The British Empire
See Annals Britannica the complete British History website by Tom Bliss for the latest addition entitled The Growth and Decline of the British Empire. This is a major new section which provides a time-line of Britain’s involvement with every part of the former British Empire, from the vast complexity of the British Raj in India to tiny islands speckled across the world’s oceans, such as Bermuda, St Helena, Fiji, Pitcairn and the Seychelles. Together with great swathes of land in various parts of Africa, the enormous Confederation of Canada and the island continent of Australia, these all formed parts of the world’s largest and most complex empire.
All chapters about the empire try to describe how, in a variety of circumstances, Britain became involved with the peoples and territories in so many different parts of the world. Annals recounts various incidents throughout the period they resided under the British flag and notes when each country and its people finally gained ultimate responsibility for their own affairs.
Annals attempts to portray how the small islands of Britain have left indelible marks on large areas of the world. The English language is the world’s language and literally scores of countries have also inherited or adopted British political. judicial, ethical and cultural criteria, procedures and habits.
