Pax Britannica, or the British Peace, describes the roughly century-long period from the end of the Napoleonic Wars in 1815 to the outbreak of the First World War in 1914, during which the United Kingdom's naval supremacy and vast colonial empire allowed it to act as the dominant arbiter of international order, particularly through control of global sea lanes and trade. Britain used this dominance to spread free trade policies, suppress the Atlantic slave trade through Royal Navy patrols, and expand its formal empire and informal economic influence across Asia, Africa and the Americas, a period that also encompassed the Scramble for Africa and Britain's deepening rule over India following the 1857 rebellion. Historians distinguish Pax Britannica, describing Britain's own dominant role in the international system, from the Age of New Imperialism, describing the broader multi-power scramble for colonies in the same era, though the two overlap closely in time and are closely intertwined.
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