ELI5: Explain Like I'm 5

Territorial evolution of the British Empire

Hello there!

Imagine you have a toy box with lots of different toys inside. Sometimes, you want more toys and so you ask your friends if they have any extra toys they can give you. If they do, you add those toys to your own toy box and now you have more toys to play with! This is kind of like what happened with the British Empire.

Back in the olden days, the British people wanted to explore and discover new lands. They sailed across the oceans and discovered new territories that they wanted to claim for themselves just like you did with your friend's toys. Over time, they added these new territories to their own "toy box" - which in this case, was their country.

As more and more territories were added to their toy box, the British Empire got bigger and bigger. Some of these territories included places like India, Canada, Australia, and lots of countries in Africa. The people of the British Empire could now trade with their new territories and get goods like spices, tea, and minerals.

But, just like when you get too many toys, sometimes it can be hard to manage them all. The British Empire found this out the hard way. They had to manage so many different territories with different cultures, languages, and rules, that it became difficult to control them all.

Slowly, the British Empire started to give back some of the territories they had claimed. This was called decolonization. They gave these territories back to the people who originally lived there, so they could be in charge of their own land.

So, to sum it all up - the territorial evolution of the British Empire means that they added a lot of new territories to their "toy box" - their country - over time. But, they eventually realized it was too much to handle and gave some of the territories back to the people who were originally from there.