The shift in power from England being one of multiple kingdoms on the island of Great Britain to being the center of the United Kingdom was not a sudden affair. The various competing factions and England’s attempts to dominate them stretched back centuries, and was only made more complicated by the religious schisms that dominated the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. By the start of seventeenth century, England was firmly in control of Ireland and Wales, with the latter being fully absorbed in 1535, but Scotland was still an independent kingdom, at least until 1603, when Queen Elizabeth I of England died without children, leaving the English crown to her cousin, King James VI of Scotland. However, though the two kingdoms had the same king, they remained otherwise completely separate, with their own laws, finances, and parliaments. This state of affairs did not come to an end until 1707, when following a massive financial loss related to a failed Scottish scheme to establish a colony in what is today Panama, the Scottish parliament acquiesced to English demands to unite the two kingdoms, and hence the United Kingdom.
The declining power of the Spanish Empire and the Dutch Republic in the latter half of the seventeenth century led to a significant power vacuum in Europe which for a time was largely filled by France, though this ascendency was significantly checked by the War of the Spanish Succession between 1705 and 1715. In comparison, the British focused much less on dominating Europe, and much more building a colonial trading empire. When the English Channel creating a buffer between them and the massive armies on the continent, they focused on building a professional navy, which gave them not just the ability to protect their own shores, but also the ability to project their power around the globe. Not having to be directly involved in the conflict and having access to abundant natural resources from their colonies, they built themselves into a center of manufacturing to support their allies. As such, by the end of the war, they were a maritime, commercial, and financial world power.
Much like the Dutch Republic, who were completely bankrupt by the end of the War of the Spanish Succession, the British recognized that one did not have to control territory to dominate Europe, they just needed to control the flow of important trade goods. As such, the concessions gained by the British were focused on expanding colonial power in the New World, Africa, and India and opening up trade routes previously closed. The most significant of these was gaining the right to ship goods between Spanish ports in the New World, which had been limited to only Spanish ships for the better part of two centuries. As a result, the British quickly began to dominate both the important Atlantic triangle trade and the Far East trade, the latter via the massive corporation known as the British East India Company which over time came to control large parts of India.
This rather rapid shift in status had a profound effect on many parts of the United Kingdom. The financing of a large powerful navy and small professional army required a large amount of money, which was largely gained via a shift from taxing property to customs and excise taxes. The war and new dominance in trade stimulated rapid growth in the manufacturing sector, which led to the creation of a much larger middle class and a more powerful banking class. This in turn aided in the development of a culture much more critical of the aristocracy, which over time greatly increased the power and influence of the British parliament as the primary decision-maker in British politics and foreign policy. By the middle of the seventeenth century, the United Kingdom was not just the most powerful European nation, it was also the most democratic.
Of course, this rise did not go unchallenged. Though definitely weakened by various wars, the French remained the primary rival for the British, also controlling a global colonial empire. However, unlike the British, the French faced more immediate threats in Europe, limiting their ability to focus on a more global worldview. As a result, the War of the Austrian Succession from 1740 through 1748 and the Seven Years’ War of 1756 through 1763 saw the British increasingly gain the upper hand, with the latter conflict resulting in a near complete loss of French territory in both the New World and Far East. The collapse of France as a viable rival to counter British global dominance resulted in the United Kingdom being the dominant global super power for nearly the next two centuries.
