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- Herausgeber: GRIN Verlag
- Sprache: Englisch
Seminar paper from the year 2004 in the subject English Language and Literature Studies - Culture and Applied Geography, grade: 1,7, University of Paderborn, course: Understanding British Business Culture, language: English, abstract: Reasons for building the Empire The British Empire was the first genuinely global empire, an empire that ranged, at times, from the American colonies in the West, Australia and New Zealand in the East, Canada and her dominions in the North and huge chunks of Africa in the South, including Egypt and Rhodesia. The history of the British Empire can be divided into two parts. The First Empire, which arose in the 17th century, consisted of North America and the Caribbean and was settled and colonised by British immigrants. This empire basically died with the American Revolution in 1776. The Second Empire arose as the first was dying and was founded primarily for the purpose of foreign trade and consisted of countries in the Pacific, in Africa, and India. In the 20th century, the British Empire practically dissolved and finally replaced by the Commonwealth. The first question to ask is why did the British feel the need to expand overseas? One of the main reasons was an economic one and was similar to motives that drove Spain and other European powers to expand their holdings: it was the desire for profitable trade, plunder and enrichment. The overseas expansion, apart from the interest of the City of London, was backed by other important interest groups: manufacturers who needed a vent for their surplus products, export merchants who handled their goods, and import merchants and their associates who dealt with the re-export trades. Expansion abroad also conferred indirect benefits on the home government, which gained from enlarged customer revenues, on the landed interest, which in consequence enjoyed favourable tax treatment, and on investors in national debt, whose returns rose when borrowing and interest rates increased. Therefore, the growth of the British Empire was due in large part to the ongoing competition for resources and markets that existed over a period of centuries between England and her continental rivals, Spain, France, and Holland.
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Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2005
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1. The rise of the British Empire
1.1. Reasons for building the Empire
The British Empire was the first genuinely global empire, an empire that ranged, at times, from the American colonies in the West, Australia and New Zealand in the East, Canada and her dominions in the North and huge chunks of Africa in the South, including Egypt and Rhodesia.
The history of the British Empire can be divided into two parts. The First Empire, which arose in the 17th century, consisted of North America and the Caribbean and was settled and colonised by British immigrants. This empire basically died with the American Revolution in 1776. The Second Empire arose as the first was dying and was founded primarily for the purpose of foreign trade and consisted of countries in the Pacific, in Africa, and India. In the 20thcentury, the British Empire practically dissolved and finally replaced by the Commonwealth.
The first question to ask is why did the British feel the need to expand overseas? One of the main reasons was an economic one and was similar to motives that drove Spain and other European powers to expand their holdings: it was the desire for profitable trade, plunder and enrichment. The overseas expansion, apart from the interest of the City of London, was backed by other important interest groups: manufacturers who needed a vent for their surplus products, export merchants who handled their goods, and import merchants and their associates who dealt with the re-export trades. Expansion abroad also conferred indirect benefits on the home government, which gained from enlarged customer revenues, on the landed interest, which in consequence enjoyed favourable tax treatment, and on investors in national debt, whose returns rose when borrowing and interest rates increased. Therefore, the growth of the British Empire was due in large part to the ongoing competition for resources and markets that existed over a period of centuries between England and her continental rivals, Spain, France, and Holland.
The second reason was both of political and strategic nature: since Britain could not hope to control continental Europe and felt herself to be threatened by the emergence of any larger single power there, she capitalised on her geographical location and her comparative advantage in services by building up her naval power instead. England’s rise as a maritime nation started with the reign of King Henr y VIII who managed to lay down financial and military foundations that would be taken advantage of by his successors. By commanding the
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seas, Britain hoped to prevent France from blockading her trade with the continent and to frustrate any attempt at invasion. Moreover, the considerations of strategic character were inevitably combined with economic ones because, in the words of Sir Walter Raleigh, “Whoever commands the sea commands the trade, whoever commands the trade commands the riches of the world, and consequently the world itself”.1
Therefore, due to the geographical location, Britain adopted “Blue-Water” policy that focused on naval defence and on overseas markets. However, it did not mean that Britain was isolated from the continent. On the contrary, both diplomacy and money were devoted to the task of creating allies in Europe. But the balance of advantage laid in the blue water and overseas. Why was it Britain who managed to build up such an extended empire with its finger virtually in every pie?
Having won the main battles and destroyed the military forces of her continental rivals -Spain, France and Holland, Britain finally managed to obtain commanding position on the sea. On the other hand, Britain was the first country to industrialise and she was reach in capital. English society in the late 17thcentury contained a flourishing and more extensive middling sector than any other western country, including the Dutch Republic. This provided a strong platform for commerce with, and settlement in, far- flung territories. In the late 18th century, the British Empire became recognisably the greatest and most dynamic of European imperial structures and was well on the way to becoming the globe’s greatest international trader and the chief carrier of commerce of other nations. With the development of the cotton industry from the 1780s, Britain finally had a product that gave her a competitive edge in major markets, and exports became a powerful “engine of growth” of national income for the first time.
Besides, centralising tendencies in England in the early 17thcentury played a certain role, too: the installation in 1688 of a cohesive government as a consequence of the Financial revolution, whose supporters had seen instability and were determined to avoid it, expressed itself in centralising tendencies that aimed at bringing all of the outer provinces under closer central control. Scotland was incorporated by the Act of Union in 1707, the Welsh, who were already incorporated, were subjected to renewed Anglicising influences, and Ireland was
1Morgan, K., “The British Empire. Trade and the British Empire: A Symbiotic Relationship”, 2001,
http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/state/empire/trade_empire_01.shtml
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placed under the management of Anglo-Irish, protestant gentry. Later, this centralising tendency could be seen in America: the mainland colonies came under firmer direction from the Board of Trade and from a new generation of military governors, and were integrated more closely with the developing Atlantic economy managed from London.2
1.2. Functions of the Empire
For what kind of purposes served the Empire, apart from economic benefits expressed in profit and wealth which the Empire brought to a substantial section of the British population?
•The colonies strengthened the British voice in world affairs;
•The empire was the provider of employment, both of military contingent and of a professional or “service” middle class. Among them, India was the main provider, with young men of “propertyless leisured class” competing for employment as officers in the East Indian Company’s armies in the first half of the 19th century. Later, India also provided substantial employment outlets for a “service” middle class. Outside of India, by the late 19thcentury other colonial services employed a few thousand people, a total which had risen to some 20,000 by the late 1950s.3;
•British colonies became repositories of what was unwanted at home (a great amount of personal and national rubbish could be dumped elsewhere);
