In 1700 Charles II of Spain died leaving his crown and Empire to Philippe, grandson of the French king. England could not stand by and watch France and Spain become one empire so in 1701 they sided with Portugal and the Netherlands and the Holy Roman Empire in the War of Spanish Succession. This war lasted until 1714, concluding in the Treaty of Utrecht. Philippe fell from power and the British Empire grew enormously.

In 1756 the Seven Years War was the first global war fought in North America, India, Europe, the Caribbean, Coastal Africa and the Philippines. The Treaty of Paris in 1763 again added to the British Empire and left Britain as the most powerful maritime nation. This effectively guaranteed its imperial position for over a century.

In India The East India Company gradually increased its influence through trade and through the use of the British India Army. The Mughals declined and the Company struggled with its French counterpart, the Compagnie française des Indes orientales, during the Carnatic Wars in the 1740s and 1750s. In 1757 at The Battle of Plassey the British, led by Robert Clive, defeated the Nawab of Bengal and his French allies, leaving the Company in control of Bengal and as the major military and political power in India.

The slogan "No taxation without representation" was used to demand their rights as rights as Englishmen. In the 1760s and 1770s, relations between the Thirteen Colonies and Britain was strained, primarily over unfair taxes.

It eventually resulted in revolution and the outbreak of the American War of Independence in In 1776 the colonists declared independence and the United States was born. Supported by France, Spain, and the Netherlands they went on to win the war in 1783.

Since 1718, transportation of roughly a thousand to the American colonies had been a penalty for various criminal offences in Britain. In 1770 James Cook discovered the eastern coast of Australia while on a scientific voyage to the South Pacific Ocean. He claimed the whole continent for Britain, naming it New South Wales.

In 1778, Joseph Banks, Cook's botanist on the voyage, provided evidence that Botany Bay was ideal for the establishment of a penal settlement. In 1787 the first shipment of convicts set sail, arriving in Britain continued to transport convicts to New South Wales until The Australian colonies became profitable exporters of wool and gold, making its capital Melbourne the richest city in the world and the largest city after London in the British Empire.

After the Seven Years’ War, the islands under British control were Jamaica, Antigua, Saint Kitts, Nevis, Montserrat, the Bahamas, the Virgin Islands, Dominica, Saint Vincent, Grenada, and Tobago. The Caribbean prospered in the 18th century in spite of periodic recession.

Historian Eric Williams argued that the wealth of Europe came from the slave trade, especially Caribbean slavery. British West Indian production was pivotal to the formation of capital in Britain, laying the foundations for the Industrial Revolution in Europe. So he placed the Caribbean at the centre of the Atlantic economic system.

He asserted that the abolition of the slave trade and emancipation of slaves was less due to the role of the abolitionists. It was more down to the overall decline of the British West Indian sugar economy at the end of the 18th century. With the loss of America separation of the United States there emerged the belief that slave labour was inefficient, unprofitable, and an impediment to economic growth.

British producers and manufacturers still controlled the American markets but by the 1790s, colonies were considered burdens. The sugar planters, who were economically dependent, were a principal contributor to the decline of the Caribbean economy.

So for the family historian these are among the questions to ask: How, if at all, did the growing empire affect the lives of my ancestors? Have I any evidence of direct involvement in the empire of my own forebears? How did my relatives feel about slavery, warfare and those in power?

Resources: _status_of_the_white_colonies