<P> During the middle decades of the 18th century, there were several outbreaks of military conflict on the Indian subcontinent, the Carnatic Wars, as the English East India Company (often known simply as "the Company") and its French counterpart, the French East India Company (Compagnie française des Indes orientales), struggled alongside local rulers to fill the vacuum that had been left by the decline of the Mughal Empire . The Battle of Plassey in 1757, in which the British, led by Robert Clive, defeated the Nawab of Bengal and his French allies, left the British East India Company in control of Bengal and as the major military and political power in India . France was left control of its enclaves but with military restrictions and an obligation to support British client states, ending French hopes of controlling India . In the following decades the British East India Company gradually increased the size of the territories under its control, either ruling directly or via local rulers under the threat of force from the British Indian Army, the vast majority of which was composed of Indian sepoys . </P> <P> The British and French struggles in India became but one theatre of the global Seven Years' War (1756--1763) involving France, Britain and the other major European powers . The signing of the Treaty of Paris (1763) had important consequences for the future of the British Empire . In North America, France's future as a colonial power effectively ended with the recognition of British claims to Rupert's Land, and the ceding of New France to Britain (leaving a sizeable French - speaking population under British control) and Louisiana to Spain . Spain ceded Florida to Britain . Along with its victory over France in India, the Seven Years' War therefore left Britain as the world's most powerful maritime power . </P> <P> During the 1760s and early 1770s, relations between the Thirteen Colonies and Britain became increasingly strained, primarily because of resentment of the British Parliament's attempts to govern and tax American colonists without their consent . This was summarised at the time by the slogan "No taxation without representation", a perceived violation of the guaranteed Rights of Englishmen . The American Revolution began with rejection of Parliamentary authority and moves towards self - government . In response, Britain sent troops to reimpose direct rule, leading to the outbreak of war in 1775 . The following year, in 1776, the United States declared independence . The entry of France into the war in 1778 tipped the military balance in the Americans' favour and after a decisive defeat at Yorktown in 1781, Britain began negotiating peace terms . American independence was acknowledged at the Peace of Paris in 1783 . </P> <P> The loss of such a large portion of British America, at the time Britain's most populous overseas possession, is seen by some historians as the event defining the transition between the "first" and "second" empires, in which Britain shifted its attention away from the Americas to Asia, the Pacific and later Africa . Adam Smith's Wealth of Nations, published in 1776, had argued that colonies were redundant, and that free trade should replace the old mercantilist policies that had characterised the first period of colonial expansion, dating back to the protectionism of Spain and Portugal . The growth of trade between the newly independent United States and Britain after 1783 seemed to confirm Smith's view that political control was not necessary for economic success . </P>

During which time period did the largest number of former colonies become independent states