India–United Kingdom relations would remain the empire's most important colony until independence. Queen Victoria became Empress of India in 1876. From a small trading outpost, India became the jewel in the British crown. In 1858, the British Government took control of the territories and treaty arrangements of the former East India Company. In 1876, the area, which included modern India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh, became "the Indian Empire" (often known historically as the "British Raj") with British Monarch Queen Victoria proclaimed as "Empress of India" (a title held by her successors until 1947). The British Indian Army was established and assisted Britain in many
Colony of British Columbia (1866–1871) British Columbia (1858-66) on 2 August 1858, and dispatching Richard Clement Moody and the Royal Engineers, Columbia Detachment to establish British order and to transform the newly established Colony into the British Empire's "bulwark in the farthest west" and "found a second England on the shores of the Pacific". Moody was appointed Chief Commissioner of Lands and Works and Lieutenant-Governor of British Columbia. Moody and the Columbia Detachment disbanded in July 1863 and Moody returned to England. Douglas continued to administer the mainland colony in absentia from Victoria, but Sir Arthur Kennedy was appointed to succeed him as Governor of