Transcript The British Empire

The British Empire
Introduction
• The British Empire came together over 300 years
through a succession of phases of expansion by trade,
settlement or conquest, interspersed with intervals of
pacific commercial and diplomatic activity or imperial
contraction
• Its territories were scattered across every continent and
ocean, and it was described with some truth as "the
empire on which the sun never sets."
• At its height in the 1930s, the British Empire
encompassed nearly a third of the earth's land mass and
nearly half of the world's population.
• It was the largest industrialized power in the world, the
largest economy; it had the largest army, navy, and air
force.
Introduction (Cont’d)
• Thoroughly decimated by the two world wars, and aided
by the developments of the beginning stages of the Cold
War, the British Empire divested itself of colonies over a
20 year period between 1947 and 1970.
• The Empire facilitated the spread of British technology,
commerce, language, and government around much of
the globe.
• In all, the British Empire now consists only of 13
colonies.
• The truth is, the British Empire is obviously gone; the
concept has lost all meaning since the loss of India
(1947), and it is now succeeded by a nebulous
Commonwealth of Nations, a voluntary association of
Britain and many of its former possessions for mutual
and political benefit.
History
The First British Empire (Pre-1800)
• England began seeking new sources of trade and treasure in the
15th century. This lead to the addition of new territory and
establishment of an empire.
• By 1583, England acquired its first overseas possession
(Newfoundland).
• From the early 17th century England and later Great Britain
established colonies in continental North America and the islands of
the Caribbean such as Jamaica and Barbados.
• During the Seven Years War the British defeated the French at the
Plains of Abraham (1759) and captured all of New France in 1760,
giving Britain control over almost all of North America.
• However, the most populous American colonies were lost in the
Revolutionary War (1775-83).
• The success of the American Revolution marked the end of the first
British Empire.
History (Cont’d)
The Second British Empire (Post-1800)
• The voyages of Capt. James Cook to Australia and New
Zealand in the 1770s and new conquests in India after
1763 opened a second phase of territorial expansion.
• The victories of the Napoleonic Wars added further
possessions to the empire such as colonies from the
French and Dutch.
• The end of the old colonial and slave systems (Britain
outlawed the slave trade in 1807) were accompanied by
the adoption of free trade, culminating in the repeal of
the Corn Laws (import tariffs designed to "protect" British
farmers and landowners) and Navigation Acts (restricted
foreign shipping) in the 1840s.
• As the only industrialized country in the world, Britain
could prosper through free trade alone without having to
resort to formal rule.
History (Cont’d)
Pax Britannica
• By the 1870s, British manufactures in the staple
industries of the Industrial Revolution were
beginning to experience real competition
abroad.
• Rapid industrialization abroad allowed other
countries to outstrip over the "old" British and
French capitalisms.
• Britain was losing out not only in trades and the
markets of newly industrializing countries, but
also against third-party competition in lessdeveloped countries.
History (Cont’d)
• The "Long Depression" of 1873-96 saw Britain's
economic dominance threatened by competition
from Germany and led to the widespread
abandonment of free trade among Europe's
powers.
• During this period, Europe's powers added
nearly 23,000,000 km² to their overseas colonial
possessions due to the scramble for formal
powers.
• As it was mostly unoccupied by the Western
powers as late as the 1880s, Africa became the
primary target of the "new" imperialist
expansion.
History (Cont’d)
The Impact of the First World War
• This saw the last major extension of British rule, with
Britain gaining control through League of Nations
Mandates in Palestine and Iraq after the collapse of the
Ottoman Empire
• But the heavy costs of the war undermined the capacity
to maintain the vast empire. Nationalist sentiment grew
in both old and new Imperial territories.
• The 1920s saw a rapid transformation of the status of
the self-governing colonies
• This lead to the 1926 Balfour Declaration and the 1931
Statute of Westminster, which provided formal equality of
the dominions with Britain, which is seen as the
beginning of the British Commonwealth.
History (Cont’d)
Decolonization
• The Second World War (1939 - 45) left Britain all but
exhausted, with its former allies disinclined to support
the colonial status quo.
• The bloody partition and independence of India in
1947 deprived the Empire of its heart and marked the
beginning of the end for the British Empire.
• Britain's withdrawal following the Suez Crisis of 1956
(war over Suez Canal) from its colonies in Asia, Africa,
the Caribbean and the Pacific was carried out with
great rapidity through the 1960s, 70s and 80s.
• The last populous colony was decolonized in 1997,
with the handover of Hong Kong to China.