from their respective
metropoles. Spain was irreversibly weakened after the loss of their
New World colonies, but the
Kingdom of Great Britain (uniting Scotland with England and Wales), France, Portugal, and the Dutch turned their attention to the Old World, particularly South Africa, India, Pakistan and
South East Asia, where coastal enclaves had already been established. The
second industrial revolution, in the 19th century, led to what has been termed the era of
New Imperialism, when the pace of colonization rapidly accelerated, the height of which was the
Scramble for Africa, in which Belgium, Germany and Italy were participants.