page_title: Territorial evolution of the British Empire
section_title: Current territories
hierarchical_section_title: Territorial evolution of the British Empire / Current territories
caption_attribution_description: Gibraltar National Day_001
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: Within twenty years of the partition and independence in 1947 of British India (considered to be the most important colonial possession), most of the Empire's territories had achieved full independence.  Today 14 former colonies (since 2002 known as British Overseas Territories) remain under British rule; the term "colonies" is no longer officially used to describe these.
  Almost all of the British Overseas Territories are islands (or groups of islands) with a small population; some are in very remote areas of the world.  Of the territories with a permanent population, all have at least some degree of internal self-government, with the United Kingdom retaining responsibility for defence and external relations.
  The fourteen British Overseas Territories are:
   Anguilla
   Bermuda
   British Antarctic Territory
   British Indian Ocean Territory
   British Virgin Islands
   Cayman Islands
   Falkland Islands
   Gibraltar
   Montserrat
   Pitcairn Islands
   Saint Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha
   Saint Helena
   Ascension Island
   Tristan da Cunha
   South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands
   Sovereign Base Areas of Akrotiri and Dhekelia
   Turks and Caicos Islands
  The three Crown dependencies are:
   Guernsey
   Isle of Man
   Jersey
caption: Gibraltar National Day celebrations in 2013
exif: {"Image ImageWidth": "4256", "Image ImageLength": "2832", "Image BitsPerSample": "[8, 8, 8]", "Image PhotometricInterpretation": "2", "Image Make": "NIKON CORPORATION", "Image Model": "NIKON D3", "Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image SamplesPerPixel": "3", "Image XResolution": "200", "Image YResolution": "200", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "Adobe Photoshop CS6 (Macintosh)", "Image DateTime": "2013:09:10 18:47:15", "Image Artist": "MARCOS MORENO", "Image Copyright": "MARCOS MORENO", "Image ExifOffset": "336", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "1078", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "8846", "EXIF ExposureTime": "1/125", "EXIF FNumber": "28/5", "EXIF ExposureProgram": "Program Normal", "EXIF ISOSpeedRatings": "200", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0221", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2013:09:10 10:30:07", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2013:09:10 10:30:07", "EXIF ShutterSpeedValue": "870723/125000", "EXIF ApertureValue": "2485427/500000", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "-1/3", "EXIF MaxApertureValue": "3", "EXIF MeteringMode": "Spot", "EXIF LightSource": "Unknown", "EXIF Flash": "Flash did not fire", "EXIF FocalLength": "70", "EXIF SubSecTime": "58", "EXIF SubSecTimeOriginal": "58", "EXIF SubSecTimeDigitized": "58", "EXIF ColorSpace": "Uncalibrated", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "1969", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "1310", "EXIF SensingMethod": "One-chip color area", "EXIF FileSource": "Digital Camera", "EXIF SceneType": "Directly Photographed", "EXIF CVAPattern": "[2, 0, 2, 0, 0, 1, 1, 2]", "EXIF CustomRendered": "Normal", "EXIF ExposureMode": "Auto Exposure", "EXIF WhiteBalance": "Auto", "EXIF DigitalZoomRatio": "1", "EXIF FocalLengthIn35mmFilm": "70", "EXIF SceneCaptureType": "Standard", "EXIF GainControl": "None", "EXIF Contrast": "Normal", "EXIF Saturation": "Normal", "EXIF Sharpness": "Hard", "EXIF SubjectDistanceRange": "0", "EXIF BodySerialNumber": "2035004", "EXIF LensSpecification": "[70, 200, 14/5, 14/5]", "EXIF LensModel": "70.0-200.0 mm f/2.8"}