For Nepal and Bhutan at least, I think they were essentially a tributary state for the British empire and if they stepped out of line they'd be colonised.
Yeah, it seems kind of strange to say that Japan has never been in Europe’s sphere of influence considering the history of how the Dutch East India Company and later the British East India Company operated in Japan.
I think is more in a power relationship mean, like Japan and Korea are influenced by Europe because they are partners, not because they are influencing their government.
For those that don't know, French Guiana being an overseas department of France makes it analogous to Alaska or Hawaii, rather than a mere territory. It's considered a fully-fledged part of France, at the same level as all the departments of metropolitan France.
Every time I think of the near complete destruction of Pre-Columbian Indigenous American culture by European colonizers I get angry and sad. It must be one of the worst crimes in history.
The expression The empire where the sun never sets has been used in different contexts to define a certain type of global empire, so extensive that there is always at least a part of its territory where it is daytime. It was originally used by the Spanish Empire, mainly between the 16th and 17th centuries. In more recent times it has been used for the British Empire, mainly in the 19th and 20th centuries.