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  1. A few years ago, I posted [a visualization of the 1921 British Empire night-day cycle](https://www.reddit.com/r/dataisbeautiful/comments/s2f4on/oc_animation_of_the_empire_on_which_the_sun_never/) to demonstrate how the sun never set on British territory.

    A few folks kindly let me know that the title was originally bestowed to the Spanish Empire under Philip II and his successors. So, here I am four years later, with an updated visualization for 1590 Spain! “the sun never sets in the Spanish dominions, but ever shines upon one part or other of them: which, to say truly, is a beam of glory” — Francis Bacon

    Map and gif created with R following Dr. Dominic Royé’s excellent [tutorial](https://dominicroye.github.io/blog/night-day-world/). The GeoJSON file of Imperio Español 1590 is from the [Wikimedia Commons](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Data:Imperio_Espa%C3%B1ol_1590.map).

  2. I’ll never understand why some europeans think occupying other peoples lands is something to be proud of.

    Edit. The replies to this are making me chuckle lol

  3. SteelRazorBlade on

    Did the Iberian Union really control that much of India and Africa’s coastline in 1590?

  4. I understand that’s not the point of this map, but man the Spanish possessions are pretty incorrect. If this shows the Spanish as owning Patagonia where they had no presence in 1590, simply due to the Treaty of Tordesilhas, might as well show them owning practically the whole of North America and Africa too.

    Portuguese showing as controlling the whole coastline from Mauritania to Djibouti, showing them owning the Eastern coastline of Madagascar, the whole Western coast of India.

    I mean, at the end of this, this is more of a fictional Spanish Empire in 1590 than the real one.

  5. Wrong, this is largely claimed but not controlled. Africa, India, South America have been addressed by others.

    In the eastern US in 1590 all Spain had was St Augustine, St. Marks (Tallahassee) and a string of missions between them and directly around (a couple up the Georgia sea islands). Santa Elena and San Miguel de Gualdape in the Carolinas had been abandoned. So had Pensacola. No Mobile, no New Orleans, absolutely nothing inland like this.

  6. The Dutch would like a word with you…
    Not that it would make a difference, but your depiction is just wrong in so many ways