Worldwide system of dependencies
colonies, protectorates, and other territories
that over a span of three centuries came under the British government.
Territorial acquisition began in the early 17th century with a group of settlements in North America and West Indian, East Indian, and African trading posts founded by private individuals and trading companies. In the 18th century the British took Gibraltar , established colonies along the Atlantic seacoast, and began to add territory in India. With its victory in the French and Indian War (1763), it secured Canada and the eastern Mississippi Valley and gained supremacy in India. From the late 18th century it began to build power in Malaya and acquired the Cape of Good Hope, Ceylon (see Sri Lanka ), and Malta . The English settled Australia in 1788, and subsequently New Zealand. Aden was secured in 1839, and Hong Kong in 1842. Britain went on to control the Suez Canal 1875–1956. In the 19th-century European partition of Africa, Britain acquired Nigeria, Egypt, the territories that would become British East Africa , and part of what would become the Union (later Republic) of South Africa. After World War I, Britain secured mandates to German East Africa, part of the Cameroons, part of Togo, German South-West Africa, Mesopotamia , Palestine , and part of the German Pacific islands. Prior to 1783, Britain claimed full authority over colonial legislatures; after the U.S. gained independence, Britain gradually evolved a system of self-government for some colonies, as set forth in Lord Durham's report of 1839. Dominion status was given to Canada (1867), Australia (1901), New Zealand (1907), the Union of South Africa (1910), and the Irish Free State (1921). Britain declared war on Germany in 1914 on behalf of the entire empire; after World War I the dominions signed the peace treaties themselves and joined the League of Nations as independent states. In 1931 the Statute of Westminster recognized them as independent countries "within the British empire," referring to the "British Commonwealth of Nations." At the time of its founding, the Commonwealth consisted of the United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, the Irish Free State (withdrew in 1949; see Ireland ), Newfoundland (became a Canadian province in 1949), New Zealand, and the Union of South Africa (withdrew in 1961). After World War II, with "British" no longer officially used, the Commonwealth was joined by the following countries: India, Pakistan (1947; Pakistan withdrew in 1972, but rejoined in 1989); Ceylon (1948; now Sri Lanka); Ghana (1957); Nigeria (1960); Cypress, Sierra Leone (1961); Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago, Uganda, Western Samoa (1962); Kenya, Malaysia (1963); Malawi, Malta, Tanzania, Zambia (1964); Gambia, Singapore (1965); Barbados, Botswana, Guyana, Lesotho (1966); Mauritius, Nauru (special status), Swaziland (1968); Tonga (1970); Bangladesh (1972); Bahamas (1973); Grenada (1974); Papua New Guinea (1975); Seychelles (1976); Solomon Islands, Tuvalu (special status), Dominica (1978); St. Lucia, Kiribati, St. Vincent and the Grenadines (1979); Zimbabwe, Vanuatu (1980); Belize, Antigua and Barbuda (1981); Maldives (1982); St. Kitts-Nevis (1983); Brunei (1984); South Africa (rejoined 1994); Cameroon, Mozambique (1995). The last significant British colony, Hong Kong, was returned to Chinese sovereignty in 1997.