How the British Empire Became the Biggest in the World

if you were to look at Britain on a map today you'd be forgiven for thinking that its borders only Encompass those of the British Isles but if you look at the world as a whole you will find that there are actually 14 overseas territories where the British government still holds power from Gibraltar at the entrance of the Mediterranean to the Falkland Islands in the South Atlantic these are the last remaining possessions of Britain's once Mighty Empire at the height of its territorial control a little over 100 years ago the British Empire covered one quarter of the globe's land mass and ruled almost a third of the world's population it was the Empire on which the Sun never set but how did such a small island nation become the largest and most powerful Empire the world has ever seen this is the history of the British Empire the foundations of the British Empire were laid long before the state of Britain even formally existed the dominant power in the British Isles throughout much of its history has been the kingdom of England with a well-developed economy and military force to match England during the medieval and early modern periods came to rule over the smaller independent Kingdoms in Wales and parts of Ireland although to the north the kingdom of Scotland remained a fiercely proud and independent nation who had bitterly and successfully resisted frequent invasions from its powerful Southern neighbor by the early 17th century Elizabeth the First of England had issued several trading and exploration commissions to English adventurers with the intention of exploring and colonizing new territories yet to be claimed by other European powers the likes of Sir Francis Drke and Sir Martin frobisher claimed many lands in the name of England but these were not followed up with settlements the first English colony established in North America at Roanoke Island in 1585 failed dramatically with the colonists mysteriously disappearing never to be seen or heard from again Elizabeth also granted several Royal Charters to joint stock companies who were established specifically for the purpose of developing overseas trade companies such as the Levant company founded in 1592 and the East India company founded in 1600 were granted monopolies on all English trade to and from these areas when Elizabeth the first died in 1603 the Throne of England passed to James VI of Scotland upon his Ascension to the throne James became the king of both Scotland and England through the union of the crowns however the two kingdoms remained distinct and were ruled separately as King James looked to build further on the attempts of his predecessor to establish overseas colonies that were to be ruled and governed under one of the three types of colony structures a Crown Colony was directly ruled by the Monarch themselves but would typically be administered by a royally appointed governor and supported by a local Council a charter colony was similar to a Crown Colony but was ruled under a corporate charter rather than a governor these Charter colonies often granted colonists significantly more political Liberty compared to other colonies a proprietary colony was governed by an individual who was typically the head of a joint stock company these colonies were distinct from Crown colonies in that they were commercial Enterprises with responsibilities to shareholders proprietary Governors typically did not live in the colony and so appointed local Governors and councils to rule in their absence Over time however these proprietary colonies became increasingly difficult to manage and transitioned to Crown colonies instead an important yet often overlooked development in England's overseas expansion is that of the plantation of Ulster which saw Protestant settlers from Scotland and England transported to parts of the north of Ireland during the early years of King James's Reign this model of organized colonization would form the blueprint for future English Colonial expansion with many of the leaders of the Ulster Plantation later becoming involved in establishing other colonies in the New World throughout the 1600s the kingdom of England expanded its overseas colonies in North America and the Caribbean some were entirely new Ventures whereas others were annexed from rival foreign powers like New York which was seized from the Dutch in 1665. [Music] England also significantly developed its trading networks in Africa and the East Indies with the building of factories and fortified trading posts a critical component to this Mercantile success was the creation of the royal African company in 1660. who over the subsequent decades would become the leading participant in the brutal yet highly lucrative transatlantic slave trade during this period Scotland also began to establish overseas colonies of its own having looked on somewhat enviously at the successful Endeavors of the English unfortunately almost all these attempts ended in Failure with colonies in Nova Scotia Cape Breton and Carolina barely lasting a few years the most abject failure of Scotland's colonization attempts however came in 1698 with the Darion scheme this aims to establish a colony controlling the Overland trade route of the Isthmus of Panama between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans to finance the Expedition an immense amount of capital was raised from the public which accounted for almost a fifth of the wealth in Scotland at that time when the ships arrived at the coast of Darien they named The Colony Caledonia and set about constructing a settlement called new Edinburgh the attempts of the colonists however were to ultimately prove futile as a settlement quickly succumbs to food shortages tropical disease and attacks from nearby Spanish forces despite a resupply in 1699 the settlement was abandoned and the survivors who totaled just a few hundred of the original two and a half thousand returns to Scotland in disgrace due to the total disaster the Darion scheme and the loss of public money that had been invested into it Scotland was plunged into a financial crisis many then considered that their best and only chance of being part of a major power would be to share in the benefits of England's Colonial Enterprise by the turn of the 18th century England and Scotland remained independent kingdoms although the Glorious Revolution of 1688 had dramatically shifted the political landscape within the British Isles the Catholic James II was deposed and replaced with his protestant's daughter Mary and her Dutch husband William who became King William III of England and Scotland legislation was passed in England so that only Protestants could inherit the throne but this law did not apply in Scotland and so under the reign of Queen Anne in the early 1700s efforts were made to unite the parliaments of both Nations and secure a Protestant line of succession for the monarchy when the acts of Union were passed in 1707 England and Scotland were then united into one Kingdom under the name of Great Britain over the following decades Britain became involved in several wars with other European powers which were fought not only on the continent but also wherever their overseas Colonial interests lay after the war of the Spanish succession concluded in 1714 with a victory for Britain and her allies peace negotiations granted territorial concessions from the defeated French and Spanish with Newfoundland and Acadia in North America passing into British control as well as the Strategic Mediterranean islands of Gibraltar and Menorca meanwhile the British East India Company which was not technically part of the Empire but nevertheless still pursued its Colonial interests was engaged in military operations against its French counterpart across the subcontinent the aftermath of the battle of classy in 1757 wrestled control of Bengal away from the local nawab ruler and his French allies leaving the British to become the leading military and political power in the region this acted as a springboard for the British East India Company to expand its territory further in later years either assuming direct rule themselves or via local rulers who were threatened with force from the company's private armies further conflicts of the 18th century namely the war of the Austrian succession and the Seven Years War in particular gifted Britain even further territorial concessions at the expense of her rivals in North America the British captured Quebec in 1759 effectively ended French Colonial efforts on the continent with the annexation of New France by 1760.

Florida passed into British control from Spain leaving virtually the entire Eastern Seaboard of North America in British hands the Treaty of Paris which ended the Seven Years War in 1763 also ceded the Caribbean islands of Dominica Granada Saint Vincent and the Grenadines as well as Tobago to Britain which was now the most dominant Colonial and Maritime power of the age throughout its history the British Empire would be powered by two components that went hand in hand with one another firstly Mastery of the high seas through Naval Supremacy and secondly indomitable Mercantile trade that was free from foreign Russian this exponential increase in trade gained immense wealth for Britain through the taxation of goods that passed through its ports however the issue of Taxation itself would soon lead to Revolution and the first major Colonial loss for the empire although Britain considered its colonies to be Sovereign territory it did not afford them the same rights and privileges which were enjoyed on the British mainland throughout the 1760s and 1770s relations between Britain and its 13 colonies in America became increasingly strained due to parliaments taxing the colonies without their consent or representation many within the 13 colonies considered this a breach of their rights as Englishmen and formally renounced the authority of parliament in 1775 resulting in the outbreak of revolution Britain sent troops to quell the rebelling colonists but in the following year of 1776 the leading political figures of the colonies assembled to form the Second Continental Congress and declared their independence from Britain after a protracted war of eight years Britain's military forces in the colonies were finally defeated and the United States of America was recognized as an independent nation the loss of America marked a sea change for the British Empire after this British colonial efforts shifted towards Asia the Pacific and Africa where explorers had chartered many new lands yet to be colonized by Europeans one such explorer was Captain James Cook who mapped and claimed much of the Pacific Ocean including New Zealand and the eastern coast of Australia in the name of Britain although cook was killed on the island of Hawaii during his third voyage the discoveries he made during the 1770s would be instrumental to the further expansion of the empire Australia was to serve as a penal settlement for British convicts who would otherwise have been transported to the 13 colonies before they were lost the first shipment of convicts arrived in the colony of New South Wales in 1788 and this practice of sentencing criminals to Transportation continued into the middle of the 19th century Britain also expanded its Colonial interests into the North Pacific explorers such as George Vancouver and Alexander McKenzie surveyed the western coast of North America in the 1790s which subsequently opened up the territory to British Mercantile interests particularly that of the fur trade inroads were also made into the vast interior of the Rocky Mountains which expanded British North America westwards war with France in 1803 would once again challenge Britain's position as the dominant colonial power of the age with the rise of Napoleon Bonaparte in the aftermath of the French Revolution to protect itself and its colonies from Invasion Britain invested large sums of capital and resources into the war effort with the Royal Navy blockading French ports and attacking French overseas possessions a crucial victory was won at the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805 against the combined franco-spanish Navy albeit had the loss of Britain's Admiral Lord Nelson who was killed in action victory at Trafalgar not only eliminated the threat of invasion for Britain but it also secured the uncontested supremacy of the royal Navy for the next 140 years by the time the Napoleonic Wars are drawn to a close in 1815 the Victorious Allied Coalition of which Britain was a part of secured further territory from the defeated French Spanish and Dutch who had been part of Napoleon's French Empire the ionian islands Malta Mauritius St Lucia the Seychelles Trinidad and Tobago Guyana Ceylon and the cape Colony were added to Britain's already substantial number of colonies many of these Caribbean colonies contained countless plantations dedicated to the production of sugarcane which over the centuries had become exclusively reliant on slave labor although Britain had already profited tremendously from the transatlantic slave trade the Advent of the Industrial Revolution shifted the focus of merchants and capitalists to produce Goods at home in Britain rather than relying on slave produced goods from the colonies additionally growing political pressure from abolitionist groups eventually forced the hand of the British government to abolish the slave trade within the empire in 1807. it would be another 27 years however before the institution of slavery itself would be formally abolished in 1834. the period from 1815 to 1914 has often been described as Britain's Imperial Century after effectively seizing control over the Indian subcontinent the British East India Company looked to expand its interests further across Asia Singapore was founded as a Trading Post in 1819 and later incorporated as a colony in 1824 whereas in China the East India Company alongside the British government were able to seize control of Hong Kong and Shanghai in the aftermath of the first Opium War in 1842 the East India company's control over India itself however was challenged in 1857 when local troops rebelled against their British Commanders in what became known as the sepoy rebellion the East India Company fought against troops previously under its command and retook the territories that had been seized by the mutineers after the hostilities ended the following year the British government decided to dissolve the East India Company believing that it could no longer Rule and administer the country effectively India was then brought under direct British rule in 1858 and became the most valuable possession within the Empire colloquially named as the jewel in the crown an emerging threat to Britain's Imperial Ambitions during the 19th century came from the Russian Empire which wished to expand its territorial possessions and sphere of influence into Central Asia and the Mediterranean to fill the void of the collapsing Ottoman Empire when Russia invaded the ottoman-controlled Balkans in 1853 Britain alongside France entered the war in support of the Turks fearing that Russia could threaten their colonial interests in the Mediterranean and the Middle East the resulting Crimean War of 1854-1856 was a resounding defeat for Russia and a confidence boost for the British who remained the dominant Global Imperial power although the situation between Britain and Russia in Central Asia remained uncertain a partial settlement to the issue known as the great game was reached in 1878 which established respective spheres of influence the British also gained control of Cyprus from the Ottomans that year as a surety it would be used to defend against any further Russian expansion the continent of Africa also witnessed a consolidation of British colonial power during the 19th century British immigration to the recently acquired Cape Colony began to increase in the 1820s which pushed out thousands of Dutch descended settlers known as boers into the northern Hinterland resentful of British rule they established their own independent republics namely the transvaal and orange free state but these two eventually succumbed to British occupation with the conclusion of the second anglo-bore war in 1902.

meanwhile in North Africa the opening of the Suez Canal in 1869 which linked the Mediterranean to the Indian Ocean proved of vital strategic importance for British trade routes although Britain could not take Direct Control of the canal it was able to militarily occupy Egypt in 1882 but did not consider it to be formally within the empire further territorial expansion in what became known as the Scramble for Africa in the late 19th century saw Britain gain control of much of the Eastern and Southern parts of the continent efforts were also made to build a continental railway from the Cape to Cairo although this was never completed as the 20th century dawned Britain's position as the leader in World Trade and Adoption of the role of global policemen allowed it to also control the economies of Nations who were not part of the British Empire such as China Argentina and cyan an electrical Telegraph Network known as the all-red line was completed In 1902 which allowed Britain to communicate directly with all of its overseas colonies across the empire as Britain's predominantly white colonies developed economically and socially they sought to gain political independence from the mother country Canada was formed into a confederation in 1867 and granted the right of full self-governance with the exception to international relations Australia and New Zealand followed similar paths in 1900 becoming newly created dominions of the empire Ireland also hoped to gain some form of independence from Britain during this time multiple home rule bills were put before the British Parliament but these were all defeated on the grounds that partial Irish Independence would pose a threat to the unity of the empire the threats to the Empire however would ultimately come from Germany and the outbreak of the first world war in 1914. during the conflict Britain relied heavily on the empire for importing food resources and crucially Military Support over 2.