In the Pacific are also Bird Island, Bramble Cay, Cato Island, Cook Islands, Danger Islands, Ducie Island, Dudosa, Howland Island, Jarvis Island, Kermadec Islands, Macquarie Island, Manihiki Islands, Nassau Island, Palmerston Island, Palmyra Island, Phoenix Group, Purdy Group, Raine Island, Rakaanga Island, Rotumah Island, Surprise Island, Washington or New York Island, Willis Group and Wreck Reef.
In the Indian Ocean there are, besides the colonies already mentioned, Rodriguez, the Chagos Islands, St Brandon Islands, Amirante Islands, Aldabra, Kuria Muria Islands, Maldive Islands and some other small groups.
In certain dependencies the sovereignty of Great Britain is not absolute. The island of Cyprus is nominally still part of the Turkish empire, but in 1878 was handed over to Great Britain for occupation and administration; Great Britain now making to the Porte on account of the island an annual payment of £5000. The administration is in the hands of an official styled high commissioner, who is invested with the powers usually conferred on a colonial governor. In Zanzibar and other regions of equatorial Africa the native rulers retain considerable powers; in the Far East certain areas are held on lease from China.
Egypt, without forming part of the British empire, came under the military occupation of Great Britain in 1882. “By right of conquest” Great Britain subsequently claimed a share in the administration of the former Sudan provinces of Egypt, and an agreement of the 19th of January 1899 established the joint sovereignty of Great Britain and Egypt over what is now known as the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan.
The Indian section of the empire was acquired during the 17th–19th centuries under a royal charter granted to the East India Company by Queen Elizabeth in 1600. It was transferred to the imperial government in 1858, and Queen Victoria was proclaimed empress under the Royal Titles Act in 1877. The following list gives the dates and method of acquisition of the centres of the main divisions of the Indian empire. They have, in most instances, grown by general process of extension to their present dimensions.
|
Name. |
Date. |
Method of Acquisition. |
|
Madras |
1639 to 1748 |
By treaty and subsequent conquest. Fort St George, the foundation of Madras was the first territorial possession of the E.I. Co. in India. It was acquired by treaty with its Indian ruler. Madras was raised into a presidency in 1683; ceded to France 1746; recovered 1748. |
|
Bombay |
1608 to 1685 |
Treaty and cession. Trade first established 1608. Ceded to British crown by Portugal 1661. Transferred to E.I. Co. 1668. Presidency removed from Surat 1687. |
|
Bengal |
1633 to 1765 |
Treaty and subsequent conquests. First trade settlement established by treaty at Pipli in Orissa 1633. Erected into presidency by separation from Madras 1681. Virtual sovereignty announced by E.I. Co., as result of conquests of Clive, 1765. |
|
United Provinces of Agra and Oudh |
1764 to 1856 |
By conquests and treaty through successive stages, of which the principal dates were 1801–3–14–15. In 1832 the nominal sovereignty of Delhi, till then retained by the Great Mogul, was resigned into the hands of the E.I. Co. Oudh, of which the conquest may be said to have begun with the battle of Baxar in 1764, was finally annexed in 1856. |
|
Central Provinces |
1802–1817 |
By conquest and treaty. |
|
Eastern Bengal and Assam |
1825–1826 |
Conquest and cession. The Bengal portion of the province by separation from Bengal in 1905. |
|
Burma |
1824–1852 |
Conquest and cession. |
|
Punjab |
1849 |
Conquest and annexation. Made into distinct province 1859. |
| N.-W. Frontier Province | 1901 | Subdivision. |
| Ajmere and Merwara | 1818 | By conquest and cession. |
| Coorg | 1834 | Conquest and annexation. |
| British Baluchistan | 1854–1876 | Conquest and treaty. |
| Andaman Islands | 1858 | Annexation. |
