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The way that the British Empire obtained their lands was, in its day, devious, although it merely involved telling the local people to bugger off, as they were busy having tea and tiffin. It was a popular method, as it took the natives a few hundred years to realise that they actually lived there and did not, in fact, owe the British anything. This of course, led to a hasty de-Britanising and then complete independance. The Empire generally fell apart as more and more countries came to about the trick, and since 1997, the British Empire was no more.