... tended to avoid annexing further territory and instead merely extended protection over those areas where her influenced developed. Politically backward areas were known as Protectorates and were ruled as if they were colonies, and politically advanced areas were known as Protected States and were governed by the native rulers, advised by British officials. Moreover, the empire had already been described in 1884 (a year before) by a British politician as the "British Commonwealth of Nations". It was, however, at the first colonial conference held in London in 1887, when the Prime Ministers of all self-governing colonies gathered for the celebration of Queen Victoria's Golden Jubilee - the fiftieth anniversary of her accession to the throne - that the future of the Empire was faced for the first time and its importance and unity emphasised. Ten years later, when Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee was celebrated and the Prime ministers of the ...

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