<P> Macmillan gave a speech in Cape Town, South Africa in February 1960 where he spoke of "the wind of change blowing through this continent". Macmillan wished to avoid the same kind of colonial war that France was fighting in Algeria, and under his premiership decolonisation proceeded rapidly . To the three colonies that had been granted independence in the 1950s--Sudan, the Gold Coast and Malaya--were added nearly ten times that number during the 1960s . </P> <P> Britain's remaining colonies in Africa, except for self - governing Southern Rhodesia, were all granted independence by 1968 . British withdrawal from the southern and eastern parts of Africa was not a peaceful process . Kenyan independence was preceded by the eight - year Mau Mau Uprising . In Rhodesia, the 1965 Unilateral Declaration of Independence by the white minority resulted in a civil war that lasted until the Lancaster House Agreement of 1979, which set the terms for recognised independence in 1980, as the new nation of Zimbabwe . </P> <P> In the Mediterranean, a guerrilla war waged by Greek Cypriots ended in 1960 leading to an independent Cyprus, with the UK retaining the military bases of Akrotiri and Dhekelia . The Mediterranean islands of Malta and Gozo were amicably granted independence from the UK in 1964 and became the country of Malta, though the idea had been raised in 1955 of integration with Britain . </P> <P> Most of the UK's Caribbean territories achieved independence after the departure in 1961 and 1962 of Jamaica and Trinidad from the West Indies Federation, established in 1958 in an attempt to unite the British Caribbean colonies under one government, but which collapsed following the loss of its two largest members . Barbados achieved independence in 1966 and the remainder of the eastern Caribbean islands in the 1970s and 1980s, but Anguilla and the Turks and Caicos Islands opted to revert to British rule after they had already started on the path to independence . The British Virgin Islands, Cayman Islands and Montserrat opted to retain ties with Britain, while Guyana achieved independence in 1966 . Britain's last colony on the American mainland, British Honduras, became a self - governing colony in 1964 and was renamed Belize in 1973, achieving full independence in 1981 . A dispute with Guatemala over claims to Belize was left unresolved . </P>

Which imperial power had the most colonies spread out across the world in 1900 great britain