The British Empire
Winchester was part of this Empire from 1744 to 1776, - 32yrs .
Frederick Co VA was part of this Empire 1738 to 1776 - 38 yrs . Virgina was part of this Empire 1607 to 1776 --- 169 yr
Weaned away from the Empire --- 246 yrs That's if you include the Rev war years. . If you use 1783 peace treaty, then 239 years independent.
After the French and Indian War, one theatre of a worldwide war, Winston Churchill claimed it was the first world war.
See this page:
. . The following it quoted from Quora site:
At the height of the British Empire, why did it not conquer Europe?
You have to realize what the main strength of the British empire was. It wasn’t the Royal navy (strong though it was) and it wasn’t the Redcoats either (no matter how tough they were).
Redcoats were some of the best soldiers of history
No, the main strength of the British was that they were able to play various factions against one another, side with the weaker, defeat the stronger and set themselves up as the new ruler.
This didn’t work in Europe, because everyone knew what their antics were, and because their continental enemies - mainly the French - were actually stronger than Britain. The French fleet was typically larger than the Royal navy and used more powerful ships, the British achieved better results (on average) by virtue of having better trained, professional crews. The French army was also larger and at least as tough as the Redcoats. The other continental powers were also tough nuts.
Britain built the largest empire in history mainly by defeating those whom they could defeat with ease and use political games and economic carrots to keep the other powers at bay. The last time an English king had a serious chance of defeating France was when the king of England was still a French nobleman who had royal posessions across the sleeve. Other powers followed suit, the Holy Roman Empire, Spain, Poland and all the rest would make short work of any English/British invasions.
It turns out other nations also knew they could interdict supply coming in from England. It just wasn’t all that imporant than the reverse route was for the British. Royal navy was strong enough to prevent other nations from invading the British isles, but it couldn’t hope to support hostile invasions without massive help from continental allies.
posted 11/20/2022
