British Empire (jan 1, 1500 – jan 1, 1997)

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Founded in Elizabethan times, ended when Hong Kong returned to Chinese Administration in 1997.

1655- Takes Jamaica off Spain

1662 Charles marries a Portuguese princess and acquires Tangier in North Africa and Bombay on the west coast of India.

1670 On the Atlantic coast the Carolina colony, Puritans found Charles Town (Charleston) named for Charles II.

1690 At a village 60 miles upriver in the Ganges delta, The British East India Company founds a trading post – Calcutta.

1711 In Britain, the joint-stock South Sea Company is founded for the purpose of trading in the South Seas and parts of America.

1713 Spain and Britain sign a 30-year contract in which Britain is to have a monopoly in supplying Spain with slaves for the Americas.

1717 For 3,000 rupees, the Mughal emperor, Farukh-siyar, grants the British East India Company duty-free trading rights. The British are given the right to mint their own silver rupee coins for use within the Mughal empire.

1757 The British defeat the French at Plassey in India

1759 The British defeat the French at Quebec

1733 Georgia, the last of the Britain's thirteen colonies, is founded as a debtors' asylum.

1735 Calcutta has become an active commercial port. Its population has risen to 100,000.

1755 In Britain's Atlantic coast colonies, whites have increased in population from 275,000 in 1700 to 1.5 million. Slaves number roughly 470,000, nearly one for every three whites.

1760 British arms have succeeded against the French in North America. French resistance there ends.

1806- takes South Africa off Dutch

1807 Extending its power at sea, Britain outlaws slave trading across the Atlantic for its own ships and for ships from all countries united with Napoleon. Britain turns a presence on the coast of western Africa into a crown colony – Sierra Leone.

1807 With help from the French, Muhammad Ali Pasha drives the British out of Egypt (a part of the Ottoman Empire).

1816 The British return to the Dutch their empire in Indonesia.

1817 In Britain, real wages have been declining at least since the late 1790s, as Britain has been burdened by war against France. From this year on and into the next century real wages in Britain will be rising.

1840- Annex New Zealand

1874 Britain makes a colony of coastal territory 100 kilometers deep and 400 kilometers wide in what today is Ghana. During fighting there a British commander has his troops wear brown jackets and khaki trousers rather than the traditional red coats – a move toward camouflage.

1878 Cyprus transfers from Ottoman to British control.

1882- Egypt and Sudan

1884 Britain proclaims a protectorate over the southern coast of New Guinea and adjacent islands.

1885- Botswana
1886- Kenya
1888-89- Rhodesia (Zimbabwe)
1894- Uganda

1896 Britain declares Ashanti (today Ghana) a protectorate.

1898 Britain obtains a 99-year lease of Hong Kong from the Chinese.

1997- Hong Kong

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