The Thirteen American Colonies
By 1720, thirteen British colonies existed on what is now the eastern seaboard of the United States. In what is now Canada, Rupert’s Land around Hudson Bay had been claimed by the Hudson Bay Company in the 1660’s and Nova Scotia became English in 1691 as part of Massachusetts and then a separate colony in 1713. The United Kingdom of Great Britain acquired the French colony of Acadia in 1713 and then Canada and the Spanish colony of Florida in 1763.
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There was also an early unsuccessful attempt by the Kingdom of Scotland to establish a colony at Darién, and the short-lived Scottish colonisation of Nova Scotia (Latin: "New Scotland") from 1629 to 1632. Thousands of Scotsmen also participated in the English colonization even before the two countries were united in 1707.
From 1756-1763, Britain, whose forces were led by James Wolfe, defeated France in North America and took control of France’s possessions in the continent, mostly in what is now Canada. Britain now controlled the entire eastern half of North America from the Gulf of Mexico to the Arctic Islands. A Proclamation Line was declared west of the thirteen American colonies in 1763, preventing further western settlement in order to preserve lands for the natives. This upset many colonists.
Meanwhile, during this war, Spain intervened on the side of France, so Great Britain also declared war against Spain in 1762 and invaded Spanish possessions in the West Indies and in the Far East. The British sailed from Madras, India and occupied Manila in the Spanish colony of the Philippines in the Pacific. The British also captured Havana in the Spanish colony of Cuba in the West Indies. The British faced massive resistance to their occupation in the Philippines. Havana and Manila were returned to Spain as a result of the 1763 Treaty of Paris, but Spain was required to cede Florida and Minorca to Great Britain. Spain received French Louisiana as a payment for intervening in the war on the side of the French and as compensation for having lost Florida to the British.
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A dispute regarding taxes, involving the American colonists, roused them to resistance under the leadership of George Washington, which came to a head in the American Revolution of 1775-1781 and led to the Declaration of Independence on 4 July 1776 of the Thirteen American Colonies as the republic of the United States of America. One third of American colonists chose to stay loyal to Britain, and one of the first battles in 1776, the Battle of Long Island, was won by the British and half way through the war, it looked like the British would win. The northeastern part of New York colony declared itself independent as the Republic of New Connecticut (later Vermont Republic) in 1777. In 1778, the British Government’s Carlisle Commission offered a solution of self-government for the colonies under the Crown with representation in Parliament. However, this was rejected by the American Continental Congress, who then enlisted Britain’s rivals of France, Spain and Holland which turned the war around. British forces surrendered to American forces and their French, Spanish and Dutch allies in 1781 and Great Britain recognised the independence of the United States in 1783. George Washington became the republic’s first President. American colonists who remained loyal to Great Britain, called United Empire Loyalists, fled to the Bahamas and to Canada and settled mostly in southern Ontario and the Maritimes. Many Ontario cities and towns were founded by these loyalists. British East and West Florida, taken from France and Spain in 1763, were ceded to Spain in 1783 for the return of the Bahamas to British control. Florida was annexed by the U.S. President in 1819. The Vermont Republic joined the United States as the 14th state in 1791.
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The Canadian Colonies
The Canadian colonies, some of which were taken from France in 1763, remained loyal to Britain. The peace settlement at the end of the Revolutionary War partitioned the continent of North America through the Great Lakes into the new independent United States of America to the south and British North America (later the Dominion of Canada) to the north, which remained firmly in the British Empire. Constitutional development in Canada started with an act of 1791. After being renamed the Province of Quebec, the former French Canada was divided in two Provinces, the Canadas, consisting of the old settled country of mainly French-speaking Lower Canada (today Quebec) and the newly settled Upper Canada (today Ontario), mainly English-speaking.
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In the War of 1812, the U.S.A. tried unsuccessfully to annex Canada with many battles fought in what is now southern Ontario. This occurred while the British were also fighting Napoleon's French Empire in Europe. The British and Canadian troops under General Isaac Brock successfully defeated the invading Americans. American forces had occupied and burned down the Town of York (Toronto). In retaliation British troops burned Washington D.C. The war ended in 1814 with no political or boundary changes. Napoleon was also defeated in Europe by 1815. The British Empire come out of both the European and North American conflicts intact.
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In the north, the Hudson's Bay Company actively traded for fur with the indigenous peoples, and had competed with French fur traders. The company came to control the entire drainage basin of Hudson Bay called Rupert's Land. The small parts of the Hudson Bay drainage which are south of the 49th parallel went to the United States in in the Anglo-American Convention of 1818. However, in both the Canadas, there was sufficient discontent to lead to rebellion in 1837. A Declaration of Independence was even issued by mostly French-speaking rebels in Lower Canada (Quebec). After the suppression of these risings, Lord Durham was sent out to advise on the affairs of British North America; his report, published in 1839, became the basis for the future structure of the Empire. In accordance with his recommendations, the two Canadas were united in 1840 and given a representative legislative council of their own: the beginning of colonial self-government. In 1849, the addition of Vancouver Island stretched British North America to the west coast.
South America
South America is the one part of the world where British expansion was rather small. Only British Guiana, taken from the Dutch in 1804, and the Falkland Islands and its dependencies - the South Georgia and South Sandwich Islands - annexed in 1833, were successfully added to the British Empire in this part of the world. Venezuela claimed a large part of western British Guiana, west of the Essequibo River, which is about two-thirds of the country. It still claims this territory today based on old boundaries. Argentina claims the Falkland Islands and its dependencies, calling them the Malvinas. This dispute erupted into war in 1982 when Argentina invaded the islands, but were defeated by the British.
In 1803 the British assumed control of the three Dutch colonies of Essequibo, Demerara and Berbice, a control which was given international sanction under the terms of the Treaty of Pare and Convention of London in 1814. As with the Dutch, British jurisdiction was exercised as far west as the Barima, although there was still uncertainty about the precise course of the boundary.
Like the Dutch, the British appointed Amerindian captains in the Barima, Barama and Waini, among other places, and unlike the Dutch they also began establishing mission stations in the interior. Up until 1850, the nearest Venezuelan post to Essequibo was thirty to forty miles west of the Amakura.
In 1840 the British Government decided to take the matter of the border in hand, and employed Robert Schomburgk to make a provisional survey of the frontiers of the then British Guiana. The results of his surveys were intended as a statement of the British claim. The border between Venezuela and British Guiana was settled by a treaty signed in Paris in 1899. However, Venezuela continues to dispute the boundary and claims the Essequibo section of British Guiana (Guyana after 1966) to this day. Venezuela insists on restoring the boundaries of 1810 while they were still under Spanish rule which would give the Essequibo region to them.
Despite having only British Guiana and the Falkland Islands in that region, Britain, at one time, did have plans for a much larger empire in South America. After the loss of the North American colonies, the British decided to expand into the Spanish Colonies of South America. In 1795, a Scot by the name of Nicholas Vansittart wrote a white paper clearly outlining a way to take South America away from Spain. The British Government initially approved the Vansittart plan but later cancelled it, in 1797. Major General Sir Thomas Maitland revised the Vansittart plan in the early 1800's.
The British Government approved this plan and it subsequently changed its name to the Maitland plan. The Maitland plan was put into effect during the Napoleonic War in 1806. Great Britain used the fact that Spain was now technically an ally of France as the excuse to start the war.
Great Britain sent an expeditionary force of 1,600 men to invade Buenos Aires, in Argentina, under General William Carr. This attempt failed.
A year later, an invasion army of 11,000 men arrived in Buenos Aires under the orders of General John Whitelocke. At the same time, a second fleet with 4,000 men captured Montivedeo and used the city as a staging post and communications centre. The Spanish colonial authorities in Buenos Aires were made to swear allegiance to the British Crown. The people of Buenos Aires single-handedly defeated this huge invasion force in hand-to-hand and street-by-street fighting.
A British force commanded by Lieutenant-General David Baird and Admiral Sir Home Popham took the Dutch colony of the Cape of Good Hope in 1805. The following year, a smaller British force of 1,500 men under Colonel William Carr Beresford was sent across the South Atlantic to invade the Plata region, departing on 14 April 1806. The Spanish Viceroy, Marquis Rafael de Sobremonte, had asked the Spanish Crown for reinforcements many times, but no new men arrived. The residents of the city were pleased to see the British arrive at first, although some feared becoming a British colony and favoured independence.
However, one of the first measures of Beresford was to decree free commerce and reduction of port taxes. This measure displeased the merchants, who benefited from the Spanish monopoly, and so they gave their support to the resistance. French marine officer Santiago de Liniers y Bremond, in service to the Spanish Crown, organised the re-conquest of Buenos Aires from Montevideo, with help of the city governor Ruiz Huidobro. Also of importance was the participation of Juan Martín de Pueyrredón, chief of the urban militias. On 4 August, 1806, Liniers landed at Las Conchas, north of Buenos Aires, and advanced with a mixed force of Buenos Aires line troops and Montevideo Militia toward the city. After two days of fighting, Beresford surrendered on 12 August 1806.
Lieutenant-General John Whitelocke commanded the British forces in the second invasion. On 3 February 1807, Montevideo was captured in a joint military and naval operation using British reinforcements of 8,000 men under General Sir Samuel Auchmuty and a naval squadron under Admiral Sir Charles Stirling.
On 10 May, Lieutenant-General John Whitelocke arrived in Montevideo to take overall command of the British forces on the Río de la Plata. On 1 July, Liniers was defeated in the environs of the city. Finally, three days after defeating Liniers, Whitelocke resolved to attack Buenos Aires. Trusting the superiority of his soldiers, he divided his army into 12 columns and advanced without the protection of the artillery. His army was met on the streets by a determined militia, and fighting continued on the streets of Buenos Aires on 4 July and 5 July. Whitelocke underestimated the importance of urban combat, in which the inhabitants of the city overwhelmed the British troops. By the end of 5 July, the British controlled Retiro but the city's centre was still in the hands of the defenders, and the invaders were demoralized.
At this point, a Spanish counter-attack defeated many important British commanders, including Robert Crauford and Dennis Pack. Then Whitelocke proposed a 24-hour truce, which was rejected by Liniers, who ordered an artillery attack. After having more than half his forces killed and captured, Whitelocke signed a ceasefire with Liniers on 12 August. He left the Río de la Plata basin taking with him the British forces in Buenos Aires, Montevideo, and Colonia. Less than three years after the second invasion, the May Revolution took place in 1810, as a prelude to the Declaration of Independence of Argentina of 1816. Sir Thomas Maitland moved on to become Governor of Ceylon.
The planned extensive British Empire in South America was never established as most of the countries on the continent became independent in the early 19th Century. Argentina did, however, become part of Britain’s ‘informal empire’. Many British people decided to settle in Argentina and the country has a large British community of over 500,000 people, including a Welsh-speaking community in Patagonia at the continent's southern end, which was unclaimed until 1902. In that year, the Patagonian Welsh unsuccessfully petitioned the Colonial Office in London for Britain to annex Patagonia into the British Empire. Patagonia became part of Argentina, which had developed a very close friendship with Britain.
The United Kingdom was one of the first countries to recognise the independence of Argentina, in a treaty of 1825. English arrivals and investment played a large part in the development of the rail and tramways of Argentina, and of Argentine agriculture, livestock breeding, processing, refrigeration and export. At one point in the 19th century, ten per cent of the UK's foreign investment was in Argentina, despite not being a colony. In 1939, 39% of investment in Argentina was British.
The British built infrastructure and invested heavily in Argentina, which would last for over 150 years. This came to an end with the invasion of the British-controlled Falkland Islands by Argentina in 1982.
The British colony of the Falkland Islands also included South Georgia, the South Sandwich Islands and, after 1908, it also included British Antarctica. The British Antarctic Territory became a separate British Dependency in 1962 and South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands became a separate British territory in 1985 after the Falklands War with Argentina.
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Mediterranean
During the War of Spanish Succession, which began in 1701, Gibraltar, a peninsular on the southern tip of Spain, in the Mediterranean, was besieged (1704) by a squadron commanded by Sir George Rooke and a land force of 1800 English and Dutch under Prince George of Hesse-Darmstadt; after three days the city was captured (24 July). In 1713, by the Treaty of Utrecht, it became definitively a British possession, though many attempts were made by the Spaniards to regain it. To this day, Gibraltar remains a British possession. In 1998, it ceased to have the status of a Crown Colony and became a British Dependent Territory. Its residents are British Overseas Citizens. Spain does not recognise British control of Gibraltar and still claims it as part of its territory. Minorca, off the east coast of Spain, was captured by the British in 1708 and annexed in 1714. It was taken by the French in 1756, but was retaken by the British, along with Canada, after the Seven Years War in 1763, and was returned to Spain with the signing of the Treaty of Versailles which ended the American War of Independence in 1783. Minorca was invaded by the British once again in 1798, during the French Revolutionary Wars, but it was finally and permanently repossessed by Spain by the terms of the Treaty of Amiens in 1802.
During the Napoleonic Wars of the early 1800’s, the British recognised that Malta was essential for the British fleet in the Mediterranean. It was captured by the British from the French in 1800 and finally recognised as a British colony in the Treaty of Paris in 1814. Malta became a self-governing Dominion in 1921, but then reverted back to the status of a Crown Colony in 1933 for financial reasons. During the Second World War, in 1941 and 1942, Malta was besieged and fiercely bombarded by both German and Italian aircraft. King George VI awarded the island the George Cross medal on 15 April 1942 for gallantry in withstanding the enemy air bombardment. Internal self-government was established in Malta in September 1947.
Also as a result of the Napoleonic wars, Britain gained control of the island of Heligoland, off the northwest coast of Germany, in 1814. This was given to Germany in 1890 in exchange for British control of Zanzibar, off the east coast of Africa, next to then German East Africa (later British Tanganyika). Another prize of the Napoleonic Wars was the Ionian Islands in the Mediterranean off the coast of Greece. The British drove the French out of the islands and annexed them as the Protectorate of the United States of the Ionian Islands in 1815. They were transferred to Greek control in 1864 out of respect for the wishes of the majority of its people.
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The title of the English (later British) Monarchs was changed to drop the claim to France and recognise the union of the British Isles and the expansion of the British Empire.
Queen Elizabeth I 1558 title:
Elizabeth, by the Grace of God, Queen of England, France, and Ireland, Defender of the Faith
King James I 1603 title:
James, by the Grace of God, King of Great Britain, France, and Ireland, Defender of the Faith
King George III 1760 title:
George the Third, by the Grace of God, King of Great Britain, France, and Ireland, Defender of the Faith, and so forth
Changed in 1801 to:
George the Third, by the Grace of God, of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland King, Defender of the Faith
Queen Victoria 1837 title:
Victoria, by the Grace of God, of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland Queen, Defender of the Faith
Changed in 1876 to:
Victoria, by the Grace of God, of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, Queen, Defender of the Faith, Empress of India
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