page_title: Territorial evolution of the British Empire
section_title: Crown Colony
hierarchical_section_title: Territorial evolution of the British Empire / Governance / Colonies / Crown Colony
caption_attribution_description: English: The World in 1897. "The British Possessions are coloured Red" Deutsch: Weltkarte 1897. Britische Besitzungen sind rot eingezeichnet. Español: Mapa de las colonias británicas a finales del siglo XIX ქართული: მსოფლიო 1897 წელს. „წითლად ნაჩვენებია დიდი ბრიტანეთის სამფლობელოები“.
context_page_description: The territorial evolution of the British Empire is considered to have begun with the foundation of the English colonial empire in the late 16th century. Since then, many territories around the world have been under the control of the United Kingdom or its predecessor states.
  When the Kingdom of Great Britain was formed in 1707 by the union of the Kingdom of Scotland with the Kingdom of England, the latter country's colonial possessions passed to the new state. Similarly, when Great Britain was united with the Kingdom of Ireland in 1801 to form the United Kingdom, control over its colonial possessions passed to the latter state. Collectively, these territories are referred to as the British Empire. Upon much of Ireland gaining independence in 1922 as the Irish Free State, the other territories of the Empire remained under the control of the United Kingdom.
  From 1714 to 1837 the British throne was held by a series of kings who were also the rulers of the German state of Hanover. However, this was purely a personal union, with Hanover maintaining its political independence otherwise, and so it is not usually considered to have formed part of the British Empire.
context_section_description: A Crown colony was a type of colonial administration of the English and later the British Empire, whose legislature and administration were controlled by the Crown.
  
  Crown colonies were ruled by a governor appointed by the monarch.  By the middle of the 19th century, the sovereign appointed royal governors on the advice of the Secretary of State for the Colonies. This became the main method of creating and governing colonies. Most Crown colonies, especially the white settler colonies had a bicameral legislature, consisting of an upper house usually called the Legislative council, which members were appointed and served a similar purpose as the British House of Lords. There also existed lower houses which were usually named the Legislative Assembly or House of Assembly. The lower house was usually elected, but suffrage was restricted to free white men only, usually with property ownership restrictions. Since land ownership was widespread, most white men could vote. The governor also often had an Executive Council which had a similar function to the Cabinet in England but was not responsible to the colonial lower house. They held a consultative position, however, and did not serve in administrative offices as cabinet ministers do. Members of the Executive Council were not necessarily members of the lower house but were usually members of the upper house. Later as the white colonies gained more internal responsible government, the lower house began to supersede the (usually unelected) upper house as the colonial legislature, and the position of Premier emerged.
caption: The British Empire in 1897, marked in traditional pink.
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