British Empire
2 of the 7 encyclopedias on this shelf carry an entry for British Empire. Both are reproduced below, so you can see where they agree and where they differ.
Aiton's Encyclopedia (1910)
that part of the world which acknowledges the authority of the British Parliament. It is by all means the greatest empire the earth has ever seen. One-fourth of the entire area of the globe belongs to it; and 400,000,000 people in all grand divisions are under the protection of its flag. A telegraph cable encircles the globe, touching only British territory. Space will not permit an entry of the names of all the possessions, but the chief divisions may be stated as follows. 1. THE UNITED KINGDOM : England and Wales, Scotland, Ireland, the Isle of Man , and the Channel Islands . 2. EUROPEAN POSSESSIONS: Gibraltar and Malta. 3. ASIATIC POSSESSIONS: Aden, British North Borneo, Ceylon, Cyprus, Hong Kong , India and dependencies, The Straits Settlements , Weihaiwei. 4. AFRICAN POSSESSIONS: Ascension, Bechuanaland, Cape of Good Hope , or Cape Colony, Central Africa, British East Africa, Uganda, Zanzibar, Mauritius, Natal, Nigeria, Orange River, Rhodesia, St. Helena, Seychelles, Somaliland, Transvaal, Gold Coast, Gambia, Sierra Leone. 5. AMERICA: Bermudas, Canada, Falkland, British Guiana, Honduras, Newfoundland, Labrador, West Indies, including the Bahamas, Barbados, Jamaica, Leeward Islands, Trinidad, and Windwards. 6. AUSTRALASIA: Australia, British New Guinea, New Zealand, and numerous islands and islets in Oceanica. The government of the empire is elastic. The United Kingdom is governed by Parliament direct. Executive authority is placed in the hands of a cabinet--virtually a committee of the houses of Parliament. The crown, that is to say, the king, or, to be exact, a minister responsible to Parliament, appoints an officer known as a governor, or a governor-general, or by some other name, for each colony or protectorate. His authority varies with conditions. Wherever the inhabitants are sufficiently intelligent to govern themselves and are sufficiently numerous to make it worth while, governmental matters are left to local legislatures elected by the people. In Canada and Australia, for instance, the governor-general is as unlikely to veto legislation as is the king at home. None of the colonies are taxed by Parliament. Local legislatures are given freedom, and are even permitted to levy import duties on goods coming from the home country. Through liberal treatment of this sort, the various parts of the empire remain loyal to the home government. The extent of the British empire is well expressed by Daniel Webster. He speaks of "a power which has dotted over the surface of the whole globe with her possessions and military posts, whose morning drum-beat, following the sun, and keeping company with the hours, circles the earth with one continuous and unbroken strain of the martial airs of England." Rudyard Kipling puts the same thought in other words: We 'ave 'eard o' the widow at Windsor, It's safest to let 'er alone: For 'er sentries we stand by the sea an' the land Wherever the bugles are blown. Take 'old o' the Wings o' the Mornin' An' flop round the earth till you're dead; But you won't get away from the tune that they play To the bloomin' old rag over'ead. See Parliament ; United Kingdom ; Canada ; Australia ; India ; Egypt ; and the various countries of the empire. 2026 Editor's Note: The empire the entry calls the greatest the earth has ever seen was gone within two generations. India became independent in 1947, most of Africa by the mid-1960s, and Hong Kong returned to China in 1997 — a dismantling that freed hundreds of millions and redrew the map. What survives is the Commonwealth, a voluntary association of equals, and a long argument about the empire's balance sheet. (Ed: BR 2026-07-18)
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
THE, includes, , the folunder some form of government Europe, the United Kinglowing: In Man, the Channel dom, the Isle of ; in Asia Islands, Malta, and Gibraltar , , Ceylon, the Straits the Indian an Empire Malay States, Settlements, the Federated , Hong Kong, Weiother Malay states , Sarawak, haiwei, North Borneo, Brunei , Cape Province and Cyprus; in Africa , Free State, Natal, Transvaal, Orange , Basutoland, Be- South West Province , Gold chuanaland, Rhodesia, Gambia Northern and Coast, Sierra Leone, former German , Uganda Zanzibar, Nyasaland, Egypt, Sudan, , Ascension, and Mauritius, us, Seychelles in America, Canada, New- St. Helena; Bahamas, Leefoundland, Jamaica, the Islands, Barbaward Islands, Windward Tobago, British does, Trinidad and , Bermuda Guiana, British Honduras , , and South the Falkland Islands Australia, Tas- Georgia; in Australasia, , Fiji Islands, mania, New Zealand Pacific Islands. The fol- Papua, and the and the estilowing table gives the area for mated population of the Empire 1919: English Square Estimated Population Continental Miles Distribution 121,512 45,878,500 2,187,550 323,158,000 Europe... Asia.. 4,652,000 60,000,000 Africa. 3,893,000 7,458,000 North America. 50,000 8,600 Central America 12,300 1,730,000 West Indies. 314,000 97,800 South America. 6,800,000 3,300,000 Australasia. 14,272,762 445,388,500 Total Details of the various constituent parts of the Empire will be found untitles throughout this work. der their