When did the British Empire officially end?

There is no actual official ending date of the British Empire. The UK parliament has never enacted an Act of Parliament that spells out such a date, and frankly it couldn't. In legal practice, however, the British Empire is usually taken to have ended on the establishment of the Commonwealth of Nations (a.k.a. the British Commonwealth). read more

Some would say the empire officially came to an end in February of that year when—utterly drained by the two world wars—the British cabled Washington that they no longer had the money or troops to defend Greece or Turkey as the Soviet Union threatened to extend its influence in the early Cold War. read more

By the end of the 19th century, the British Empire comprised nearly one-quarter of the world’s land surface and more than one-quarter of its total population. The idea of limited self-government for some of Britain’s colonies was first recommended for Canada by Lord Durham in 1839. read more