The Historical Evolution of the British Empire

The expansion of the British Isles and France Since William I landed from Normandy and conquered England in 1066, England has been actively participating in European affairs for hundreds of years.

By the end of 14, the development of foreign trade from wool trade to Europe has become the most important national policy of Britain. England invaded Wales in 1282, Ireland in169, and temporarily controlled Scotland in 1296 (interrupted in13/4). The real reunification of the two regions will be achieved peacefully through the succession of 1603. Although the monarch of England lost the territory of Normandy in 1204, the ruler of England still owned a large area of land in France through marriage and inheritance until 1453. After that, until 1563, the English monarch only owned the port of Calais, a strategic place in northern France, but even the port of Calais was lost after that. The growth of overseas empires The roots of overseas British empires-here refers to British ocean exploration and immigration or colonization outside the British Island and the European continent-can be traced back to henry vii, whose ruling period was 1485 to 1509.

On the basis of the wool trade established in Richard, henry vii established a modern British maritime trade system, which greatly developed Britain's shipbuilding industry and navigation technology. This system also created conditions for the establishment of trading institutions in the future. Trading enterprises such as Massachusetts Bay Company and British East India Company made important contributions to the overseas expansion of the British Empire. Henry vii also ordered the construction of Britain's first dry dock in Portsmouth to strengthen the construction of the then small British navy. On August 5 of the same year, he declared Newfoundland a British colony in St. John's harbor.

1587, Sir Walter Raleigh declared Virginia a British colony in Anacker. However, both groups are very short-lived. Due to lack of food, bad weather, shipwrecks and the invasion of unfriendly indigenous people in the American continent, England soon had to give up these two colonies. During Stuart Dynasty (Tudor Elizabeth I), Britain defeated the Spanish Armada, but the four expeditions organized by Britain all ended in failure, which was not only more painful than Spain's loss of the Armada, but also hurt its national strength. More importantly, Spain's maritime strength recovered from 1589 to 1598, which made the Spanish navy enter a relatively glorious period, as evidenced by Philip II's sending powerful armada in 1596 and 1597 twice. Note: Quinn and Ryan: British Ocean Empire, p. 1 15. This led to the war between Britain and Spain, which has been at a disadvantage since 1588. 1604, James I of the Stuart Dynasty signed the Treaty of London with Spain.

1607, Britain established its first overseas colony in Jamestown, Virginia. In the next 300 years, England expanded its sphere of influence overseas and consolidated the local feudal monarchy. 1707, the parliaments of England and Scotland merged in London to form the Parliament of Great Britain. The embryonic form of the British Empire was formed at the beginning of17th century. At this time, Britain has established many colonies in North America, including Atlantic Province of the United States, Canada and some small islands in the Caribbean such as Jamaica and Barbados.

The Caribbean, which is rich in sugar cane, is highly dependent on slave labor. It was the most important and profitable colony in early England. The colonies in the southern part of the American continent provided tobacco, cotton and rice to Britain, while the northern part produced fur; Economically, they are not as important to England as the Caribbean islands, but the vast arable land attracts many British immigrants.

American colonies in Britain are gradually expanding through war and colonization. Through the Anglo-Dutch War, Britain won New Amsterdam (new york). Britain defeated France in the Seven Years' War, and in 1760, it occupied all areas of New France and controlled more areas in North America.

Subsequently, Australia (1788 was discovered by the British) and New Zealand (1840 became British territory) became another destination for British immigrants. At the same time, the indigenous populations of Australia and New Zealand also decreased by 60% to 70% in more than a century because of war and disease. These colonies have been self-governing since then, and they are also exporters of wool and iron ore. /kloc-in the 0/8th century, the original British colonial system began to decline. During the period when the Whigs controlled the domestic political power for a long time (17 14 to 1762), the empire adopted a more active foreign policy, including the seven-year war of 1756- 1763. After the war, taxing the colonies to solve the war debt problem (mainly over-taxing the colonies) triggered the American War of Independence (1775- 1783), which caused Britain to lose its most populous colony, the thirteen states of British North America. This period is sometimes called the "First British Empire", that is, the expansion of Britain in America from 17 to 18 century. Britain's expansion in Asia and Africa from the18th century is called the "Second British Empire". Britain's loss of control over the United States shows that the control of the colonies does not necessarily have a decisive impact on the British economy: after giving up the defense and administration of the American colonies, Britain quickly resumed its dominant position in American trade.

Mercantilism is a theory of economics, which refers to the struggle for wealth between countries. This is the characteristic of Britain's first overseas colonial expansion. The experience Britain learned from the colonial independence of North America is that without colonial rule, trade can still bring economic prosperity. This is why Britain was willing to grant dominion status to Canada, Australia and other white colonies from 1840 to 1850, because the whites in these countries were regarded as the "motherland" people living in the colonies. On the other hand, Ireland's fate is completely different. Incorporated into the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland on 180 1.

During this period, Britain announced the abolition of the slave trade (1807) and soon imposed this ban on other countries. By the middle of19th century, Britain had basically eliminated the slave trade on a global scale. Slavery itself was abolished in the British colony in 1834, and the situation became stable until around 1920. The end of the old colonial and slavery system was implemented together with free trade, and the principle of free trade reached its peak around 1840, which was marked by the abolition of the British corn laws and Navigation Act. Free trade completely opened the British market, which also prompted other countries to open their markets in the middle of the19th century.

Some people think that the rise of free trade only reflects Britain's economic status and has nothing to do with any philosophical point of view. In fact, Britain is always more keen to force other countries to implement a certain policy than to implement the same policy itself. Although Britain lost 13 American colonies, Napoleon's final failure on the European continent in 18 15 established Britain as the most successful international power. Although the industrial revolution made Britain an undisputed economic power, the Royal Navy dominated the ocean. Britain has always kept a distance from continental European affairs, so it was able to implement an expansion plan aimed at expanding its economic and political influence, which established an "informal empire" through free trade and strategic advantages.

From the Vienna Conference in 18 15 to the Franco-Prussian War in 1870, Britain was the only industrialized power in the world at that time, and it was the producer of 30% of the world's industrial products (1870). As a "world factory", Britain can produce industrial products effectively and cheaply, which makes its products produced at home more competitive than those produced locally after being shipped abroad. As long as the political situation in overseas markets is stable, Britain can still benefit from free trade even without formal colonial rule. During the period of 1870- 19 14, the policy and ideology of colonial expansion were called "new imperialism". The most obvious trend in this period is that European powers "empire for the sake of empire", contending for and consolidating their own colonies overseas, and directly colonizing other nations regarded as inferior nations under the premise of racial superiority theory.

During this period, the total area of overseas colonies of European powers reached 23 million square kilometers. Until the1880s, few Europeans set foot in Africa, but during this period, Africa became the main target of imperialists. But the expansion in other areas is also very frequent, especially in the coastal areas of Southeast Asia and East Asia: in these areas, the United States and Japan have also joined the ranks of competing for colonies.

1875 is considered as a watershed of the British Empire. This year, the British government, headed by Benjamin Disraeli, bought shares in the Suez Canal from Egyptian Ismail. From then on, Britain consolidated its control over the canal, which had a decisive influence on the trade between Britain and India. 1882, the struggle between Britain and France for Egyptian territory ended in the victory of the British.

For centuries, the fear of the gradual expansion of the Russian Empire to the south also influenced British policy: 1878 Britain took control of Cyprus as a stronghold to protect the Ottoman Empire; Before that, Britain also participated in the Crimean War from 1845 to 1856, and tried to invade Afghanistan. All these actions are aimed at preventing Russia from further expanding southward, and ultimately threatening the British occupation of India. Britain launched three bloody wars against Afghanistan, but none of them succeeded. The resistance of the local people and the complex terrain defeated the British goal. 1842 the first anglo-Arab war was the most painful military defeat suffered by Britain in the Victorian era. The whole British army was defeated by the Pashtuns in Afghanistan supported by the Russian Empire. 1880 the second anglo-Arab war was also a painful experience. British troops were defeated in Kandahar, surrounded by Kabul and finally retreated to India. 19 19 the third anglo-afghan war caused a tribal uprising in Afghanistan, completely defeated the British troops who had just experienced the first world war and drove them out of Afghanistan forever. Britain's adventure in the interior of Asia ended in 1903' s failure and totally unnecessary invasion of China and Tibet.

At the same time, many influential British politicians and businessmen believe that a formal empire is extremely important, especially for British goods whose share in the world market is declining. /kloc-in the 1990s, Britain adopted a new policy wholeheartedly and soon became an important predator of tropical African colonies.

The reason why Britain adopted the neo-colonial policy may be to seek a larger overseas market for British products and investments, or it may be regarded as a strategic pre-emptive measure to prevent the existing trade channels from being destroyed by other big countries, or to allow other countries to obtain more export markets under the increasingly closed international trade situation. At the beginning of 1900, Chamberlain tried to amend the British trade barrier bill, which met with great opposition and was finally forced to give up. This shows that even if Britain's interests were damaged, the British still supported the principle of free trade. Some historians believe that Britain's neo-imperialist policy is actually a manifestation of its declining influence, not the result of its rising influence.

The evolution of Indian colonialism is enough to warn us that the economic competition between western capitalist powers before the new imperialist era should not be regarded as the only reason for Britain to strengthen colonial control. 1858 India officially became a part of the British Empire, aiming at consolidating British rule over India, and it was also a direct response to the Indian mutiny, which was also caused by the opposition of Indian conservative forces to many British policies in the Indian subcontinent. 1757, the victory of the battle of Plasi gave the British East India Company the right to rule the Indian state of Bengal. 1770 The famine aggravated by excessive taxes in this state caused controversy in Britain. By the19th century, the East India Company almost controlled the whole of India. 1857 After the Indian national uprising, the territory under the jurisdiction of the company was handed over to the Queen's Government for management. Queen Victoria was declared Queen of India on 1876.

Ceylon (now Sri Lanka), Myanmar and Malaya were also included in the sphere of British influence in Asia. 184 1 After the Opium War, Britain took Hong Kong Island from China.

Britain's interest in China originated at the end of 18, and Britain became a tea importer in China. Tea imports have led to a huge trade deficit in Britain, so Britain hopes to balance its expenses by exporting opium from India to China, although this violates China's ban. The two opium wars triggered by opium trade ended in the victory of Britain.

After the Opium War, Britain maintained a complicated relationship with China. Although Britain acquired Hongkong, the trade between Britain and China was mainly conducted through several open ports in China. So what Britain wants to see is an independent China, because the collapse of China means that other western powers may carve up China with Britain and challenge Britain's privileged position.

At the same time, Britain does not want to see an overly powerful China, because it means that China will cancel or demand renegotiation of some originally signed treaties. This attitude explains Britain's seemingly contradictory China policy: on the one hand, it helped the Qing court suppress the Taiping rebellion, on the other hand, it joined forces with France to launch the second opium war. 1875, European countries had only two main colonies in Africa, Algeria and Cape Colony. But by 19 14, all African countries except Ethiopia and Liberia had become colonies of European countries. This change from an "informal empire" that only controlled colonies economically to direct control of African colonies was actually realized by Britain's naked plunder of these African regions that were originally influenced by Britain.

When France, Belgium and Portugal colonized the lower Congo River, they actually threatened Britain's penetration into tropical Africa. The Berlin Conference from 1884 to 1885 tried to mediate the contradictions among the great powers, and put forward the standard of "actual occupation" to determine the ownership of the colonies of various countries. The adoption of this standard meant that European countries attacked the local tribes and people in Africa more unscrupulously in order to obtain a larger area of "actual occupation".

1882 British military occupation of Egypt (the most direct reason is to protect the Suez Canal) also established British control over the Nile region. This further led to the British conquest of Sudan from 1896 to 1898 and the Fashoda incident involving Britain and France in September 1898. From 65438 to 0899, Britain completed its full occupation of South Africa. This military action first began with the annexation of Cape Verde from 65438 to 0795. After invading Transvaal, a gold mining area in South Africa originally ruled by the Dutch, and the neighboring Orange Free State, the British South Africa Company, which was in charge of South Africa affairs, went further north and named the occupied area Rhodesia after Sir Cecil Rhodes, a wealthy Cape businessman.

Britain's victories in South Africa and East Africa prompted Sir Rhodes and British Ambassador to South Africa alfred milner to put forward the idea of establishing a British colonial empire from Cape Town to Cairo in Africa. They hope to achieve this goal by building a railway connecting the Suez Canal and South Africa's mining areas. However, due to Germany's colonization of Tanganyika, the British colonies in Africa were divided into two parts. Before the end of World War I, only telegraph lines were opened between African colonies, and railways could not be built.

Although it is the most active advocate of free trade, Britain, full of contradictions, is not only the largest overseas empire in 19 14, but also the biggest beneficiary of plundering Africa. From 1885 to 19 14, Britain put about 30% of the African population under its rule, while France only ruled 15% of Africans, 9% of Germans, 7% of Belgians and 1% in the same period. The population of Nigerian colonies in Britain is150,000, which is the total population of all French West Africa and all German colonies. 1837, 18-year-old Princess Victoria of Kent became the Queen of England until her death in 190 1. She was called Queen Victoria. During the 60 years of Queen Victoria's rule, through the efforts of several prime ministers, Britain controlled the global sea power and dominated the world trade. Its huge colonies are spread all over the continents, and it seems that "not falling into the empire" can "compete with the world". During the Victorian period, Maxwell, the greatest scientist since Newton, Dickens, the most outstanding writer since Shakespeare, Gladstone, the pioneer of liberal policy, and palmerston, a famous diplomat, emerged in Britain, with a wealth of talents.

The dominance of the Victorian Empire reached its peak when palmerston died in 1865: "The plains of North America and Russia are our barns; Chicago and Odessa are our mining areas; Canada and Scandinavia planted trees for us; Australian shepherds give us sheep; Argentina raises cattle for us; Peru sent silver and South Africa paid tribute to gold; Indians and China grow tea for us, and the Mediterranean is our orchard; As for our cotton plantation, it is expanding from the southern United States to all warm places on earth. " The British Empire also reached its peak in the early Victorian era, with a territory of about 33.67 million square kilometers, which is a quarter of the total land area of the world. It is the largest country in human history and recognized by international historians and Guinness World Records. As the first industrialized country, Britain can regard the whole world as the source country of its raw materials and the export market of industrial products. However, with the industrialization of other countries, this situation gradually changed in the19th century, and more and more countries began to protect their raw material supply and export markets. By the1870s, British industrial products were facing strong competition from other countries.

The rapid industrialization of Germany and the United States has enabled them to quickly catch up with Britain and France, two old capitalist countries. For example, by 1870, Germany's textile and metal industries had surpassed Britain in organizational structure and technical efficiency, and had already defeated similar products from Britain in the German domestic market. By the end of 19, Germany even began to produce these products for the "world factory" of that year.

Although intangible exports (such as banking services, insurance and shipping) helped Britain avoid a trade deficit, its trade volume fell from a quarter of the world's total trade volume in 1880 to a sixth in 19 13. Britain has not only lost in the market competition in industrialized countries, but also its products have no advantage in the markets of underdeveloped countries. Britain is even losing its dominant position in trade with India, the United States, Latin America and the African coast.

The economic depression from 1873 to 1996 aggravated the business difficulties in Britain. The deflation caused by the business recession has further increased the pressure on governments of various countries, forcing them to encourage and foster domestic industries, and finally leading European powers to gradually give up the principle of free trade (Germany 1879, France 188 1 give up free trade).

As a result, the domestic and export markets are shrinking. Therefore, European and later American government and business leaders began to regard overseas colonies as their new markets: these overseas colonies will become the export markets of the suzerain country, and they will be protected by trade barriers, so that the goods of other countries cannot compete with the products of the suzerain country. Meanwhile, they are still cheap sources of raw materials. Although Britain insisted on free trade until 1932, it also participated in the struggle for overseas colonies to prevent those areas that had been affected by it from falling into the hands of other industrialized countries. With Canada (1867), Australia (190 1), New Zealand (1907) and the South African Union (19 10) gaining dominion, the British Empire The leaders of these new countries, together with British politicians, attended the colonial conference held regularly since 1887 (called the imperial conference after 1907).

The autonomous territories do enjoy a lot of freedom in foreign policy, as long as their policies are not obviously contrary to Britain's own interests: the Canadian Liberal Party government signed a bilateral free trade reciprocal agreement with the United States in 19 1 1, but it was not passed because of the opposition of the British Conservative Party.

In terms of national defense, the original practice of bringing the defense of Dominion into the military framework of a single empire proved difficult to maintain after 1900, because Britain began to assume greater responsibility for the defense of the European continent at this time, and at the same time faced the threat of the rising German navy. 1909, the British empire decided that every dominion should have its own navy, which violated the agreement of 1887, that is, Britain promised Australia to export manpower to the British navy in exchange for the British fleet stationed in the Pacific region. The influence of World War I After World War I, the British Empire completed its last large-scale overseas expansion. With the approval of the League of Nations, Britain was appointed to rule Palestine and Iraq, which belonged to the Ottoman Empire, while the German colonies Tanganyika, Southwest Africa (Namibia) and New Guinea were also included in the British territory (South Africa ruled South Africa and New Guinea was ruled by Australia).

Although Britain won the war and gained new colonies from it, the huge expenditure of the war made it impossible for Britain to continue to bear the huge financial expenditure needed to maintain an empire. Millions of people died in Britain and countless assets were destroyed. As a result, the debt is high, the capital market is chaotic, and the number of British officials in overseas colonies is scarce. At the same time, the nationalism of both the old and new colonies is on the rise, which is fueled by the participation of the empire and the strong racial discrimination felt by black soldiers in the war.

1920s is an era of great changes in the dominion. Although the Dominion did not have the right to choose whether to participate in the war when World War I broke out, the Treaty of Versailles, which ended World War I in 19 19, was signed by Britain and Dominion respectively. 1922 The Dominion refused to support the British military action against Turkey, forcing Britain to seek a peaceful compromise.

The complete independence of the Dominion was finally established by the Balfour Declaration of 1926 and the Westminster Act of 193 1: all Dominions gained the same status as Britain, and the British legislature no longer had the right to interfere in the internal affairs of the Dominion, and the Dominion would also enjoy the freedom of independent foreign policy. 1907 set up a department in charge of autonomous territorial affairs in the colonial department, 1925 set up an independent autonomous territorial department, and 1930 had its first minister.

Canada became the first self-governing territory to sign a separate diplomatic treaty in 1923, and welcomed the first British High Commissioner in Ottawa in 1928, thus ending the contradictory position that the Governor General of Canada was originally the head of state of Canada and the British representative in Canada. 1927 Canada sent its first resident diplomat to Washington; 1940, Australia also sent its first ambassador abroad.

After a bloody war against British rule, the Irish Free State was granted dominion status in 192 1. 1937, Ireland broke off formal constitutional relations with Britain, 1949, and officially became an Irish Republic completely independent of the Commonwealth. Egypt, which was originally independent and was not controlled by Britain until 1922, also severed its special constitutional relationship with Britain in 1936 (although Britain did not withdraw its troops from Egypt until 1956). Iraq became a British protectorate in 1922, and became completely independent after 10. At the beginning of the 20th century, the nationalist sentiment of the colonial people was high, and they began to challenge the dominant position of the colonial sovereign state. At the same time, the suzerain is increasingly concerned about the affairs of its own country and its neighbors. Although Britain tried to resist this momentum at first, it ended in disaster, and finally had to accept this new situation and transform the old British Empire into today's Commonwealth.

After World War II, the British people were miserable, but their former allies were unwilling to continue to support colonialism. The economic crisis of 1947 forced Clement Attlee's Labor government to give up Britain's dream of becoming a superpower and admit the rise of the United States. Britain must also deal with the relations with other European countries, but the distorted relationship between Britain and Europe has not been completely solved so far.

World War II finally destroyed Britain's weakened economic and financial leadership, and highlighted the need for Dominion and the United States to assist Britain militarily. 1942, Australian prime minister john curtin ordered the Australian soldiers stationed in British Burma to be sent back to Australia to take part in the battle to defend Australia, which made it clear to Britain that Britain could no longer ask the autonomous territorial government to sacrifice its own interests to safeguard its strategic interests.

After the war, Australia and New Zealand joined the Australia-New Zealand-US Regional Security Treaty led by the United States at 195 1, making the United States replace Britain as the new military dominant force in the Pacific region. Britain itself tried to join the European Union from 196 1, and got it at 1973, which further weakened the original special economic relationship between Britain and its dominions, and dominion products no longer enjoyed special preferential treatment when they entered the British market.

In the Caribbean, Africa, Asia and the Pacific, driven by increasingly powerful nationalist forces, the post-war decolonization movement was realized at an unprecedented speed, and Britain almost never tried to resist this wave. Britain's decline was revealed in the Suez Canal crisis of 1956: in this humiliating incident, two old colonial countries, Britain and France, were forced to end their intervention in Egypt under the strong pressure of the United States to safeguard American interests in the Middle East.

From 65438 to 0947, India gained independence, which was the victory of the 40-year anti-colonial struggle of the Indian National Congress. But India's independence comes at the cost of splitting India and Pakistan, in order to avoid infighting between Muslims and Hindus. The acceptance of Indian independence by Britain and other dominions is the beginning of today's Commonwealth organization.

1957, Ghana finally became independent after the nationalist independence movement in 10, followed by Nigeria (1960), Sierra Leone and Tanganyika (196 1) and Uganda (196).

The withdrawal of British troops from southern and eastern Africa had a great impact on the local white residents: the He Miaomiao Uprising after Kenyan independence showed that the possession of power by white landowners caused dissatisfaction among African aborigines. The white regime in South Africa has always been a heart disease in the Commonwealth until 1994, when the South African government ended its apartheid policy.

Although the Federation of Rhodesia, which was dominated by whites, split with the independence of Malawi and Zambia in 1964, the whites in southern rhodesia (who have been autonomous colonies since 1923) declared their independence and refused to accept the jurisdiction of an African government. With the support of the white government in South Africa, this Rhodesian regime lasted until 1979, until the two sides reached an agreement to establish the Republic of Zimbabwe ruled by the majority.

After the short-lived West Indian Federation (1958 to 1962) failed, most British Caribbean colonies chose to divide and rule: Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago in 1962, Barbados in 1966 and other eastern Caribbean island countries became independent one after another. In the next few years, the British colonies in the Pacific also experienced a similar decolonization process. During the period of 1997, the British returned Hong Kong, a colony that originally belonged to China and was occupied by the British, after many negotiations by the China government.