British Empire

The world in 1921, with British Empire shown in pink

The British Empire was a global empire acquired and ruled by the Kingdom of Great Britain (or, from 1801 the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, called "Great Britain" or "Britain" in historical studies.

At its peak, in 1914 it contained a quarter of the world's land area (with emphasis on Australia and Canada) and more than a fourth of the world's population (with emphasis on India). Imperialists often boasted, "The sun never set on the British Empire," for it included parts of every continent. The Empire was held together by a highly professional bureaucracy based in London, and by the world's most powerful navy, the Royal Navy, which enlarged its power by creating naval bases and coaling stations in many of the colonies.

History

Its origins can be dated to the English discovery of Newfoundland in 1493, and its voluntary end began in 1947 (when India was granted independence), and peaked in the 1960s (when Britain withdrew from most of its remaining colonies). The last stages came as recently as 1997 (when Hong Kong, the last major colony, was returned to Chinese rule).

Settlement

Millions of Britons migrated and settled some of the Empire--especially the 13 American colonies, Canada (and Newfoundland), Australia, New Zealand and (in part), South Africa. Some settlers came as prisoners, especially to Australia. Others came as slaves, especially to the West Indies and the 13 American colonies.

In the rest of the Empire Britain sent in soldiers, administrators, businessmen and missionaries on temporary duty, as in India and Africa, along with a relatively small number of permanent settlers.

1914

In its heyday, the British Empire was the largest empire in history: by 1914, the eve of the First World War, it spanned a quarter of the world's total land mass (though much of this consisted of vast, uninhabited areas of northern Canada and Australia). Its constituent parts included India, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Malaya (now Malaysia and Singapore), South Africa, Egypt, Nigeria, Kenya, Uganda and Hong Kong. The saying used to be that the sun never sets on the British Empire.

Dissolution

The various parts of the Empire were granted independence by London (peacefully usually, sometimes otherwise) at different times. The thirteen American colonies that formed the original United States of America declared their freedom in 1776 and, with France, defeated the British in a major war. Most of Ireland went its separate way in 1922. The remaining "settler colonies" that were inhabited mainly by white people of British descent were formally granted self-government in 1931, though they had been self-governing for some years prior to that date. The remaining colonies were granted independence in the decades following the Second World War, and the last remaining colony of importance, Hong Kong, left British rule in 1997 after a long lease with China expired.

Most former colonies are members of the Commonwealth of Nations and many of them, such as Canada and Australia, still have the the British monarch, Queen Elizabeth II as their monarch.

Fourteen small territories that formed part of the Empire, such as the Cayman Islands, Bermuda, Anguilla, the Falkland Islands and St. Helena, remain under British rule today. They are legally known as the "British Overseas Territories".

Further reading

• Bayly, C. A. ed. Atlas of the British Empire (1989). survey by scholars; heavily illustrated
• Black, Jeremy. The British Seaborne Empire (2004)
• Brendon, Piers. "A Moral Audit of the British Empire." History Today, (Oct 2007), Vol. 57 Issue 10, pp 44-47, online at EBSCO
• Brendon, Piers. The Decline and Fall of the British Empire, 1781-1997 (2008)
• Bryant, Arthur. The History of Britain and the British Peoples, 3 vols. (1984–90), popular.
• Cain, P. J. and A.G. Hopkins. British Imperialism, 1688-2000 (2nd ed. 2001), 739pp, detailed economic history that presents the new "gentlemanly capitalists" thesis excerpt and text search
• Colley, Linda. Captives: Britain, Empire, and the World, 1600-1850 (2004), 464pp excerpts and online search from Amazon.com
• Dalziel, Nigel. The Penguin Historical Atlas of the British Empire (2006), 144 pp excerpts and online search from amazon.com
• Ferguson, Niall. Empire: The Rise and Demise of the British World Order and the Lessons for Global Power (2002), excerpt and text search
• Hyam, Ronald. Britain's Imperial Century, 1815-1914: A Study of Empire and Expansion (1993). excerpt and text search
• James, Lawrence. The Rise and Fall of the British Empire (1997).
• Judd, Denis. Empire: The British Imperial Experience, From 1765 to the Present (1996). online edition
• Lloyd; T. O. The British Empire, 1558-1995 (1996) online edition
• Louis, William Roger (general editor), The Oxford History of the British Empire, 5 vols. (1998–99).
  • vol 1 "The Origins of Empire" ed. by Nicholas Canny
  • vol 2 "The Eighteenth Century" ed. by P. J. Marshall excerpt and text search
  • vol 3 The Nineteenth Century edited by William Roger Louis, Alaine M. Low, Andrew Porter; (1998). 780 pp.. online edition, also excerpt and text search
  • vol 4 The Twentieth Century edited by Judith M. Brown, (1998). 773 pp. online edition also excerpt and text search
  • vol 5 "Historiography" ed, by Robin W. Winks (1999) excerpt and text search
• Marshall, P. J. (ed.), The Cambridge Illustrated History of the British Empire (1996). excerpt and text search
• Olson, James S. and Robert S. Shadle; Historical Dictionary of the British Empire (1996) online edition
• Porter, A. N. Atlas of British Overseas Expansion (1994)
• Robinson, Howard . The Development of the British Empire (1922), 465pp online edition
• Rose, J. Holland, ed. Cambridge History of the British Empire: vol 1: The Old Empire from the Beginnings to 1783 (1929) online edition
• Smith, Simon C. British Imperialism 1750-1970 (1998). brief