British Empire

The British Empire was composed of the dominions,

colonies, protectorates, mandates, and other territories British Empire
ruled or administered by the United Kingdom and its
predecessor states. It began with the overseas possessions
and trading posts established by England between the late
16th and early 18th centuries. At its height it was the
largest empire in history and, for over a century, was the
foremost global power.[1] By 1913 the British Empire Left: Flag of Great Britain (1707–1801)
Right: Flag of the United Kingdom (1801–present)
held sway over 412 million people, 23% of the world
population at the time,[2] and by 1925 it covered
35,000,000 km2 (13,500,000 sq mi),[3] 24% of the
Earth's total land area. As a result, its constitutional, legal,
linguistic, and cultural legacy is widespread. At the peak
of its power, it was described as "the empire on which the
sun never sets" as the Sun was always shining on at least
one of its territories.[4]

During the Age of Discovery in the 15th and 16th All areas of the world that were ever part of the
centuries, Portugal and Spain pioneered European British Empire. Current British Overseas
exploration of the globe, and in the process established Territories have their names underlined in red.
large overseas empires. Envious of the great wealth these
empires generated,[5] England, France, and the Netherlands began to establish colonies and trade networks of
their own in the Americas and Asia. A series of wars in the 17th and 18th centuries with the Netherlands and
France left England (Britain, following the 1707 Act of Union with Scotland) the dominant colonial power in
North America. Britain became the dominant power in the Indian subcontinent after the East India Company's
conquest of Mughal Bengal at the Battle of Plassey in 1757.

The American War of Independence resulted in Britain losing some of its oldest and most populous colonies in
North America by 1783. British attention turned towards Asia, Africa, and the Pacific. After the defeat of
France in the Napoleonic Wars (1803–1815), Britain emerged as the principal naval and imperial power of the
19th century, and expanded its imperial holdings. The period of relative peace (1815–1914) during which the
British Empire became the global hegemon was later described as Pax Britannica ("British Peace"). Alongside
the formal control that Britain exerted over its colonies, its dominance of much of world trade meant that it
effectively controlled the economies of many regions, such as Asia and Latin America.[6][7] Increasing degrees
of autonomy were granted to its white settler colonies, some of which were reclassified as dominions.

By the start of the 20th century, Germany and the United States had begun to challenge Britain's economic
lead. Military and economic tensions between Britain and Germany were major causes of the First World War,
during which Britain relied heavily on its empire. The conflict placed enormous strain on its military, financial,
and manpower resources. Although the empire achieved its largest territorial extent immediately after World
War I, Britain was no longer the world's pre-eminent industrial or military power. In the Second World War,
Britain's colonies in East and Southeast Asia were occupied by Japan. Despite the final victory of Britain and
its allies, the damage to British prestige helped to accelerate the decline of the empire. India, Britain's most
valuable and populous possession, achieved independence as part of a larger decolonisation movement in
which Britain granted independence to most territories of the empire. The Suez Crisis confirmed Britain's
decline as a global power, and the transfer of Hong Kong to China in 1997 marked for many the end of the
British Empire.[8][9] Fourteen overseas territories remain under British sovereignty. After independence, many
former British colonies joined the Commonwealth of Nations, a free association of independent states. 16 of
these, including the United Kingdom, retain a common monarch, currently Queen Elizabeth II.

Contents
Origins (1497–1583)
English overseas possessions (1583–1707)
Americas, Africa and the slave trade
Rivalry with other European empires
Scottish attempt to expand overseas
"First" British Empire (1707–1783)
Loss of the Thirteen American Colonies
Rise of the "Second" British Empire (1783–1815)
Exploration of the Pacific
War with Napoleonic France
Abolition of slavery
Britain's imperial century (1815–1914)
East India Company rule and the British Raj in India
Rivalry with Russia
Cape to Cairo
Changing status of the white colonies
World wars (1914–1945)
First World War
Inter-war period
Second World War
Decolonisation and decline (1945–1997)
Initial disengagement
Suez and its aftermath
Wind of change
End of empire
Legacy
See also
Notes
References
Works cited
External links

Origins (1497–1583)
The foundations of the British Empire were laid when England and Scotland
were separate kingdoms. In 1496, King Henry VII of England, following the
successes of Spain and Portugal in overseas exploration, commissioned John
Cabot to lead a voyage to discover a route to Asia via the North Atlantic.[10]
Cabot sailed in 1497, five years after the European discovery of America, but
he made landfall on the coast of Newfoundland, and, mistakenly believing
(like Christopher Columbus) that he had reached Asia,[11] there was no
attempt to found a colony. Cabot led another voyage to the Americas the
following year but nothing was ever heard of his ships again.[12]

No further attempts to establish English colonies in the Americas were made

until well into the reign of Queen Elizabeth I, during the last decades of the
16th century.[13] In the meantime, the 1533 Statute in Restraint of Appeals
had declared "that this realm of England is an Empire".[14] The Protestant
Reformation turned England and Catholic Spain into implacable enemies.[10] A replica of the Matthew,
In 1562, the English Crown encouraged the privateers John Hawkins and John Cabot's ship used for
Francis Drake to engage in slave-raiding attacks against Spanish and his second voyage to the
Portuguese ships off the coast of West Africa[15] with the aim of breaking into New World
the Atlantic slave trade. This effort was rebuffed and later, as the Anglo-
Spanish Wars intensified, Elizabeth I gave her blessing to further privateering
raids against Spanish ports in the Americas and shipping that was returning across the Atlantic, laden with
treasure from the New World.[16] At the same time, influential writers such as Richard Hakluyt and John Dee
(who was the first to use the term "British Empire")[17] were beginning to press for the establishment of
England's own empire. By this time, Spain had become the dominant power in the Americas and was
exploring the Pacific Ocean, Portugal had established trading posts and forts from the coasts of Africa and
Brazil to China, and France had begun to settle the Saint Lawrence River area, later to become New
France.[18]

Although England tended to trail behind Portugal, Spain, and France in establishing overseas colonies, it
established its first overseas colony in 16th century Ireland by settling it with Protestants from England
drawing on precedents dating back to the Norman invasion of Ireland in 1169.[19][20] Several people who
helped establish colonies in Ireland also later played a part in the early colonisation of North America,
particularly a group known as the West Country men.[21]

English overseas possessions (1583–1707)

In 1578, Elizabeth I granted a patent to Humphrey Gilbert for discovery and overseas exploration.[22][23] That
year, Gilbert sailed for the Caribbean with the intention of engaging in piracy and establishing a colony in
North America, but the expedition was aborted before it had crossed the Atlantic.[24][25] In 1583, he embarked
on a second attempt. On this occasion he formally claimed the harbour of the island of Newfoundland,
although no settlers were left behind. Gilbert did not survive the return journey to England, and was succeeded
by his half-brother, Walter Raleigh, who was granted his own patent by Elizabeth in 1584. Later that year,
Raleigh founded the Roanoke Colony on the coast of present-day North Carolina, but lack of supplies caused
the colony to fail.[26]

In 1603, James VI, King of Scots, ascended (as James I) to the English throne and in 1604 negotiated the
Treaty of London, ending hostilities with Spain. Now at peace with its main rival, English attention shifted
from preying on other nations' colonial infrastructures to the business of establishing its own overseas
colonies.[27] The British Empire began to take shape during the early 17th century, with the English settlement
of North America and the smaller islands of the Caribbean, and the establishment of joint-stock companies,
most notably the East India Company, to administer colonies and overseas trade. This period, until the loss of
the Thirteen Colonies after the American War of Independence towards the end of the 18th century, has been
referred to by some historians as the "First British Empire".[28]

Americas, Africa and the slave trade

The Caribbean initially provided England's most important and lucrative colonies,[29] but not before several
attempts at colonisation failed. An attempt to establish a colony in Guiana in 1604 lasted only two years, and
failed in its main objective to find gold deposits.[30] Colonies in St Lucia (1605) and Grenada (1609) also
rapidly folded, but settlements were successfully established in St. Kitts (1624), Barbados (1627) and
Nevis (1628).[31] The colonies soon adopted the system of sugar plantations successfully used by the
Portuguese in Brazil, which depended on slave labour, and—at first—Dutch ships, to sell the slaves and buy
the sugar.[32] To ensure that the increasingly healthy profits of this trade remained in English hands, Parliament
decreed in 1651 that only English ships would be able to ply their trade in English colonies. This led to
hostilities with the United Dutch Provinces—a series of Anglo-Dutch Wars—which would eventually
strengthen England's position in the Americas at the expense of the Dutch.[33] In 1655, England annexed the
island of Jamaica from the Spanish, and in 1666 succeeded in colonising the Bahamas.[34]

England's first permanent settlement in the Americas was founded in 1607 in Jamestown, led by Captain John
Smith and managed by the Virginia Company. Bermuda was settled and claimed by England as a result of the
1609 shipwreck of the Virginia Company's flagship, and in 1615 was turned over to the newly formed Somers
Isles Company.[35] The Virginia Company's charter was revoked in 1624 and direct control of Virginia was
assumed by the crown, thereby founding the Colony of Virginia.[36] The London and Bristol Company was
created in 1610 with the aim of creating a permanent settlement on Newfoundland, but was largely
unsuccessful.[37] In 1620, Plymouth was founded as a haven for Puritan religious separatists, later known as
the Pilgrims.[38] Fleeing from religious persecution would become the motive of many English would-be
colonists to risk the arduous trans-Atlantic voyage: Maryland was founded as a haven for Roman
Catholics (1634), Rhode Island (1636) as a colony tolerant of all religions and Connecticut (1639) for
Congregationalists. The Province of Carolina was founded in 1663. With the surrender of Fort Amsterdam in
1664, England gained control of the Dutch colony of New Netherland, renaming it New York. This was
formalised in negotiations following the Second Anglo-Dutch War, in exchange for Suriname.[39] In 1681, the
colony of Pennsylvania was founded by William Penn. The American colonies were less financially successful
than those of the Caribbean, but had large areas of good agricultural land and attracted far larger numbers of
English emigrants who preferred their temperate climates.[40]

In 1670, Charles II incorporated by royal charter the Hudson's Bay

Company (HBC), granting it a monopoly on the fur trade in the area
known as Rupert's Land, which would later form a large proportion
of the Dominion of Canada. Forts and trading posts established by the
HBC were frequently the subject of attacks by the French, who had
established their own fur trading colony in adjacent New France.[41]

Two years later, the Royal African Company was inaugurated, African slaves working in 17th-
receiving from King Charles a monopoly of the trade to supply slaves century Virginia, by an unknown
to the British colonies of the Caribbean. [42] From the outset, slavery artist, 1670
was the basis of the Empire in the West Indies. Until the abolition of
its slave trade in 1807, Britain was responsible for the transportation
of 3.5 million African slaves to the Americas, a third of all slaves transported across the Atlantic.[43] To
facilitate this trade, forts were established on the coast of West Africa, such as James Island, Accra and Bunce
Island. In the British Caribbean, the percentage of the population of African descent rose from 25% in 1650 to
around 80% in 1780, and in the Thirteen Colonies from 10% to 40% over the same period (the majority in the
southern colonies).[44] For the slave traders, the trade was extremely profitable, and became a major economic
mainstay for such western British cities as Bristol, Glasgow and Liverpool, which formed the third corner of
the triangular trade with Africa and the Americas. For the transported, harsh and unhygienic conditions on the
slaving ships and poor diets meant that the average mortality rate during the Middle Passage was one in
seven.[45]

Rivalry with other European empires

At the end of the 16th century, England and the Netherlands

began to challenge Portugal's monopoly of trade with Asia,
forming private joint-stock companies to finance the voyages—
the English, later British, East India Company and the Dutch
East India Company, chartered in 1600 and 1602 respectively.
The primary aim of these companies was to tap into the lucrative
spice trade, an effort focused mainly on two regions; the East
Indies archipelago, and an important hub in the trade network,
India. There, they competed for trade supremacy with Portugal Fort St. George was founded at Madras in
and with each other.[46] Although England eclipsed the 1639.
Netherlands as a colonial power, in the short term the
Netherlands' more advanced financial system[47] and the three
Anglo-Dutch Wars of the 17th century left it with a stronger position in Asia. Hostilities ceased after the
Glorious Revolution of 1688 when the Dutch William of Orange ascended the English throne, bringing peace
between the Netherlands and England. A deal between the two nations left the spice trade of the East Indies
archipelago to the Netherlands and the textiles industry of India to England, but textiles soon overtook spices
in terms of profitability.[47]

Peace between England and the Netherlands in 1688 meant that the two countries entered the Nine Years' War
as allies, but the conflict—waged in Europe and overseas between France, Spain and the Anglo-Dutch
alliance—left the English a stronger colonial power than the Dutch, who were forced to devote a larger
proportion of their military budget on the costly land war in Europe.[48]

The death of Charles II of Spain in 1700 and his bequeathal of Spain and its colonial empire to Philippe of
Anjou, a grandson of the King of France, raised the prospect of the unification of France, Spain and their
respective colonies, an unacceptable state of affairs for England and the other powers of Europe.[49] In 1701,
England, Portugal and the Netherlands sided with the Holy Roman Empire against Spain and France in the
War of the Spanish Succession, which lasted for thirteen years.[49]

Scottish attempt to expand overseas

In 1695, the Parliament of Scotland granted a charter to the Company of Scotland, which established a
settlement in 1698 on the Isthmus of Panama. Besieged by neighbouring Spanish colonists of New Granada,
and afflicted by malaria, the colony was abandoned two years later. The Darien scheme was a financial
disaster for Scotland—a quarter of Scottish capital[50] was lost in the enterprise—and ended Scottish hopes of
establishing its own overseas empire. The episode also had major political consequences, helping to persuade
the government of Scotland of the merits of a union of the two countries, rather than just crowns.[51]

"First" British Empire (1707–1783)

The 18th century saw the newly united Great Britain rise to be the world's dominant colonial power, with
France becoming its main rival on the imperial stage.[52]
Great Britain, Portugal, the Netherlands, and the Holy Roman Empire continued the War of the Spanish
Succession, which lasted until 1714 and was concluded by the Treaty of Utrecht. Philip V of Spain renounced
his and his descendants' claim to the French throne, and Spain lost its empire in Europe.[49] The British
Empire was territorially enlarged: from France, Britain gained Newfoundland and Acadia, and from Spain
Gibraltar and Menorca. Gibraltar became a critical naval base and allowed Britain to control the Atlantic entry
and exit point to the Mediterranean. Spain also ceded the rights to the lucrative asiento (permission to sell
African slaves in Spanish America) to Britain.[53] After the Anglo-Spanish War of 1727–1729, the King of
Spain confiscated all British ships in his ports in New Spain. In 1731, Spanish patrol boat La Isabela boarded
the British brig Rebecca off Havana and Captain Julio León Fandiño cut off the left ear of Captain Robert
Jenkins, accusing him of being a smuggler. In August 1737, two more British ships were boarded by Spanish
coastguards near Havana; the crews were imprisoned and kept as slaves.[54] With the outbreak of the Anglo-
Spanish War of Jenkins' Ear in 1739, Spanish privateers attacked British merchant shipping along the Triangle
Trade routes. In 1746, the Spanish and British began peace talks, with the King of Spain agreeing to stop all
attacks on British shipping; however, in the Treaty of Madrid Britain lost its slave trading rights in South and
Central America.[55]

In the East Indies, British and Dutch merchants continued to compete

in spices and textiles. With textiles becoming the larger trade, by
1720, in terms of sales, the British company had overtaken the
Dutch.[47]

During the middle decades of the 18th century, there were several
outbreaks of military conflict on the Indian subcontinent, as the
English East India Company and its French counterpart, struggled
alongside local rulers to fill the vacuum that had been left by the
decline of the Mughal Empire. The Battle of Plassey in 1757, in
which the British defeated the Nawab of Bengal and his French allies, Robert Clive's victory at the Battle of
left the British East India Company in control of Bengal and as the Plassey established the East India
major military and political power in India. [56] France was left control Company as a military as well as a
commercial power.
of its enclaves but with military restrictions and an obligation to
support British client states, ending French hopes of controlling
India.[57] In the following decades the British East India Company
gradually increased the size of the territories under its control, either ruling directly or via local rulers under the
threat of force from the Presidency Armies, the vast majority of which was composed of Indian sepoys, led by
British officers.[58] The British and French struggles in India became but one theatre of the global Seven
Years' War (1756–1763) involving France, Britain, and the other major European powers.[41]

The signing of the Treaty of Paris of 1763 had important consequences for the future of the British Empire. In
North America, France's future as a colonial power effectively ended with the recognition of British claims to
Rupert's Land,[41] and the ceding of New France to Britain (leaving a sizeable French-speaking population
under British control) and Louisiana to Spain. Spain ceded Florida to Britain. Along with its victory over
France in India, the Seven Years' War therefore left Britain as the world's most powerful maritime power.[59]

Loss of the Thirteen American Colonies

During the 1760s and early 1770s, relations between the Thirteen Colonies and Britain became increasingly
strained, primarily because of resentment of the British Parliament's attempts to govern and tax American
colonists without their consent.[60] This was summarised at the time by the slogan "No taxation without
representation", a perceived violation of the guaranteed Rights of Englishmen. The American Revolution
began with rejection of Parliamentary authority and moves towards self-government. In response, Britain sent
troops to reimpose direct rule, leading to the outbreak of war in 1775. The following year, in 1776, the United
States declared independence. The entry of French and Spanish forces
into the war tipped the military balance in the Americans' favour and
after a decisive defeat at Yorktown in 1781, Britain began negotiating
peace terms. American independence was acknowledged at the Peace
of Paris in 1783.[61]

The loss of such a large portion of British America, at the time

Britain's most populous overseas possession, is seen by some
historians as the event defining the transition between the "first" and
"second" empires,[62] in which Britain shifted its attention away from
the Americas to Asia, the Pacific and later Africa. Adam Smith's
Wealth of Nations, published in 1776, had argued that colonies were British colonies in the Americas,
redundant, and that free trade should replace the old mercantilist 1763–1776 (Thirteen Colonies)
policies that had characterised the first period of colonial expansion,
dating back to the protectionism of Spain and Portugal.[59][63] The
growth of trade between the newly independent United States and Britain after 1783 seemed to confirm
Smith's view that political control was not necessary for economic success.[64][65]

The war to the south influenced British policy in Canada, where between 40,000 and 100,000[66] defeated
Loyalists had migrated from the new United States following independence.[67] The 14,000 Loyalists who
went to the Saint John and Saint Croix river valleys, then part of Nova Scotia, felt too far removed from the
provincial government in Halifax, so London split off New Brunswick as a separate colony in 1784.[68] The
Constitutional Act of 1791 created the provinces of Upper Canada (mainly English speaking) and Lower
Canada (mainly French-speaking) to defuse tensions between the French and British communities, and
implemented governmental systems similar to those employed in Britain, with the intention of asserting
imperial authority and not allowing the sort of popular control of government that was perceived to have led to
the American Revolution.[69]

Tensions between Britain and the United States escalated again during the Napoleonic Wars, as Britain tried to
cut off American trade with France and boarded American ships to impress men into the Royal Navy. The US
declared war, the War of 1812, and invaded Canadian territory. In response Britain invaded the US, but the
pre-war boundaries were reaffirmed by the 1814 Treaty of Ghent, ensuring Canada's future would be separate
from that of the United States.[70][71]

Rise of the "Second" British Empire (1783–1815)

Exploration of the Pacific

Since 1718, transportation to the American colonies had been a penalty for various offences in Britain, with
approximately one thousand convicts transported per year.[72] Forced to find an alternative location after the
loss of the Thirteen Colonies in 1783, the British government turned to Australia.[73] The coast of Australia
had been discovered for Europeans by the Dutch in 1606,[74] but there was no attempt to colonise it. In 1770
James Cook charted the eastern coast while on a scientific voyage, claimed the continent for Britain, and
named it New South Wales.[75] In 1778, Joseph Banks, Cook's botanist on the voyage, presented evidence to
the government on the suitability of Botany Bay for the establishment of a penal settlement, and in 1787 the
first shipment of convicts set sail, arriving in 1788.[76] Unusually, Australia was claimed through proclamation.
Indigenous Australians were considered too uncivilised to require treaties,[77][78] and colonisation brought
disease and violence that together with the deliberate dispossession of land and culture were devastating to
these peoples.[79][80] Britain continued to transport convicts to New South Wales until 1840, to Tasmania until
1853 and to Western Australia until 1868.[81] The Australian colonies became profitable exporters of wool and
 gold,[82] mainly because of gold rushes in Victoria, making its capital
Melbourne for a time the richest city in the world[83] and the second largest
city (after London) in the British Empire.[84]

During his voyage, Cook also visited New Zealand, known to Europeans due
to the 1642 voyage of Dutch explorer Abel Tasman, and claimed both the
North and the South islands for the British crown in 1769 and 1770
respectively. Initially, interaction between the indigenous Māori population
and Europeans was limited to the trading of goods. European settlement
increased through the early decades of the 19th century, with numerous
trading stations established, especially in the North. In 1839, the New Zealand
Company announced plans to buy large tracts of land and establish colonies
James Cook's mission was in New Zealand. On 6 February 1840, Captain William Hobson and around
to find the alleged southern 40 Maori chiefs signed the Treaty of Waitangi.[85] This treaty is considered to
continent Terra Australis. be New Zealand's founding document,[86] but differing interpretations of the
Maori and English versions of the text[87] have meant that it continues to be a
source of dispute.[88]

War with Napoleonic France

Britain was challenged again by France under Napoleon, in a struggle

that, unlike previous wars, represented a contest of ideologies
between the two nations.[89] It was not only Britain's position on the
world stage that was at risk: Napoleon threatened to invade Britain
itself, just as his armies had overrun many countries of continental
Europe.[90] The Battle of Waterloo ended in the
defeat of Napoleon and marked the
The Napoleonic Wars were therefore ones in which Britain invested beginning of Pax Britannica.
large amounts of capital and resources to win. French ports were
blockaded by the Royal Navy, which won a decisive victory over a
Franco-Spanish fleet at Trafalgar in 1805. Overseas colonies were attacked and occupied, including those of
the Netherlands, which was annexed by Napoleon in 1810. France was finally defeated by a coalition of
European armies in 1815.[91] Britain was again the beneficiary of peace treaties: France ceded the Ionian
Islands, Malta (which it had occupied in 1797 and 1798 respectively), Mauritius, Saint Lucia, Seychelles, and
Tobago; Spain ceded Trinidad; the Netherlands Guyana, and the Cape Colony. Britain returned Guadeloupe,
Martinique, French Guiana, and Réunion to France, and Java and Suriname to the Netherlands, while gaining
control of Ceylon (1795–1815) and Heligoland.[92]

Abolition of slavery

With the advent of the Industrial Revolution, goods produced by slavery became less important to the British
economy.[93] Added to this was the cost of suppressing regular slave rebellions. With support from the British
abolitionist movement, Parliament enacted the Slave Trade Act in 1807, which abolished the slave trade in the
empire. In 1808, Sierra Leone Colony was designated an official British colony for freed slaves.[94]
Parliamentary reform in 1832 saw the influence of the West India Committee decline. The Slavery Abolition
Act, passed the following year, abolished slavery in the British Empire on 1 August 1834, finally bringing the
Empire into line with the law in the UK (with the exception of the territories administered by the East India
Company and Ceylon, where slavery was ended in 1844). Under the Act, slaves were granted full
emancipation after a period of four to six years of "apprenticeship".[95] Facing further opposition from
abolitionists, the apprenticeship system was abolished in 1838.[96] The British government compensated slave-
owners.[97][98]

Britain's imperial century (1815–1914)

Between 1815 and 1914, a period referred to as Britain's "imperial century" by some historians,[99][100]
around 10 million sq mi (26 million km2 ) of territory and roughly 400 million people were added to the British
Empire.[101] Victory over Napoleon left Britain without any serious international rival, other than Russia in
Central Asia.[102] Unchallenged at sea, Britain adopted the role of global policeman, a state of affairs later
known as the Pax Britannica,[103][104][105] and a foreign policy of "splendid isolation".[106] Alongside the
formal control it exerted over its own colonies, Britain's dominant position in world trade meant that it
effectively controlled the economies of many countries, such as China, Argentina and Siam, which has been
described by some historians as an "Informal Empire".[6][7]

British imperial strength was underpinned by the steamship and the telegraph,
new technologies invented in the second half of the 19th century, allowing it
to control and defend the empire. By 1902, the British Empire was linked
together by a network of telegraph cables, called the All Red Line.[107]

East India Company rule and the British Raj in India

The East India Company drove the expansion of the British Empire in Asia.
The Company's army had first joined forces with the Royal Navy during the
Seven Years' War, and the two continued to co-operate in arenas outside
India: the eviction of the French from Egypt (1799),[108] the capture of Java
from the Netherlands (1811), the acquisition of Penang Island (1786),
An 1876 political cartoon of
Singapore (1819) and Malacca (1824), and the defeat of Burma (1826).[102] Benjamin Disraeli (1804–
1881) making Queen
From its base in India, the Company had also been engaged in an increasingly
Victoria Empress of India.
profitable opium export trade to China since the 1730s. This trade, illegal The caption reads "New
since it was outlawed by the Qing dynasty in 1729, helped reverse the trade crowns for old ones!"
imbalances resulting from the British imports of tea, which saw large outflows
of silver from Britain to China.[109] In 1839, the confiscation by the Chinese
authorities at Canton of 20,000 chests of opium led Britain to attack China in the First Opium War, and
resulted in the seizure by Britain of Hong Kong Island, at that time a minor settlement, and other Treaty Ports
including Shanghai.[110]

During the late 18th and early 19th centuries the British Crown began to assume an increasingly large role in
the affairs of the Company. A series of Acts of Parliament were passed, including the Regulating Act of 1773,
Pitt's India Act of 1784 and the Charter Act of 1813 which regulated the Company's affairs and established the
sovereignty of the Crown over the territories that it had acquired.[111] The Company's eventual end was
precipitated by the Indian Rebellion in 1857, a conflict that had begun with the mutiny of sepoys, Indian
troops under British officers and discipline.[112] The rebellion took six months to suppress, with heavy loss of
life on both sides. The following year the British government dissolved the Company and assumed direct
control over India through the Government of India Act 1858, establishing the British Raj, where an appointed
governor-general administered India and Queen Victoria was crowned the Empress of India.[113] India
became the empire's most valuable possession, "the Jewel in the Crown", and was the most important source
of Britain's strength.[114]
A series of serious crop failures in the late 19th century led to widespread famines on the subcontinent in
which it is estimated that over 15 million people died. The East India Company had failed to implement any
coordinated policy to deal with the famines during its period of rule. Later, under direct British rule,
commissions were set up after each famine to investigate the causes and implement new policies, which took
until the early 1900s to have an effect.[115]

Rivalry with Russia

During the 19th century, Britain and the Russian Empire vied to fill
the power vacuums that had been left by the declining Ottoman
Empire, Qajar dynasty and Qing Dynasty. This rivalry in Central Asia
came to be known as the "Great Game".[116] As far as Britain was
concerned, defeats inflicted by Russia on Persia and Turkey
demonstrated its imperial ambitions and capabilities and stoked fears
in Britain of an overland invasion of India.[117] In 1839, Britain
moved to pre-empt this by invading Afghanistan, but the First Anglo-
British cavalry charging against
Afghan War was a disaster for Britain.[118] Russian forces at Balaclava in 1854

When Russia invaded the Turkish Balkans in 1853, fears of Russian

dominance in the Mediterranean and Middle East led Britain and
France to invade the Crimean Peninsula to destroy Russian naval capabilities.[118] The ensuing Crimean War
(1854–1856), which involved new techniques of modern warfare,[119] was the only global war fought
between Britain and another imperial power during the Pax Britannica and was a resounding defeat for
Russia.[118] The situation remained unresolved in Central Asia for two more decades, with Britain annexing
Baluchistan in 1876 and Russia annexing Kirghizia, Kazakhstan, and Turkmenistan. For a while it appeared
that another war would be inevitable, but the two countries reached an agreement on their respective spheres
of influence in the region in 1878 and on all outstanding matters in 1907 with the signing of the Anglo-
Russian Entente.[120] The destruction of the Russian Navy by the Japanese at the Battle of Port Arthur during
the Russo-Japanese War of 1904–1905 also limited its threat to the British.[121]

Cape to Cairo

The Dutch East India Company had founded the Cape Colony on the
southern tip of Africa in 1652 as a way station for its ships travelling
to and from its colonies in the East Indies. Britain formally acquired
the colony, and its large Afrikaner (or Boer) population in 1806,
having occupied it in 1795 to prevent its falling into French hands
during the Flanders Campaign.[122] British immigration began to rise
after 1820, and pushed thousands of Boers, resentful of British rule,
northwards to found their own—mostly short-lived—independent
republics, during the Great Trek of the late 1830s and early
1840s.[123] In the process the Voortrekkers clashed repeatedly with
the British, who had their own agenda with regard to colonial
expansion in South Africa and to the various native African polities,
including those of the Sotho and the Zulu nations. Eventually the
Boers established two republics which had a longer lifespan: the
South African Republic or Transvaal Republic (1852–1877; 1881–
1902) and the Orange Free State (1854–1902).[124] In 1902 Britain The Rhodes Colossus—Cecil
occupied both republics, concluding a treaty with the two Boer Rhodes spanning "Cape to Cairo"
Republics following the Second Boer War (1899–1902).[125]
In 1869 the Suez Canal opened under Napoleon III, linking the Mediterranean with the Indian Ocean. Initially
the Canal was opposed by the British;[126] but once opened, its strategic value was quickly recognised and
became the "jugular vein of the Empire".[127] In 1875, the Conservative government of Benjamin Disraeli
bought the indebted Egyptian ruler Isma'il Pasha's 44% shareholding in the Suez Canal for £4 million
(equivalent to £380 million in 2019). Although this did not grant outright control of the strategic waterway, it
did give Britain leverage. Joint Anglo-French financial control over Egypt ended in outright British occupation
in 1882.[128] Although Britain controlled Egypt into the 20th century, it was officially part of the Ottoman
Empire and not part of the British Empire. The French were still majority shareholders and attempted to
weaken the British position,[129] but a compromise was reached with the 1888 Convention of Constantinople,
which made the Canal officially neutral territory.[130]

With competitive French, Belgian and Portuguese activity in the lower Congo River region undermining
orderly colonisation of tropical Africa, the Berlin Conference of 1884–85 was held to regulate the competition
between the European powers in what was called the "Scramble for Africa" by defining "effective
occupation" as the criterion for international recognition of territorial claims.[131] The scramble continued into
the 1890s, and caused Britain to reconsider its decision in 1885 to withdraw from Sudan. A joint force of
British and Egyptian troops defeated the Mahdist Army in 1896, and rebuffed an attempted French invasion at
Fashoda in 1898. Sudan was nominally made an Anglo-Egyptian condominium, but a British colony in
reality.[132]

British gains in Southern and East Africa prompted Cecil Rhodes, pioneer of British expansion in Southern
Africa, to urge a "Cape to Cairo" railway linking the strategically important Suez Canal to the mineral-rich
south of the continent.[133] During the 1880s and 1890s, Rhodes, with his privately owned British South
Africa Company, occupied and annexed territories named after him, Rhodesia.[134]

Changing status of the white colonies

The path to independence for the white colonies of the British Empire began with the 1839 Durham Report,
which proposed unification and self-government for Upper and Lower Canada, as a solution to political unrest
which had erupted in armed rebellions in 1837.[135] This began with the passing of the Act of Union in 1840,
which created the Province of Canada. Responsible government was first granted to Nova Scotia in 1848, and
was soon extended to the other British North American colonies. With the passage of the British North
America Act, 1867 by the British Parliament, the Province of Canada, New Brunswick and Nova Scotia were
formed into Canada, a confederation enjoying full self-government with the exception of international
relations.[136] Australia and New Zealand achieved similar levels of self-government after 1900, with the
Australian colonies federating in 1901.[137] The term "dominion status" was officially introduced at the
Colonial Conference of 1907.[138]

The last decades of the 19th century saw concerted political campaigns for Irish home rule. Ireland had been
united with Britain into the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland with the Act of Union 1800 after the
Irish Rebellion of 1798, and had suffered a severe famine between 1845 and 1852. Home rule was supported
by the British Prime minister, William Gladstone, who hoped that Ireland might follow in Canada's footsteps
as a Dominion within the empire, but his 1886 Home Rule bill was defeated in Parliament. Although the bill,
if passed, would have granted Ireland less autonomy within the UK than the Canadian provinces had within
their own federation,[139] many MPs feared that a partially independent Ireland might pose a security threat to
Great Britain or mark the beginning of the break-up of the empire.[140] A second Home Rule bill was also
defeated for similar reasons.[140] A third bill was passed by Parliament in 1914, but not implemented because
of the outbreak of the First World War leading to the 1916 Easter Rising.[141]

World wars (1914–1945)

By the turn of the 20th century, fears had begun to grow in Britain that it
would no longer be able to defend the metropole and the entirety of the
empire while at the same time maintaining the policy of "splendid
isolation".[142] Germany was rapidly rising as a military and industrial
power and was now seen as the most likely opponent in any future war.
Recognising that it was overstretched in the Pacific[143] and threatened at
home by the Imperial German Navy, Britain formed an alliance with Japan
in 1902 and with its old enemies France and Russia in 1904 and 1907,
respectively.[144]

First World War

Britain's fears of war with Germany were realised in 1914 with the
outbreak of the First World War. Britain quickly invaded and occupied
most of Germany's overseas colonies in Africa. In the Pacific, Australia
A poster urging men from
and New Zealand occupied German New Guinea and German Samoa
countries of the British Empire
respectively. Plans for a post-war division of the Ottoman Empire, which
to enlist
had joined the war on Germany's side, were secretly drawn up by Britain
and France under the 1916 Sykes–Picot Agreement. This agreement was
not divulged to the Sharif of Mecca, who the British had been encouraging to launch an Arab revolt against
their Ottoman rulers, giving the impression that Britain was supporting the creation of an independent Arab
state.[145]

The British declaration of war on Germany and its allies also committed the colonies and Dominions, which
provided invaluable military, financial and material support. Over 2.5 million men served in the armies of the
Dominions, as well as many thousands of volunteers from the Crown colonies.[146] The contributions of
Australian and New Zealand troops during the 1915 Gallipoli Campaign against the Ottoman Empire had a
great impact on the national consciousness at home, and marked a watershed in the transition of Australia and
New Zealand from colonies to nations in their own right. The countries continue to commemorate this
occasion on Anzac Day. Canadians viewed the Battle of Vimy Ridge in a similar light.[147] The important
contribution of the Dominions to the war effort was recognised in 1917 by the British Prime Minister David
Lloyd George when he invited each of the Dominion Prime Ministers to join an Imperial War Cabinet to co-
ordinate imperial policy.[148]

Under the terms of the concluding Treaty of Versailles signed in 1919, the empire reached its greatest extent
with the addition of 1,800,000 square miles (4,700,000 km2 ) and 13 million new subjects.[149] The colonies of
Germany and the Ottoman Empire were distributed to the Allied powers as League of Nations mandates.
Britain gained control of Palestine, Transjordan, Iraq, parts of Cameroon and Togoland, and Tanganyika. The
Dominions themselves also acquired mandates of their own: the Union of South Africa gained South West
Africa (modern-day Namibia), Australia gained New Guinea, and New Zealand Western Samoa. Nauru was
made a combined mandate of Britain and the two Pacific Dominions.[150]

Inter-war period

The changing world order that the war had brought about, in particular the growth of the United States and
Japan as naval powers, and the rise of independence movements in India and Ireland, caused a major
reassessment of British imperial policy.[151] Forced to choose between alignment with the United States or
Japan, Britain opted not to renew its Japanese alliance and instead signed the 1922 Washington Naval Treaty,
where Britain accepted naval parity with the United States.[152] This decision was the source of much debate
in Britain during the 1930s[153] as militaristic governments took hold in Germany and Japan helped in part by
 the Great Depression, for it was feared
that the empire could not survive a
simultaneous attack by both nations.[154]
The issue of the empire's security was a
serious concern in Britain, as it was vital
to the British economy.[155]

In 1919, the frustrations caused by delays

to Irish home rule led the MPs of Sinn
Féin, a pro-independence party that had
The British Empire at its territorial peak in 1921 won a majority of the Irish seats in the
1918 British general election, to establish
an independent parliament in Dublin, at
which Irish independence was declared. The Irish Republican Army simultaneously began a guerrilla war
against the British administration.[156] The Anglo-Irish War ended in 1921 with a stalemate and the signing of
the Anglo-Irish Treaty, creating the Irish Free State, a Dominion within the British Empire, with effective
internal independence but still constitutionally linked with the British Crown.[157] Northern Ireland, consisting
of six of the 32 Irish counties which had been established as a devolved region under the 1920 Government of
Ireland Act, immediately exercised its option under the treaty to retain its existing status within the United
Kingdom.[158]

A similar struggle began in India when the Government of India Act

1919 failed to satisfy demand for independence.[159] Concerns over
communist and foreign plots following the Ghadar conspiracy
ensured that war-time strictures were renewed by the Rowlatt Acts.
This led to tension,[160] particularly in the Punjab region, where
repressive measures culminated in the Amritsar Massacre. In Britain
public opinion was divided over the morality of the massacre,
between those who saw it as having saved India from anarchy, and
those who viewed it with revulsion.[160] The non-cooperation
movement was called off in March 1922 following the Chauri Chaura
incident, and discontent continued to simmer for the next 25 George V with British and Dominion
years.[161] prime ministers at the 1926 Imperial
Conference
In 1922, Egypt, which had been declared a British protectorate at the
outbreak of the First World War, was granted formal independence,
though it continued to be a British client state until 1954. British troops remained stationed in Egypt until the
signing of the Anglo-Egyptian Treaty in 1936,[162] under which it was agreed that the troops would withdraw
but continue to occupy and defend the Suez Canal zone. In return, Egypt was assisted in joining the League of
Nations.[163] Iraq, a British mandate since 1920, also gained membership of the League in its own right after
achieving independence from Britain in 1932.[164] In Palestine, Britain was presented with the problem of
mediating between the Arabs and increasing numbers of Jews. The 1917 Balfour Declaration, which had been
incorporated into the terms of the mandate, stated that a national home for the Jewish people would be
established in Palestine, and Jewish immigration allowed up to a limit that would be determined by the
mandatory power.[165] This led to increasing conflict with the Arab population, who openly revolted in 1936.
As the threat of war with Germany increased during the 1930s, Britain judged the support of Arabs as more
important than the establishment of a Jewish homeland, and shifted to a pro-Arab stance, limiting Jewish
immigration and in turn triggering a Jewish insurgency.[145]

The right of the Dominions to set their own foreign policy, independent of Britain, was recognised at the 1923
Imperial Conference.[166] Britain's request for military assistance from the Dominions at the outbreak of the
Chanak Crisis the previous year had been turned down by Canada and South Africa, and Canada had refused
to be bound by the 1923 Treaty of Lausanne.[167][168] After pressure from the Irish Free State and South
Africa, the 1926 Imperial Conference issued the Balfour Declaration of 1926, declaring the Dominions to be
"autonomous Communities within the British Empire, equal in status, in no way subordinate one to another"
within a "British Commonwealth of Nations".[169] This declaration was given legal substance under the 1931
Statute of Westminster.[138] The parliaments of Canada, Australia, New Zealand, the Union of South Africa,
the Irish Free State and Newfoundland were now independent of British legislative control, they could nullify
British laws and Britain could no longer pass laws for them without their consent.[170] Newfoundland reverted
to colonial status in 1933, suffering from financial difficulties during the Great Depression.[171] In 1937 the
Irish Free State introduced a republican constitution renaming itself Ireland.[172]

Second World War

Britain's declaration of war against Nazi Germany in September 1939

included the Crown colonies and India but did not automatically
commit the Dominions of Australia, Canada, New Zealand,
Newfoundland and South Africa. All soon declared war on Germany.
While Britain continued to regard Ireland as still within the British
Commonwealth, Ireland chose to remain legally neutral throughout
the war.[173]

After the Fall of France in June 1940, Britain and the empire stood
alone against Germany, until the German invasion of Greece on 7
April 1941. British Prime Minister Winston Churchill successfully
lobbied President Franklin D. Roosevelt for military aid from the
During the Second World War, the
United States, but Roosevelt was not yet ready to ask Congress to
Eighth Army was made up of units
from many different countries in the
commit the country to war.[174] In August 1941, Churchill and
British Empire and Commonwealth; it Roosevelt met and signed the Atlantic Charter, which included the
fought in North African and Italian statement that "the rights of all peoples to choose the form of
campaigns. government under which they live" should be respected. This
wording was ambiguous as to whether it referred to European
countries invaded by Germany and Italy, or the peoples colonised by
European nations, and would later be interpreted differently by the British, Americans, and nationalist
movements.[175][176]

For Churchill the entry of the United States into the war was the "greatest joy".[177] He felt that Britain was
now assured of victory,[178] but failed to recognise that the "many disasters, immeasurable costs and
tribulations [which he knew] lay ahead"[179] in December 1941 would have permanent consequences for the
future of the empire. The manner in which British forces were rapidly defeated in the Far East irreversibly
harmed Britain's standing and prestige as an imperial power,[180][181] including, particularly, the Fall of
Singapore, which had previously been hailed as an impregnable fortress and the eastern equivalent of
Gibraltar.[182] The realisation that Britain could not defend its entire empire pushed Australia and New
Zealand, which now appeared threatened by Japanese forces, into closer ties with the United States and,
ultimately, the 1951 ANZUS Pact.[175] The war weakened the empire in other ways: undermining Britain's
control of politics in India, inflicting long term economic damage, and irrevocably changing geopolitics by
pushing the Soviet Union and the United States to the centre of the global stage.[183]

Decolonisation and decline (1945–1997)

Though Britain and the empire emerged victorious from the Second World War, the effects of the conflict were
profound, both at home and abroad. Much of Europe, a continent that had dominated the world for several
centuries, was in ruins, and host to the armies of the United States and the Soviet Union, who now held the
balance of global power.[184] Britain was left essentially bankrupt, with insolvency only averted in 1946 after
the negotiation of a $US 4.33 billion loan from the United States,[185] the last installment of which was repaid
in 2006.[186] At the same time, anti-colonial movements were on the rise in the colonies of European nations.
The situation was complicated further by the increasing Cold War rivalry of the United States and the Soviet
Union. In principle, both nations were opposed to European colonialism. In practice, American anti-
communism prevailed over anti-imperialism, and therefore the United States supported the continued existence
of the British Empire to keep Communist expansion in check.[187] At first British politicians believed it would
be possible to maintain Britain's role as a world power at the head of a re-imagined Commonwealth,[188] but
by 1960 they were forced to recognise that there was an irresistible "wind of change" blowing. Their priorities
changed to maintaining an extensive zone of British influence[189] and ensuring that stable, non-Communist
governments were established in former colonies. In this context, while other European powers such as France
and Portugal,[190] waged costly and unsuccessful wars to keep their empires intact, Britain generally adopted a
policy of peaceful disengagement from its colonies. In reality this was rarely peaceable or altruistic. Between
1945 and 1965, the number of people under British rule outside the UK itself fell from 700 million to 5
million, 3 million of whom were in Hong Kong.[191]

Initial disengagement

The pro-decolonisation Labour government, elected at the 1945

general election and led by Clement Attlee, moved quickly to tackle
the most pressing issue facing the empire: Indian independence.[192]
India's two major political parties—the Indian National Congress (led
by Mahatma Gandhi) and the Muslim League (led by Muhammad Ali
Jinnah)—had been campaigning for independence for decades, but
disagreed as to how it should be implemented. Congress favoured a
unified secular Indian state, whereas the League, fearing domination
by the Hindu majority, desired a separate Islamic state for Muslim- About 14.5 million people lost their
majority regions. Increasing civil unrest and the mutiny of the Royal homes as a result of the partition of
Indian Navy during 1946 led Attlee to promise independence no later India in 1947.
than 30 June 1948. When the urgency of the situation and risk of civil
war became apparent, the newly appointed (and last) Viceroy, Lord
Mountbatten, hastily brought forward the date to 15 August 1947.[193] The borders drawn by the British to
broadly partition India into Hindu and Muslim areas left tens of millions as minorities in the newly independent
states of India and Pakistan.[194] Millions of Muslims crossed from India to Pakistan and Hindus vice versa,
and violence between the two communities cost hundreds of thousands of lives. Burma, which had been
administered as part of the British Raj, and Sri Lanka gained their independence the following year in 1948.
India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka became members of the Commonwealth, while Burma chose not to join.[195]

The British mandate in Palestine, where an Arab majority lived alongside a Jewish minority, presented the
British with a similar problem to that of India.[196] The matter was complicated by large numbers of Jewish
refugees seeking to be admitted to Palestine following the Holocaust, while Arabs were opposed to the
creation of a Jewish state. Frustrated by the intractability of the problem, attacks by Jewish paramilitary
organisations and the increasing cost of maintaining its military presence, Britain announced in 1947 that it
would withdraw in 1948 and leave the matter to the United Nations to solve.[197] The UN General Assembly
subsequently voted for a plan to partition Palestine into a Jewish and an Arab state. It was immediately
followed by the outbreak of a civil war between the Arabs and Jews of Palestine, and British forces withdrew
amid the fighting. The British Mandate for Palestine officially terminated at midnight on 15 May 1948 as the
State of Israel declared independence and the 1948 Arab-Israeli War broke out, during which the territory of
the former Mandate was partitioned between Israel and the surrounding Arab states. Amid the fighting, British
forces continued to withdraw from Israel, with the last British troops departing from Haifa on 30 June
1948.[198]

Following the surrender of Japan in the Second World War, anti-Japanese resistance movements in Malaya
turned their attention towards the British, who had moved to quickly retake control of the colony, valuing it as
a source of rubber and tin.[199] The fact that the guerrillas were primarily Malayan-Chinese Communists
meant that the British attempt to quell the uprising was supported by the Muslim Malay majority, on the
understanding that once the insurgency had been quelled, independence would be granted.[199] The Malayan
Emergency, as it was called, began in 1948 and lasted until 1960, but by 1957, Britain felt confident enough to
grant independence to the Federation of Malaya within the Commonwealth. In 1963, the 11 states of the
federation together with Singapore, Sarawak and North Borneo joined to form Malaysia, but in 1965 Chinese-
majority Singapore was expelled from the union following tensions between the Malay and Chinese
populations and became an independent city-state.[200] Brunei, which had been a British protectorate since
1888, declined to join the union.[201]

Suez and its aftermath

In 1951, the Conservative Party returned to power in Britain, under

the leadership of Winston Churchill. Churchill and the Conservatives
believed that Britain's position as a world power relied on the
continued existence of the empire, with the base at the Suez Canal
allowing Britain to maintain its pre-eminent position in the Middle
East in spite of the loss of India. Churchill could not ignore Gamal
Abdul Nasser's new revolutionary government of Egypt that had
taken power in 1952, and the following year it was agreed that British
troops would withdraw from the Suez Canal zone and that Sudan
would be granted self-determination by 1955, with independence to
follow.[202] Sudan was granted independence on 1 January 1956.[203]

In July 1956, Nasser unilaterally nationalised the Suez Canal. The

response of Anthony Eden, who had succeeded Churchill as Prime
Minister, was to collude with France to engineer an Israeli attack on
Egypt that would give Britain and France an excuse to intervene
Eden's decision to invade Egypt in
militarily and retake the canal.[204] Eden infuriated US President 1956 revealed Britain's post-war
Dwight D. Eisenhower by his lack of consultation, and Eisenhower weaknesses.
refused to back the invasion.[205] Another of Eisenhower's concerns
was the possibility of a wider war with the Soviet Union after it
threatened to intervene on the Egyptian side. Eisenhower applied financial leverage by threatening to sell US
reserves of the British pound and thereby precipitate a collapse of the British currency.[206] Though the
invasion force was militarily successful in its objectives,[207] UN intervention and US pressure forced Britain
into a humiliating withdrawal of its forces, and Eden resigned.[208][209]

The Suez Crisis very publicly exposed Britain's limitations to the world and confirmed Britain's decline on the
world stage and its end as a first-rate power,[210][211] demonstrating that henceforth it could no longer act
without at least the acquiescence, if not the full support, of the United States.[212][213][214] The events at Suez
wounded British national pride, leading one MP to describe it as "Britain's Waterloo"[215] and another to
suggest that the country had become an "American satellite".[216] Margaret Thatcher later described the
mindset she believed had befallen Britain's political leaders after Suez where they "went from believing that
Britain could do anything to an almost neurotic belief that Britain could do nothing", from which Britain did
not recover until the successful recapture of the Falkland Islands from Argentina in 1982.[217]
While the Suez Crisis caused British power in the Middle East to weaken, it did not collapse.[218] Britain
again deployed its armed forces to the region, intervening in Oman (1957), Jordan (1958) and Kuwait (1961),
though on these occasions with American approval,[219] as the new Prime Minister Harold Macmillan's
foreign policy was to remain firmly aligned with the United States.[215] Although Britain granted Kuwait
independence in 1961, it continued to maintain a military presence in the Middle East for another decade. On
16 January 1968, a few weeks after the devaluation of the pound, Prime Minister Harold Wilson and his
Defence Secretary Denis Healey announced that British troops would be withdrawn from major military bases
East of Suez, which included the ones in the Middle East, and primarily from Malaysia and Singapore by the
end of 1971, instead of 1975 as earlier planned.[220] By that time over 50,000 British military personnel were
still stationed in the Far East, including 30,000 in Singapore.[221] The British granted independence to the
Maldives in 1965 but continued to station a garrison there until 1976, withdrew from Aden in 1967, and
granted independence to Bahrain, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates in 1971.[222]

Wind of change

Macmillan gave a speech in Cape Town, South Africa in February

1960 where he spoke of "the wind of change blowing through this
continent".[223] Macmillan wished to avoid the same kind of colonial
war that France was fighting in Algeria, and under his premiership
decolonisation proceeded rapidly.[224] To the three colonies that had
been granted independence in the 1950s—Sudan, the Gold Coast and
Malaya—were added nearly ten times that number during the
1960s.[225]

Britain's remaining colonies in Africa, except for self-governing

Southern Rhodesia, were all granted independence by 1968. British
withdrawal from the southern and eastern parts of Africa was not a
British decolonisation in Africa. By
peaceful process. Kenyan independence was preceded by the eight-
the end of the 1960s, all but
year Mau Mau uprising, in which tens of thousands of suspected Rhodesia (the future Zimbabwe) and
rebels were interned by the colonial government in detention the South African mandate of South
camps.[226] In Rhodesia, the 1965 Unilateral Declaration of West Africa (Namibia) had achieved
Independence by the white minority resulted in a civil war that lasted recognised independence.
until the Lancaster House Agreement of 1979, which set the terms for
recognised independence in 1980, as the new nation of
Zimbabwe.[227]

In Cyprus, a guerrilla war waged by the Greek Cypriot organisation EOKA against British rule, was ended in
1959 by the London and Zürich Agreements, which resulted in Cyprus being granted independence in 1960.
The UK retained the military bases of Akrotiri and Dhekelia as sovereign base areas. The Mediterranean
colony of Malta was amicably granted independence from the UK in 1964 and became the country of Malta,
though the idea had been raised in 1955 of integration with Britain.[228]

Most of the UK's Caribbean territories achieved independence after the departure in 1961 and 1962 of Jamaica
and Trinidad from the West Indies Federation, established in 1958 in an attempt to unite the British Caribbean
colonies under one government, but which collapsed following the loss of its two largest members.[229]
Jamaica attained independence in 1962, as did Trinidad and Tobago. Barbados achieved independence in
1966 and the remainder of the eastern Caribbean islands, including the Bahamas, in the 1970s and 1980s,[229]
but Anguilla and the Turks and Caicos Islands opted to revert to British rule after they had already started on
the path to independence.[230] The British Virgin Islands,[231] Cayman Islands and Montserrat also opted to
retain ties with Britain,[232] while Guyana achieved independence in 1966. Britain's last colony on the
American mainland, British Honduras, became a self-governing colony in 1964 and was renamed Belize in
1973, achieving full independence in 1981. A dispute with Guatemala over claims to Belize was left
unresolved.[233]

British territories in the Pacific acquired independence in the 1970s beginning with Fiji in 1970 and ending
with Vanuatu in 1980. Vanuatu's independence was delayed because of political conflict between English and
French-speaking communities, as the islands had been jointly administered as a condominium with
France.[234] Fiji, Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands and Tuvalu became Commonwealth realms.[235]

End of empire

Belize achieved independence in 1981.[236] The passage of the British Nationality Act 1981, which
reclassified the remaining Crown colonies as "British Dependent Territories" (renamed British Overseas
Territories in 2002)[237][238] meant that, aside from a scattering of islands and outposts, the process of
decolonisation that had begun after the Second World War was largely complete. In 1982, Britain's resolve in
defending its remaining overseas territories was tested when Argentina invaded the Falkland Islands, acting on
a long-standing claim that dated back to the Spanish Empire.[239] Britain's successful military response to
retake the islands during the ensuing Falklands War contributed to reversing the downward trend in Britain's
status as a world power.[240]

The 1980s also saw Canada, Australia, and New Zealand sever their final constitutional links with Britain.
Although granted legislative independence by the Statute of Westminster 1931, vestigial constitutional links
had remained in place. The British Parliament retained the power to amend key Canadian constitutional
statutes, meaning that effectively an act of the British Parliament was required to make certain changes to the
Canadian Constitution.[241] The British Parliament also had the power to pass laws extending to Canada at
Canadian request. Although no longer able to pass any laws that would apply as Australian Commonwealth
law, the British Parliament retained the power to legislate for the individual Australian States. With regard to
New Zealand, the British Parliament retained the power to pass legislation applying to New Zealand with the
New Zealand Parliament's consent. In 1982, the last legal link between Canada and Britain was severed by the
Canada Act 1982, which was passed by the British parliament, formally patriating the Canadian Constitution.
The act ended the need for British involvement in changes to the Canadian constitution.[9] Similarly, the
Australia Act 1986 (effective 3 March 1986) severed the constitutional link between Britain and the Australian
states, while New Zealand's Constitution Act 1986 (effective 1 January 1987) reformed the constitution of
New Zealand to sever its constitutional link with Britain.[242]

On 1 January 1984, Brunei, Britain's last remaining Asian protectorate, was granted independence.[243]
Independence had been delayed due to the opposition of the Sultan, who had preferred British protection.[244]

In September 1982 the Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher, travelled to Beijing to negotiate with the Chinese
government, on the future of Britain's last major and most populous overseas territory, Hong Kong.[245] Under
the terms of the 1842 Treaty of Nanking and 1860 Convention of Peking, Hong Kong Island and Kowloon
Peninsula had been respectively ceded to Britain in perpetuity, but the vast majority of the colony was
constituted by the New Territories, which had been acquired under a 99-year lease in 1898, due to expire in
1997.[246][247] Thatcher, seeing parallels with the Falkland Islands, initially wished to hold Hong Kong and
proposed British administration with Chinese sovereignty, though this was rejected by China.[248] A deal was
reached in 1984—under the terms of the Sino-British Joint Declaration, Hong Kong would become a special
administrative region of the People's Republic of China, maintaining its way of life for at least 50 years.[249]
The handover ceremony in 1997 marked for many,[8] including Charles, Prince of Wales, who was in
attendance, "the end of Empire".[9]
Legacy
Britain retains sovereignty over 14 territories outside the British Isles.
In 1983, the British Nationality Act 1981 renamed the existing Crown
Colonies as "British Dependent Territories",[note 1] and in 2002 they
were renamed the British Overseas Territories.[252] Most former
British colonies and protectorates are members of the Commonwealth
of Nations, a voluntary association of equal members, comprising a
population of around 2.2 billion people.[253] Sixteen Commonwealth
realms voluntarily continue to share the British monarch, Queen The fourteen British Overseas
Elizabeth II, as their head of state. These sixteen nations are distinct Territories
and equal legal entities – the United Kingdom, Australia, Canada,
New Zealand, Antigua and Barbuda, The Bahamas, Barbados,
Belize, Grenada, Jamaica, Papua New Guinea, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the
Grenadines, Solomon Islands and Tuvalu.[254]

Decades, and in some cases centuries, of British rule and emigration have left their mark on the independent
nations that arose from the British Empire. The empire established the use of the English language in regions
around the world. Today it is the primary language of up to 460 million people and is spoken by about 1.5
billion as a first, second or foreign language.[255] Individual and team sports developed in Britain—particularly
football, cricket, lawn tennis, and golf—were also exported.[256] British missionaries who travelled around the
globe often in advance of soldiers and civil servants spread Protestantism (including Anglicanism) to all
continents. The British Empire provided refuge for religiously persecuted continental Europeans for hundreds
of years.[257]

Political boundaries drawn by the British did not always reflect homogeneous
ethnicities or religions, contributing to conflicts in formerly colonised areas.
The British Empire was also responsible for large migrations of peoples.
Millions left the British Isles, with the founding settler populations of the
United States, Canada, Australia and New Zealand coming mainly from
Britain and Ireland. Tensions remain between the white settler populations of
these countries and their indigenous minorities, and between white settler
minorities and indigenous majorities in South Africa and Zimbabwe. Settlers
in Ireland from Great Britain have left their mark in the form of divided
nationalist and unionist communities in Northern Ireland. Millions of people
moved to and from British colonies, with large numbers of Indians emigrating
Cricket being played in
to other parts of the empire, such as Malaysia and Fiji, and Chinese people to India. British sports continue
Malaysia, Singapore and the Caribbean.[258] The demographics of Britain to be supported in various
itself were changed after the Second World War owing to immigration to parts of the former empire.
Britain from its former colonies.[259]

In the 19th century, innovation in Britain led to revolutionary changes in manufacturing, the development of
factory systems, and the growth of transportation by railway and steam ship.[260] British colonial architecture,
such as in churches, railway stations and government buildings, can be seen in many cities that were once part
of the British Empire.[261] The British choice of system of measurement, the imperial system, continues to be
used in some countries in various ways. The convention of driving on the left hand side of the road has been
retained in much of the former empire.[262]

The Westminster system of parliamentary democracy has served as the template for the governments for many
former colonies,[263][264] and English common law for legal systems.[265] International commercial contracts
are often based on English common law.[266][267] The British Judicial Committee of the Privy Council still
serves as the highest court of appeal for twelve former colonies.[268]

See also
List of British Empire-related topics Territorial evolution of the British Empire
Historiography of the British Empire History of the foreign relations of the United
Demographics of the British Empire Kingdom
Economy of the British Empire Historical flags of the British Empire and the
overseas territories

Notes
1. Schedule 6 of the British Nationality Act 1981[250] reclassified the remaining Crown colonies as
"British Dependent Territories". The Act entered into force on 1 January 1983[251]

References
1. Ferguson 2004b.
2. Maddison 2001, p. 97: "The total population of the Empire was 412 million [in 1913]"; Maddison
2001, pp. 241: "[World population in 1913 (in thousands):] 1 791 020".
3. Rein Taagepera (September 1997). "Expansion and Contraction Patterns of Large Polities:
Context for Russia" (http://www.escholarship.org/uc/item/3cn68807). International Studies
Quarterly. 41 (3): 486. doi:10.1111/0020-8833.00053 (https://doi.org/10.1111%2F0020-8833.00
053). JSTOR 2600793 (https://www.jstor.org/stable/2600793). Archived (https://web.archive.or
g/web/20181119114740/https://escholarship.org/uc/item/3cn68807) from the original on 19
November 2018. Retrieved 28 December 2018.
4. Jackson, pp. 5–6.
5. Russo 2012, p. 15 chapter 1 'Great Expectations': "The dramatic rise in Spanish fortunes
sparked both envy and fear among northern, mostly Protestant, Europeans.".
6. Porter, p. 8.
7. Marshall, pp. 156–57.
8. Brendon, p. 660.
9. Brown, p. 594.
10. Ferguson 2004b, p. 3.
11. Andrews 1985, p. 45.
12. Ferguson 2004b, p. 4.
13. Canny, p. 35.
14. Koebner, Richard (May 1953). "The Imperial Crown of This Realm: Henry VIII, Constantine the
Great, and Polydore Vergil". Historical Research. 26 (73): 29–52. doi:10.1111/j.1468-
2281.1953.tb02124.x (https://doi.org/10.1111%2Fj.1468-2281.1953.tb02124.x). ISSN 1468-
2281 (https://www.worldcat.org/issn/1468-2281).
15. Thomas, pp. 155–58
16. Ferguson 2004b, p. 7.
17. Canny, p. 62.
18. Lloyd, pp. 4–8.
19. Canny, p. 7.
20. Kenny, p. 5.
21. Taylor, pp. 119,123.
22. Letters Patent to Sir Humfrey Gylberte June 11, 1578 (http://avalon.law.yale.edu/16th_century/h
umfrey.asp), from the Avalon Project
23. Andrews, p. 187.
24. Andrews, p. 188.
25. Canny, p. 63.
26. Canny, pp. 63–64.
27. Canny, p. 70.
28. Canny, p. 34.
29. James, p. 17.
30. Canny, p. 71.
31. Canny, p. 221.
32. Lloyd, pp. 22–23.
33. Lloyd, p. 32.
34. Lloyd, pp. 33, 43.
35. Lloyd, pp. 15–20.
36. Andrews, pp. 316, 324–26.
37. Andrews, pp. 20–22.
38. James, p. 8.
39. Lloyd, p. 40.
40. Ferguson 2004b, pp. 72–73.
41. Buckner, p. 25.
42. Lloyd, p. 37.
43. Ferguson 2004b, p. 62.
44. Canny, p. 228.
45. Marshall, pp. 440–64.
46. Lloyd, p. 13.
47. Ferguson 2004b, p. 19.
48. Canny, p. 441.
49. Shennan, pp. 11–17.
50. Magnusson, p. 531.
51. Macaulay, p. 509.
52. Pagden, p. 90.
53. James, p. 58.
54. "The War of Jenkins' Ear" (https://warfarehistorynetwork.com/2016/10/28/the-war-of-jenkins-ea
r/). 28 October 2016.
55. Anderson, p. 277.
56. Smith, p. 17.
57. Bandyopādhyāẏa, pp. 49–52
58. Smith, pp. 18–19.
59. Pagden, p. 91.
60. Ferguson 2004b, p. 84.
61. Marshall, pp. 312–23.
62. Canny, p. 92.
63. James, p. 120.
64. James, p. 119.
65. Marshall, p. 585.
66. Zolberg, p. 496.
67. Games, pp. 46–48.
68. Kelley & Trebilcock, p. 43.
69. Smith, p. 28.
70. Latimer, pp. 8, 30–34, 389–92.
71. Marshall, pp. 388.
72. Smith, p. 20.
73. Smith, pp. 20–21.
74. Mulligan & Hill, pp. 20–23.
75. Peters, pp. 5–23.
76. James, p. 142.
77. Macintyre, pp. 33-34.
78. Broome, p. 18.
79. Pascoe
80. McKenna, pp. 28-29.
81. Britain and the Dominions, p. 159.
82. Fieldhouse, pp. 145–49
83. Cervero, p. 320
84. Statesmen's Year Book 1889
85. Smith, p. 45.
86. "Waitangi Day" (http://www.nzhistory.govt.nz/politics/treaty/waitangi-day). nzhistory.govt.nz.
New Zealand Ministry for Culture and Heritage. Archived (https://web.archive.org/web/2008122
0020659/http://www.nzhistory.net.nz/politics/treaty/waitangi-day) from the original on 20
December 2008. Retrieved 13 December 2008.
87. Porter, p. 579.
88. Mein Smith, p. 49.
89. James, p. 152.
90. James, p. 151.
91. Lloyd, pp. 115–118.
92. James, p. 165.
93. "Why was Slavery finally abolished in the British Empire?" (http://abolition.e2bn.org/slavery_11
1.html). The Abolition Project. Archived (https://web.archive.org/web/20161126120021/http://ab
olition.e2bn.org/slavery_111.html) from the original on 26 November 2016. Retrieved
31 December 2016.
94. Porter, p. 14.
95. Hinks, p. 129.
96. "Slavery After 1807 | Historic England" (http://historicengland.org.uk/research/inclusive-heritag
e/the-slave-trade-and-abolition/sites-of-memory/ending-slavery/slavery-after-1807/).
historicengland.org.uk. Retrieved 24 November 2019. "As a result of public pressure
apprenticeships were abolished early, in 1838."
97. "Slavery Abolition Act 1833; Section XXIV" (http://www.pdavis.nl/Legis_07.htm). 28 August
1833. Retrieved 3 June 2008.
98. Sanchez Manning (24 February 2013). "Britain's colonial shame: Slave-owners given huge
payouts after" (https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/britains-colonial-shame-sla
ve-owners-given-huge-payouts-after-abolition-8508358.html). The Independent. Retrieved
11 February 2018.
99. Hyam, p. 1.
00. Smith, p. 71.
01. Parsons, p. 3.
02. Porter, p. 401.
03. Porter, p. 332.
04. Johnston, pp. 508–10.
05. Sondhaus, p. 9.
06. Lee 1994, pp. 254–57.
07. Dalziel, pp. 88–91.
08. Mori, p. 178.
09. Martin, pp. 146–48.
10. Janin, p. 28.
11. Keay, p. 393
12. Parsons, pp. 44–46.
13. Smith, pp. 50–57.
14. Brown, p. 5.
15. Marshall, pp. 133–34.
16. Hopkirk, pp. 1–12.
17. James, p. 181.
18. James, p. 182.
19. Royle, preface.
20. Williams, Beryl J. (1966). "The Strategic Background to the Anglo-Russian Entente of August
1907". The Historical Journal. 9 (3): 360–73. doi:10.1017/S0018246X00026698 (https://doi.org/
10.1017%2FS0018246X00026698). JSTOR 2637986 (https://www.jstor.org/stable/2637986).
S2CID 162474899 (https://api.semanticscholar.org/CorpusID:162474899).
21. Hodge, p. 47.
22. Smith, p. 85.
23. Smith, pp. 85–86.
24. Lloyd, pp. 168, 186, 243.
25. Lloyd, p. 255.
26. Tilby, p. 256.
27. Roger 1986, p. 718.
28. Ferguson 2004b, pp. 230–33.
29. James, p. 274.
30. "Treaties" (https://web.archive.org/web/20100915095412/http://www.mfa.gov.eg/MFA_Portal/en
-GB/Foreign_Policy/Treaties/CONVENTION%2BRESPECTING%2BTHE%2BFREE%2BNAVI
GATION%2BOF%2BTHE%2BSUEZ%2BMARITIME%2BCANAL.htm). Egypt Ministry of
Foreign Affairs. Archived from the original (http://www.mfa.gov.eg/MFA_Portal/en-GB/Foreign_
Policy/Treaties/Convention+Respecting+the+Free+Navigation+of+the+Suez+Maritime+Canal.
htm) on 15 September 2010. Retrieved 20 October 2010.
31. Herbst, pp. 71–72.
32. Vandervort, pp. 169–83.
33. James, p. 298.
34. Lloyd, p. 215.
35. Smith, pp. 28–29.
36. Porter, p. 187
37. Smith, p. 30.
38. Rhodes, Wanna & Weller, pp. 5–15.
39. Lloyd, p. 213
40. James, p. 315.
41. Smith, p. 92.
42. O'Brien, p. 1.
43. Brown, p. 667.
44. Lloyd, p. 275.
45. Brown, pp. 494–95.
46. Marshall, pp. 78–79.
47. Lloyd, p. 277.
48. Lloyd, p. 278.
49. Ferguson 2004b, p. 315.
50. Fox, pp. 23–29, 35, 60.
51. Goldstein, p. 4.
52. Louis, p. 302.
53. Louis, p. 294.
54. Louis, p. 303.
55. Lee 1996, p. 305.
56. Brown, p. 143.
57. Smith, p. 95.
58. Magee, p. 108.
59. Ferguson 2004b, p. 330.
60. James, p. 416.
61. Low, D.A. (February 1966). "The Government of India and the First Non-Cooperation
Movement – 1920–1922". The Journal of Asian Studies. 25 (2): 241–59. doi:10.2307/2051326
(https://doi.org/10.2307%2F2051326). JSTOR 2051326 (https://www.jstor.org/stable/2051326).
62. Smith, p. 104.
63. Brown, p. 292.
64. Smith, p. 101.
65. Louis, p. 271.
66. McIntyre, p. 187.
67. Brown, p. 68.
68. McIntyre, p. 186.
69. Brown, p. 69.
70. Turpin & Tomkins, p. 48.
71. Lloyd, p. 300.
72. "A Federal Republic: Australia's Constitutional System of Government" by Brian Galligan,
Cambridge University Press, p. 122.
73. Lloyd, pp. 313–14.
74. Gilbert, p. 234.
75. Lloyd, p. 316.
76. James, p. 513.
77. Churchill, p. 539.
78. Gilbert, p. 244.
79. Churchill, p. 540.
80. Louis, p. 337.
81. Brown, p. 319.
82. James, p. 460.
83. Darwin, p. 340.
84. Abernethy, p. 146.
85. Brown, p. 331.
86. "What's a little debt between friends?" (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/4757181.
stm). BBC News. 10 May 2006. Archived (https://web.archive.org/web/20100610152357/http://n
ews.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/4757181.stm) from the original on 10 June 2010.
Retrieved 20 November 2008.
87. Levine, p. 193.
88. Darwin, p. 343.
89. Darwin, p. 366.
90. Abernethy, p. 148.
91. Brown, p. 330.
92. Lloyd, p. 322.
93. Smith, p. 67.
94. Lloyd, p. 325.
95. McIntyre, pp. 355–356.
96. Lloyd, p. 327.
97. Lloyd, p. 328.
98. "The British Army in Palestine | National Army Museum" (https://www.nam.ac.uk/explore/conflic
t-Palestine). www.nam.ac.uk. Archived (https://web.archive.org/web/20190629135915/https://w
ww.nam.ac.uk/explore/conflict-Palestine) from the original on 29 June 2019. Retrieved 25 June
2019.
99. Lloyd, p. 335.
00. Lloyd, p. 364.
01. Lloyd, p. 396.
02. Brown, pp. 339–40.
03. James, p. 572.
04. James, p. 581.
05. Ferguson 2004b, p. 355.
06. Ferguson 2004b, p. 356.
07. James, p. 583.
08. Combs, pp. 161–63.
09. "Suez Crisis: Key players" (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/5195582.stm). BBC News. 21 July 2006.
Archived (https://www.webcitation.org/65C1Vdp52?url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/5195582.stm)
from the original on 4 February 2012. Retrieved 19 October 2010.
10. Brown, Derek (14 March 2001). "1956: Suez and the end of empire" (https://www.theguardian.c
om/politics/2001/mar/14/past.education1). The Guardian. London. Archived (https://web.archiv
e.org/web/20181219192810/https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2001/mar/14/past.education
1) from the original on 19 December 2018. Retrieved 19 December 2018.
11. Reynolds, Paul (24 July 2006). "Suez: End of empire" (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_
east/5199392.stm). BBC News. Archived (https://web.archive.org/web/20170830213512/http://
news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/5199392.stm) from the original on 30 August 2017.
Retrieved 19 December 2018.
12. Brown, p. 342.
13. Smith, p. 105.
14. Burk, p. 602.
15. Brown, p. 343.
16. James, p. 585.
17. "An affair to remember" (https://web.archive.org/web/20160508124844/http://www.economist.co
m/node/7218678). The Economist. 27 July 2006. ISSN 0013-0613 (https://www.worldcat.org/iss
n/0013-0613). Archived from the original (http://www.economist.com/node/7218678) on 8 May
2016. Retrieved 25 June 2016.
18. Smith, p. 106.
19. James, p. 586.
20. Pham 2010
21. Gurtov, p. 42.
22. Lloyd, pp. 370–71.
23. James, p. 616.
24. Louis, p. 46.
25. Lloyd, pp. 427–33.
26. Zane, Damian (27 August 2019). "The Kenyan school where the UK held Mau Mau rebels" (htt
ps://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-49363653). Retrieved 24 November 2019.
27. James, pp. 618–21.
28. Springhall, pp. 100–02.
29. Knight & Palmer, pp. 14–15.
30. Clegg, p. 128.
31. Lloyd, p. 428.
32. James, p. 622.
33. Lloyd, pp. 401, 427–29.
34. Macdonald, pp. 171–91.
35. McIntyre, p. 35.
36. "Belize - Countries - Office of the Historian" (https://history.state.gov/countries/belize).
history.state.gov. Retrieved 29 November 2020.
37. "British Overseas Territories Act 2002" (http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2002/8/contents).
legislation.gov.uk. Archived (https://web.archive.org/web/20160130040455/http://www.legislatio
n.gov.uk/ukpga/2002/8/contents) from the original on 30 January 2016. Retrieved 12 February
2016.
38. Hendry, p. 215.
39. James, pp. 624–25.
40. James, p. 629.
41. Gérin-Lajoie, Paul (1951). "Constitutional Amendment in Canada". The Canadian Journal of
Economics and Political Science. Blackwell Publishing on behalf of Canadian Economics
Association. 17: 6. JSTOR 137699 (https://www.jstor.org/stable/137699).
42. Brown, p. 689.
43. Trumbull, Robert (1 January 1984). "Borneo Sultanate Now Independent" (https://www.nytimes.
com/1984/01/01/world/boreno-sultanate-now-independent.html). The New York Times.
Retrieved 15 July 2020.
44. Brown, D. E. (1 February 1984). "Brunei on the Morrow of Independence" (https://online.ucpres
s.edu/as/article-abstract/24/2/201/22046/Brunei-on-the-Morrow-of-Independence). Far Eastern
Survey. 24 (2): 202. doi:10.2307/2644439 (https://doi.org/10.2307%2F2644439).
JSTOR 2644439 (https://www.jstor.org/stable/2644439). Retrieved 15 November 2011.
45. Brendon, p. 654.
46. Joseph, p. 355.
47. Rothermund, p. 100.
48. Brendon, pp. 654–55.
49. Brendon, p. 656.
50. "British Nationality Act 1981, Schedule 6" (http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1981/61/schedu
le/6/enacted). Archived (https://web.archive.org/web/20190401094630/http://www.legislation.go
v.uk/ukpga/1981/61/schedule/6/enacted) from the original on 1 April 2019. Retrieved 18 March
2019.
51. "The British Nationality Act 1981 (Commencement) Order 1982" (http://www.legislation.gov.uk/
uksi/1982/933/made). Archived (https://web.archive.org/web/20190401134239/http://www.legisl
ation.gov.uk/uksi/1982/933/made) from the original on 1 April 2019. Retrieved 18 March 2019.
52. House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee Overseas Territories Report, pp. 145–47
53. The Commonwealth – About Us (http://thecommonwealth.org/about-us) Archived (https://web.a
rchive.org/web/20130927182840/http://thecommonwealth.org/about-us) 27 September 2013 at
the Wayback Machine; Online September 2014
54. "Head of the Commonwealth" (https://web.archive.org/web/20100706045334/http://www.theco
mmonwealth.org/Internal/150757/head_of_the_commonwealth/). Commonwealth Secretariat.
Archived from the original (http://www.thecommonwealth.org/Internal/150757/head_of_the_com
monwealth/) on 6 July 2010. Retrieved 9 October 2010.
55. Hogg, p. 424 chapter 9 English Worldwide by David Crystal: "approximately one in four of the
worlds population are capable of communicating to a useful level in English".
56. Torkildsen, p. 347.
57. Pestan, p. 185.
58. Marshall, p. 286.
59. Dalziel, p. 135.
60. Walker, pp. 187-188.
61. Marshall, pp. 238–40.
62. Parsons, p. 1.
63. Go, pp. 92-94.
64. "How the Westminster Parliamentary System was exported around the World" (http://www.cam.
ac.uk/research/features/how-the-westminster-parliamentary-system-was-exported-around-the-
world). University of Cambridge. 2 December 2013. Retrieved 16 December 2013.
65. Ferguson 2004b, p. 307.
66. Gilles Cuniberti, The International Market for Contracts: The Most Attractive Contract Laws (htt
p://scholarlycommons.law.northwestern.edu/njilb/vol34/iss3/3), 34 Nw. J. Int'l L. & Bus. 455
(2014).
67. "Electronic Library on International Commercial Law and the CISG" (https://www.cisg.law.pace.
edu/cisg/biblio/winsor.html). www.cisg.law.pace.edu. Retrieved 30 October 2020.
68. Young, p. 20.

Works cited
Abernethy, David (2000). The Dynamics of Global Dominance, European Overseas Empires
1415–1980 (https://books.google.com/books?id=ennqNS1EOuMC). Yale University Press.
ISBN 978-0-300-09314-8. Retrieved 22 July 2009.
Anderson, Adam; Combe, William (1801). An Historical and Chronological Deduction of the
Origin of Commerce, from the Earliest Accounts. J Archer.
Andrews, Kenneth (1984). Trade, Plunder and Settlement: Maritime Enterprise and the Genesis
of the British Empire, 1480–1630 (https://archive.org/details/tradeplundersett0000andr).
Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-27698-6. Retrieved 22 July 2009.
Bandyopādhyāẏa, Śekhara (2004). From Plassey to partition: a history of modern India. Orient
Longman. ISBN 978-81-250-2596-2.
Brendon, Piers (2007). The Decline and Fall of the British Empire, 1781–1997. Random
House. ISBN 978-0-224-06222-0.
Brock, W.R. (n.d.). Britain and the Dominions (http://www.cambridge.org/gb/knowledge/isbn/ite
m6480148/?site_locale=en_GB). Cambridge University Press.
Broome, Richard (2010). Aboriginal Australians: A history since 1788 (https://books.google.co
m/books?id=prDiOdI4H9IC). Allen & Unwin. ISBN 9781741765540.
Brown, Judith (1998). The Twentieth Century, The Oxford History of the British Empire Volume
IV (https://books.google.com/books?id=CpSvK3An3hwC). Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-
0-19-924679-3. Retrieved 22 July 2009.
Louis, Roger (1986). The British Empire in the Middle East, 1945–1951: Arab Nationalism, the
United States, and Postwar Imperialism (https://books.google.com/books?id=ATQQ0FMS1FQ
C&pg=PA718). Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-822960-5. Retrieved 24 August 2012.
Buckner, Phillip (2008). Canada and the British Empire (https://books.google.com/books?id=SJ
A7OIinf4MC). Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-927164-1. Retrieved 22 July 2009.
Burk, Kathleen (2008). Old World, New World: Great Britain and America from the Beginning (h
ttps://archive.org/details/oldworldnewworld00kath). Atlantic Monthly Press. ISBN 978-0-87113-
971-9. Retrieved 22 January 2012.
Canny, Nicholas (1998). The Origins of Empire, The Oxford History of the British Empire
Volume I (https://books.google.com/books?id=eQHSivGzEEMC). Oxford University Press.
ISBN 978-0-19-924676-2. Retrieved 22 July 2009.
Cervero, Robert B. (1998). The Transit Metropolis: A Global Inquiry. Chicago: Island Press.
ISBN 978-1-55963-591-2.
Churchill, Winston (1950). The Second World War, The Grand Alliance, Volume III. Cassell &
Co Ltd. ISBN 978-0-30-492114-0.
Clegg, Peter (2005). "The UK Caribbean Overseas Territories". In de Jong, Lammert; Kruijt,
Dirk (eds.). Extended Statehood in the Caribbean. Rozenberg Publishers. ISBN 978-90-5170-
686-4.
Combs, Jerald A. (2008). The History of American Foreign Policy: From 1895 (https://archive.or
g/details/historyofamerica0003comb). M.E. Sharpe. ISBN 978-0-7656-2056-9.
Dalziel, Nigel (2006). The Penguin Historical Atlas of the British Empire (https://books.google.c
om/books?id=u0wUAQAAIAAJ). Penguin. ISBN 978-0-14-101844-7. Retrieved 22 July 2009.
Darwin, John (2012). Unfinished Empire, The Global Expansion of Britain (https://books.googl
e.com/books?id=GHA7oAWZCmIC). Penguin. ISBN 978-1-846-14089-1.
David, Saul (2003). The Indian Mutiny (https://books.google.com/books?id=H2KOAAAACAAJ).
Penguin. ISBN 978-0-670-91137-0. Retrieved 22 July 2009.
Elkins, Caroline (2005). Imperial Reckoning: The Untold Story of Britain's Gulag in Kenya. New
York: Owl Books. ISBN 978-0-8050-8001-8.
Ferguson, Niall (2004a). Colossus: The Price of America's Empire (https://archive.org/details/c
olossuspriceofa00ferg). London: Penguin. ISBN 978-1-59420-013-7.
Ferguson, Niall (2004b). Empire: The Rise and Demise of the British World Order and the
Lessons for Global Power (https://archive.org/details/empire00nial). New York: Basic Books.
ISBN 978-0-465-02329-5.
Fieldhouse, David Kenneth (1999). The West and the Third World: trade, colonialism,
dependence, and development. Blackwell Publishing. ISBN 978-0-631-19439-2.
Fox, Gregory H. (2008). Humanitarian Occupation. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-
521-85600-3.
Games, Alison (2002). Armitage, David; Braddick, Michael J (eds.). The British Atlantic world,
1500–1800. Palgrave Macmillan. ISBN 978-0-333-96341-8.
Gapes, Mike (2008). HC Paper 147-II House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee:
Overseas Territories, Volume II (https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200708/cmselect/cmfaf
f/147/147ii.pdf) (PDF). The Stationery Office. ISBN 978-0-215-52150-7. Retrieved
21 November 2017.
Gilbert, Sir Martin (2005). Churchill and America (https://books.google.com/books?id=vF7wGA
zgwfQC). Simon and Schuster. ISBN 978-0-7432-9122-4. Retrieved 22 July 2009.
Go, Julian (2007). "A Globalizing Constitutionalism?, Views from the Postcolony, 1945-2000"
(https://books.google.com/books?id=kYmmnYKEvE0C&pg=PA94). In Arjomand, Saïd Amir
(ed.). Constitutionalism and political reconstruction. Brill. ISBN 978-9004151741.
Goldstein, Erik (1994). The Washington Conference, 1921–22: Naval Rivalry, East Asian
Stability and the Road to Pearl Harbor (https://books.google.com/books?id=dDmJPPGjfJMC).
Routledge. ISBN 978-0-7146-4559-9. Retrieved 22 July 2009.
Goodlad, Graham David (2000). British foreign and imperial policy, 1865–1919 (https://books.g
oogle.com/books?id=clnBkEo7za4C). Psychology Press. ISBN 978-0-415-20338-8. Retrieved
18 September 2010.
Gurtov, Melvin (1970). Southeast Asia Tomorrow. Baltimore: The John Hopkins Press.
Hendry, Ian; Dickson, Susan (14 June 2018). British Overseas Territories Law (https://books.go
ogle.com/books?id=CoNeDwAAQBAJ&newbks=0&hl=en). Bloomsbury Publishing. ISBN 978-
1-5099-1871-3.
Herbst, Jeffrey Ira (2000). States and power in Africa: comparative lessons in authority and
control. Princeton University Press. ISBN 0-691-01027-7.
Hinks, Peter (2007). Encyclopedia of antislavery and abolition (https://books.google.com/book
s?id=_SeZrcBqt-YC). Greenwood Publishing Group. ISBN 978-0-313-33143-5. Retrieved
1 August 2010.
Hodge, Carl Cavanagh (2007). Encyclopedia of the Age of Imperialism, 1800–1914 (https://boo
ks.google.com/books?id=-hOkx7Gi4OoC). Greenwood Publishing Group. ISBN 978-0-313-
33404-7. Retrieved 22 July 2009.
Hogg, Richard (2008). A History of the English Language (https://books.google.com/books?id=
U5FDi8WksqYC). Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-66227-7. Retrieved 13 April
2010.
Hopkirk, Peter (2002). The Great Game: The Struggle for Empire in Central Asia. Kodansha
International. ISBN 978-4-7700-1703-1.
Hollowell, Jonathan (1992). Britain Since 1945 (https://books.google.com/books?id=VxQxFMV
_3IUC). Blackwell Publishing. ISBN 978-0-631-20968-3.
Hyam, Ronald (2002). Britain's Imperial Century, 1815–1914: A Study of Empire and
Expansion (https://books.google.com/books?id=2eMoHQAACAAJ). Palgrave Macmillan.
ISBN 978-0-7134-3089-9. Retrieved 22 July 2009.
Jackson, Ashley (2013). The British Empire: A Very Short Introduction. OUP. ISBN 978-0-19-
960541-5.
James, Lawrence (2001). The Rise and Fall of the British Empire (https://books.google.com/bo
oks?id=4DMS3r_BxOYC). Abacus. ISBN 978-0-312-16985-5. Retrieved 22 July 2009.
Janin, Hunt (1999). The India–China opium trade in the nineteenth century. McFarland.
ISBN 978-0-7864-0715-6.
Johnston, Douglas M.; Reisman, W. Michael (2008). The Historical Foundations of World Order
(https://books.google.com/books?id=dVuwCQAAQBAJ&pg=PA508). Leiden: Martinus Nijhoff
Publishers. ISBN 978-9047423935.
Joseph, William A. (2010). Politics in China. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-533530-
9.
Keay, John (1991). The Honourable Company. Macmillan Publishing Company.
Kelley, Ninette; Trebilcock, Michael (2010). The Making of the Mosaic (2nd ed.). University of
Toronto Press. ISBN 978-0-8020-9536-7.
Kenny, Kevin (2006). Ireland and the British Empire (https://books.google.com/books?id=qhW7
-vYt8PsC). Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-925184-1. Retrieved 22 July 2009.
Knight, Franklin W.; Palmer, Colin A. (1989). The Modern Caribbean. University of North
Carolina Press. ISBN 978-0-8078-1825-1.
Latimer, Jon (2007). War with America (https://books.google.com/books?id=wneIGAAACAAJ).
Harvard University Press. ISBN 978-0-674-02584-4. Retrieved 22 July 2009.
Lee, Stephen J. (1994). Aspects of British political history, 1815–1914. Routledge. ISBN 978-0-
415-09006-3.
Lee, Stephen J. (1996). Aspects of British political history, 1914–1995. Routledge. ISBN 978-0-
415-13102-5.
Levine, Philippa (2007). The British Empire: Sunrise to Sunset (https://books.google.com/book
s?id=igb1-UL5Pd0C). Pearson Education Limited. ISBN 978-0-582-47281-5. Retrieved
19 August 2010.
Lloyd, Trevor Owen (1996). The British Empire 1558–1995 (https://books.google.com/books?id
=gIBgQgAACAAJ). Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-873134-4. Retrieved 22 July 2009.
Louis, Wm. Roger (2006). Ends of British Imperialism: The Scramble for Empire, Suez and
Decolonization (https://books.google.com/books?id=NQnpQNKeKKAC). I.B. Tauris. ISBN 978-
1-84511-347-6. Retrieved 22 July 2009.
Macaulay, Thomas (1848). The History of England from the Accession of James the Second.
Penguin. ISBN 978-0-14-043133-9.
Macdonald, Barrie (1994). "Britain". In Howe, K.R.; Kiste, Robert C.; Lal, Brij V (eds.). Tides of
history: the Pacific Islands in the twentieth century. University of Hawaii Press. ISBN 978-0-
8248-1597-4.
Macintyre, Stuart (2009). A Concise History of Australia (https://books.google.com/books?id=jfK
cFdz7gF8C). Cambridge University Press. ISBN 9780521516082.
McIntyre, W. David (1977). The Commonwealth of Nations (https://archive.org/details/common
wealthofna0000mcin). University of Minnesota Press. ISBN 978-0-8166-0792-1. Retrieved
22 July 2009.
McIntyre, W. David (2016). Winding up the British Empire in the Pacific Islands (https://books.go
ogle.com/books?id=MqzSAgAAQBAJ). Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-251361-8.
Retrieved 12 February 2018.
McLean, Iain (2001). Rational Choice and British Politics: An Analysis of Rhetoric and
Manipulation from Peel to Blair (https://books.google.com/books?id=_O_ADWrESYQC). Oxford
University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-829529-7. Retrieved 22 July 2009.
Maddison, Angus (2001). The World Economy: A Millennial Perspective (http://theunbrokenwin
dow.com/Development/MADDISON%20The%20World%20Economy--A%20Millennial.pdf)
(PDF). Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. ISBN 978-92-64-18608-8.
Retrieved 22 July 2009.
Magee, John (1974). Northern Ireland: Crisis and Conflict (https://books.google.com/books?id=
S5c9AAAAIAAJ). Taylor & Francis. ISBN 978-0-7100-7947-3. Retrieved 22 July 2009.
Magnusson, Magnus (2003). Scotland: The Story of a Nation (https://books.google.com/books?
id=sEV4zgXOJLsC). Grove Press. ISBN 978-0-8021-3932-0. Retrieved 22 July 2009.
Marshall, P.J. (1998). The Eighteenth Century, The Oxford History of the British Empire Volume
II (https://books.google.com/books?id=G3_GI-K7aWAC). Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-
19-924677-9. Retrieved 22 July 2009.
Marshall, P.J. (1996). The Cambridge Illustrated History of the British Empire (https://books.goo
gle.com/books?id=S2EXN8JTwAEC). Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-00254-7.
Retrieved 22 July 2009.
Martin, Laura C. (2007). Tea: the drink that changed the world. Tuttle Publishing. ISBN 978-0-
8048-3724-8.
McKenna, Mark (2002). Looking for Blackfellas' Point: An Australian History of Place (https://bo
oks.google.com/books?id=mYQuQw3jL9kC). UNSW Press. ISBN 9780868406442.
Mein Smith, Philippa (2005). A Concise History of New Zealand (https://books.google.com/boo
ks?id=wisr4OGPjwoC). Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-54228-9. Retrieved
22 July 2009.
Mulligan, Martin; Hill, Stuart (2001). Ecological pioneers. Cambridge University Press.
ISBN 978-0-521-81103-3.
Mori, Jennifer (2014). Britain in the Age of the French Revolution: 1785 - 1820. Routledge.
ISBN 978-1-317-89189-5.
O'Brien, Phillips Payson (2004). The Anglo–Japanese Alliance, 1902–1922 (https://books.goo
gle.com/books?id=LNbDqOzSvpkC). Routledge. ISBN 978-0-415-32611-7. Retrieved 22 July
2009.
Pagden, Anthony (2003). Peoples and Empires: A Short History of European Migration,
Exploration, and Conquest, from Greece to the Present (https://books.google.com/books?id=-R
CeAAAACAAJ). Modern Library. ISBN 978-0-8129-6761-6. Retrieved 22 July 2009.
Parsons, Timothy H. (1999). The British Imperial Century, 1815–1914: A World History
Perspective (https://books.google.com/books?id=81ZlzUsO8EYC). Rowman & Littlefield.
ISBN 978-0-8476-8825-8. Retrieved 22 July 2009.
Pascoe, Bruce (2018). Dark Emu: Aboriginal Australia and the Birth of Agriculture (https://book
s.google.com/books?id=6iZuDwAAQBAJ). Magabala Books. ISBN 9781925768954.
Pestan, Carla Gardina (2009). Protestant Empire: Religion and the Making of the British
Atlantic World (https://books.google.com/books?id=tCikDMZCTwgC&pg=PA185). University of
Pennsylvania Press. ISBN 9780812241501.
Peters, Nonja (2006). The Dutch down under, 1606–2006. University of Western Australia
Press. ISBN 978-1-920694-75-3.
Pham, P.L. (2010). Ending 'East of Suez': The British Decision to Withdraw from Malaysia and
Singapore, 1964–1968. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-958036-1.
Porter, Andrew (1998). The Nineteenth Century, The Oxford History of the British Empire
Volume III (https://books.google.com/books?id=oo3F2X8IDeEC). Oxford University Press.
ISBN 978-0-19-924678-6. Retrieved 22 July 2009.
Rhodes, R.A.W.; Wanna, John; Weller, Patrick (2009). Comparing Westminster. Oxford
University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-956349-4.
Rothermund, Dietmar (2006). The Routledge companion to decolonization. Routledge.
ISBN 978-0-415-35632-9.
Russo, Jean (2012). Planting an Empire: The Early Chesapeake in British North America. JHU
Press. ISBN 978-1-4214-0694-7.
Royle, Trevor (2000). Crimea: The Great Crimean War, 1854–1856 (https://books.google.com/b
ooks?id=MrBnHQAACAAJ). Palgrave Macmillan. ISBN 978-1-4039-6416-8. Retrieved 22 July
2009.
Shennan, J.H. (1995). International relations in Europe, 1689–1789. Routledge. ISBN 978-0-
415-07780-4.
Smith, Simon (1998). British Imperialism 1750–1970 (https://archive.org/details/britishimperiali0
0smit). Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-3-12-580640-5. Retrieved 22 July 2009.
Songhaus, L. (2004). Navies in Modern World History. London: Reaktion Books. ISBN 1-
86189-202-0.
Springhall, John (2001). Decolonization since 1945: the collapse of European overseas
empires (https://archive.org/details/decolonizationsi00john). Palgrave. ISBN 978-0-333-74600-
4.
Taylor, Alan (2001). American Colonies, The Settling of North America (https://archive.org/detail
s/americancolonies00tayl). Penguin. ISBN 978-0-14-200210-0. Retrieved 22 July 2009.
 Thomas, Hugh (1997). The Slave Trade: The History of The Atlantic Slave Trade (https://books.
google.com/books?id=mRFTZ3iz_ncC). Picador, Phoenix/Orion. ISBN 978-0-7538-2056-8.
Retrieved 22 July 2009.
Tilby, A. Wyatt (2009). British India 1600–1828. BiblioLife. ISBN 978-1-113-14290-0.
Torkildsen, George (2005). Leisure and recreation management. Routledge. ISBN 978-0-415-
30995-0.
Turpin, Colin; Tomkins, Adam (2007). British government and the constitution (6th ed.).
Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-69029-4.
Vandervort, Bruce (1998). Wars of imperial conquest in Africa, 1830–1914. University College
London Press. ISBN 978-1-85728-486-7.
Walker, William (1993). "National Innovation Systems: Britain" (https://books.google.com/book
s?id=YFDGjgxc2CYC&pg=PA187). In Nelson, Richard R. (ed.). National innovation systems: a
comparative analysis. New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0195076176.
Young, Harold A. (2020). The Judicial Committee of the Privy Council and the Caribbean Court
of Justice: Navigating Independence and Changing Political Environments (https://books.googl
e.com/books?id=jijxDwAAQBAJ). Rowman & Littlefield. ISBN 9781498586955.
Zolberg, Aristide R. (2006). A nation by design: immigration policy in the fashioning of America.
Russell Sage. ISBN 978-0-674-02218-8.

External links
British Empire (historical state, United Kingdom) (https://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/
80013) at the Encyclopædia Britannica
Collection: "British Empire" (https://exchange.umma.umich.edu/resources/23653) from the
University of Michigan Museum of Art

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=British_Empire&oldid=1003120218"

This page was last edited on 27 January 2021, at 14:18 (UTC).

Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License; additional terms may apply. By using this
site, you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Wikipedia® is a registered trademark of the Wikimedia
Foundation, Inc., a non-profit organization.