The%20British%20Empire

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The British Empire
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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.

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Introduction (Contd)

• 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.

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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.

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History (Contd)

• 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.

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History (Contd)

• 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
  less-developed countries.

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History (Contd)

• 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.

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History (Contd)

• 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.

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History (Contd)

• 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.