This was and still is the government type used by the Great British Empire, which at its peck control over a quarter of the world.  No empire of such scale spanning so much land, within all six habitable continents has been seen since.  Quote "When an Englishman wants a thing he never tells himself he wants it.  Instead, he waits until the idea comes into his head that it is his moral and religious duty to conquer those who have the thing he wants.  Believing that he is a great champion of freedom, he conquers half the world and calls it "colonisation".  When he wants a market for goods from Manchester, he sends a missionary to teach the natives the Gospel.  The natives kill the missionary.  The Englishman then flies to arms in defence of Christianity, fights for it, conquers for it and takes the new market as if it were a reward from heaven".  -- George Bernard Shaw, "The Man of Destiny" 1898.