Type of British colony directly administered by the British central government
Coat of arms of King James I. In 1624, the Crown revoked the royal charter earlier granted to the Virginia Company, and assumed direct government of the colony
A Crown colony or royal colony was a colony governed by England, and then Great Britain or the United Kingdom within the English and later British Empire. There was usually a governor to represent the Crown, appointed by the British monarch on the advice of the UK Government, with or without the assistance of a local council. In some cases, this council was split into two: an executive council and a legislative council, and the executive council was similar to the Privy Council that advises the monarch. Members of executive councils were appointed by the governors, and British citizens resident in Crown colonies either had no representation in local government, or limited representation in a lower house. In several Crown colonies, this limited representation grew over time. As the House of Commons of the British Parliament has never included seats for any of the colonies, there was no direct representation in the sovereign government for British subjects or citizens residing in Crown colonies.
The administration of Crown colonies changed over time and in the 1800s some became, with a loosening of the power of royal governors, self-governing colonies, within which the sovereign state (the UK Government) delegated legislation for most local internal matters of governance to elected assemblies, with consent of the governor. Elected lower houses had their beginnings in the House of Burgesses of the Colony of Virginia in 1619 and the House of Assembly of the Parliament of Bermuda in 1620. While initially limited in government even with an elected lower house, over the centuries in some Crown colonies, more independent authority was given.
All remaining British colonies, whether Crown (such as the Falkland Islands) or self-governing (such as Bermuda), were renamed "British Dependent Territories" from 1 January 1983 under the British Nationality Act 1981. Many British citizens in the colonies (with the exceptions of the Falkland Islanders and subsequently the Gibraltarians) found that their "Citizenship of the United Kingdom and Colonies" had changed overnight to British Dependent Territories Citizenship, a form of British citizenship that stripped them of some of their rights, including the right to reside and work in the United Kingdom.[clarification needed] From 2002, the dependent territories have been known officially as British Overseas Territories.[1]
^"British Overseas Territories Act 2002". Gov.Uk. Archived from the original on 30 January 2016. Retrieved 11 July 2012.
A Crowncolony or royal colony was a colony governed by England, and then Great Britain or the United Kingdom within the English and later British Empire...
The CrownColony of the Island of Malta and its Dependencies (commonly known as the CrownColony of Malta or simply Malta) was the British colony in the...
from company hands to the Crown. At the urging of Governor Frederick Lugard, the two territories were amalgamated as the Colony and Protectorate of Nigeria...
The CrownColony of Sarawak was a British Crowncolony on the island of Borneo, established in 1946, shortly after the dissolution of the British Military...
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of 1842. It was established as a crowncolony in 1843. In 1860, the British took the opportunity to expand the colony with the addition of the Kowloon...
Island of Ceylon and its Dependencies from 1931 to 1948, was the British Crowncolony of present-day Sri Lanka between 1796 and 4 February 1948. Initially...
British Honduras was a Crowncolony on the east coast of Central America, south of Mexico, from 1783 to 1964, then a self-governing colony, renamed Belize in...
The CrownColony of Labuan was a Crowncolony off the northwestern shore of the island of Borneo established in 1848 after the acquisition of the island...
Aden Colony (Arabic: مُسْتْعَمَرَةْ عَدَنْ, Musta'marat 'Adan), also the Colony of Aden, located in the south of contemporary Yemen, was a crowncolony of...
Southern Rhodesia was a landlocked self-governing British Crowncolony in southern Africa, established in 1923 and consisting of British South Africa Company...
The CrownColony of Penang was a British crowncolony from 1946 to 1957. It came under British sovereignty after being ceded by the Sultanate of Kedah...
CrownColony in its own right until 1903 when its first Governor, Sir Ernest Bickham Sweet-Escott took office. Befitting its new status, the colony acquired...
British Guiana was a British colony, part of the mainland British West Indies, which resides on the northern coast of South America. Since 1966 it has...
The Colony of Singapore was a Crowncolony of the United Kingdom that encompassed what is modern-day Singapore from 1946 to 1958. During this period, Christmas...
British Empire's main sugar-producing colony and remained a primarily sugar-dominated plantation-based colony until independence, in 1968. In 1965, the...
Eleutheria", which was led by William Sayle, sailed to the Bahamas to found a colony. These early settlers were Puritans and republicans. Bermuda was becoming...
20°12′S 57°30′E / 20.2°S 57.5°E / -20.2; 57.5 Mauritius was a Crowncolony off the southeast coast of Africa. Formerly part of the French colonial empire...
granted "responsible government", making them largely self-governing. A Crowncolony: a type of colonial administration of the English and later the British...
Malacca was a British Crowncolony from 1946 to 1957. It came under British sovereignty after the signing of the Anglo-Dutch Treaty of 1824, and had been...
British Empire from the abolitionism era until the decolonisation era. The Crowncolony, which included the area surrounding Freetown, was established in 1808...
unilaterally annexed military occupation, and from 1925 to 1960 as a Crowncolony. Following the London and Zürich Agreements of 19 February 1959, Cyprus...
today. Created as a Crowncolony, during the early years of British settlement the governor had wide-ranging powers. The colony was granted self-government...
crowncolony of the Gilbert and Ellice Islands in 1916. The Northern Line Islands, including Christmas Island (Kiritimati), were added to the colony in...
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