|
How did the British Empire grow?
The Anglo-Saxons, Germanic tribes, entered Britain from the Angle
between modern Germany and Denmark after the Romans withdrew
their troops. They expanded their area of settlement from the
footholds or bridgeheads of the first period, gradually settling
in the whole of England. The language changed from Celtic to
Germanic. By stages the kingdoms they set up amalgamated and
were absorbed into the kingdom of Wessex. After defeating Norsemen
- mostly Danes from the same area the Angles had come from -
Wessex became the only kingdom and was renamed England.
After they were invaded by Frenchified Norsemen (1066) the next conquest
was in Ireland. The landless second sons
of French-speaking Norman barons crossed the Irish Sea and joined
in the conflicts of the Irish kings, setting up new Norman lordships
- feudal estates - where the main languages spoken were probably
Norman French and Irish Gaelic. However, king Henry the second
invaded Ireland in
1171 and claimed it for the English crown (with the authorisation
of the only English Pope, Hadrian the fourth, who wished to bring the
Irish church under Papal
control). Thus Ireland was the first state that could be regarded
as an English colony.
A similar process occurred in Palestine where the Crusaders set up European feudal states in
the area they had conquered from the Arabs - but these were mostly French.
The Angevin Empire in France
The Norman kings were succeeded by the Angevin or Plantagenet
family when Henry the second came to the throne in 1155. As he
was also the owner of several feudal domains in France he actually
controlled more land there than the French king. However, most of this
was lost by his son John (except for the Channel Islands and Aquitaine). Later attempts to conquer
France, with a claim to the French throne in 1337, were the Hundred
Years War. However, all the lands that were conquered in this
war were lost, and the last English foothold was Calais, lost
by Queen Mary in 1558.
|
Companies
The British Empire was not built by government action. Instead
it grew from chartered companies. These were given a Royal Charter
to trade in certain areas as a monopoly, in return for taxes
paid to the Crown. The earliest of these were the Merchants of
the Staple - the woollen industry that traded with Flanders in
the medieval period. Later there were the Merchant Venturers.
In the time of Queen Mary (1555) was the Muscovy Company to trade with Russia.
The most successful was the East India Company (1600) which grew into
the government of India, only being replaced by a colonial government
in 1857.
But there were other Companies of this kind. The Hudson's
Bay Company was the ruler of large parts of what became the Dominion
of Canada. The British South Africa Company was Cecil Rhodes's
vehicle for developing Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe and Zambia). There
was also an Imperial British East Africa Company that was influential
in developing Kenya and opening up Uganda before being replaced
by direct rule from the Colonial Office.
Notoriously, the South Sea Company provoked an early stock
market Bubble in the 18th century.
To those who experienced the activities of these Companies
they might have seemed like very big and well organised Pirate
Bands. But for the mainly younger sons of country gentlemen and
the aristocracy the Companies were the road either to riches
or death - much the same as what had happened in the Crusades.
|
The First British Empire
The next major expansion was to America. In the 16th century
English people began to settle on the northeast coast of North
America (Newfoundland, now part of Canada). In 1583 Queen Elizabeth
claimed the Sovereignty
for the English Crown. That is, by a form of words they annexed
the land without regard for the people living there at the time.
This procedure, which must seem to us now rather bizarre, led
to the whole Empire being considered the property of the English
(and later the British) Crown. It had first been used in Ireland.
Some of the settlers hoped to practice their religion without
interference from the royal government and church (not the same
as looking for Religious Freedom for others). Others wanted to
farm new land and escape from the landowners in England. Merchants
hoped to make money from trade. Others, especially in the 17th
and 18th centuries, were deported criminals. The result was a
series of colonies along the eastern coast of what is now the
United States and Canada.
After the union with Scotland,
Scottish people also settled in these colonies and the Empire
could be described as British.
The American colonies were a mixture of Royal and Proprietorial
colonies. That is, some of the Governors were appointed by the
Crown; others by Proprietors. The second type was a 17th century
version of the feudalism
that had occurred in Ireland. The King granted land to his favourites
as a cheap way of paying them. In all those colonies local assemblies
developed which disputed powers with the Governors - the earliest
stage of the evolution that resulted in democracy and independence.
There was no civil service appointed from Britain other than
customs officers and Navy and Army. Until 1768 the colonies were
part of the responsibilities of the Secretary of State of the
Home Department. There was no government colonial office in London
responsible only for the colonies. However, from 1768 there was
a Secretary of State for the American colonies - a
bit late in the day - abolished in 1782.
The Royal Navy became essential to maintain connections with
the colonies and was the main instrument of government connecting
the colonies.
The end of the Seven Years war (1756-1763), and the defeat
of France in north America, seemed to make the American empire
secure. However, the desire of the British government to tax
the colonists to pay for their defense caused a tax revolt, that
grew into a demand for independence. The colonists used the slogans
of the English Civil War - No Taxation without Representation
- and the ideas of political scientists: Hobbes, Locke, Montesquieu.
The subsequent war resulted in the formation of the United States,
leaving only the nucleus of what was to become Canada.
At the same time as the north American colonies were being
settled, English people settled in the Caribbean and developed slave-worked sugar
plantations. The profits from these helped fund the industrial
revolution and the huge country houses built by the owners of
the plantations (see the novels of Jane Austen).
The Second British Empire
After the independence of the United States the British continued
to rule Canada,
including the former French settlements in Quebec and the Caribbean Islands.
When Charles the second married Catherine of Braganza (a Portuguese
princess) in 1662 her dowry included the Portuguese colony in
India of Bombay (now
Mumbai) (and also Tangier, now part of Morocco but this
colony lasted only from 1662 until 1648 when the Moroccans made
it untenable - see Linda Colley). The formation of the
East India Company began the British influence in India,
which started with trade in 1613 at Surat. The custom then was
to build a fortified trading center known as a Factory, with soldiers to protect
the merchants. Gradually the Company treated these as sovereign
territory. In the northeast of India the Company founded the
city of Calcutta (now Kolkata), and occupied Madras (Chennai).
From these bases they spread their power into the lands of the
decaying Mogul Empire. The East India Company changed from being
just a trading company to being partly a government. Added to
its profit from buying and selling were the taxes it collected,
in theory on behalf of the local rulers, in practice for its
own benefit.
The managers and governors of the Company made huge sums of
money (those that survived the diseases of India) and built palaces
in England. This money too went to pay for the new industries
in England.
The area of India ruled by the company expanded as the Company's
armies (Indian and British soldiers, commanded by British officers)
conquered Indian kingdoms and provinces. The French were trying
to do the same but were outmanoeuvred until, as in Canada, they
were confined to a token colony, at Pondicherry, on the close
of the Seven Years War.
A revolt in 1857 by Indian soldiers against the Company's
rule led to an attempted uprising (war of resistance) and the
British government taking over the Company's land as a formal
British colony. A British Governor General was appointed with
his capital in Calcutta, and subsidiary governors in the provinces.
After Queen Victoria was declared Empress of India (successor
to the Mogul Emperors, whose office was terminated after the
Revolt - Indian Mutiny or War of Independence), the governor
was renamed Viceroy.
The Indian empire had to be supplied by sea. This led to a
series of British bases along the route to India. One of these
was at the southern tip of Africa where Cape Town and its surrounding land was taken
from the Dutch (who were also building an empire, in Indonesia).
After the Suez Canal was built in Egypt the Canal Zone was a British base to
protect it and Egypt itself became a protectorate, and Aden at the southern tip of Arabia was a fueling
point for steam ships passing from Suez to India and a Naval
base for patrolling the Red Sea and Indian Ocean. To protect
Aden a protectorate was declared over the surrounding area, which
became the Aden Protectorate. The government of India was also
interested in keeping order in the borders of India. To the west
they exercised control over both shores of the Arabian Gulf,
Baluchistan to the north and Trucial
Oman to the south. To the north they attempted to control
the fringe states of Bhutan, Nepal, Sikkim and Afghanistan. The
last was never conquered (but Cricket has been taken up by the
people).
From the Dutch they had taken Ceylon (Sri Lanka).
To the east British conquest extended into Burma, a kingdom of people with a different
culture and language. To the southeast the East India Company
also extended to Singapore,
where a trading post was built that became a city, like Calcutta.
From here British traders extended to the island of Borneo where
two colonies were formed in the north, one the quasi-feudal state
of Sarawak, ruled by the so-called White Rajahs of the Brooks
family on behalf of the Sultan of Brunei, the other North Borneo
(now Sabah). North of Singapore the British came to rule the
Malayan peninsula.
A colony in Hong
Kong grew out of the opium wars with China.
China was not
formally ruled as a colony but British and other European traders
forced immunity from Chinese courts and controlled such governmental
functions as the Customs and the navigation on the Yangtse.
Australasia
After the independence of the United States it was no longer
possible to send criminals into exile in North America. To continue
the policy a new destination was needed. The chosen destination
was Botany Bay in what became known as New South Wales in Australia.
The whole continent was declared British land. The inhabitants
were ignored as though they were animals (the land was declared
"terra nullius" = belonging to no-one and therefore
free for settlement). Like North America this was a colony of
settlement rather than merely of rule and exploitation, as in
India.
New Zealand
was also seen as a colony of settlement, though of free workers
rather than convicts. Wars against the native Polynesians resulted
in conquest and parcelling out of the land to mainly British
farmers.
Africa
The empire in Africa started as slave trading depots in Ghana
(Gold Coast) and other parts of the West African coast. Then when Britain ended
its slave trade - having become rich enough to do without its
profits - there was a need for bases for the Naval patrols trying
to prevent other countries carrying on a slave trade. In Sierra Leone
there was also a base at Freetown to land freed ex-slaves. Then
there were bases for "legitimate" trade. These grew
from Lagos in Nigeria (a former Portuguese base), Accra in Ghana and Gambia.
In many cases the coastal base was declared a Colony (sovereign
British territory), and the interior lands were declared a Protectorate.
In the 1890s British troops pushed inland using the new technologies
of steam, telegraphs and machine guns (and Quinine to prevent
Malaria) until they reached the borders of the French territories.
The Berlin Conference (1884) on Colonial matters carved up Africa
and gave each of the European powers their own sections. Thus
Britain ended with territories in East, West and Southern Africa.
British farmers and business men settled in some of them:
Kenya, Rhodesia and South Africa.
The last major conquest of the British was South Africa, where their armies fought not
just the "natives" but the descendants of the Dutch
settlers at the Cape. The wars with the Boers created dissension
at home, where many saw the conquest as greed and imperial over-reach.
After the first world war those African colonies awarded to
Germany were
mostly given to Britain - Namibia
(South West Africa to South Africa), Cameroon (parts), and Togo
(part) and Tanganyika
(German East Africa).
Oceania
The Royal Navy and East India Company ships visited many small
islands in all the oceans. Many of these too were declared Sovereign
British territory or signed treaties making them Protectorates.
Some of them were useful as supply bases for water and food.
A British presence there also denied their use to other empires
- mainly the French.
At its height the Empire as an economic community was also
influential in areas not formally ruled by Britain. After China
the most important of these was Argentina. Britain was the source of capital
for developing the country, especially the railways, which were
owned by London investors and there were many British managers
in Argentine businesses. Britain gained by importing the beef
from the Pampas.
|
