British

In 1492 England was a modest agricultural nation recovering from the effects of long wars in which its kings attempted to retain inherited control of large parts of France. By the early eighteenth century the English ruled Great Britain, having united all the British Isles and established important colonies and outposts around the world. By the nineteenth century they controlled the world's largest empire and were the first nation to industrialize. These transformations were the result of their favorable position as an island nation, a high relative degree of personal and economic freedom, a large literate middle class, financial acumen, and a culture that encouraged action, progress, and achievement. Critical to Britain's empire building was the rise of its military, especially its navy. Beginning as raiders and privateers preying on Spanish shipping from the New World, by 1588 their sea rogues were able to defeat the immense Spanish Armada in the English Channel. Recurring European naval wars established Royal Navy standards and traditions that allowed Britain to project its trade and empire to India, Australia, China, and North America. On land, the relatively small British army earned a reputation for disciplined musketry, an excellent officer corps, and occasionally brilliant generalship. Britain established colonies on Caribbean islands and the North American continent in the early seventeenth century. The islands were the real prize at first, as sugar plantations proved enormously profitable. The small settlements in Virginia and Massachusetts expanded gradually as an accelerating flood of farmers and laborers came to North America looking for land, religious freedom, and opportunity. The colonies welcomed the poor and dispossessed not only from the home country and Ireland, but also from mainland Europe. The British colonies were bordered by the French in Canada, a small Spanish presence in Florida, and Native Americans across the mountains to the west. Victory in a middle eighteenth century world war with France, disputed from India to Europe to North America, made Canada British and opened the door to western expansion. One of Britain's few setbacks in this period was the loss of its American colonies in the revolution of 1776.

From the game's History encyclopedia.