So for all the Anglophiles out there, do you think it would be possible to have a greatly powerful British Empire without colonizing any of the areas they did OTL. What POD would bring this about (perhaps an early British colonization of the New World?) and what are your opinions in general. As always all comments and corrections are greatly appreciated.
Well, how about just switching around British and non-British colonies?
Instead of South Africa, the British can take Algeria, and even create their own apartheid state, with Europeans ruling over local Arabs and Berbers. To play up the French parallels, Britain could seek an empire from Dakar to Djibouti, and even be forced out of Sudan. Instead of India as the crown jewel with the British monarch being "Emperor of India," Britain could take China, with the British monarch being "Emperor of China" instead. Instead of Malaysia and Singapore, how about Britain decides to switch and take all of the Dutch East Indies (after some alternate Napoleonic-style war) instead?
I'm not sure about Canada, but so far the arrangement already has a huge British empire controlling about the same amount of people and territory as it did historically.