After victory in the First World War, the empire gained control of territories such as Tanzania and Namibia from the German Empire, and Iraq and Palestine from the Ottoman Empire. By this point in 1920 the British empire had grown to become the largest empire in history, controlling approximately 25% of the world's land surface and 25% of the world's population.[1] It covered about 36.6 million km² (14.2 million square miles). Because of its magnitude, it was often referred to as the empire on which the sun never sets.