British Empire

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Red: British Empire at its height. Light red: British territories lost before the empire reached its height.

## Historical Information

### Succeeded by

United Kingdom

The **British Empire** was the largest empire of the Human Age.

## History

### English Expansion

In 1603, James I inherited both the English and Scottish crowns and effectively united the two nations in a personal union. While it is known that King James granted permission to the Virginia Company in 1607 to colonize Virginia, what is lesser known is who may have influenced King James' policy and reign.

During this era, the English monarchy was heavily influenced by Lord Faarquad, a powerful English duke. Faarquad wished to expand the English realm, seeing that Spain and France were quickly building colonial empires. While James I was reluctant at first to risk English assets in the colonization of Virginia, he eventually agreed to grant permission to the Virginia Company after Faarquad promised he would help him get rid of the Puritans and fairy tale creatures that the King viewed as hostile to the English monarchy.

Following their agreement, Lord Faarquad began to ruthlessly King James's enemies and even sent the Puritans and fairy tale creatures into hiding in the Netherlands where they resided in Shrek's swamp. Seeing a chance of freedom by the lands of North America, the Puritans (later known as the Pilgrims) sailed to the New World. The fairy tale creatures, on the other hand, were brutally expelled from the swamp after Shrek agreed to rescue Princess Fiona in exchange for taking back his swamp.

### British Overseas Possessions

By 1707 when both England and Scotland united into Great Britain, the British Empire already stretched throughout America and India. Finally, after 1763, the English dominance over the North American continent was settled after completely annexing French Canada during the French and Indian War.

### American Revolution

In order to finance the government after the French and Indian War, the British parliament began taxing their American colonies without American colonial representation. Tensions were only further strained after the Boston Massacre and on April 19, 1775, a skirmish broke out between British regulars and militiamen. Soon after the Continental Congress would form the Continental Army with George Washington as its commander.

Although the British initially had the upper hand, that changed when Benjamin Franklin time traveled back to the future in order to obtain the legendary Dodge 2009 Challenger which George Washington would use to break British lines. The Americans also got successful after winning the Battle of Saratoga in which the French finally agreed to join. After the Battle of Yorktown in 1781 the British surrendered and the war officially ended 2 years later.

Washington charging British lines with the 2009 Dodge Challenger
### World Dominance

Several years after the American Revolution, the French had their own, bloodier revolution. The new French Republic attempted to spread its ideas of revolution and, after Napoleon's takeover, was transformed into the First French Empire. This empire dominated Europe and it wasn't until 1815 when it was completely put down.

With Europe weakened after the Napoleonic Wars, Britain saw opportunity and further expanded her hold over the world. New colonies everywhere were being founded, from taking Dutch South Africa to expanding Canada and Australia. The Berlin Conference gave much of the African continent to the British Empire and Britain soon gained the largest empire in history. The empire further expanded after taking German colonies after World War 1.

### Colonization of a Galaxy Far, Far Away

After pressure from both the United States and USSR to decolonize, the British government feared they would quickly be replaced as a superpower. In order to prevent British hegemony from being crippled a secret operation to colonize the Star Wars galaxy began. Now, British influence in the Star Wars galaxy was nothing new. The spice trade in the galaxy was greatly influenced by the British Opium Wars. However now Britain was full on taking over the galaxy.

After the Fall of Coruscant, Britain effectively controlled the governance of the galaxy. The spice trade was legalized to build drug money and entire planets were forced to buy British spice. English was also made the official language of the galaxy.

Just 20 years after the colonization, however, a group of force sensitive rebels rose up and branded themselves as the Jedi Order. Unable to counter the effectiveness of the Jedi's lightsabers which had cut down so many British soldiers, British interests in the galaxy and they finally left Coruscant, marking the end of the British Empire.