British Empire

The British Empire comprised the s,, s, , and other ruled or administered by the  and its predecessor states. It originated with the and s established by  between the late 16th and early 18th centuries. At its height, it was the and, for over a century, was the foremost. By 1913, the British Empire held sway over 412 million people, NaN% of the world population at the time, and by 1920, it covered 35500000 km2, NaN% of the Earth's total land area. As a result, its political,, , and legacy is widespread. At the peak of its power, the phrase "" was often used to describe the British Empire, because its expanse around the globe meant that the sun was always shining on at least one of its territories.

During the in the 15th and 16th centuries,  and  pioneered European exploration of the globe, and in the process established large overseas empires. Envious of the great wealth these empires generated, England,, and the began to establish colonies and trade networks of their own in the  and. A series of wars in the 17th and 18th centuries with the Netherlands and France left England and then, following in 1707,, the dominant  in North America. It then became the dominant power in the after the 's conquest of  at the  in 1757.

The independence of the in North America in 1783 after the  caused Britain to lose some of its oldest and most populous colonies. British attention soon turned towards Asia, Africa, and the Pacific. After the defeat of France in the and  (1792–1815), Britain emerged as the principal naval and imperial power of the 19th century. , British dominance was later described as  ("British Peace"), a period of relative peace in Europe and the world (1815–1914) during which the British Empire became the global and adopted the role of global policeman. In the early 19th century, the began to transform Britain; so that by the time of  in 1851, the country was described as the "workshop of the world". The British Empire expanded to include, large and many other territories throughout the world. Alongside the formal control that Britain exerted over its own colonies, its dominance of much of world trade meant that it effectively, such as and.

During the 19th century, Britain's population increased at a dramatic rate, accompanied by rapid urbanisation, which caused significant social and economic stresses. To seek new markets and sources of raw materials, the British government under initiated a period of imperial expansion in, , and elsewhere. ,, and became self-governing dominions.

By the start of the 20th century, and the  had begun to challenge Britain's economic lead. Subsequent military and economic tensions between Britain and Germany were major causes of the, during which Britain relied heavily upon its empire. The conflict placed enormous strain on the military, financial and manpower resources of Britain. Although the British 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, Britain's colonies in and  were occupied by. 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 as part of a larger  movement in which Britain granted independence to most territories of the empire. The confirmed Britain's decline as a. The in 1997 marked for many the end of the British Empire. Fourteen remain under British sovereignty. After independence, many former British colonies joined the, a free association of independent states. The United Kingdom is now one of 16 Commonwealth nations, a grouping known informally as the s, that share a, currently Queen.

Origins (1497–1583)
The foundations of the British Empire were laid when and  were separate kingdoms. In 1496, King, following the successes of and  in overseas exploration, commissioned  to lead a voyage to discover a route to Asia via the. Cabot sailed in 1497, five years after the, but he made landfall on the coast of , and, mistakenly believing (like ) that he had reached Asia, 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.

No further attempts to establish English colonies in the Americas were made until well into the reign of Queen, during the last decades of the 16th century. In the meantime, the 1533 had declared "that this realm of England is an Empire". The subsequent turned England and  Spain into implacable enemies. In 1562, the encouraged the s  and  to engage in slave-raiding attacks against Spanish and Portuguese ships off the coast of West Africa with the aim of breaking into the. This effort was rebuffed and later, as the intensified, Elizabeth I gave her blessing to further privateering raids against Spanish ports in the Americas and shipping that was returning across the Atlantic,  from the. At the same time, influential writers such as and  (who was the first to use the term "British Empire") 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 to China, and  had begun to settle the  area, later to become.

Plantations of Ireland
Although England trailed behind other European powers in establishing overseas colonies, it had been engaged during the 16th century in the settlement of Ireland with Protestants from England and Scotland, drawing on precedents dating back to the in 1169. Several people who helped establish the Plantations of Ireland also played a part in the early colonisation of North America, particularly a group known as the.

"First" British Empire (1583–1783)
In 1578, Elizabeth I granted a patent to for discovery and overseas exploration. That year, Gilbert sailed for the with the intention of engaging in  and establishing a colony in, but the expedition was aborted before it had crossed the Atlantic. In 1583, he embarked on a second attempt, on this occasion to the island of whose harbour he formally claimed for England, although no settlers were left behind. Gilbert did not survive the return journey to England, and was succeeded by his half-brother,, who was granted his own patent by Elizabeth in 1584. Later that year, Raleigh founded the on the coast of present-day, but lack of supplies caused the colony to fail.

In 1603,, ascended (as James I) to the English throne and in 1604 negotiated the , ending hostilities with. 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. The British Empire began to take shape during the early 17th century, with the of North America and the smaller islands of the Caribbean, and the establishment of, most notably the , to administer colonies and overseas trade. This period, until the loss of the after the  towards the end of the 18th century, has subsequently been referred to by some historians as the "First British Empire".

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

England's first permanent settlement in the Americas was founded in 1607 in, led by Captain and managed by the. was settled and claimed by England as a result of the 1609 shipwreck of the Virginia Company's, and in 1615 was turned over to the newly formed. The Virginia Company's charter was revoked in 1624 and direct control of Virginia was assumed by the, thereby founding the. The was created in 1610 with the aim of creating a permanent settlement on Newfoundland, but was largely unsuccessful. In 1620, was founded as a haven for  religious separatists, later known as the s. Fleeing from  would become the motive of many English would-be colonists to risk the arduous :  was founded as a haven for  (1634),  (1636) as a colony tolerant of all religions and Connecticut (1639) for. The was founded in 1663. With the surrender of in 1664, England gained control of the Dutch colony of, renaming it New York. This was formalised in negotiations following the, in exchange for. In 1681, the colony of was founded by. 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.

In 1670, incorporated by  the  (HBC), granting it a monopoly on the  in the area known as, which would later form a large proportion of the. 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.

Two years later, the was inaugurated, receiving from King Charles a monopoly of the trade to supply slaves to the British colonies of the Caribbean. From the outset, was the basis of the British 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. To facilitate this trade, forts were established on the coast of West Africa, such as, and. 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). For the slave traders, the trade was extremely profitable, and became a major economic mainstay for such western as  and, which formed the third corner of the  with Africa and the Americas. For the transported, harsh and unhygienic conditions on the slaving ships and poor diets meant that the average during the  was one in seven.

In 1695, the granted a charter to the, which established a settlement in 1698 on the. Besieged by neighbouring Spanish colonists of, and afflicted by , the colony was abandoned two years later. The was a financial disaster for Scotland—a quarter of Scottish capital was lost in the enterprise—and ended Scottish hopes of establishing its own overseas empire. The episode also had major political consequences, persuading the governments of both England and Scotland of the merits of a union of countries, rather than just crowns. This occurred in 1707 with the, establishing the.

Rivalry with the Netherlands in Asia
At the end of the 16th century, England and the Netherlands began to challenge Portugal's monopoly of trade with Asia, forming private to finance the voyages—the English, later British,  and the, chartered in 1600 and 1602 respectively. The primary aim of these companies was to tap into the lucrative, an effort focused mainly on two regions; the , and an important hub in the trade network, India. There, they competed for trade supremacy with Portugal and with each other. Although England ultimately eclipsed the Netherlands as a colonial power, in the short term the Netherlands' more advanced financial system and the three of the 17th century left it with a stronger position in Asia. Hostilities ceased after the of 1688 when the Dutch  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, and by 1720, in terms of sales, the British company had overtaken the Dutch.

Global conflicts with France
Peace between England and the Netherlands in 1688 meant that the two countries entered the 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  on the costly land war in Europe. The 18th century saw England rise to be the world's dominant colonial power, and France becoming its main rival on the imperial stage. The death of in 1700 and his bequeathal of Spain and its colonial empire to, a grandson of the , 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. In 1701, England, Portugal and the Netherlands sided with the against Spain and France in the, which lasted until 1714.

At the concluding, Philip renounced his and his descendants' right to the French throne and Spain lost its empire in Europe. The British Empire was territorially enlarged: from France, Britain gained and, and from Spain,  and. Gibraltar became a critical naval base and allowed Britain to control the Atlantic entry and exit point to the. Spain also ceded the rights to the lucrative  (permission to sell African slaves in ) to Britain. After the, the King of Spain confiscated all British ships in his harbors in. In 1731, Spanish patrol boat La Isabela boarded the British brig Rebecca off and Captain Julio León Fandiño cut off the left ear of Captain, 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. With the outbreak of the Anglo-Spanish in 1739, Spanish privateers attacked British merchant shipping along the  routes. In 1746, the Spanish and British began peace talks, with the King of Spain agreeing to stop all attacks on British shipping; however, Britain in the Americas.

During the middle decades of the 18th century, there were several outbreaks of military conflict on the, the , as the English East India Company (often known simply as "the Company") and its French counterpart, the (Compagnie française des Indes orientales), struggled alongside local rulers to fill the vacuum that had been left by the decline of the. The in 1757, in which the British, led by, defeated the  and his French allies, left the British East India Company in control of  and as the major military and political power in India. France was left control of its but with military restrictions and an obligation to support British s, ending French hopes of controlling India.

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, the vast majority of which was composed of Indian s. The British and French struggles in India became but one theatre of the global (1756–1763) involving France, Britain and the other major European powers. The signing of the 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, and the ceding of to Britain (leaving a sizeable  under British control) and  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.

Loss of the Thirteen American Colonies
During the 1760s and early 1770s, relations between the and Britain became increasingly strained, primarily because of resentment of the British Parliament's attempts to govern and tax American colonists without their consent. This was summarised at the time by the slogan "", a perceived violation of the guaranteed. The 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 in 1775. The following year, in 1776, the. The entry of and  into the war tipped the military balance in the Americans' favour and after a decisive defeat at  in 1781, Britain began negotiating peace terms. American independence was acknowledged at the in 1783.

The loss of such a large portion of, 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, in which Britain shifted its attention away from the Americas to Asia, the Pacific and later Africa. 's , published in 1776, had argued that colonies were redundant, and that should replace the old  policies that had characterised the first period of colonial expansion, dating back to the  of Spain and Portugal. The growth of trade between the newly independent and Britain after 1783 seemed to confirm Smith's view that political control was not necessary for economic success.

The war to the south influenced British policy in Canada, where between 40,000 and 100,000 defeated had migrated from the new United States following independence. The 14,000 Loyalists who went to the and  valleys, then part of, felt too far removed from the provincial government in Halifax, so London split off  as a separate colony in 1784. The created the provinces of  (mainly English-speaking) and  (mainly ) 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.

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

Exploration of the Pacific
Since 1718, to the American colonies had been a penalty for various offences in Britain, with approximately one thousand convicts transported per year across the Atlantic. Forced to find an alternative location after the loss of the Thirteen Colonies in 1783, the British government turned to the newly discovered lands of Australia. The coast of Australia had been discovered for Europeans by the Dutch explorer in 1606 and was named  by the, but there was no attempt to colonise it. In 1770 discovered the eastern coast of Australia while on a scientific  to the, claimed the continent for Britain, and named it. In 1778,, Cook's on the voyage, presented evidence to the government on the suitability of  for the establishment of a , and in 1787 the first shipment of  set sail, arriving in 1788. Britain continued to transport convicts to until 1840, to Tasmania until 1853 and to Western Australia until 1868. The Australian colonies became profitable exporters of wool and gold, mainly because of gold rushes in the colony of Victoria, making its capital for a time the richest city in the world and the second largest city (after London) in the British Empire.

During his voyage, Cook also visited New Zealand, first discovered by Dutch explorer in 1642, and claimed the  and  islands for the  in 1769 and 1770 respectively. Initially, interaction between the indigenous 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 announced plans to buy large tracts of land and establish colonies in New Zealand. On 6 February 1840, Captain and around 40 Maori chiefs signed the. This treaty is considered by many to be New Zealand's founding document, but differing interpretations of the Maori and English versions of the text have meant that it continues to be a source of dispute.

War with Napoleonic France
Britain was challenged again by France under, in a struggle that, unlike previous wars, represented a contest of ideologies between the two nations. 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.

The Napoleonic Wars were therefore ones in which Britain invested large amounts of capital and resources to win. French ports were blockaded by the, which won a decisive victory over a Franco-Spanish fleet at 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. Britain was again the beneficiary of peace treaties: France ceded the, (which it had occupied in 1797 and 1798 respectively), , , , and ; Spain ceded ; the Netherlands , and the. Britain returned, , , and to France, and  and  to the Netherlands, while gaining control of  (1795–1815).

Abolition of slavery
With the advent of the, goods produced by slavery became less important to the. Added to this was the cost of suppressing regular s. With support from the British movement,  enacted the  in 1807, which abolished the  in the empire. In 1808, was designated an official British colony for freed slaves. Parliamentary reform in 1832 saw the influence of the decline. The, 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 , Ceylon and the territories administered by the East India Company, though these exclusions were later repealed). Under the Act, slaves were granted full after a period of four to six years of "apprenticeship". Facing further opposition from abolitionists, the apprenticeship system was abolished in 1838. The British government compensated slave-owners.

Britain's imperial century (1815–1914)
Between 1815 and 1914, a period referred to as Britain's "imperial century" by some historians, around 10 e6sqmi of territory and roughly 400 million people were added to the British Empire. Victory over Napoleon left Britain without any serious international rival, other than. Unchallenged at sea, Britain adopted the role of global policeman, a state of affairs later known as the , and a foreign policy of "". 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, and, which has been described by some historians as an "".

British imperial strength was underpinned by the and the, 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.

East India Company rule and the British Raj in India
The 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 (1799), the capture of  from the Netherlands (1811), the acquisition of  (1786),  (1819) and  (1824), and the defeat of  (1826).

From its base in India, the Company had also been engaged in an increasingly profitable export trade to China since the 1730s. This trade, illegal since it was outlawed by the in 1729, helped reverse the trade imbalances resulting from the British imports of tea, which saw large outflows of silver from Britain to China. In 1839, the confiscation by the Chinese authorities at of 20,000 chests of opium led Britain to attack China in the, and resulted in the seizure by Britain of , at that time a minor settlement.

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, of 1784 and the  which regulated the Company's affairs and established the sovereignty of the Crown over the territories that it had acquired. The Company's eventual end was precipitated by the in 1857, a conflict that had begun with the mutiny of s, Indian troops under British officers and discipline. 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, establishing the , where an appointed administered India and  was crowned the. India became the empire's most valuable possession, "the Jewel in the Crown", and was the most important source of Britain's strength.

A series of serious crop failures in the late 19th century led to 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.

Rivalry with Russia
During the 19th century, Britain and the vied to fill the power vacuums that had been left by the declining,  and. This rivalry in Central Asia came to be known as the "". As far as Britain was concerned, defeats inflicted by Russia on and  demonstrated its imperial ambitions and capabilities and stoked fears in Britain of an overland invasion of India. In 1839, Britain moved to pre-empt this by invading, but the was a disaster for Britain.

When Russia invaded the Turkish in 1853, fears of Russian dominance in the  and Middle East led Britain and France to invade the  to destroy Russian naval capabilities. The ensuing, which involved new techniques of , was the only fought between Britain and another  during the Pax Britannica and was a resounding defeat for Russia. The situation remained unresolved in Central Asia for two more decades, with Britain annexing in 1876 and Russia annexing, , and. For a while it appeared that another war would be inevitable, but the two countries reached an agreement on their respective in the region in 1878 and on all outstanding matters in 1907 with the signing of the. The destruction of the by the Japanese at the  during the  of 1904–05 also limited its threat to the British.

Cape to Cairo
The Dutch East India Company had founded the on the southern tip of Africa in 1652 as a way station for its ships travelling to and from its colonies in the. Britain formally acquired the colony, and its large (or ) population in 1806, having occupied it in 1795 to prevent its falling into French hands during the. 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 of the late 1830s and early 1840s. In the process the 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  and the  nations. Eventually the Boers established two republics which had a longer lifespan: the or Transvaal Republic (1852–77; 1881–1902) and the  (1854–1902). In 1902 Britain occupied both republics, concluding a treaty with the two following the  (1899–1902).

In 1869 the opened under, linking the Mediterranean with the Indian Ocean. Initially the Canal was opposed by the British; but once opened, its strategic value was quickly recognised and became the "jugular vein of the Empire". In 1875, the government of  bought the indebted Egyptian ruler 's 44% shareholding in the Suez Canal for £4 million (equivalent to £ in ). 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. The French were still majority shareholders and attempted to weaken the British position, but a compromise was reached with the 1888, which made the Canal officially neutral territory.

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

British gains in and  prompted, pioneer of British expansion in Southern Africa, to urge a "" railway linking the strategically important  to the mineral-rich south of the continent. During the 1880s and 1890s, Rhodes, with his privately owned, territories subsequently named after him,.

Changing status of the white colonies
The path to independence for the white colonies of the British Empire began with the 1839, which proposed unification and self-government for and , as a solution to political unrest which had erupted in  in 1837. This began with the passing of the in 1840, which created the. was first granted to in 1848, and was soon extended to the other British North American colonies. With the passage of the by the, the Province of Canada, New Brunswick and Nova Scotia were formed into , a confederation enjoying full self-government with the exception of. Australia and New Zealand achieved similar levels of self-government after 1900, with the Australian colonies. The term "dominion status" was officially introduced at the.

The last decades of the 19th century saw concerted s for Irish. Ireland had been united with Britain into the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland with the after the, and had suffered a severe  between 1845 and 1852. Home rule was supported by the British, , who hoped that Ireland might follow in Canada's footsteps as a Dominion within the empire, but his 1886 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, 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. A was also defeated for similar reasons. A was passed by Parliament in 1914, but not implemented because of the outbreak of the  leading to the 1916.

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 and the entirety of the empire while at the same time maintaining the policy of "". 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 and threatened at home by the, Britain in 1902 and with its old enemies  and  in 1904 and 1907, respectively.

First World War
Britain's fears of war with Germany were realised in 1914 with the outbreak of the. Britain quickly invaded and occupied most of Germany's overseas colonies in Africa. In the Pacific, Australia and New Zealand occupied and  respectively. Plans for a post-war division of the, which had joined the war on Germany's side, were secretly drawn up by Britain and France under the 1916. This agreement was not divulged to the, 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.

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 s, as well as many thousands of volunteers from the. The contributions of Australian and New Zealand troops during the 1915 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. Canadians viewed the in a similar light. The important contribution of the Dominions to the was recognised in 1917 by the British Prime Minister  when he invited each of the Dominion Prime Ministers to join an  to co-ordinate imperial policy.

Under the terms of the concluding signed in 1919, the empire reached its greatest extent with the addition of 1800000 sqmi and 13 million new subjects. The colonies of Germany and the were distributed to the Allied powers as s. Britain gained control of, , , parts of  and , and. The Dominions themselves also acquired mandates of their own: the gained  (modern-day ), Australia gained, and New Zealand. was made a combined mandate of Britain and the two Pacific Dominions.

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. Forced to choose between alignment with the United States or Japan, Britain opted not to renew its Japanese alliance and instead signed the 1922, where Britain accepted naval parity with the United States. This decision was the source of much debate in Britain during the 1930s as militaristic governments took hold in Germany and Japan helped in part by the, for it was feared that the empire could not survive a simultaneous attack by both nations. The issue of the empire's security was a serious concern in Britain, as it was vital to the British economy.

In 1919, the frustrations caused by delays to led the MPs of, a pro-independence party that had won a majority of the Irish seats in the , to establish an  in Dublin, at which. The simultaneously began a  against the British administration. The ended in 1921 with a stalemate and the signing of the, creating the , a Dominion within the British Empire, with effective internal independence but still constitutionally linked with the British Crown. , consisting of six of the 32 which had been established as a devolved region under the 1920, immediately exercised its option under the treaty to retain its existing status within the United Kingdom.

A similar struggle began in India when the failed to satisfy demand for independence. Concerns over communist and foreign plots following the ensured that war-time strictures were renewed by the s. This led to tension, particularly in the, where repressive measures culminated in the. 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. The subsequent was called off in March 1922 following the, and discontent continued to simmer for the next 25 years.

In 1922, Egypt, which had been declared a British at the outbreak of the First World War, was, though it continued to be a British  until 1954. remained stationed in Egypt until the signing of the in 1936, under which it was agreed that the troops would withdraw but continue to occupy and defend the  zone. In return, Egypt was assisted in joining the. , a British since 1920, also gained membership of the League in its own right after achieving independence from Britain in 1932. In, Britain was presented with the problem of mediating between the Arabs and increasing numbers of Jews. The, 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. This led to increasing conflict with the Arab population, who openly. 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.

The right of the Dominions to set their own foreign policy, independent of Britain, was recognised at the. Britain's request for military assistance from the Dominions at the outbreak of the the previous year had been turned down by Canada and South Africa, and Canada had refused to be bound by the. After pressure from the Irish Free State and South Africa, the issued the, declaring the Dominions to be "autonomous Communities within the British Empire, equal in status, in no way subordinate one to another" within a "British ". This declaration was given legal substance under the 1931. The parliaments of Canada, Australia, New Zealand, the Union of South Africa, the Irish Free State and were now independent of British legislative control, they could nullify  and Britain could no longer pass laws for them without their consent. Newfoundland reverted to colonial status in 1933, suffering from financial difficulties during the Great Depression. The Irish Free State distanced itself further from the British state with the introduction of a in 1937, making it a republic in all but name.

Second World War
Britain's declaration of war against in September 1939 included the  and India but did not automatically commit the Dominions of Australia, Canada, New Zealand, Newfoundland and South Africa. All soon declared war on Germany, but Ireland chose to remain throughout.

After the in June 1940, Britain and the empire stood alone against Germany, until the  on 7 April 1941. British Prime Minister successfully lobbied President  for  from the United States, but Roosevelt was not yet ready to ask  to commit the country to war. In August 1941, Churchill and Roosevelt met and signed the, which included the statement that "the rights of all peoples to choose the 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.

In December 1941, launched, in quick succession, attacks on, the United States naval base at , and. Churchill's reaction to the entry of the United States into the war was that Britain was now assured of victory and the future of the empire was safe, but the manner in which British forces were rapidly defeated in the Far East irreversibly harmed Britain's standing and prestige as an imperial power. Most damaging of all was the, which had previously been hailed as an impregnable fortress and the eastern equivalent of Gibraltar. 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. This resulted in the 1951 between Australia, New Zealand and the United States of America.

Decolonisation and decline (1945–1997)
Though Britain and the empire emerged victorious from the, 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. Britain was left essentially bankrupt, with insolvency only averted in 1946 after the negotiation of from the United States, the last instalment of which was repaid in 2006. 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 rivalry of the United States and the Soviet Union. In principle, both nations were opposed to European colonialism. In practice, however, American prevailed over, and therefore the United States supported the continued existence of the British Empire to keep Communist expansion in check. The "" ultimately meant that the British Empire's days were numbered, and on the whole, Britain adopted a policy of peaceful disengagement from its colonies once stable, non-Communist governments were established to assume power. This was in contrast to other European powers such as France and Portugal, which waged costly and ultimately unsuccessful wars to keep their empires intact. Between 1945 and 1965, the number of people under British rule outside the UK itself fell from 700 million to five million, three million of whom were in Hong Kong.

Initial disengagement
The pro-decolonisation government, elected at the  and led by, moved quickly to tackle the most pressing issue facing the empire:. India's two major political parties—the (led by ) and the  (led by )—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 for Muslim-majority regions. Increasing and the  of the  during 1946 led Attlee to promise independence no later than 30 June 1948. When the urgency of the situation and risk of civil war became apparent, the newly appointed (and last) Viceroy,, hastily brought forward the date to 15 August 1947. The borders drawn by the British to broadly into Hindu and Muslim areas left tens of millions as minorities in the newly independent states of India and. Millions of Muslims subsequently 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, and gained their independence the following year in 1948. India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka became members of the, while Burma chose not to join.

The British, where an Arab majority lived alongside a Jewish minority, presented the British with a similar problem to that of India. The matter was complicated by large numbers of seeking to be admitted to Palestine following the, 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. The  subsequently voted for a  into a Jewish and an Arab state. It was immediately followed by the outbreak of a 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 declared independence and the  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 departing on 30 June 1948.

Following the surrender of Japan in the Second World War, anti-Japanese s 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. 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. The, as it was called, began in 1948 and lasted until 1960, but by 1957, Britain felt confident enough to grant independence to the within the Commonwealth. In 1963, the 11 states of the federation together with Singapore, Sarawak and joined to form, but in 1965 Chinese-majority  was expelled from the union following tensions between the Malay and Chinese populations and became an independent city-state. , which had been a British protectorate since 1888, declined to join the union and maintained its status until independence in 1984.

Suez and its aftermath
In 1951, the returned to power in Britain, under the leadership of. 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 allowing Britain to maintain its pre-eminent position in the Middle East in spite of the loss of India. However, Churchill could not ignore 's new revolutionary that had, and the following year it was agreed that British troops would withdraw from the Suez Canal zone and that  would be granted self-determination by 1955, with independence to follow. was granted independence on 1 January 1956.

In July 1956, Nasser unilaterally nationalised the Suez Canal. The response of, who had succeeded Churchill as Prime Minister, was to collude with France to engineer an Israeli attack on that would give Britain and France an excuse to intervene militarily and retake the canal. Eden infuriated US President by his lack of consultation, and Eisenhower refused to back the invasion. Another of Eisenhower's concerns was the possibility of a wider war with the after it threatened to intervene on the Egyptian side. Eisenhower applied by threatening to sell US reserves of the  and thereby precipitate a collapse of the British currency. Though the invasion force was militarily successful in its objectives, UN intervention and US pressure forced Britain into a humiliating withdrawal of its forces, and Eden resigned.

The very publicly exposed Britain's limitations to the world and confirmed Britain's decline on the world stage and its end as a superpower, demonstrating that henceforth it could no longer act without at least the acquiescence, if not the full support, of the United States. The events at Suez wounded British, leading one to describe it as "Britain's " and another to suggest that the country had become an "American ". 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 from  in 1982.

While the Suez Crisis caused British power in the Middle East to weaken, it did not collapse. Britain again deployed its armed forces to the region, intervening in,   and  , though on these occasions with American approval, as the new Prime Minister 's foreign policy was to remain firmly aligned with the United States. 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, Prime Minister and his   announced that British troops would be withdrawn from major military bases , which included the ones in the Middle East, and primarily from  and Singapore by the end of 1971, instead of 1975 as earlier planned. By that time over 50,000 British military personnel were still stationed in the Far East, including 30,000 in Singapore. The British granted independence to the in 1965 but continued to station a garrison there, withdrew from  in 1967, granted independence to, , and the  in 1971, and withdrew the forces stationed in the Maldives in 1976.

Wind of change
Macmillan gave a in, South Africa in February 1960 where he spoke of "the wind of change blowing through this continent". Macmillan wished to avoid the same kind of that France was fighting in, and under his premiership decolonisation proceeded rapidly. To the three colonies that had been granted independence in the 1950s—, the and —were added nearly ten times that number during the 1960s.

Britain's remaining colonies in Africa, except for, were all granted independence by 1968. British withdrawal from the southern and eastern parts of Africa was not a peaceful process. Kenyan independence was preceded by the eight-year, in which tens of thousands of suspected rebels were interred by the colonial government in detention camps. In, the 1965 by the white minority resulted in a  that lasted until the  of 1979, which set the terms for recognised independence in 1980, as the new nation of.

In the Mediterranean, a guerrilla war waged by ended in 1960 leading to an independent, with the UK retaining the s of. The of  and  were amicably granted independence from the UK in 1964 and became the country of, though the idea had been raised in 1955 of.

Most of the UK's territories achieved independence after the departure in 1961 and 1962 of  and  from the, 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. Jamaica attained independence in 1962, as did. achieved independence in 1966 and the remainder of the eastern Caribbean islands, including the, in the 1970s and 1980s, but and the  opted to revert to British rule after they had already started on the path to independence. The, and  also opted to retain ties with Britain, while  achieved independence in 1966. Britain's last colony on the American mainland,, became a in 1964 and was renamed  in 1973, achieving full independence in 1981. A over claims to Belize was left unresolved.

British territories in the Pacific acquired independence in the 1970s beginning with in 1970 and ending with  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 with France. Fiji,, the and  chose to become s.

End of empire
In 1980,, Britain's last African colony, became the independent nation of Zimbabwe. The achieved independence (as Vanuatu) in 1980, with Belize following suit in 1981. The passage of the, which reclassified the remaining Crown colonies as "British Dependent Territories" (renamed in 2002) 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  the, acting on a long-standing claim that dated back to the. Britain's ultimately successful military response to retake the islands during the ensuing was viewed by many to have contributed to reversing the downward trend in Britain's status as a world power. The same year, the Canadian government severed its last legal link with Britain by the Canadian constitution from Britain. The passed by the  ended the need for British involvement in changes to the Canadian constitution. Similarly, the (effective 3 March 1986) severed the constitutional link between Britain and the Australian states, while 's  (effective 1 January 1987) reformed the constitution of  to sever its constitutional link with Britain. In 1984,, Britain's last remaining Asian protectorate, gained its independence.

In September 1982 the Prime Minister,, travelled to Beijing to negotiate with the Chinese government, on the future of Britain's last major and most populous overseas territory, Hong Kong. Under the terms of the 1842 and 1860,  and  had been respectively ceded to Britain in perpetuity, but the vast majority of the colony was constituted by the , which had been acquired under a , due to expire in 1997. 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. A deal was reached in 1984—under the terms of the, Hong Kong would become a , maintaining its way of life for at least 50 years. The in 1997 marked for many, including, who was in attendance, "the end of Empire".

Legacy
Britain retains sovereignty over 14 territories outside the British Isles. In 1983, the renamed the existing Crown Colonies as "British Dependent Territories", and in 2002 they were renamed the. Three are uninhabited except for transient military or scientific personnel; the remaining eleven are self-governing to varying degrees and are reliant on the UK for and defence. The British government has stated its willingness to assist any Overseas Territory that wishes to proceed to independence, where that is an option, and three territories have specifically voted to remain under British sovereignty ( in, in  and the  in ).

British sovereignty of several of the overseas territories is disputed by their geographical neighbours: is claimed by Spain, the  and  are claimed by, and the  is claimed by  and. The is subject to overlapping claims by Argentina and, while many countries do not recognise any territorial claims in Antarctica.

Most former British colonies and protectorates are among the 52 member states of the, a non-political, of equal members, comprising a population of around 2.2 billion people. Sixteen s voluntarily continue to share the British monarch, Queen Elizabeth II, as their head of state. These sixteen nations are distinct and equal legal entities – the, , , , , , , , , , , , , , and.

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 English in regions around the world. Today it is the primary language of up to 460 million people and is spoken by about one and a half billion as a first, second or foreign language.

The spread of English from the latter half of the 20th century has been helped in part by the cultural and economic influence of the United States, itself originally formed from British colonies. Except in Africa where nearly all the former colonies have adopted the, the English has served as the template for the governments for many former colonies, and  for legal systems.

The British still serves as the highest court of appeal for several former colonies in the Caribbean and Pacific. British who travelled around the globe often in advance of soldiers and civil servants spread  (including ) to all continents. The British Empire provided refuge for religiously persecuted ans for hundreds of years. 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.

Individual and team sports developed in Britain—particularly, , , , , , and —were also exported. The British choice of system of measurement, the, continues to be used in some countries in various ways. The convention of has been retained in much of the former empire.

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 from Great Britain have left their mark in the form of divided  and  communities in. Millions of people moved to and from British colonies, with large numbers of emigrating to other parts of the empire, such as  and, and Chinese people to Malaysia, Singapore and the Caribbean. The demographics of Britain itself were changed after the Second World War owing to from its former colonies.