The British had the largest empire that the world has ever seen during the colonial period. One big reason behind this was that they were successful in defeating one of their main enemies, the French, though it was a war of pretty much 100 years, as well as being able to win the Indian War, thus obtaining lot of territory which was also of great economic benefit. Apart from these, the British managed to win lot of other wars, including the one with Spain, thus defeating another of its big competitors for obtaining colonies.
