British Empire

The historical empire comprising the United Kingdom and its overseas colonies, protectorates, and dominions, which at its peak in the late 19th century ruled over roughly a quarter of the Earth’s land and population. It served as a model of global governance and supervision that later actors and institutions (such as the US, the mandate system, and neoliberal international orders) were compared to or drew from.

Claims that use this term

• Gandhi returned from South Africa honored by the British Empire as Mahatma.
• Middle Eastern leaders misread the US as a reincarnated British Empire.
• Neoliberal international order modeled supervision on the British Empire and mandates system
• Gandhi’s Khilafat support aimed to morally transform the British Empire internationally
• By the 1890s the British Empire ruled over a quarter of Earth’s land