British Colonialism around the World.

I. First wave: To the New World, in the 1600’s, Along with the Spanish, Portuguese and French, the British took advantage of the land and wealth in the New World. This worked well until the American Revolution and by 1785 the British had to look elsewhere for places for trade and colonization.

II. India British involvement here began with the British East India Company. This actually began in the early 1600’s but gradually the company began to use military might to control the people and politics in India. By the mid 1800’s they were in control of all of India. In the 1870’s Queen Victoria was crowned the Empress of India.

The crown on the left is the Imperial Crown of India which is part of the British Crown Jewels. On the right, Queen Victoria was crowned Empress of India in 1877 when she was 58 years old.

The beginning of the end for British India– Mahatma Gandhi. By the beginning of the 20th century (early 1900’s) the people of India were beginning to think and talk about Home Rule. That is, ruling their own country. Influenced largely by the ideas of Gandhi, it was not until 1947 that Britain released it’s hold on India and created the Nation of India and the Nation of Pakistan.

III. China China was the main supplier of its native tea to the British, whose annual domestic consumption was extremely large. From the British economic standpoint, Chinese tea was a crucial item since it provided massive wealth for the taipans—foreign (especially British) businessmen in China—while the duty on tea accounted for 10% of the government's income.

Britain gets China hooked on opium so they have something to trade for the tea. After the 1757 territorial conquest of Bengal in India, the British had access to opium, which when mixed with water was used in western society as an analgesic tincture. The Chinese, on the other hand, smoked opium in an addictive narcotic manner. Since a large fiscal deficit existed in Bengal, opium exports became a British government means to raise tax, even though it meant an increase in the number of Chinese people addicted to the drug.

After fighting several conflicts called Opium Wars, a treaty was finally signed which leased the city of Hong Kong to Britain for 99 years. They returned it to the Chinese in June of 1997.

IV. Australia A First Fleet of British ships arrived at Botany Bay in January 1788 to establish a penal colony. The government of Britain wanted to establish new colonies in Australia and they also had problems with their prisons being overcrowded. They sent the prisoners who had workable skills out to Australia to help establish the new colony. After the prisoners had served their time, they were released as free men in Australia.

V. Various parts of Africa. Britain became in charge of many parts of Africa, including South Africa by commerce and by treaties written after wars they had won.

VI. The Middle East after World War II By the end of the war in August 1945, British Commonwealth forces were responsible for the civil and/or military administration of a number of non-Commonwealth territories, occupied during the war, including Eritrea, Libya, Madagascar, Iran, Iraq, Palestine, Lebanon, Italian Somaliland, Syria, Thailand and portions of Germany, Austria and Japan. This was how the United Nations was able to give Israel its own country in 1947.

The fast decline of Britain’s Empire. Over the next several decades after World War II, Britain slowly got rid of all of it’s overseas colonies except for the Falkland’s Islands near Argentina. The Empire in which the sun never set has now mainly one tiny island.

Impact Globally *Spread of English all over the globe as an International Language. *British legal customs widely practiced in many countries around the globe. *Innovations in medical care, education and railways to the countries it ruled. *The majority of former colonies still keep their ties with Britain through the Commonwealth. *Christian religion can be found in many countries that did not have it before Britain arrived.