British Empire and its descolonization

The British Empire was the most extended of all, started to form in the eighteenth century but its maximum extent occurred between 1890 and 1910.

Their expansion occurred in the five continents:

There were the settler colonies (were designed to accommodate the excess population of the Empire and had some political autonomy.) and the exploitation colonies (which supplied raw materials to the metropolis and lacked political autonomy). For example:

-In Asia one of the most important colony for the British Empire was India, It was a farm colony administered since 1777 by the East India Company. India "The jewel of the British Crown" was the highest exporter of raw materials ( cotton, silk, sugar, tea).

-In Oceania Australia and New Zealand were discovered in the late eighteenth century by Captain James Cook, were used to reduce the overpopulation they had. Australia was practically uninhabited so it was occupied as a prison, but when the British realized the benefit that the land could give them inmigrants was integradated as a labor for the production.

However, the difficulty of maintaining these territories, the decrease economic and the nationalist sentiments of the colonies took their toll on Britain, so began the decolonization of territories like India or other colonies from America and Africa, but not until after the Second world War when Britain ceded his position as world power (the U.S.) and granted independence to multiple colonies worldwide.

Many of the independent  countries of the British Empire, today form the  Commonwealth wich is a voluntary association of 54 independent countries.