The British Empire

So in our syriza about imperialism, we're gonna look at

the poster child for European imperialism.

The British Empire.

The British Empire was most powerful in the 19th century,

and from 18 37 to 1901 Britain had the queen

named Victoria.

So this is often called the Victorian era, although by

this time the real power was in the hands of

the British Parliament and her prime minister.

Still, Victoria would rule as Empress of India and Queen

of Britain and all her colonies.

At one point, Britain would control 1/4 of the world's

people and 1/4 of the planet's surface.

The British were the number one imperial power, so let's

take a look at how they did it and where

they were most powerful.

So the British had a saying.

The sun never sets on the British Empire.

They ruled from Canada to Australia.

It was literally true.

In 18 67 the British and the French work together

to dig the Suez Canal in Egypt, which made Egypt

critical. At that point, Egypt was independent.

But in the 18 eighties, the British seized Egypt when

a nationalist movement threatened to seize the canal and threatened

the lifeline from Britain to India.

India was the crown jewel of the British empire will

look more than in just a moment.

Europeans also migrated to various parts of the British Empire.

Not all areas were attractive, but Australia, New Zealand and

Canada as well as, of course, Ireland, were mostly populated

by Europeans.

Although the Irish will remind you that they've been colonized

by the English since the Middle Ages, the center of

the British Empire was, of course, India, the fabulous, most

wealthy area going back to the age of Discovery, the

source of cotton and spices and all sorts of wealth.

The British East India company have been operating in India

since the 17 hundreds.

But in 17 63 at the end of the seven

years war, the British had decisively lay claim to control

the trade from India.

The British skillfully played off one side against the other

India. This point was ruled by Muslims, the mogul empire

and the mogul emperor would remain on the throne technically

until 18 58.

Ironically, India was controlled not by the British government but

by a corporation, the British East India Company, whose rule

was so exploitative they once cut off the ability of

an area to make food because they preferred it to

grow non edible products for clothing and has created a

famine that killed over a million people.

The India company was mostly driven by profit, but they

also didn't exercise direct control over most Indians lives.

They prefer to cut deals with Indian princes, rajas, maharajas,

the various Indian nobles to control various portions of India

that were strategically advantageous and the parts they didn't care

about. They just didn't really bother with.

Still, this meant that Britain exercise effective, if indirect, control

over most of India and its economy.

Up until the Indian revolt of 18 57 and 18

58 the India company also sees Salon from the Dutch

in 18 06 when the Dutch were on the wrong

side of the Napoleonic force and as well see, the

British would be very sensitive to any country getting to

near India, which caused in the seas or attempt to

seize areas all around India as well, which expanded the

empire in 18 57.

The company asked its Indian troops to use a new

bullet this bullet was coated with pig and cow Greece

because it was in a paper cartridge that they were

supposed to tear off with their teeth and pour powder

and ball into the muzzle loading musket.

Unfortunately, most of their soldiers were either Hindus who would

be offended by eating cow or Muslims would be offended

by eating pig.

And although this was the spark that caused the revolt,

the real reason was anger at British East India company

policies in general.

Hundreds of Britons were killed and violence tour India part

for several months.

Eventually, the British government stepped in and ended the British

East India company altogether and took direct control of India,

bringing in British troops and troops from outside the rebellious

areas to crush the rising.

For the next 100 years, India would be directly governed

by the British government, a time known as the Rash.

Now the British government did a much better job administering

India. They even recruited Indians into the civil service so

that India was run by the British, who used Indians,

Indian troops, Indian bureaucrats, Indian clerks, basically most of the

British government and most of the British army in India

was populated by Indians.

Remember, there is no such places.

India Politically speaking at this point, India is a comment

that contains dozens of languages and many religions.

So again, the British would use troops to control an

area that were from a different ethnic group, so those

troops would not have an affinity to the people being

controlled. Still, many Indians thought that the British were improvement

over there prior overlords the Mughals, who, after all, hadn't

been Hindu, either.

The British generally left Hindus and Muslims alone to practice

their religion, although they did stop some practices, such as

a tradition in rural areas of burning the widow alive

of a man who died so that she would accompany

him to the afterlife practice known as city.

But in general, the British were impressed by the ancient

power of Indian civilization, and upper caste Indians often went

to Britain to study in British universities, often having gone

to missionary schools while in India, and to this day,

India has a sophisticated university system that was begun by

the British for upper caste Indian students.

One of those being a young man named Mohammed is

K. Gandhi, who studied law in London.

Later, he would come back to India and lead its

independence move.

In fact, in 18 85 the Indians founded a political

party on the Western model, the I.

N. C.

Or Indian National Congress.

At first, it agitated for reforms, more local control for

Indians over their own villages and mawr equality in India.

And they won limited reforms.

But the British never let the Indians forget they were

in control.

There were white Onley clubs in Delhi, the capital, and

whites could address Indians with derogatory names without fear of

punishment. And this, of course, would great on the Indians

looking for a way eventually to throw the British out.

Gandhi himself studied in London, spent several years in the

Indian community in South Africa, 1915 returned to India and

eventually became involved in the I N.

C, which shifted its focus from reform to independence.

Meanwhile, the British reacted if anyone threatened their empire.

When the Russians pushed into Afghanistan, the British also pushed

into Afghanistan.

The Afghans managed to drive both the Russians and the

British out from then on.

The British simply gave guns to the Afghans to keep

shooting Russians the British more successful in taking over Burma

and exercising a protectorate over Tibet and Nepal and a

sphere of influence in Persia.

Anything on the Indian borders that was vulnerable was seized

by the British to keep their rivals from China and

Russia and France out.

This was a game of diplomacy, spying, espionage and, occasionally,

war that Richard Kipling dubbed the Great Game.

One other colony to mention, And that's South Africa because

it's modern story can be traced back to the colonial

period. The Dutch should colonize South African.

The 16 hundreds, but again during the Napoleonic Wars, been

taken over very Britain.

The local Dutch settlers, called Afrikaners decided they didn't want

to be under the British.

And so in the 18 thirties, they packed up their

wagons across the prairie.

Yes, we're talking Africa, and they established independent Republics called

the border states, the Boer Republics, Boris, just a Dutch

word for farmer.

But several decades later, the British also expanded inland, And

when Cecil Rhodes, a British business owner who mined gold

and diamonds in Africa, realized there was valuable materials in

the border states, he agitated for the British to expand

their the British had had to fight their way through

the fierce Zulu tribe and feed them and some pretty

serious wars.

And now they were looking at the Dutch settlers in

the border states.

The Boer War lasted from 18 99 to 1902 and

both sides fought fiercely.

The British ultimately won the war, but the boars extracted

such a high price that the two sides agreed to

a compromise.

The boars would become British subjects, and the boar states

have become part of the British colony.

But the boards would be allowed to keep their language

and their customs.

Unfortunately, one of the Bora customs was a harsh attitude

toward non whites who they considered inferior.

And this attitude of keeping nonwhites in a state of

second class, uh, citizenship or even worse, would last until

the late 20th century, until finally, a man named Nelson

Mandela would tear this system down.

South Africa, like Australia and Canada and New Zealand, was

made a Dominion, the Dominion.

It was a place where the whites basically exercised partial

self government.

The British didn't want another American revolution peeling off some

of the more valuable colonies.

And so a Dominion was a way to let the

Canadians, with the Australians and New Zealand's and the white

South Africans feel like they had a lot of say

over their own policies while still keeping them as a

semi independent part of the British Empire.

Of course, later on, these countries did become fully independent,

generally in the middle of the 20th century.

British Empire was fast on.

It was incredibly successful.

But the British, we're overextended.

It's a tiny island and ultimately two world wars.

And the fact that the British talked about freedom, equality,

voting and democratic values and then had to face well,

to be honest, a bit of their own hypocrisy.

Ultimately, these the wars of the 20th century and the

British inconsistency with their values and their actions will cause

the British eventually to begin to let go of their

colonies, beginning in the middle of the 20th century, a

story we'll talk about later this year,

The British Empire

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