Empire · approximate1763 – 1867 · 104 years
British North America (1783)
The largest empire in history — at one point the British crown ruled a quarter of the world's land and people.
What it was
Built piecemeal from the 17th century onward through trading companies, naval power, settler colonization, and outright conquest, the British Empire reached its greatest extent in 1922 covering 35 million km² and 458 million people. Decolonization between 1947 and 1980 dismantled most of it; Hong Kong's 1997 return to China is sometimes cited as the closing date.
Why it mattered
English as a world language, common-law legal systems across five continents, the borders of dozens of modern states, and the shape of global trade are all direct legacies — for better and for very much worse.
From Wikipedia
British North America comprised the colonial territories of the British Empire in North America from 1783 onwards. English colonisation of North America began in the 16th century in Newfoundland, then further south at Roanoke and Jamestown, Virginia, and more substantially with the founding of the Thirteen Colonies along the Atlantic coast of North America.
Wikipedia: British North America·CC BY-SA 4.0
Borders & accuracy
Dashed borders mark empires whose extent we can date but whose precise frontiers are contested or undocumented.
- SOURCEreconstructed from Natural Earth country boundaries
- DETAILreconstructed-clipped-country
- SNAPSHOT1867
- POLITY TYPEstate
Wars of this empire8
Conflicts whose belligerents name this polity, best-documented first.
- Rebellions of 1837–18381837–38Significant
- Regional
- Regional
- Regional
- Regional
- Regional
- Regional
- Minor
Open in the atlas →Seeks the timeline to 1763 and fits the map to these borders.
Cite as: British North America (1783) (1763 – 1867). War Atlas. https://waratlas.org/e/americas-british-north-america-canada · Sources & methodology