This broad history traces many of the key political and educational events that shaped two significant centuries of the British Empire. This vast imperial enterprise presided over a quarter of the world's landmass and came close to achieving a world economy. A commercial expansion that was backed by Britain's aristocratic gentry but governed by a new breed of university educated administrators. An elite group produced to manage Britain's overseas interests – and to incidentally create the image of the stereotypically unflappable 'Brit'. Universities and Empire advanced in a loose confederation that underpinned the progress of globalisation – a process that interconnects international trade and economics via technological advances in communication and transport. Globalisation permeates territorial boundaries and borders, it blurs the perception of distance – the sun may have long since set on the British Empire, but its administrators contributed mightily to shrinking the world it left behind.