In detail, the components of the empire, the dates and methods of acquirement and the title by which they are held, are as follows: Europe.—(1) The United Kingdom. Eng land in its modern sense, though much re stricted toward the north, first owned a com mon overlord in 827; broken up by the Danes, it became a wholly Danish kingdom in 1013, again an English one in 1042, part of an Anglo French system in 1066, and was practically re stored to itself in 1214, with its northern limits as now. Wales was finally subjugated by Edward I, after a long war with Llewellyn ap Jorwerth, in 1284. Scotland, a kingdom own ing overlordship to England, received a king by English arbitration in 1291, revolted and was conquered, revolted again and won its inde pendence in 1314; with the accession of its King, James I, to the English throne in 1603 the two crowns were united, and in 1707 the Scottish Parliament was abolished and Scotland incorporated with England. The Isle of Man, a Scandinavian lordship, was ceded to Scotland in 1266 and to England in 1290. The Orkneys and Shetlands were pledged by Denmark to James III of Scotland in 1468 as security for his wife's dowry, and never redeemed. Ireland was invaded by Strongbow in 1169, and nomi nally annexed to England by right of conquest in 1172; but only a small cantle of it, °the Pale,' was effectively occupied till the time of Elizabeth, and the island as a whole was first effectively subjugated by Cromwell. It was governed by its own Parliament till 1800, when the Act of Union incorporated it with Great Britain. (2) The Channel Islands (Guernsey, Jersey, etc.), in the bay of Avranches off the French coast, are the sole remnants of the French possessions of the Angevin house. (3) The fortress rock of Gibraltar and the small plain at its foot on which the town is built were taken from Spain in 1704, during the war of the Spanish succession. (4) Malta, with Gozo, etc., islands south of Sicily, were taken from France in 1800, during the Napoleonic wars. Malta is the chief British naval station in the central Mediterranean.
Asia.—(1) India, with Burma. For the component parts of this mighty possession, three-fifths the size of the United States without Alaska, and for its government, see its name. Its nuclei were the three factories of the East India Company: Fort Saint George, row Madras, built 1639; Bombay, received from Portugal in 1662 as part of the dowry of Catharine of Braganza, Queen of Charles II; and Fort William, now Calcutta, founded by Job Charnock in 1686. The attempt of the French to build a colonial dominion on the ruins of the Mogul empire, in the 18th century, forced the company's local officers to act in self-defense, with the result that northeastern India fell into their hands, the decisive event being the battle of Plassey (1757). Wars, cessions, annexations, protectorates, residencies, etc., have gradually brought all the rest of the peninsula under English control. The company ceded its rights to the English government in 1858. (2) Ceylon, the tip of the Indian pen insula, is independently governed. It was taken by England from the Dutch in 1796, during the French wars, but not ceded to her till the Peace of Amiens in 1802. (3) Cyprus, an island south of Asia .Minor: was ceded by Turkey in 1878, as a result of the Russo-Turkish War, in return for a treaty by which Great Britain agreed to defend Turkey against further territorial de mands from Russia. (4) Aden, on the south coast of Arabia: was taken by the British in 1839 as a coaling station, in compensation for the maltreatment of shipwrecked British sail ors by the natives. The island of Socotra to the east, off the mainland of Africa, was an nexed in 1888; and the two —with Perim Island at the mouth of the Gulf of Aden and the Kuria-Murias on the east coast of Arabia— form one administration, a dependency of the Bombaypresidency. (5) The Straits Settle
ments: This group, comprising the end of the Malacca Peninsula, was transferred in 1867 from the control of the Indian government to that of the Colonial Secretary. It consists of (a) Penang, formerly called Pulo Penang and later Prince of Wales Island, originally re ceived by a British adventurer as dowry with a native chief's daughter, then turned over to the East India Company in 1786; (b) Malacca, occupied by the British in 1795, but not formally ceded to them by the Sultan of Johore till 1824, along with (c) the island of Singapore, the capital of the whole. Some of the native Mal accan states are also under British protection. (6) Hongkong, China, was occupied by the British in 1841 as a result of the opium war, and ceded to them in 1843. (7) Labuan, an island off Borneo, of which Great Britain obtained the cession in 1846, with great hopes of its coal mines and harbor not borne out by experience; it has also been a convict settlement. (8) Brit ish North Borneo, ceded to a commercial com pany by native sultans in 1877, but taken under British protectorate in 1888. (9) Brunei and Sarawak, southwest of the above, are governed by native rulers, but under British protection. (10) The Siamese states of Kedah, Perles, Kel atan and Trengganu, covering an area of 15,000 square miles, were added to the British sphere of influence in 1909.
Sierra Leone, on the west coast, was begun as a settlement of freed negro slaves in 1787; transferred to the Crown in 1807. (2) The Gold Coast: settlement of 1672 by the Royal African Company, made a de pendency of Sierra Leone on the dissolution of that company in 1822, formally ceded by the Dutch in exchange for trade privileges in 1872, and made a Crown colony in 1874. (3) Gambia: settlement united with Sierra Leone in 1822, like the Gold Coast; made a separate colony 1843, reunited to Sierra Leone 1868, then in cluded in the British West African Settlements colony till 1888, when it was again made a separate colony. (4) Lagos, West Africa: the town was an old slave mart destroyed by the British in 1851; the colony was ceded to them by the native rulers in 1861. (5) Nigeria: the Niger coast protectorate was constituted in 1884, old trading rights having been previously exercised for generations; theresent protec torate of Nigeria was set up 1 Jan. 1901. (6) The Union of South Africa, comprising (a) Cape Colony: taken possession of as a derelict in 1795, the settlement having thrown off Dutch rule; administered for seven years, then re turned to the Dutch; again captured in 1806, Holland having become part of Napoleon's em pire; retained till the general peace of 1815, then bought from Holland for $30,000,000. (b) Natal and Zululand: taken from the Dutch set tlers and annexed 1843. (c) Basutoland: an nexed to Cape Colony 1871, as the result of an appeal by the Basutos from the claims of the Orange Free State; separated as a special pro tectorate 1884. (d, e) The Transvaal and the Orange River Colony: conquered 1900. (7) Zanzibar and Pemba. Pemba was ceded to the British East African Company in 1888 by the Sultan of Zanzibar. The latter island was given over to a German protectorate in 1886 by an Anglo-German convention; in 1890 trans ferred to England in exchange for the Island of Heligoland off the German coast, possessed by England and a thorn in the German flesh.