An empire is a large group of states or nations under the control of a single ruler, also known as an emperor or empress. This word is no longer used to describe modern nations, as each of the modern 195 countries has its democratic, dictator, or communist leader. The largest empire to ever exist was the British Empire, now known as Great Britain or the United Kingdom. In the year 1913, this massive empire covered a vast 13,700,000 square miles. This was 24% of the entire land area of Earth. To put this into perspective, the United States of America is 3.8 million square miles, meaning it could fit into the British Empire 3.6 times! They also had control of over 412 million people, 23% of the entire world population in 1913. During these times, it was known as "the empire on which the sun never set", referring to the fact that it was always daytime in one of its many territories.
During its height in 1913, the British Empire controlled the following modern nations:
The United States
Canada
Afghanistan
Australia
Egypt
India
Iraq
Jamacia
Jordan
Kenya
Malaysia
New Zealand
Nigeria
Pakistan
Qatar
South Africa
Uganda
United Arab Emirates
Yemen
Vanuatu
Zambia
Antigua and Barbuda
Bahrain
The Bahamas
Maldives
Malawi
Tuvalu
Barbados
Trinidad & Tobago
Belize
Botswana
Tonga
Brunei
Cyprus
Malta
Dominica
Tanzania
Fiji
The Gambia
Grenada
Ghana
Kiribati
Mauritius
Kuwait
Lesotho
Myanmar
Nauru
Swaziland
St. Lucia
St. Kitts
St. Vincent
Sierra leone
Soliman islands
Sri Lanka
Sudan
Israel
To put it into perspective, the United Kingdom invaded every nation in the world except for 22.
The mainland of the British Empire is now known as Great Britain. Located in Europe, Great Britain is the large island to the north of France, north-west of the Netherlands, and east of Ireland.
To this day, Great Britain controls 14 territories that are not located in the British Isles. Three of these territories are solely for the use of military and scientific discovery, while the rest rely on the British of money and defense. Sixteen of the nations previously ruled by the British empire continue to view Queen Elizabeth the second as their head of state. These nations include Australia, New Zealand, Canada, The Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Grenada, Jamaica, Papua New Guinea, Antigua and Barbuda, Saints Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, the Solomon Islands, and Tuvalu.
While invading many nations, the British Empire spread its language and religion all over the world. To this day, over two billion (2,000,000,000) people speak English, making it the largest language by the number of speakers and third-largest by the number of native speakers. Protestantism, the second largest form of Christianity, was also spread by British settlers, soldiers, and missionaries. There are a total of 1 billion followers, or 37% of the Christain community, that adhere to this form of Christianity.
