It didn't. It came from the Industrial Revolution and a step change in the productivity of british society. Many economic studies have shown that the "Empire" a

It didn't. It came from the Industrial Revolution and a step change in the productivity of british society. Many economic studies have shown that the "Empire" and especially parts of it like India, the African colonies etc were a net negative to Britain economically speaking. This should not be surprising - just as Afghanistan or Iraq were a net negative to the US more recently, but still allowed certain segments of US society (the military industrial complex) to enrich themselves at the expense of other parts. Probably in 50 or 100 years there will be some Afghan nationalist movement which will be telling everyone that the entirety of US wealth is based on plunder of Afghanistan. That's roughly how it is with India nationalists and Britain today, but of course, it is nonsense.