What enabled the British Empire to really dominate the Age of Colonialism?

[Blue3]

What enabled the British Empire to really dominate the Age of Colonialism?

The UK might have been late to the game, but other powers like Spain really flamed-out early, and the Dutch and even French never really reached the levels of the Brits. If any of the European colonial powers came out as a clear "winner" amongst all the others, it was definitely the British Empire. Why? If you say because they had the best navy - why, and was that really the only factor? Anything in particular about their geography/resources, political system, economic system, etc that enabled it to thrive from late 1600s  / early 1700s up until the mid-20th century?

[Blue3]

If you say because they had the best navy - why

[Blue3]

If you say because they had the best navy - why

1. Having a strong navy is very important in your ability to project power across the globe and the British had or had close to a navy as powerful as the next two most powerful navies combined . This allowed them to project power far better than any other power at the time

2. The UK is an island nation so for any country to successfully invade the UK they had to first defeat the royal navy and since no other navy came close , this meant the UK was close to impossible to invade . This meant they could focus more of their resources and energy in expanding and maintaining their empire while other European nations and to be constantly on guard for a potential invasion

I was asking more why they had a strong navy... being an island can't be the only reason.

[Blue3]

If you say because they had the best navy - why

1. Having a strong navy is very important in your ability to project power across the globe and the British had or had close to a navy as powerful as the next two most powerful navies combined . This allowed them to project power far better than any other power at the time

2. The UK is an island nation so for any country to successfully invade the UK they had to first defeat the royal navy and since no other navy came close , this meant the UK was close to impossible to invade . This meant they could focus more of their resources and energy in expanding and maintaining their empire while other European nations and to be constantly on guard for a potential invasion

I was asking more why they had a strong navy... being an island can't be the only reason.

They were wealthy and industrialized before anywhere else in the world. "In 1875, Britain accounted for 47% of world production of pig iron and almost 40% of steel." It's not exactly a great mystery.

Again… why?

[Blue3]

Again… why?

The Industrial Revolution happening in Britain?

And why did it happen there first, and lag behind in other countries?

But it seems to me like Britain was already becoming the dominant power even before their Industrial Revolution started.