• Historie
  • Utdanning: Vg1
  • Karakter: 5
  • Ord: 1294

Innledning
What were the motives behind the British Empire's remarkable expansion, which saw it become one of the largest empires in history?

Kenneth Morgan ponders whether it was a hunger for increased trade or an insatiable thirst for conquest that propelled this extraordinary rise to power.

Innholdsfortegnelse
A flourishing power
Growth of Empire
Which came first?

Utdrag
Growth of Empire
Toward the end of the Napoleonic wars, the conditions in Britain underwent a tremendous transformation. The population had grown rapidly since 1770, reaching a total of 12 million by 1815.

This was accompanied by agricultural progress, proto-industrialization, growth in manufacturing and mineral technology, and the emergence of factories, which helped to industrialize the economy. Specialization in regular work replaced dual occupations.

The pace of trade and colonization had also accelerated. At the beginning of the 18th century, most foreign trade was still conducted with Europe, but by the end of the century, British overseas trade had become "Americanized." In 1797-8, North America and the West Indies received 57% of British exports and supplied 32% of imports.

The British also became the largest and most efficient carriers of slaves to the New World after the Royal African Company's monopoly was abolished in 1698. Private merchant houses financed this business, and Jamaica, the largest British slave colony, was also the wealthiest colony in the empire.

By 1775, Britain had more land and people in the Americas than either the Dutch or the French, who were its two main northern European rivals for international power and prestige.

The East India Company's trade still flourished, and greater British settlement in Bengal occurred after 1765.

Despite the major blow to British imperial strength from losing the thirteen mainland American colonies in the War of Independence, Britain quickly recovered from this disaster and acquired additional territories during the long war years with France from 1793 to 1815, including Trinidad, Tobago, St. Lucia, Guyana, the Cape Colony, Mauritius, and Ceylon, and subjugating various Indian states.