At its height in the late 19th and early 20th century, the British empire included territories on all continents and comprised about one quarter of the world’s population and area. The way England became a world power is one of the biggest success stories in world history. The British Empire was the biggest empire ever, bar none. How an archipelago of rainy islands off the northwest coast of Europe came to rule the world is one of the fundamental questions not just of British but of world history. How did Britain manage to overcome the imperial giants of the 16th and 17th century, namely Portugal and Spain, establishing their own colonies and dependencies all over the world within the following three centuries? What were the ideas and intentions behind colonizing and conquering the world?
Furthermore, it is interesting to find out what caused the dismantling of the Empire in the second half of the 20th century within just three decades, after three centuries of ruling vast parts of the globe.
Finally, it will be astonishing to find out, what the British Empire has left behind for the modern world. At first, one might think of team sports like soccer, cricket or rugby, which were indeed brought to all parts of the globe by the Empire. Nevertheless, the colonial legacy of the British Empire is not only confined to sports. It can be found in many fields of life like economy, politics, architecture and food. Nor is it always a good legacy. The British Empire was also responsible for various present-day conflicts and it will be found out, how those conflicts came into being and what they are like.
At a glance
- Grade: 1.3 (1.0 is the best grade)
- Examines Sudan’s creation under British-Egyptian administration
- 28 sources in the bibliography
Contents
1. Introduction
2. The Rise and Fall of the British Empire
3. Britain’s Colonial Legacy
3.1. Liberty
3.2. Predominated Conflicts
3.3. English as a Global Language
4. Conclusion
Aims and Themes
This work examines how Britain built and lost its empire, the motives behind its expansion, and the political, social and linguistic legacies of colonial rule.
- The origins and expansion of British overseas power
- Trade, settlement, missionary activity and imperial ideology
- Wars, challenges to imperial rule and decolonisation
- Liberty and the contradictions of colonial government
- Racism and conflicts associated with colonial rule
- The global spread of English
Excerpt from the Book
2. The Rise and Fall of the British Empire
Great Britain’s geopolitical role in the global scheme of things has undergone many radical changes over the last four centuries. Not only has the way the British acquired and ruled their dominions been changing, but the attitudes of the British themselves towards their Empire also developed, occasionally within a time span of just a few years or decades.
No sooner did the first period of British engagement overseas begin than in the 16th century, when imperial giants like Portugal and Spain had already established colonies in the Americas and Africa, gaining enormous profits from gold mines, spice or slave trade. As a matter of fact, the first steps of Britain on the way to rule the world were not taken by the British royalty. According to Niall Ferguson, it was “the idée fixe of the age” to find gold and silver – especially in search of El Dorado – and it were private persons who undertook the first expeditions. Spain owned vast quantities of gold and silver in Mexico and Peru, whereas “the English had tried Canada, Guiana, Virginia and the Gambia, and found nothing.” Generally, when an expedition went wrong, the survivors used to cover their expenses by resorting to piracy. Those buccaneers simply stole the gold from the Spaniards, as they had not been able to find it on their own. In a period of recurrent war with Spain, Elisabeth I decided to license the piracy, therefore establishing the system of privateering or privatised naval warfare. This is how the British Empire began, not conceived by self-conscious imperialists imposing British rule on foreign lands or colonists hoping to find a new life overseas, but “in a maelstrom of seaborne violence and theft.” It were men like Captain Henry Morgan, who invested their plundered pieces of eight in plantations in the New World instead of going back to England, therefore creating the basement of the British rule in the Americas and the West Indies.
The fishing banks offshore Newfoundland had attracted English fishing fleets since the 1520s, but perpetual settlements did not come into being until the early 17th century, namely when Jamestown was founded on May 14 in 1608 on the Chesapeake Island in Virginia. The death rate of the colonists was high, due to the unexpectedly rough climate. Furthermore, the Native Americans, helping the settlers during the first winter and therefore giving the reason for the modern Thanksgiving, felt more and more endangered by the white settlers. Thus the mostly Puritan colonists held their settlement to be the will of the Lord, when an epidemic killed a big part of the local Indian population. Jared Diamond describes the role of germs or diseases brought to the former isolated continents, namely the Americas and Australia, in his book “Guns, Germs and Steel”. In his opinion, diseases like smallpox, malaria and plague were even more important for the white colonization than seemingly superior technology or knowledge. In contrast to the natives, the whites had been able to develop a certain degree of immunity against those germs over the centuries, suffering casualties on their own. As those diseases killed hundreds of thousands Indians in the 17th century, whole areas were henceforth free for white settlement.
Chapter Summaries
1. Introduction: The introduction sets out questions about the empire’s expansion, decline and legacy, including its connection to present-day conflicts.
2. The Rise and Fall of the British Empire: This chapter traces imperial expansion from early overseas ventures through settlement, trade and missionary activity to the world wars and decolonisation.
3. Britain’s Colonial Legacy: The chapter considers material and cultural legacies before examining liberty, racism and conflict, and the international use of English.
4. Conclusion: The conclusion brings together the historical account and the author’s assessment of institutions and practices associated with the empire.
Keywords
British Empire, colonialism, imperial expansion, decolonisation, colonial legacy, trade, settlement, liberty, slavery, racism, colonial conflicts, English language, Commonwealth
Frequently Asked Questions
What is this work about?
It is a historical account of the British Empire and an examination of selected aspects of its colonial legacy.
What are its central themes?
Its themes include imperial expansion and decline, trade and settlement, liberty, colonial conflicts and the spread of English.
What questions guide the work?
It asks how Britain built its empire, why the empire was dismantled and what it left behind.
What method does the author use?
The author presents a historical discussion drawing on published books, articles and online sources.
What does the main discussion cover?
It follows the development of the empire and then discusses political ideals, conflicts and language as aspects of its legacy.
Which keywords characterise the work?
Key terms include British Empire, colonialism, decolonisation, liberty, racism, colonial conflicts and English as a global language.
How does the work address Sudan?
It discusses Sudan’s creation under British-Egyptian administration in the context of colonial borders and subsequent conflicts.
How does the work connect English with colonial history?
It considers the spread and official use of English in former colonies and its role in international communication.
- Citation du texte
- Jan Dreyer (Auteur), 2007, The British Empire and its colonial legacy, Munich, GRIN Verlag, https://www.grin.com/document/84313
