Authors and Contributors this page: T.F. Mills
Page created 23 January 1996. Corrected and updated 04.07.2006
 

UNITED KINGDOM

Queen's Colour of
1st Bn, The Royal Highland Fusiliers
Military History & Institutions
Major Government Sites
Military News
General Reference
Military History
Regiments and Corps
Commands and Formations
Wars, Campaigns and Operations
Biography (& Memorials & Vets)
Uniforms, Badges, Medals
Flags, Colours, Standards, Guidons
Music, Drill and Ceremonial
Fortifications and Museums
Research Collections and Guides
Discussion Groups & Societies
Bibliography
Other Web Catalogues
Brief Constitutional & Military History of the United Kingdom
       
Note: for a fuller imperial constitutional history see British Empire and Commonwealth
   
1603 England and Scotland were united in the person of the monarch
Civil War
1660 Constitutional monarchy restored; the two secretaries of state reorganised into Northern Department (for relations with Protestant Europe) and Southern Department (relations with Catholic Europe, and later Ireland and the colonies)
1707 Act of Union of England and Scotland constitutionally created "Great Britain"
1768 third secretary of state added to administer the recently expanded American colonies
1782 Southern Department and Northern Department reorganised into Home Office and Foreign Office respectively
 
1793 French Revolutionary Wars
1794 War Office created, with responsibility for the colonies
1801 Ireland joined to Great Britain to form the "United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland"
1802.03.25 Treaty of Amiens, ending French Revolutionary wars
1803.05 Napoleonic Wars
1814.05.30 Treaty of Paris, ending Napoleonic wars
  1854 Colonial Office created, separate from War Office  
  1858 India Office created  
     
1914-18 First World War
 
1922 most of Ireland (except six of the nine counties of the Province of Ulster) becomes independent, and the remnant is renamed the "United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland"
1925 Commonwealth Relations Office formed, separate from Colonial Office
 
1939-45 Second World War
 
1964 integrated Ministry of Defence created
1966.08 Colonial Office and Commonwealth Relations Office merged as Commonwealth Office, underscoring the shift from empire to commonwealth
1968.10 Commonwealth Office and Foreign Office merged into Foreign and Commonwealth Office
   
       

Crown Dependencies: associated with the United Kingdom, but not part of it are Guernsey Bailiwick (includes Alderney and Sark), Jersey Bailiwick, and the Isle of Man. Their relationship with the UK is a leftover from feudal days.  Military units from these dependencies have always been part of the British Army.

UK Overseas Territories: as of 2004 the remnants of the Empire over which the sun still never sets (no longer called colonies, and until recently called "dependencies") are: Anguilla, Bermuda, British Antarctic Territory, British Indian Ocean Territory, British Virgin Islands, Cayman Islands, Falkland Islands, Gibraltar, Montserrat, Pitcairn Islands, St. Helena and Dependencies, South Georgia and South Sandwich Islands, Turks and Caicos Islands.

 
 

   
 
 

   
 
 

   
 
 

 
for wars, campaigns and operations, see below