For how many years did Britain rule its various colonies?

It's earliest colonies were in America and dated from the 16th century.Virginia was the first.Having taken other parts of America -James Town, North and South Carolina and others ,India then Canada, Britain then colonised Australia and New Zealand and China as well as various islands in the South seas and spice islands.There are still one or two small islands remaining in what was the empire, but the state of 'Great Britain' still tries to subjugate the individual nations of England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland, by keeping on the outmoded tag of "Britain"along with Scottish Gordon Brown the Prime Minister 's insistence on the flying in England of the Union Flag or " Butchers apron" as it was known in the colonies.

Nowadays most people in England realise that the poor of their country were abused as much as those in the colonies.