English

The British Empire

“The sun never sets on the British Empire”, is a well-used phrase about the old British Empire, where Britain ruled almost one-quarter of the world’s population. They had colonies in all the continents of the world. How did Britain manage to get all these colonies? And why did they suddenly lose the whole Empire? What have the colonization had to say for the countries involved? And does the old British Empire still have any effect on Britain and the world today? In this essay I will look into the rise and fall of the British Empire and discuss the positive and negative consequences it has had on the countries involved. In my conclusion I will also give a short sketch of the present-day situation.

In the sixteenth century British ships set out to conquer the world. They were amongst the countries to colonize the newfound America. Like many other European countries they entered a foreign country and claimed it as theirs with no regards of the people already living there. When we talk about the British Empire, we actually have two different Empires. The first Empire was from 1450-1800, and the main focus was on America. The colonies were then seen as places to trade, not as markets which produced raw materials. The second Empire came after the industrial revolution and lasted from 1800-1945 with main focus on India and the Far East. In this period there was a huge need for raw materials, and the colonies were exploited for its raw materials.
By the end of the eighteenth century Britain lost their colonies in America and many consider this as the fall of the first British Empire. They now concentrated on their colonies in the Far East, with the main focus on India. India became the Jewel in the Crown, the Empire’s most important colony. Britain had established a huge trade route and they got large amounts of their raw materials imported from India. The largest profit however came from opium, which Britain used as trading goods in their trades with China. The colonies in Australia and New Zealand were also well maintained in order to protect the trading route. In India, however, the British infiltrated the whole nation in a more intricate way than in any other of their colonies. The English language and culture were imposed on both schools and other official institutions. They even had their own army, the East India Company. When the Indians rebelled against the British colonization, this army brutally knocked them down. Then the East India Company was dissolved and the British Government dealt with all administrative decision concerning India.

The British Empire reached its peak by 1900. They controlled over one quarter of the world’s population and seemed more powerful than ever. The First World War however was an enormous cost for the Empire because they had to maintain British forces in the colonies. At the same time, more and more colonies demanded their independence. During the twentieth century most of the colonies gained their freedom and self-government. The incident that for many people finally marked the end of the Empire was when Hong-Kong officially was handed back to China in 1997.

What impact did this colonization have on the countries involved? It is obvious that the British enjoyed the benefits of colonization through imported goods and raw materials, slave trading and so on. The colonies were basically conquered and plundered. But the inhabitants of these nations were subjected to change and economic exploitation. These countries did not get the opportunity to develop at their own pace neither industrially nor financially. When British cultures were imposed on indigenous people their own culture and traditions were altered. Colonial rule is mostly known for this massive deprivation of resources of a country over a longer period of time. Later on in the process of colonial rule resources of any kind which could be exploited were the main reason for a new colony to be established. Spain, for instance, exported 185 tons of gold and 22 000 tons of silver from their colonies in America, and in this way one quarter their wealth came from the colonies in the new world. All the colony rulers used this kind of exploitation, and the British extracted over £100 000 000 from India during 50 years with colonial power. And after the industrial revolution the colonies were exploited even more because of the increasing need of raw materials. A negative legacy of colonialism in addition to this is that these countries have been left vulnerable to new forms of external economic forces after they got their independence. They did not have to worry about anything like this when they were under a colonial rule, but when they got their independence they also had to join the global market and adjust to changes in international commodity prices.

But colonialism has not been just destructive for the lands involved either, because without the colonies the trade routes would never have existed. The former colonies got to trade certain things with other parts of the world which they might not have been able to do without the trading routes. They gained things they could not produce themselves in exchange for things they produced. The colonialism has had some other positive consequences as well. Infrastructure such as railways and roads are one of them. For example in India one may argue that the British colonization had more positive consequences than negative. They built 40 000 miles of railroad and 70 000 miles of paved roadway which made it so much easier to travel across India. The English gave India a big jump ahead in agriculture, and they also built a lot of institutions and sat up a productive government. Britain also linked India to the modern world through a more modern science and thought. Today India has one of the world’s fastest growing economies.

As we can see, the British Empire wasn’t all bad. It brought many good things for some of the former colonies, and not so many good things for other. Some former colonies that were deprived of their possibility to develop are still depending on British help, and throughout the world Great Britain still administers many dependencies. The former colonies and dependencies still have tight bonds with Great Britain, and this collaboration is formalized in what is called Commonwealth of Nations. In 1931 the Statute of Westminster officially granted the independent and equal status for the former dominions within a British Commonwealth of Nations. In this organization most of the former colonies of the British Empire cooperate with Britain, but as equal partners where they now work together and help each other. The queen of England is also the queen of the Commonwealth of Nations.

Sources

http://www.infoplease.com/ce6/history/ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Empire www.google.no
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