[交流] “The Sun Never Set” Empire

                       “The Sun Never Set” Empire
      The Great Britain had its colonies all over the earth in the early 20th century, when the sun was shining over any side of the earth, we could see the British Union Jack, but the sun never set for the British Empire. The United Kingdom was also known as the “The Sun Never Set” empire at that time.
      The British colonial movement began in the 16th century, but only the small-scale areas were plundered because of the weakness of army. The British defeated the Spanish “Armada” after he set up his supreme power at sea in 1588, the true path of colonial expansion started. The British colonists had set up 13 colonies in North America in 1733. Then they defeated France, the Netherlands etc, but the colonial forces expanded further, North America, Africa, Asia, the West Indies and other places became British colonies one by one. Then the huge colonial empire formed. Although 13 colonies were independent in North America in 1776, the expansion of Australia hadn’t made the power of the United Kingdom weak but made it the world’s economic power in the late 18th century. The British Empire went on expanding in the late 19th century, Africa and Asia became the key places of colonial expansion. The colonies of the British Empire were in five continents in the early 20th century, including Asia, Africa, Europe, America and Australia, then The Union Jack were flying in every corner of the world, and “The Sun Never Set” empire came into being from that time.
      The Victorian period ended in 1901, while the economy of the United Kingdom began to decline. The proud power at sea was disappearing day by day after World War I. The British suffered great losses and the economy decline greatly after World War II. As the anti-colonial movement broke out after World War II, the British colonies won their independence one after another, and the British colonial territory became small gradually. As the British colonies, including Europe, South America and so on, won their independence sixty or seventy years ago, “The Sun Never Set” empire disappeared in history since then.
      These former British colonies gained independence but most of them still remained in the Commonwealth and kept a loose relationship with the United Kingdom.