Modern world history, is a whole history of colonization, from the 16th century, Spain and Portugal have competed, the two great powers in the 16th century to the 17th century almost divided the world, but with the establishment of the craft revolution, the emergence of capitalism, Western European countries began to enter the era of great navigation.
Strictly speaking, Britain began to become strong after the Glorious Revolution in 1688, and after the first industrial revolution, Britain developed rapidly in the constitutional monarchy, and from 1763 to 1815, Britain defeated Napoleon and became the world's first power.
In the First World War, Britain seized the German colonies, the territory reached its peak, covering a quarter of the land on the earth, the colonial territory including Antarctica, seven continents, four oceans, an area of more than 30 million square kilometers, so there is a saying, wherever there is the sun, there are British colonies, so Britain is also called "the sun does not set empire".
But with the outbreak of the Second World War, Britain was hit hard, and at the same time, the global nationalist movement was launched, and the call for independence grew louder, starting with the 13 colonies of British North America (the current United States), the Ionian Islands ceded to Greece, Menorca to Spain, and the once glorious Britain with only 14 overseas territories left.
The total area of these 14 overseas territories is only 1.72 million square kilometers, which is a huge difference from the previous more than 30 million square kilometers, but the 1.72 million territories are also watery, and the largest overseas territory is not recognized at all.
This territory is the British Antarctic Territory, the so-called British Antarctic Territory, which is located in the area of Antarctica from the South Pole to 60 degrees south latitude, 20 degrees west longitude and 80 degrees west longitude, which covers an area of 1.7094 million square kilometers, equivalent to nearly 7 British territories.
At Britain's strongest time, Britain was stepping on the South Atlantic, in 1833 Britain illegally occupied the Falkland Islands, when Antarctica was deserted, basically no country was willing to compete, in 1908, Britain expanded british Antarctica, thus declaring sovereignty.
This territory was also included in the British map, when the outbreak of World War I, no one paid attention to this territory, after the outbreak of World War II, the British secretly implemented a military plan called "Tabernon" to gain control of the South Atlantic, but after the end of World War II, the world paid attention to scientific research.
But scientific research needs relatively remote places, Antarctica has become a piece of territory for national competition, not to mention the decline of Britain, the threat is much smaller, in 1950, under the intervention of the United Nations, several major powers conducted a negotiation, the Soviet Union and the United States jointly drafted the Antarctic Treaty.
In the treaty, Antarctica belongs to the territory of various countries, but can not engage in military operations, can only be used for scientific research, countries have withdrawn troops, and the United Kingdom also established four observation points for scientific research in Antarctica, although Antarctica is under the joint jurisdiction of the United Nations and the Commonwealth, but the United Kingdom still regards it as its own territory, but all countries do not agree.