A
Crown colony was a type of colonial administration of the
British Empire.
Crown colonies were ruled by a governor appointed by
the Crown (and, later, the
Colonial Office). Though the term was not used at the time, the first of what would later become known as Crown colonies was the
Colony of Virginia in the present-day
United States, after the Crown took control from the
Virginia Company in 1624.
Until the mid-nineteenth century, the term was primarily used to refer to those colonies which had been acquired through wars, such as
Trinidad and
British Guiana, but after this point it was more broadly applied to any colony other than the
British Raj and the colonies of British settlement such as
Australia,
Canada and
New Zealand (later to become the
Dominions).
The term continued to be used up until 1981, when the
British Nationality Act 1981 reclassified the few remaining British colonies as "British-Dependent Territories". From 2002 they have been known as
British Overseas Territories.
Types of Crown colony
There were three types of Crown colony as of 1918, with differing degrees of autonomy. Crown colonies with representative councils, such as
Bermuda,
Jamaica,
Ceylon and
Fiji contained one or two legislative chambers, consisting of Crown appointed and some locally elected members. Those colonies with nominated councils, such as
British Honduras,
Sierra Leone and
Grenada were staffed entirely by Crown appointed members, with some appointed representation from the local population. The third category of Crown colony, smallest in number, had the least autonomy and were ruled directly by the Governor, such as
Gibraltar,
Saint Helena and
Basutoland.
See also
