In 1912, the British Empire held sway over 412 million people, 23 percent of the global population at the time, and covered 14million square miles, 24 percent of the earth.

At the outset of the First World War, the British Empire comprised 400 million people and its territorial arsenal was so vast that the sun never set on it. Article continues below ADVERTISEMENT ...

London has been described as a city built on the spoils of empire, prompting visitors, at least over a damp weekend in March, to wonder why more of these spoils weren’t spent on proper indoor heating.

But by the early 19th century, the British Empire had mutated into the world's first liberal empire. In the subsequent century, this empire clearly was a force for good in at least two respects.

CNN’s Peter Bergen interviews Harvard University historian Caroline Elkins about the legacy of the British Empire and the future of countries in the Commonwealth, where the British monarch ...

At the height of the British Empire, just after the First World War, an island smaller than Kansas controlled roughly a quarter of the world’s population and landmass.