Spanish Sahara (Spanish: Sáhara Español; Arabic: الصحراء الاسبانية‎ Al-Sahrā'a Al-Isbānīyah) was the name used for the modern territory of Western Sahara when it was occupied and ruled as a territory by Spain between 1884 and 1975. The territory was both one of the most recent and the last parts of the Spanish Empire, which at one time had extended to the Americas and the Philippines and East Asia.