草稿:大英帝国

大英帝国 British Empire
左：大不列颠王国国旗（1707–1800） 右：英国国旗（1801–至今）
大英帝国统治范围地图，今英國海外領土的地名以红色下划线表示

大英帝国（英語：British Empire）由英国及其之前国家统治或管理的自治领、殖民地、保护国、国际联盟托管地及其他属地组成。初期多为英国在海外的殖民地，之后是英格兰王国于16世纪末到18世纪初建立的贸易站。从规模上看，大英帝国是历史上最大的帝国，一个多世纪以来都是世界上最重要的大国。到1913年，大英帝国统领超过4.12亿人，占当时世界总人口的23%，到1920年国土面积达35,500,000平方公里（13,700,000平方英里），占当时全球陆地面积的24%，对宪政体制、法律、语言和文化产生深远影响。帝国到全盛时期被誉为“日不落帝国”，形容太阳必定会照耀到其中一个领土。

在15到16世纪的地理大发现时期，葡萄牙和西班牙开创了欧洲人探索世界的历程，在过程中建立庞大的海外帝国。英国、法国和荷兰羡慕两个帝国享有的巨额财富，在美洲和亚洲自行设立殖民地及贸易网络。但法国和荷兰在17到18世纪陷入连串战争，让英格兰（1707年联合法令颁布后与苏格兰结为大不列颠王国）成为北美的主要殖民势力，后来更在1757年普拉西戰役中凭借不列颠东印度公司征服孟加拉苏巴，将势力范围拓展到印度次大陆。

美国独立战争期间的1783年，英国失去北美洲这块殖民时间最长、人口最多的领土。之后，英国把目光投向亚洲、非洲和太平洋。拿破仑战争战胜法国后（1803–1815），英国凭借最强大的海军力量，发展成19世纪最强大的帝国。1815年到1914年的相对和平期期间，英国成为全球霸权，享有“不列颠治世”的美誉。除了正式控制的殖民地，英国还垄断各地的经济，亚洲、拉丁美洲尤甚。白人移民殖民地获得越来越多的自治权利，其中好些地区还被归类为自治领。

20世纪初，德国和美国开始挑战英国的经济地位。英德两国的军事角力及经济冲突成为第一次世界大战的一大导火索，英国在战争期间严重仰赖帝国。这场冲突给英国的军事、财政及人力资源带来庞大压力。尽管一战结束后势力范围达到历史上最大，英国已经不是世界上超群绝伦的工业或军事强国。第二次世界大战期间，英国在东亚和东南亚的殖民地被大日本帝国占领。英国与盟友取得最终胜利，但名誉受损，加速推动英国的衰落。在英国给予大多数领土独立地位的去殖民化运动下，英国最具价值、人口最多的领土印度也获得独立。第二次中东战争证实了英国大国地位衰老，而1992年香港移交中国在很多人眼中意味着大英帝国终结。时至今日，英国仍持有14个海外领土的主权。独立后的英国前殖民地加入英联邦这个独立国家自由联盟。包括英国在内的15个英联邦国家共同将女皇伊丽莎白二世奉为共同的君主。

1497–1583年：起源

乔瓦尼·卡博托第二次新大陆航行时乘坐的马修号。图为复制品

大英帝国成立时，英格兰和苏格兰是两个独立的王国。1496年，英格兰国王亨利七世眼看西班牙和葡萄牙的海外探险大获成功，委托乔瓦尼·卡博托率领探险队探索经北大西洋前往亚洲的航海路线。克里斯托弗·哥伦比亚首次航行五年后的1497年，卡博托正式出发，最终在纽芬兰岛沿岸登陆。他认为已经抵达亚洲，没打算设立殖民地。次年，卡博托前往美洲，途中舰队遭遇未知变故，没有返航。

直到女皇伊丽莎白一世于1690年代在位，英格兰才打算在美洲设立殖民地。与此同时《1533年上诉限制条例》宣布“英格兰王国是帝国”。之后的新教改革让英格兰和信奉天主教的西班牙水火不容。1562年，伊丽莎白一世怂恿私掠人约翰·霍金斯和法兰西斯·德瑞克到西非沿岸，袭击西班牙和葡萄牙贩运奴隶的船只，打算建立大西洋奴隶贸易，被两人断然拒绝。后来英西战争白热化，伊丽莎白一世继续批准私掠突袭西班牙在美洲的港口，以及满载新大陆珍宝，经大西洋返航的西班牙船队。当时，理查德·哈克卢伊特和约翰·迪伊等具影响力的作家开始推动英格兰设立自己的帝国，其中迪伊是首个使用“大英帝国”一词的人。此时西班牙成为美洲的主要统治力量，并开始探索太平洋，葡萄牙则在非洲和巴西设立通往中国的贸易战和堡垒，法国开始在圣劳伦斯河地区定居，后来变为新法兰西。

英格兰尽管在建立海外殖民地方面远远落后葡萄牙、西班牙和法国，但于16世纪参考1169年诺曼征服爱尔兰，派英格兰的新教徒到爱尔兰定居，设立首个海外殖民地。部分协助建立爱尔兰殖民地的人士后来在殖民北美洲早期扮演重要角色，最为有名的是西部人。

1583–1707年：海外殖民地

主条目：英格兰殖民地

1578年，伊丽莎白一世向汉弗莱·吉尔伯特颁发发现与海外探勘专利。同年，吉尔伯特出发前往加勒比地区，计划做海盗的生意，在北美设立殖民地，但探险队没穿过大西洋便返回。1583年，吉尔伯特再度尝试，结果正式宣称纽芬兰岛港口的所有权，但没留下定居者。回国途中，吉尔伯特不幸殒命，同母异父的沃尔特·雷利继承衣钵，1584年获伊丽莎白授权，同年在今北卡罗来纳州沿岸建立罗阿诺克殖民地，但因缺乏补给丢掉殖民地。

1603年，苏格兰国王詹姆士六世以詹姆士一世之名继承英国王位，1604年与西班牙签订《伦敦条约》，结束敌对状态。与主要的对手和平共处下，英格兰将注意力从掠夺其他国家的殖民设施，转向设立自己的海外殖民地。随着美洲及加勒比海小岛殖民地纷纷设立，负责管理殖民地及海外贸易的东印度公司等股份有限公司不断涌现，大英帝国于17世纪初具规模。部分历史学家将这段时间到美国独立战争结束后十三殖民地丧失的18世纪末称为“第一大英帝国”。

美洲、非洲与奴隶贸易

主条目：英国美洲殖民地、英属美洲、十三殖民地和大西洋奴隶贸易

17世纪，非洲黑奴在弗吉尼亚劳作（作者不详，1670年）

加勒比海地区最初给英格兰提供最重要、最有利可图的殖民地，但殖民当地的活动历经多次尝试才获得成功。1604年，英格兰带着寻找金矿的目标，在圭亚那设立殖民地，结果没有找到金矿，只维持了两年。之后圣卢西亚（1605年）和格林纳达（1609年）的殖民计划迅速告吹，后来圣基茨岛（1624年）、巴巴多斯（1627年）和尼维斯岛（1628年）的殖民地成功设立。各殖民地不久后采用葡萄牙殖民巴西时利用成功的糖种植业体系。这项体系依靠奴隶工人运作，一开始被荷兰船队用来贩售奴隶、购买糖。为确保日益增长的可观收入留在英格兰手中，议会于1651年通过《航海法案》，只允许英格兰船队在英格兰殖民地贸易，激怒了荷兰联合省，引爆英荷战争，最终让英格兰牺牲荷兰人，加强在美洲的地位。1655年，英格兰从西班牙手中吞并牙买加，1666年成功殖民巴哈马。

1607年，在约翰·史密斯的带领下，英格兰在詹姆斯敦成立首个美洲永久定居点，由弗吉尼亚公司管理。由于1609年弗吉尼亚公司旗舰的海难，百慕大被英格兰占领并宣称拥有主权，并于1615年移交给新成立的萨默斯群岛公司。弗吉尼亚公司的特许状于1624年被撤销，弗吉尼亚的直接控制权由王室接管，从而建立了弗吉尼亚殖民地。伦敦和布里斯托尔公司成立于 1610 年，目的是在纽芬兰建立永久定居点，但基本上没有成功。1620年, 普利茅斯殖民地作为清教徒宗教分离主义者（后来被称为朝圣先辈）的避风港而建立。逃离宗教迫害成为许多英格兰准殖民者冒着艰巨风险跨大西洋航行的动机：马里兰省建立时是罗马天主教徒的避风港(1634), 罗德岛殖民地及普罗维登斯庄园(1636)是宽容所有宗教的殖民地，而康涅狄格州(1639)是公理会的天堂。卡罗莱纳省成立于1663年。随着1664年阿姆斯特丹堡的投降，英格兰获得了对荷兰殖民地新尼德兰的控制权，并将其更名为纽约。这是在第二次英荷战争后的谈判中正式确定的，以换取苏利南。1681年，宾夕法尼亚省殖民地由威廉·佩恩建立。虽然美洲殖民地在经济上不如加勒比地区成功，但这些地区拥有大片优质农田，吸引了更多喜欢温带气候的英格兰移民。

1670年，查理二世通过皇家特许状成立了哈德逊湾公司 (HBC)，授予其垄断鲁珀特地毛皮贸易的权利，该地区后来成为加拿大自治领的很大一部分。哈德逊湾公司建立的堡垒和贸易站经常成为法国人攻击的目标，法国人在邻近的新法兰西建立了自己的毛皮贸易殖民地。

两年后，皇家非洲公司成立，从查理国王那里获得了向英属加勒比殖民地供应奴隶的贸易垄断权。从一开始，奴隶制度就是帝国在西印度群岛的基础。直到1807年奴隶贸易的废除，英国运送了三分之一的横渡大西洋的奴隶——350万非洲人。为了促进这种贸易，英国在西非海岸建立了堡垒，例如詹姆斯岛，阿克拉和邦斯岛。在英属加勒比，非裔人口的百分比从1650年的25%上升到了1780年的80%，而在十三殖民地，这一数字在同一时期从10%上升到了40%（主要在南方殖民地）。对奴隶贸易者来说，这种贸易极其有利可图，并且成为布里斯托尔、格拉斯哥和利物浦等西部英国城市的主要经济支柱，构成了与非洲和美洲三角贸易的第三角。在运输期间，恶劣和不卫生的条件以及糟糕的饮食，意味着中段的平均死亡率为七分之一。

对抗欧洲其他帝国

Fort St. George was founded at Madras in 1639.

16世纪末，英格兰和荷兰开始挑战葡萄牙对亚洲贸易的垄断地位，成立了私人股份有限公司来资助航海，即英国东印度公司和荷兰东印度公司，二者分别于1600年和1602年获得贸易专利特许。公司的首要目标是开展香料贸易，利润可观；贸易主要集中在两个地区：东印度群岛和印度，印度是重要的贸易中心，他们在此与葡萄牙以及彼此之间竞争贸易主导权。 虽然英国在殖民强权方面超过了荷兰，但在短期内，由于荷兰拥有更先进的金融体系，以及17世纪的三次英荷战争，其在亚洲的地位仍更为稳固。1688年光荣革命后，来自荷兰的奥兰治亲王威廉成为英国国王，两国关系了敌对结束。而后两国之间签订协议，将东印度群岛的香料贸易留给荷兰，将印度的纺织业留给英国。然而纺织品的利润很快超过了香料。

Peace between England and the Netherlands in 1688 meant that the two countries entered the Nine Years' War 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 military budget to the costly land war in Europe. The death of Charles II of Spain in 1700 and his bequeathal of Spain and its colonial empire to Philip V of Spain, a grandson of the King of France, 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 Holy Roman Empire against Spain and France in the War of the Spanish Succession, which lasted for thirteen years.

苏格兰的海外扩张计划

主条目：苏格兰美洲殖民地

In 1695, the Parliament of Scotland granted a charter to the Company of Scotland, which established a settlement in 1698 on the Isthmus of Panama. Besieged by neighbouring Spanish colonists of New Granada, and afflicted by malaria, the colony was abandoned two years later. The Darien scheme 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 had major political consequences, helping to persuade the government of Scotland of the merits of turning the personal union with England into a political and economic one.

1707–1783年：“第一”大英帝国

Robert Clive's victory at the Battle of Plassey established the East India Company as a military as well as a commercial power.

The 18th century saw the newly united Great Britain rise to be the world's dominant colonial power, with France becoming its main rival on the imperial stage. Great Britain, Portugal, the Netherlands, and the Holy Roman Empire continued the War of the Spanish Succession, which lasted until 1714 and was concluded by the Treaty of Utrecht. Philip V of Spain renounced his and his descendants' claim to the French throne, and Spain lost its empire in Europe. The British Empire was territorially enlarged: from France, Britain gained Newfoundland and Acadia, and from Spain Gibraltar and Menorca. Gibraltar became a critical naval base and allowed Britain to control the Atlantic entry and exit point to the Mediterranean. Spain ceded the rights to the lucrative asiento (permission to sell African slaves in Spanish America) to Britain. With the outbreak of the Anglo-Spanish War of Jenkins' Ear in 1739, Spanish privateers attacked British merchant shipping along the Triangle Trade routes. In 1746, the Spanish and British began peace talks, with the King of Spain agreeing to stop all attacks on British shipping; however, in the Treaty of Madrid Britain lost its slave-trading rights in South and Central America.

In the East Indies, British and Dutch merchants continued to compete in spices and textiles. With textiles becoming the larger trade, by 1720, in terms of sales, the British company had overtaken the Dutch. During the middle decades of the 18th century, there were several outbreaks of military conflict on the Indian subcontinent, as the English East India Company and its French counterpart, struggled alongside local rulers to fill the vacuum that had been left by the decline of the Mughal Empire. The Battle of Plassey in 1757, in which the British defeated the Nawab of Bengal and his French allies, left the British East India Company in control of Bengal and as the major military and political power in India. France was left control of its enclaves but with military restrictions and an obligation to support British client states, 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 Presidency Armies, the vast majority of which was composed of Indian sepoys, led by British officers. The British and French struggles in India became but one theatre of the global Seven Years' War (1756–1763) involving France, Britain, and the other major European powers.

The signing of the Treaty of Paris of 1763 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 Rupert's Land, and the ceding of New France to Britain (leaving a sizeable French-speaking population under British control) and Louisiana 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 maritime power.

丧失十三殖民地

主条目：美国独立战争

British territories in the Americas, 1763–1776, extending much further than the Thirteen Colonies on the Atlantic coast

During the 1760s and early 1770s, relations between the Thirteen Colonies 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 "No taxation without representation", a perceived violation of the guaranteed Rights of Englishmen. The American Revolution began with a rejection of Parliamentary authority and moves towards self-government. In response, Britain sent troops to reimpose direct rule, leading to the outbreak of war in 1775. The following year, in 1776, the United States declared independence. The entry of French and Spanish forces into the war tipped the military balance in the Americans' favour and after a decisive defeat at Yorktown in 1781, Britain began negotiating peace terms. American independence was acknowledged at the Peace of Paris in 1783.

The loss of such a large portion of British America, 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. Adam Smith's Wealth of Nations, published in 1776, had argued that colonies were redundant, and that free trade should replace the old mercantilist policies that had characterised the first period of colonial expansion, dating back to the protectionism of Spain and Portugal. The growth of trade between the newly independent United States 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 Loyalists had migrated from the new United States following independence. The 14,000 Loyalists who went to the Saint John and Saint Croix river valleys, then part of Nova Scotia, felt too far removed from the provincial government in Halifax, so London split off New Brunswick as a separate colony in 1784. The Constitutional Act of 1791 created the provinces of Upper Canada (mainly English speaking) and Lower Canada (mainly French-speaking) 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 Napoleonic Wars, as Britain tried to cut off American trade with France and boarded American ships to impress men into the Royal Navy. The US declared war, the War of 1812, and invaded Canadian territory. In response, Britain invaded the US, but the pre-war boundaries were reaffirmed by the 1814 Treaty of Ghent, ensuring Canada's future would be separate from that of the United States.

1783–1815年：“第二”大英帝国崛起

探索太平洋

James Cook's mission was to find the alleged southern continent Terra Australis.

Since 1718, transportation to the American colonies had been a penalty for various offences in Britain, with approximately one thousand convicts transported per year. Forced to find an alternative location after the loss of the Thirteen Colonies in 1783, the British government turned to Australia. The coast of Australia had been discovered for Europeans by the Dutch in 1606, but there was no attempt to colonise it. In 1770 James Cook charted the eastern coast while on a scientific voyage, claimed the continent for Britain, and named it New South Wales. In 1778, Joseph Banks, Cook's botanist on the voyage, presented evidence to the government on the suitability of Botany Bay for the establishment of a penal settlement, and in 1787 the first shipment of convicts set sail, arriving in 1788. Unusually, Australia was claimed through proclamation. Indigenous Australians were considered too uncivilised to require treaties, and colonisation brought disease and violence that together with the deliberate dispossession of land and culture were devastating to these peoples. Britain continued to transport convicts to New South Wales 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 Victoria, making its capital Melbourne for a time the richest city in the world.

During his voyage, Cook visited New Zealand, known to Europeans due to the 1642 voyage of Dutch explorer Abel Tasman, and claimed both the North and the South islands for the British crown in 1769 and 1770 respectively. Initially, interaction between the indigenous Māori 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 New Zealand Company announced plans to buy large tracts of land and establish colonies in New Zealand. On 6 February 1840, Captain William Hobson and around 40 Maori chiefs signed the Treaty of Waitangi. This treaty is considered 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.

拿破仑战争

主条目：拿破仑战争

1815年的滑铁卢战役标志着拿破仑的败局并开启了“不列颠治世”.

拿破仑治下的法国成为了大英帝国存续的又一个挑战。在战争之外，拿破仑战争更是英法两国在意识形态上的竞争。不仅仅是大英帝国在世界舞台上的领导地位岌岌可危，拿破仑那支横行欧陆的大军更令英国本土枕戈待旦。

因此英国在拿破仑战争中不惜战争成本为取一胜。英国皇家海军封锁了法国港口，并在1805年的特拉法尔加海战中大败法西联合舰队。同时，英国也对法属殖民地发起进攻。荷属殖民地在荷兰本土1810年被法国吞并后也被英国列入攻击目标。拿破仑帝国最终在欧洲各国联军的入侵中于1815年覆灭。英国再次在战后和约中受益：除了1797年与1798年即已被英国占领的伊奥尼亚群岛与马耳他之外，法国还把毛里求斯，圣卢西亚，塞舌尔以及多巴哥让予英国。同时，英国还从西班牙取得了特立尼达岛，并从荷兰获得了圭亚那与開普殖民地。在控制了锡兰与黑尔戈兰岛的同时，英国将瓜德罗普，馬提尼克，法屬圭亞那与留尼汪归还法国，并把爪哇和蘇利南归还荷兰。

奴隶制废除

主条目：英国废奴运动

With the advent of the Industrial Revolution, goods produced by slavery became less important to the British economy. Added to this was the cost of suppressing regular slave rebellions. With support from the British abolitionist movement, Parliament enacted the Slave Trade Act in 1807, which abolished the slave trade in the empire. In 1808, Sierra Leone Colony was designated an official British colony for freed slaves. Parliamentary reform in 1832 saw the influence of the West India Committee decline. The Slavery Abolition Act, 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 the territories administered by the East India Company and Ceylon, where slavery was ended in 1844). Under the Act, slaves were granted full emancipation 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.

1815–1914年：大英帝国世纪

参见：工业革命和维多利亚时代

Between 1815 and 1914, a period referred to as Britain's "imperial century" by some historians, around 10 × 10⁶ sq mi（26 × 10⁶ km²） 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 Russia in Central Asia. Unchallenged at sea, Britain adopted the role of global policeman, a state of affairs later known as the Pax Britannica, and a foreign policy of "splendid isolation". 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, Argentina and Siam, which has been described by some historians as an "Informal Empire".

An 1876 political cartoon of Benjamin Disraeli (1804–1881) making Queen Victoria Empress of India. The caption reads "New crowns for old ones!"

British imperial strength was underpinned by the steamship and the telegraph, 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 All Red Line.

东印度公司与英属印度

参见：东印度公司治下的印度和英属印度

The East India Company 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 Egypt (1799), the capture of Java from the Netherlands (1811), the acquisition of Penang Island (1786), Singapore (1819) and Malacca (1824), and the defeat of Burma (1826).

From its base in India, the Company had been engaged in an increasingly profitable opium export trade to China since the 1730s. This trade, illegal since it was outlawed by the Qing dynasty 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 Canton of 20,000 chests of opium led Britain to attack China in the First Opium War, and resulted in the seizure by Britain of Hong Kong Island, at that time a minor settlement, and other Treaty Ports including Shanghai.

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 Regulating Act of 1773, Pitt's India Act of 1784 and the Charter Act of 1813 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 Indian Rebellion in 1857, a conflict that had begun with the mutiny of sepoys, 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 Government of India Act 1858, establishing the British Raj, where an appointed governor-general administered India and Queen Victoria was crowned the Empress of India. 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 widespread famines 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.

挑战俄罗斯

主条目：大博弈

1854年巴拉克拉瓦战役期间，英军骑兵向俄军冲锋的情景

纵观整个十九世纪，大英帝国与俄罗斯帝国为了争夺随奥斯曼帝国、波斯帝国和大清帝国衰落而在亚洲逐渐扩大的地缘政治真空而在各个领域明争暗斗，这种主要集中在中亚地区的斗争被称为“大博弈”。 对于英国而言，俄国对波斯王国和奥斯曼帝国的军事胜利将其帝国野望昭示无疑。 鉴于俄国有可能通过中亚入侵印度，1839年，英国先发制人侵入阿富汗，但是第一次英阿战争以英国惨败告终。

1853年，俄国侵入土耳其控制下的巴尔干地区。出于对俄国凭借巴尔干霸权向地中海地区和中东投射影响力的恐惧，大英帝国和法兰西第二帝国组成联军攻入克里米亚，以摧毁俄国在黑海的海军设施。此为克里米亚战争，是次战争乃是不列颠治世时期英国同其它列强之间爆发的唯一一场战争，作战双方都将新兴技术和现代战术投入其中，最终俄军为联军所败。 此后二十年间，随着俄国转向远东扩张，中亚地区的大博弈一度平寂，在此期间，英国吞并了俾路支斯坦，俄国则将吉尔吉斯斯坦、哈萨克斯坦和土库曼斯坦收入囊中。英俄两国之间一度可能爆发战争，但是两国最终就势力范围问题达成妥协，并于1907年形成英俄协约。 日俄战争期间，日本联合舰队在旅顺口击败俄国海军也会缓解了俄国对英国的压力。

从开普到开罗

《罗兹巨像》——开普殖民地总理塞西尔·罗兹一只脚踏在开普敦，另一只脚踏在开罗，既象征着英国在非洲庞大的殖民帝国，也象征着罗兹个人在非洲殖民事务上的影响力。

1652年，荷兰东印度公司在非洲南端建立了开普殖民地，作为联络荷兰本土与东印度群岛之间航运的中转站。1795年，为了避免当时已控制荷兰七省的法国以好望角为跳板进入印度，英国夺取好望角，但在第二次反法同盟解散后归还。1806年，英国发动布劳乌堡战役，再一次夺取了这片殖民地，而荷兰也于1814年正式承认了这一殖民地变更。英国于1820年开始向开普移民，但在移民前来的英国人宣布废除奴隶制后，愤怒的布尔人于19世纪30年代和40年代之交向内陆迁徙。 而在这一过程中，布尔人“先民”（选择迁徙的布尔人对自己的称谓）与英国人之间的矛盾也日益加深——英国人对于殖民地扩张和土著事务的议程和布尔人的行动并不相容。最终，布尔人的迁徙催生了两个内陆布尔人国家的诞生：南非共和国，或称德兰士瓦共和国（1852年—1877年；1881年—1902年），和奥兰治自由邦（1854年—1902年）。1902年第二次布尔战争结束后，英国依据《弗里尼欣条约》将两个布尔人共和国悉数吞并。

1869年，苏伊士运河在拿破仑三世的支持和运作下竣工并通航，沟通地中海与印度洋。尽管英国一开始极力反对该计划，在运河通航后，英国的政策还是大幅转向，苏伊士运河成为了帝国的“大动脉”。1875年，保守党首相本杰明·迪斯雷利出价四百万英镑（相当于2021年的四亿英镑），向当时负债累累的埃及统治者伊斯梅尔帕夏购得了苏伊士运河44%的股份。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. Although Britain controlled Egypt into the 20th century, it was officially part of the Ottoman Empire and not part of the British Empire. The French were still majority shareholders and attempted to weaken the British position, but a compromise was reached with the 1888 Convention of Constantinople, which made the Canal officially neutral territory.

With competitive French, Belgian and Portuguese activity in the lower Congo River region undermining orderly colonisation of tropical Africa, the Berlin Conference of 1884–85 was held to regulate the competition between the European powers in what was called the "Scramble for Africa" 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 Sudan. A joint force of British and Egyptian troops defeated the Mahdist Army in 1896 and rebuffed an attempted French invasion at Fashoda in 1898. Sudan was nominally made an Anglo-Egyptian condominium, but a British colony in reality.

British gains in Southern and East Africa prompted Cecil Rhodes, pioneer of British expansion in Southern Africa, to urge a "Cape to Cairo" railway linking the strategically important Suez Canal to the mineral-rich south of the continent. During the 1880s and 1890s, Rhodes, with his privately owned British South Africa Company, occupied and annexed territories named after him, Rhodesia.

白人殖民地状态变更

The path to independence for the white colonies of the British Empire began with the 1839 Durham Report, which proposed unification and self-government for Upper and Lower Canada, as a solution to political unrest which had erupted in armed rebellions in 1837. This began with the passing of the Act of Union in 1840, which created the Province of Canada. Responsible government was first granted to Nova Scotia in 1848, and was soon extended to the other British North American colonies. With the passage of the British North America Act, 1867 by the British Parliament, the Province of Canada, New Brunswick and Nova Scotia were formed into Canada, a confederation enjoying full self-government with the exception of international relations. Australia and New Zealand achieved similar levels of self-government after 1900, with the Australian colonies federating in 1901. The term "dominion status" was officially introduced at the Colonial Conference of 1907.

The last decades of the 19th century saw concerted political campaigns for Irish home rule. Ireland had been united with Britain into the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland with the Act of Union 1800 after the Irish Rebellion of 1798, and had suffered a severe famine between 1845 and 1852. Home rule was supported by the British Prime minister, William Gladstone, who hoped that Ireland might follow in Canada's footsteps as a Dominion within the empire, but his 1886 Home Rule bill 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 second Home Rule bill was defeated for similar reasons. A third bill was passed by Parliament in 1914, but not implemented because of the outbreak of the First World War leading to the 1916 Easter Rising.

1914–1945年：世界大战

一张督促大英帝国的國民入伍海报

至20世纪初，英国开始担心其“光荣孤立”政策无益于保卫其核心乃至整个帝国。當时德国正在迅速崛起为军事和工业强国，并被英国视为未来战争中最有可能的敌手。而德国在亚太地区的动作频繁，也令英国认识到它在远东的殖民野心。有感于德意志帝国海军的威胁，英国于1902年与日本结盟，后来在1904年实现英法协约，并于1907年和俄罗斯结盟。

第一次世界大战

主条目：第一次世界大战中的英国

1914年，隨著第一次世界大戰的爆發，英國此前有关对德开战的担忧成為現實。英國迅速入侵並佔領了德國在非洲的大部分海外殖民地。而在太平洋，澳大利亞和新西蘭也分別佔領了德屬新幾內亞和德屬薩摩亞。在奥斯曼帝国加入同盟国一方作战后，英法于1916年达成《賽克斯-皮科協定》，商定日后瓜分奥斯曼帝国的中东部分，該協議内容并沒有透露給麥加謝里夫。由於英國一直鼓勵阿拉伯人反對鄂圖曼統治者，因此被其他國家認為支持建立一個獨立的阿拉伯國家。

在英国对同盟国的战争中，各殖民地和自治領都作出了贡献，提供了大量的軍事、財政和物質支持。战争期间，有超過 250 萬人在各自治領的軍隊中服役，還有來自殖民地的數千名志願者也参军作战。澳新军团在1915年加里波利战役期间英勇作战，为其民族意识产生了深远影响，这也是澳大利亚和新西兰有殖民地向主权国家过渡的分水岭。时至今日，澳大利亚和新西兰仍共同纪念澳新军团日。维米岭战役对于加拿大而言也有着相同的含义。各自治领为战争作出的贡献并没有被忽视，1917年，时任英国首相大卫·劳合·乔治邀请个各自治领总理加入帝国战争内阁，以便协调帝国战争政策。

1919年《凡尔赛和约》签订后，大英帝国达到极盛，其所管制的领土增加了1,800,000平方英里（4,700,000平方公里），人口增加了1300万。而德意志帝国和奥斯曼帝国的殖民地则作为国际联盟托管地移交协约国管辖。英国取得了对巴勒斯坦、外约旦、伊拉克、喀麦隆和多哥兰的一部分，以及坦噶尼喀的管制权。The各自治领也取得了一些托管地：南非联邦得到了西南非洲（今纳米比亚），澳大利亚取得了新几内亚，而新西兰取得了西萨摩亚。瑙鲁则被英国、澳大利亚和新西兰分别托管。

战间期

1921年，大英帝国的领土扩张达到极盛。

第一次世界大战所带来的，世界格局的变化，尤其是美利坚合众国和大日本帝国作为新一代海权国家的崛起，以及印度、爱尔兰当地民族主义运动的兴起，使得英国开始重新评估其帝国政策。被迫在美国和日本之间做出抉择的英国政府，最终选择放弃日本作为其盟友的策略，转而接受了与美国在海军方面的对等地位，并于1922年签订了《华盛顿海军条约》 。而在30年代，随着日本和德国在大萧条中逐渐转向军国主义，英国国内对于外交政策的方向也产生了大量讨论——令人担忧的是，帝国恐怕难以同时面对这两个国家的攻击。帝国的生存，对于英国是至关重要的问题，因为它影响着英国的经济。

1919年，由于爱尔兰自治运动被推迟，在1918年英国大选中取得大多数爱尔兰席位的新芬党在都柏林宣布成立议会，并声称将脱离英国。与此同时，爱尔兰共和军对英国政府发动了游击战，但是这场战争于1921年以僵局结束，双方签订了英爱条约，宣告爱尔兰自由邦的成立，爱尔兰将被赋予自治领地位，地位仍在联合王国之下，但是能够拥有自行处理外交、国防事务的权力。 由六个郡组成的北爱尔兰，则运用其在《1920年爱尔兰政府法》中取得的权力，选择继续留在英国内部。

1926年帝国会议期间，英王乔治五世与各自治领总理的合影。

《1919年印度政府法案》没能满足印度人对独立的追求。加达尔兵变阴谋之后，英国政府发现在印度维持镇压是有必要的，并因此实施了《1919年无政府主义与革命罪行法》。该法案一经实施便激化了印度社会的矛盾，尤其是在旁遮普地区，英属印度当局的镇压导致了阿姆利则惨案的发生。英国本土舆论对于惨案的评价两极分化，一些人认为政府是在保护当地社会免于堕入无政府主义者之手，另一些人则对大屠杀表示反感。1922年乔里-乔拉事件后，不合作运动也被当局叫停，而在此后的25年间，不满一直在当地人心中滋长。

1922年，自第一次世界大战爆发起一直处于英国保护之下的埃及被赋予独立地位，尽管如此，埃及还是作为英国的附庸国直至1954年，直到1936年双方订立英埃条约后，约定英国仍享有对苏伊士运河的驻兵权后，英国陆军的驻军才撤离埃及。作为回报，埃及将被接纳进入国际联盟。英国的托管地伊拉克直到1932年独立后才加入国联。在巴勒斯坦，英国需要调解当地阿拉伯人与不断涌入的犹太人之间日益加深的矛盾。1917年，时任英国外相阿瑟·贝尔福发表宣言，声称将为“犹太人在巴勒斯坦内建立一个民族之家”，而且犹太人将得以在巴勒斯坦托管国的规范下移民该地。该宣言导致中东地区在接下来的时间里持续动荡，而犹太复国主义分子公然无视宣言中“不得伤害其他本地民族利益”的条款，大肆排挤阿拉伯族群，也使得当地阿拉伯人不满日增，并最终于1936年发动暴乱。待到三十年代，随着来自德国的威胁与日俱增，英国政府为了争取阿拉伯世界的支持，逐渐转向亲阿拉伯立场，限制犹太人移民至巴勒斯坦，而这又导致了犹太人暴动。

1923年帝国会议授予了各自治领独立处理外交事务的权利。不过在此前查纳克危机爆发时，加拿大和南非联邦就拒绝了英国的增兵请求，而加拿大也拒绝为《洛桑条约》所约束。继爱尔兰自由邦和南非联邦向英国施压后，1926年召开的帝国会议通过了《1926年贝尔福宣言》宣布各自治领“都是大英帝国内部的自治社区，彼此平等，互不隶属，共同属于英联邦”。《1931年威斯敏斯特法令》颁布后，该宣言的精神正式在法律层面上成为现实。从法理上讲，自该法令后，加拿大、澳大利亚、新西兰、南非联邦、爱尔兰自由邦和纽芬兰自治领都将脱离英国控制，她们可以废除英国法律，而英国议会在未经许可的情况下无权为她们立法。此后，纽芬兰囿于大萧条所带来的经济崩溃，被重新降格为殖民地。而爱尔兰自由邦在于1937年通过其共和宪法后亦更名为爱尔兰。

第二次世界大战

主条目：第二次世界大战中的英国

第二次世界大战期间，英国陆军第八集团军包括来自英联邦多个国家的部队，该集团军曾在北非和意大利作战。

1939年9月3日，英国对德意志国宣战，其在宣战声明中亦代表了英属印度和各直辖殖民地，不过依据《1931年威斯敏斯特法规》，各自治领有权自行行使国防和外交权利。各自治领亦步亦趋，相继参与对德作战。然而，尽管英国仍将爱尔兰视为英联邦的一份子，爱尔兰还是选择在整场战争期间维持中立。

自1940年6月法国与德国停战后，英国独立支撑全局，直到1941年4月7日德国入侵希腊。战时内阁首相温斯顿·丘吉尔成功游说时任美国总统弗兰克林·德拉诺·罗斯福为英国提供援助——尽管当时罗斯福并没有准备请求国会宣布参战。1941年8月，丘吉尔与罗斯福会晤并签署了《大西洋宪章》，声称“尊重所有民族选择他们愿意生活于其下的政府形式之权利”，这句话当中指代对象的不明确也使得后来的英国、美国和各地区民族主义运动对其各执一词。

对于丘吉尔而言，美国参战的消息可以说是“极大的宽慰”。他认为英国终将胜利，但是没能认识到在取得最终胜利前“还有诸多灾难，需要付出极大的代价才能实现”而战争也将对大英帝国的未来产生永久的影响。英国在远东迅速而惨痛的军事失败，尤其是在被视为“东方直布罗陀”的新加坡沦陷后，其作为全球列强的国际地位与威信造成了难以逆转的影响。而澳大利亚和新西兰，在发现英国难以在日军步步紧逼之下保全其帝国后，逐渐转向同美国合作，并最终在1951年订立《太平洋安全保障条约》。战争还在其它方面削弱了帝国，在印度，帝国的统治为日本的迅速推进而动摇；在本土，战争对英国的经济造成了长期的负面影响。随着英国的世界霸主地位逐渐让位于美国和苏联，旧有的地缘政治格局自此被改变。

1945–1992年：去殖民化运动与陨落

Though Britain and the empire emerged victorious from the Second World War, 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 a $US 4.33 billion loan from the United States, the last installment 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 Cold War rivalry of the United States and the Soviet Union. In principle, both nations were opposed to European colonialism. In practice, American anti-communism prevailed over anti-imperialism, and therefore the United States supported the continued existence of the British Empire to keep Communist expansion in check. At first British politicians believed it would be possible to maintain Britain's role as a world power at the head of a re-imagined Commonwealth, but by 1960 they were forced to recognise that there was an irresistible "wind of change" blowing. Their priorities changed to maintaining an extensive zone of British influence and ensuring that stable, non-Communist governments were established in former colonies. In this context, while other European powers such as France and Portugal waged costly and unsuccessful wars to keep their empires intact, Britain generally adopted a policy of peaceful disengagement from its colonies. In reality, this was rarely peaceable or altruistic. Between 1945 and 1965, the number of people under British rule outside the UK itself fell from 700 million to 5 million, 3 million of whom were in Hong Kong.

首波脱离

About 14.5 million people lost their homes as a result of the partition of India in 1947.

The pro-decolonisation Labour government, elected at the 1945 general election and led by Clement Attlee, moved quickly to tackle the most pressing issue facing the empire: Indian independence. India's two major political parties—the Indian National Congress (led by Mahatma Gandhi) and the Muslim League (led by Muhammad Ali Jinnah)—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 Islamic state for Muslim-majority regions. Increasing civil unrest and the mutiny of the Royal Indian Navy 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, Lord Mountbatten, hastily brought forward the date to 15 August 1947. The borders drawn by the British to broadly partition India into Hindu and Muslim areas left tens of millions as minorities in the newly independent states of India and Pakistan. Millions of Muslims 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 British Raj, and Sri Lanka gained their independence the following year in 1948. India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka became members of the Commonwealth, while Burma chose not to join.

The British Mandate in Palestine, 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 Jewish refugees seeking to be admitted to Palestine following the Holocaust, 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 UN General Assembly subsequently voted for a plan to partition Palestine into a Jewish and an Arab state. It was immediately followed by the outbreak of a civil war 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 Israel declared independence and the 1948 Arab-Israeli War 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 British troops departing from Haifa on 30 June 1948.

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

第二次中东战争

主条目：第二次中东战争

Eden's decision to invade Egypt in 1956 revealed Britain's post-war weaknesses.

In 1951, the Conservative Party returned to power in Britain, under the leadership of Winston Churchill. 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 Suez Canal allowing Britain to maintain its pre-eminent position in the Middle East in spite of the loss of India. Churchill could not ignore Gamal Abdul Nasser's new revolutionary government of Egypt that had taken power in 1952, and the following year it was agreed that British troops would withdraw from the Suez Canal zone and that Sudan would be granted self-determination by 1955, with independence to follow. Sudan was granted independence on 1 January 1956.

In July 1956, Nasser unilaterally nationalised the Suez Canal. The response of Anthony Eden, who had succeeded Churchill as Prime Minister, was to collude with France to engineer an Israeli attack on Egypt that would give Britain and France an excuse to intervene militarily and retake the canal. Eden infuriated US President Dwight D. Eisenhower 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 Soviet Union after it threatened to intervene on the Egyptian side. Eisenhower applied financial leverage by threatening to sell US reserves of the British pound 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 Suez Crisis very publicly exposed Britain's limitations to the world and confirmed Britain's decline on the world stage and its end as a first-rate power, 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 national pride, leading one Member of Parliament (MP) to describe it as "Britain's Waterloo" and another to suggest that the country had become an "American satellite". Margaret Thatcher 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 Falkland Islands from Argentina 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 Oman (1957), Jordan (1958) and Kuwait (1961), though on these occasions with American approval, as the new Prime Minister Harold Macmillan'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 devaluation of the pound, Prime Minister Harold Wilson and his Defence Secretary Denis Healey announced that British troops would be withdrawn from major military bases East of Suez, which included the ones in the Middle East, and primarily from Malaysia 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 Maldives in 1965 but continued to station a garrison there until 1976, withdrew from Aden in 1967, and granted independence to Bahrain, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates in 1971.

风云变幻

主条目：非洲的非殖民化

更多信息：改革之风

British decolonisation in Africa. By the end of the 1960s, all but Rhodesia (the future Zimbabwe) and the South African mandate of South West Africa (Namibia) had achieved recognised independence.

Macmillan gave a speech in Cape Town, 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 colonial war that France was fighting in Algeria, and under his premiership decolonisation proceeded rapidly. To the three colonies that had been granted independence in the 1950s—Sudan, the Gold Coast and Malaya—were added nearly ten times that number during the 1960s.

Britain's remaining colonies in Africa, except for self-governing Southern Rhodesia, 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 Mau Mau uprising, in which tens of thousands of suspected rebels were interned by the colonial government in detention camps. In Rhodesia, the 1965 Unilateral Declaration of Independence by the white minority resulted in a civil war that lasted until the Lancaster House Agreement of 1979, which set the terms for recognised independence in 1980, as the new nation of Zimbabwe.

In Cyprus, a guerrilla war waged by the Greek Cypriot organisation EOKA against British rule, was ended in 1959 by the London and Zürich Agreements, which resulted in Cyprus being granted independence in 1960. The UK retained the military bases of Akrotiri and Dhekelia as sovereign base areas. The Mediterranean colony of Malta was amicably granted independence from the UK in 1964 and became the country of Malta, though the idea had been raised in 1955 of integration with Britain.

Most of the UK's Caribbean territories achieved independence after the departure in 1961 and 1962 of Jamaica and Trinidad from the West Indies Federation, 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 Trinidad and Tobago. Barbados achieved independence in 1966 and the remainder of the eastern Caribbean islands, including the Bahamas, in the 1970s and 1980s, but Anguilla and the Turks and Caicos Islands opted to revert to British rule after they had already started on the path to independence. The British Virgin Islands, The Cayman Islands and Montserrat opted to retain ties with Britain, while Guyana achieved independence in 1966. Britain's last colony on the American mainland, British Honduras, became a self-governing colony in 1964 and was renamed Belize in 1973, achieving full independence in 1981. A dispute with Guatemala over claims to Belize was left unresolved.

British territories in the Pacific acquired independence in the 1970s beginning with Fiji in 1970 and ending with Vanuatu 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 condominium with France. Fiji, Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands and Tuvalu became Commonwealth realms.

帝国终结

参见：马岛战争和香港主权移交

By 1981, 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 Argentina invaded the Falkland Islands, acting on a long-standing claim that dated back to the Spanish Empire. Britain's successful military response to retake the islands during the ensuing Falklands War contributed to reversing the downward trend in Britain's status as a world power.

The 1980s saw Canada, Australia, and New Zealand sever their final constitutional links with Britain. Although granted legislative independence by the Statute of Westminster 1931, vestigial constitutional links had remained in place. The British Parliament retained the power to amend key Canadian constitutional statutes, meaning that effectively an act of the British Parliament was required to make certain changes to the Canadian Constitution. The British Parliament had the power to pass laws extending to Canada at Canadian request. Although no longer able to pass any laws that would apply as Australian Commonwealth law, the British Parliament retained the power to legislate for the individual Australian states. With regard to New Zealand, the British Parliament retained the power to pass legislation applying to New Zealand with the New Zealand Parliament's consent. In 1982, the last legal link between Canada and Britain was severed by the Canada Act 1982, which was passed by the British parliament, formally patriating the Canadian Constitution. The act ended the need for British involvement in changes to the Canadian constitution. Similarly, the Australia Act 1986 (effective 3 March 1986) severed the constitutional link between Britain and the Australian states, while New Zealand's Constitution Act 1986 (effective 1 January 1987) reformed the constitution of New Zealand to sever its constitutional link with Britain.

On 1 January 1984, Brunei, Britain's last remaining Asian protectorate, was granted independence. Independence had been delayed due to the opposition of the Sultan, who had preferred British protection.

In September 1982 the Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher, 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 Treaty of Nanking and 1860 Convention of Peking, Hong Kong Island and Kowloon Peninsula had been respectively ceded to Britain in perpetuity, but the majority of the colony consisted of the New Territories, which had been acquired under a 99-year lease in 1898, due to expire in 1992. 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 Sino-British Joint Declaration, Hong Kong would become a special administrative region of the People's Republic of China, maintaining its way of life for at least 50 years. The handover ceremony in 1992 marked for many, including Charles, Prince of Wales, who was in attendance, "the end of Empire".

影响

The fourteen British Overseas Territories

Britain retains sovereignty over 14 territories outside the British Isles. In 1983, the British Nationality Act 1981 renamed the existing Crown Colonies as "British Dependent Territories", and in 2002 they were renamed the British Overseas Territories. Most former British colonies and protectorates are members of the Commonwealth of Nations, a voluntary association of equal members, comprising a population of around 2.2 billion people. Fifteen Commonwealth realms voluntarily continue to share the British monarch, Queen Elizabeth II, as their head of state. These fifteen nations are distinct and equal legal entities – the United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, Antigua and Barbuda, The Bahamas, Belize, Grenada, Jamaica, Papua New Guinea, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Solomon Islands and Tuvalu.

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 the English language in regions around the world. Today it is the primary language of up to 460 million people and is spoken by about 1.5 billion as a first, second or foreign language. Individual and team sports developed in Britain; particularly football, cricket, lawn tennis, and golf were exported. British missionaries who travelled around the globe often in advance of soldiers and civil servants spread Protestantism (including Anglicanism) to all continents. The British Empire provided refuge for religiously persecuted continental Europeans for hundreds of years.

Cricket being played in India. Sports developed in Britain or the former empire continue to be viewed and played.

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

In the 19th century, innovation in Britain led to revolutionary changes in manufacturing, the development of factory systems, and the growth of transportation by railway and steam ship. 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. The British choice of system of measurement, the imperial system, continues to be used in some countries in various ways. The convention of driving on the left hand side of the road has been retained in much of the former empire.

The Westminster system of parliamentary democracy has served as the template for the governments for many former colonies, and English common law for legal systems. International commercial contracts are often based on English common law. The British Judicial Committee of the Privy Council still serves as the highest court of appeal for twelve former colonies.

参见

• 大英帝国相关话题
• 大英帝国史学
• 大英帝国人口统计
• 大英帝国经济
• 大英帝国领土演变
• 大英帝国外交史
• 大英帝國各屬地旗幟列表

脚注

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