The Consolidation of the British Empire
Write a note of The Consolidation of in India.
Answer:-
The growth
of the British Empire was due
in large part to the ongoing competition for resources and markets which existed
over a period of centuries between England and her Continental rivals, Spain,
France,
and Holland. During the reign of Elizabeth I, England set up trading companies in Turkey, Russia and East Indies, explored the coast of North America, and established colonies there. In the early seventeenth century those colonies were expanded and the systematic colonization of Ulster in Ireland got underway.
Or other answer
The Battle of Plassly unable to British to own
in India.
and Holland. During the reign of Elizabeth I, England set up trading companies in Turkey, Russia and East Indies, explored the coast of North America, and established colonies there. In the early seventeenth century those colonies were expanded and the systematic colonization of Ulster in Ireland got underway.
The
first British Empire was a mercantile one. Under both the Stuarts and Cromwell,
the mercantilist outlines of further colonization and Empire-building became more and more apparent. Until the early nineteenth
century, the primary purpose of Imperialist policies was to facilitate the
acquisition of as much foreign territory as possible, both as a source of raw
materials and in order to provide real or potential markets for British
manufactures. The mercantilists advocated in theory, and sought in practice,
trade monopolies which would insure that Britain’s exports would exceed its
imports. A profitable balance of trade, it was believed would provide the
wealth necessary to maintain and expand the empire. After ultimately successful
wars with Dutch, the French, and the Spanish in the seventeenth century,
Britain managed to acquire most of the eastern coast of North America, the St. Lawrence
basin in Canada, territories in the Carribean, stations in Africa for the acquisition of
slaves, and important interests in India. The loss in the late eighteenth century of the American colonies was not offset
by the discovery of Australia, which served after 1788, as a penal colony
(convicts like Magwitch,
in Dickens’s Great Expectations, were transported there). However, the loss
influenced the so-called “swing to the East” (the acquisition of trading and strategic bases along the trade
routes between India and the
Far East). In 1773 the British government was obliged to take over for the financially
troubled East India Company, which had been in India since 1600, and by the end
of the century Britain’s control over India extended into neighboring Afghanistan
and Burma. With the end, in 1815, of the Napoleonic Wars, the last of the great
imperial wars which had dominated the 18th century, Britain found
itself in an extraordinarily powerful position, though a complicated one. It
acquired Dutch South Africa, for example, but found its interests threatened in
India by the southern and eastern expansion of the Russians (the protection of
India from the Russians, both by land and by sea, would be a major concern of
Victorian foreign policy). At this time however, the empires of Britain’s
traditional rivals had been lost or severely diminished in size, and its
imperial position was unchallenged. In addition, it had become the leading
industrial nation of Europe, and more of the world came under the domination of
British commercial financial and naval power.
The state of
affairs however was complex and far from stable. The old mercantile Empire was
weakened during the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries by a number
of factors by the abolition in 1807 of slavery in Britain itself, a movement
led by the Evangelicals; by the freeing in 1833 of slaves held elsewhere in the
Empire; by the adoption, after a radical change in economic perspective (due in
large part to the influence of Adam Smith’s ‘The Wealth of Nations’), of Free Trade, which minimized the
influence of the old oligarchical and monopolistic trading
corporations; and by various colonial movements for greater political and
commercial independence. The Victorians, then inherited both the remnants of
the mercantile empire and the more recently acquired commercial network in the
East, neither of which they were they wanted, since Smith maintained that
“under the present system of management Great Britain derives nothing but loss
from the dominion which she assumes over her colonies.”
Allegorical
figures of Australia and Africa on the façade of the Colonial Office,
Whitehall, London, by Henry Hugh Armstead. Click on images for additional
information and larger images, which take longer to download.
During the Victorian Era, however, the acquisition of
territory and of further trading concessions continued (promoted by strategic
considerations and aided or justified by philanthropic motivations), reaching
its peak when Victoria, at Disraeli’s instigation, had herself crowned Empress
of India in1876. Advocates of Disraeli’s imperialist foreign policies justified
them by invoking a paternalists and racist theory (founded in part upon popular
but erroneous generalizations derived from Darwin’s theory of evolution) which
saw Imperialism as a manifestation of what Kipling would refer to as “the white
man’s burden.” The implication, of course, was that the Empire existed not for
the benefit- economic or strategic or otherwise---- of Britain itself, but in
order that primitive peoples, incapable of self-government, could with British
guidance, eventually become civilized (and Christianized). The truth of this
doctrine was accepted naively by some, and hypocritically by others, but it
served in any case to legitimize Britain’s acquisition of portions of central
Africa and her domination, in concert with other European powers, of China.
At the height
of the Empire, however, growing nationalist movements in various colonies
presaged its dissolution. The process accelerated after World War I, although
in the immediate post-war period the Empire actually increased in size as
Britain became the “trustee” of former German and Turkish territories(Egypt,
for example), in Africa and the Middle East. The English-speaking colonies,
Canada and Australia, had already acquired dominion status in 1907, and in
1931, Britain and the self-governing domination- Canada, Australia, New
Zealand, South Africa, and the Irish Free State--- agreed to form the “Commonwealth
of Nations.” The dominations came to the aid of Britain during World War II, but
Britain’s losses to the Japanese in the Far East made it clear that it no
longer possessed the resources to maintain the old order of things. The
Americans were in any case ready, and indeed anxious, to replace British
influence in many areas of the World.
Britain’s hold
or India had gradually loosened achieved qualified self-government in 1935 and
independence in 1947. Ireland, which had at last won dominion status in 1921
after a brutal guerrilla war, achieved independence in 1949, although the
northern province of Ulster remained(as it is today) a part of Great Britain,. The
process of decolonization in Africa and Asia accelerated during the late 1950's.
Today, any affinities which remain between former portions of the Empire are
primarily linguistic or cultural rather than political.
The
appointment of governor general was an important step in this was an important
step in this regard although it was not until the Sepoy mutiny that technically
the Sepoy mutiny that
technically the Sepoy mutiny that technically the control of India went to the British Government the Representatives of the East India Company brought provinces within their power by direct onexation or by fourging alliance with the rullers who appealed to the company for protection. The demorjation of authority involved the setting up a new administrative mechanism headed by a vicerory.
technically the Sepoy mutiny that technically the control of India went to the British Government the Representatives of the East India Company brought provinces within their power by direct onexation or by fourging alliance with the rullers who appealed to the company for protection. The demorjation of authority involved the setting up a new administrative mechanism headed by a vicerory.
The
british policy involved the appointment of officials the councilus- a process
of monopolization that continued well into the final decades of the Raj.
The
British administration in India achieved an important goal,- it brought about
political unification to a country that was never previousely functioning a
single political power. The imporalist process of administrating such a Vast
country was added by the introduction of English as official Language and
promotion of English Studies in the 19th Century. Before the British
control over India three was no single language that was operating across the
nation forcommunicative purpose. Along with the introduction and circulation of
a common language, the social measures intiated by the British enhance the
emperialist’s design.
British
brought under considerable control make travel easier and ensured protection of
properatier to a great Extend and acts of social reforms were also started Various
social measures were taken against female impenticidele and Sateother aspects
of British policy such as the introduction of Railways and telegraph lines,
enhanced irrigation works, to name of few also asserted influence on the life
of both the British and the Indians. Moreover, these measures functioned as a
kind of justification for the empurcalist hold of the British over Indian
territories.
The
19th century constuted the age of Empialism. The British rule in
India in ther 19th century left a lot of issues agrugated sum that
were already in existence. Poverty waw a major problem in colonial India with
extreme situations resulting in famines and droughts. The rural economy of India
received a blow because the products of British industry easily outmanooubred
the handicraft items that were made in the village. With the lost suffered in
the handloan and handicraft industries India economy increasingly looked to
agricultural to make up the deliciete education the problem multiple when the British
introduced English models in 1833. Even though the English was used as the
medium of instruction the infrastructure wasn’t there in most parts of India.
As such a majority of the Indian population remain illiterate one such a
situation served the British emperial interests it and enhanced the devide
between the haves and the have-nots.
Edited by Podmeswar Bora. Thank you for read this note. Welcome again.....
Edited by Podmeswar Bora. Thank you for read this note. Welcome again.....