Family research · Historical empires

Flags of the British Empire

The largest empire in history by land area, at its post-WWI peak governing roughly a quarter of the world's population and territory across every inhabited continent. It grows in two distinct waves separated by the shock of losing the Thirteen Colonies, and it unwinds not in one collapse but across four decades of negotiated and fought decolonization, leaving the modern Commonwealth of Nations as its loose successor association.

This empire's reach into this atlas's own country pages is enormous — far too broad to cross-link exhaustively here. Dozens of this atlas's individual country pages, across every continent, carry their own "British colony/protectorate" era descending directly from the empire told on this page.

Scope of this page: the British Empire as a whole transnational entity, late 16th century–present (via the Commonwealth), six phases. Rather than attempting to cross-link every one of this atlas's country pages with a British colonial past, this page links a representative handful and states plainly that most of the rest carry the same lineage on their own pages. See South Asia hub, Ireland, and Australia as starting points. Part of a larger atlas — see the linked pages at the bottom.

The home islands, c. 1583–present

A deliberately simple stand-in: rather than attempting to map a transnational empire that once covered a quarter of the globe, this traces the real coastline of the British Isles themselves — the constant home base underneath every phase of expansion and retreat described below.

This map shows the home islands, not the empire's overseas extent. Charting the empire's actual worldwide territory era-by-era would require tracing dozens of separate countries' own borders — each of which already has its own page in this atlas. What changes here is only the political status of Britain itself and its relationship to the wider empire and Commonwealth, not the shape shown.

before c. 1583

Real traced coastline of Great Britain and Ireland; the empire's actual overseas territories are not shown — see this atlas's own regional pages for those.

the Union Flag, now flying only over the remaining Overseas Territories and via the Commonwealth

1949/1997 – present

Commonwealth of Nations (loose successor)

Voluntary associationGeorge VINo single state religion

Migration & conquest:Immigration: Commonwealth migration to Britain (1948–)

Ruling house:House of Windsor

Who & why: the 1949 London Declaration allows India to remain in the Commonwealth as a republic without the British monarch as head of state, transforming the organization from an empire's residue into a voluntary association of formally equal, independent states. The 1997 handover of Hong Kong to China is widely treated as the symbolic close of the empire proper. Today the Commonwealth comprises 56 member states (most, though not all, former British territories) cooperating on trade, development, and shared institutions, alongside a small number of remaining British Overseas Territories (Bermuda, the Falklands, Gibraltar, and others) that never became independent states.

What it represents: the Union Flag continues to fly over the UK itself and its remaining Overseas Territories; the Commonwealth itself uses its own separate emblem rather than the historical empire's flag.

Paint guide

Proportions3:5 (UK civil use); shown here at 3:2.

LayoutCombined crosses of St George, St Andrew, and St Patrick — the Union Flag, unchanged in this form since 1801.

Blue#00247D

Red#CF142B

White#F4EFE1

Union Flag with colonial badge in canton — the pattern used across dozens of territories

1947 – 1980s

Post-WWII decolonization wave

Empire, dissolvingClement AttleeChurch of England (UK only; no empire-wide religion)

Migration & conquest:Immigration: Windrush generation & Commonwealth arrivals (1948–)

Ruling house:House of Windsor

Who & why: India's independence and simultaneous partition in August 1947, ending nearly two centuries of British rule on the subcontinent, is the pivotal turning point after which decolonization accelerates sharply. Wartime exhaustion, the moral force of the 1941 Atlantic Charter's self-determination principles, and rising nationalist movements across the colonies combine to make continued direct rule untenable. Independence follows across Africa through the late 1950s and 1960s (Ghana 1957, Nigeria 1960, and many others), across the Caribbean through the 1960s–70s, and across the remaining Pacific territories into the 1970s–80s.

What it represents: the standard colonial-flag convention — a Blue or Red Ensign, or the plain Union Flag, defaced with a local badge in the canton — used across the empire's territories in their final colonial decades; this same visual convention underlies the colonial-era flags shown on dozens of this atlas's own individual country pages.

Paint guide

Proportions1:2, standard British ensign proportions.

LayoutUnion Flag canton with a local colonial badge on the fly (badge shown schematically here as a plain disc).

Blue#00247D

Red#CF142B

White#F4EFE1

Red Ensign, the everyday colonial merchant/territorial flag, at the empire's greatest extent

1919 – 1947

Territorial peak (post-WWI mandates)

Empire, at territorial peakGeorge VChurch of England (UK only; no empire-wide religion)

Migration & conquest:Emigration: assisted British settlers to the dominions (1920s)

Ruling house:House of Windsor

Who & why: the empire reaches its largest-ever extent immediately after WWI, when former German and Ottoman territories are redistributed as League of Nations mandates — among them Palestine, Iraq, and Tanganyika — adding to holdings already covering India, huge swaths of Africa from the 19th-century Scramble for Africa, Australia and New Zealand, and Caribbean and Pacific territories. By the early 1920s the empire governs roughly a quarter of the globe's land area and population, the largest empire in recorded history by territory.

What it represents: the Red Ensign (a red field with the Union Flag in the canton) serves as the everyday flag for British merchant shipping and, informally, many colonial territories at this peak, distinct from the Blue Ensign used for government vessels.

Paint guide

Proportions1:2.

LayoutRed field, Union Flag canton.

Red#CF142B

Blue#00247D

Blue Ensign, the standard government/colonial-administration flag of the second empire's expansion

1783 – 1919

"Second" British Empire (19th-century expansion)

Empire, expandingGeorge IIIChurch of England (UK only; no empire-wide religion)

Migration & conquest:Emigration: Irish Famine & 19th-century mass emigration

Ruling house:House of HanoverHouse of Windsor

Who & why: the shock of losing the Thirteen Colonies redirects British imperial ambition eastward and southward. The East India Company's growing territorial control over India (formalized as Crown rule, the British Raj, after the 1857 rebellion), the Scramble for Africa following the 1884–85 Berlin Conference, and the settlement of Australia (from 1788) and New Zealand (from 1840) together build what historians call the "Second" British Empire — larger, more formally administered, and more explicitly racialized in its governance than the first.

What it represents: the Blue Ensign (Union Flag canton on a blue field) becomes the standard flag for colonial governments and British government vessels throughout this era of expansion, distinguishing official from merchant (Red Ensign) use.

Paint guide

Proportions1:2.

LayoutBlue field, Union Flag canton.

Blue#00247D

Red#CF142B

the King's Colours / Grand Union pattern flown over the Thirteen Colonies before 1776

c. 1583 – 1783

"First" British Empire (early exploration and Atlantic colonies)

Empire, expandingElizabeth IChurch of England (established)

Migration & conquest:Immigration: transatlantic slave trade & indentured/convict transport (into the colonies)

Ruling house:House of TudorHouse of StuartHouse of Hanover

Who & why: Elizabethan-era exploration and privateering (Drake, Raleigh) opens the Atlantic to English ambition, and the East India Company's founding by royal charter in 1600 begins a commercial foothold in Asia that will later become the core of colonial India. The 17th and 18th centuries build a chain of North American and Caribbean colonies and a lucrative, morally catastrophic plantation and slave-trade economy in the Caribbean and American South. This first phase of empire ends abruptly with the loss of the Thirteen Colonies, confirmed by the 1783 Treaty of Paris after the American Revolutionary War.

What it represents: the pre-Union Jack English/British royal colors — St George's cross, later combined with St Andrew's cross after the 1707 Union with Scotland — flown over the Atlantic colonies of this era; shown here schematically for the pre-1801 form (without St Patrick's cross, added only in 1801).

Paint guide

ProportionsNo fixed ratio recorded for most of this period; shown at 3:2.

LayoutSt George's cross (red on white) combined with St Andrew's cross (white diagonal on blue field, simplified here) after 1707; the pre-1801 form, without St Patrick's cross.

White#F4EFE1

Red#CF142B

placeholder — kingdom era, before overseas expansion begins

before c. 1583

Pre-imperial England

Kingdom, pre-imperialNo single ruler documentedCatholic, later Church of England (varied over centuries)

Ruling house:House of PlantagenetHouse of Tudor

Who & why: before Elizabethan-era exploration begins in earnest, England (and, separately, Scotland) exists as an ordinary medieval and early-modern kingdom with no overseas colonial holdings of consequence. This entry marks the baseline against which the empire's subsequent, extraordinarily rapid global expansion is measured.

What it represents: England's own flag of this era (St George's cross) is well documented but is covered in detail on this atlas's own United Kingdom, England, and Scotland pages rather than repeated here; shown as a placeholder marking pre-imperial England specifically.

Paint guide

ProportionsN/A — see this atlas's United Kingdom page for the domestic flag history of this era.

Reading the tags

Kingdom, pre-imperial — no overseas holdings yet

Empire, expanding — actively acquiring territory

Empire, dissolving — decolonization underway

Voluntary association — the post-imperial Commonwealth

Leader — the named ruler most associated with the era's start

State religion — the official/established faith, not the population's

More of the atlas

This page is one lineage in a larger set. This empire's reach touches dozens of this atlas's own country pages — nearly every one carrying a "British colony/protectorate" era in its own timeline descends from the history told here. A representative few:

Flags Atlas indexSearch every country and hub Empires hubEight transnational empires South Asia hubIndia and the subcontinent's own pages IrelandThe empire's oldest and closest colonial relationship AustraliaSettler-colonial expansion, "Second" empire