Territorial Evolution of The British Empire - Types of Control

Types of Control

The natures of the administration of the Empire changed both by time and place, but its various territories as they existed in the 1920s (the time of its greatest territorial extent) can be fairly easily grouped into the following categories:

• The United Kingdom itself, made up of England and Wales, Scotland and Ireland (Northern Ireland only from 1922 onwards after Ireland gained independence).
• The "crown dependencies" of the Isle of Man, Jersey and Guernsey (the last two are collectively referred to as the "Channel Islands"). These islands, while often considered to be part of the British Isles, have never formed part of the United Kingdom itself, or its predecessor states. At the same time, they have never been considered to be colonies; while the British Government is generally responsible for their defence and foreign relations, each of the territories has its own laws and political institutions. Strictly speaking their relationship is with the British Sovereign alone, rather than the British Government.
• Colonies were territories that were intended to be places of permanent settlement, providing land for their settlers. The Crown claimed absolute sovereignty over them, although they were not formally part of the United Kingdom itself. Generally their law was the common law of England together with whatever British Acts of Parliament were also applied to them. Royal authority would usually be represented in the person of a Governor, appointed by the British Government. Over time, a number of colonies were granted "responsible government", making them largely self-governing. Colonies were typically of one of the following types:
  • A number of colonies in the 16th and 17th centuries were granted to a particular individual; these are known as proprietary colonies.
  • In a similar fashion, a number of colonies were controlled by companies. The most notable examples of this were the possessions of the East India Company (especially India), and of various companies in Africa in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.
  • Colonies controlled by the Crown directly were known as "Crown colonies"; this became the main method of creating and governing a colony.
• Protected states were foreign territories that were nominally governed by a local ruler who had entered into a treaty relationship with the British Government that excluded them from dealing directly with other foreign powers, and which gave the British a right of involvement in their territory's internal affairs. British interest in these territories was mainly strategic. An example was the Trucial States, now the United Arab Emirates.
• Protectorates were similar to protected states in that they were considered to be foreign territories over which the British Government had political authority (but not sovereignty), but which lacked a local infrastructure that the British were prepared to deal with as equals; therefore, a more direct involvement in the territory's internal affairs was taken. Protectorates were often established as a means of controlling British subjects in a territory (rather than the native population), or to exclude the influence of a rival European power. Examples include Bechuanaland, now Botswana.
• Dominions appeared in the late nineteenth century. These were former colonies (or federations of colonies) that had achieved independence and were nominally co-equals with the United Kingdom, rather than subordinate to it. Formal acknowledgement of this status was finally given legal force by the Statute of Westminster of 1931. An example was the Irish Free State, formed as a Dominion in 1922 from the territory of Ireland and which retained the Crown as head of state until the Irish Republic was formed in 1949. Similar examples included the dominions of Canada (1867); India (1947); Pakistan 1947; Ceylon and Kenya.
• Mandates were forms of territory created after the end of the First World War. A number of German colonies and protectorates were held as mandates by the United Kingdom, and its dominions of Australia, New Zealand, and the Union of South Africa. In theory these territories were governed on behalf of the League of Nations for the benefit of their inhabitants. Most became converted to United Nations Trust Territories in 1946.