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to the cities looking for work and opportunities as the Industrial Revolution spread. Britain’s wealth and influence grew, but so did environmental degradation and social inequities that plagued the country into the 1900s.

The Sun Never Sets on the British Empire

Great Britain lost its most valuable colonial holdings after the American Revolution, but its fortunes would not be reversed. Through the late 1700s and 1800s, Britain sought to maintain its worldwide power through new imperialist moves. Australia came under British control in 1770, and the colony there grew through the early 1800s. Britain also expanded its power in India, taking direct control there in 1858, and establishing spheres of influence in parts of China. In 1884, Britain was party to the Partition of Africa at the Berlin Conference, gaining control of more than one-third of Africa’s land. Canada and several islands in the Caribbean remained under British control during this time. British lands stretched around the globe by the dawn of the twentieth century. The WorldWars and Beyond The two world wars tested the United Kingdom’s diplomatic and military might. During World War I, Britain joined on the side of the Allied Powers in response to threats against various allies in Europe. Its participation in the conflict brought soldiers from far-flung corners of the Empire, from Australia and New Zealand, Africa, and India, to fight alongside native British troops in France and the Middle East. Nationalismsparked the desire for independence amongBritain’s African and Asian colonial holdings, even as the nation gained yet more territory through the BritishMandate that included Syria, Iraq, and Palestine. From the early 1920s through the 1940s, residents of British colonies began to clamber for control of their own lands and governments. Further conflict festered in Palestine when British officials increased immigration of European Jews into the country and promised to someday establish a Jewish homeland.

Introduction

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