The British Empire Карта Британской Империи 1886

The British Empire

Карта Британской Империи 1886 года. http: //www. infokart. ru/category/galereya/page/5/

• The British Empire comprised the dominions, colonies, protectorates, mandates and other territories ruled or administered by the United Kindom • It originated with the overseas colonies and trading posts established by England in the late 16 th and early 17 th centuries. • By 1922 458 million people = one-quarter of the world's population at the time 13 million square miles (34 million km 2) = almost a quarter of the Earth's total land area. • The sun never sets on the British Empire

The beginning • Henry VII - the 19 th century Trade - the most important foreign policy matter whichever country was England’s greatest trade rival was also its greatest enemy. • a large fleet of merchant ships. Welsh prince, Harri Tudor; 28 January 1457 – 21 April 1509

• Henry VIII: warships and guns, English guns were the best in Europe. • Elisabeth I encouraged merchant expansion as her grandfather Henry VII did Henry VIII 28 June 1491 – 28 January 1547, King of England from 21 April 1509 until his death Elisabeth I 1533 – 1603) was Queen regnant of England Queen regnant of Ireland from 17 November 1558 until her death. ,

Elisabeth I followed two policies: 1) encouraged English sailors like Jon Hawkings and Francis Drake to attack and destroy the ships of their main trade rival and enemy, Spain. English seamen, or “Sea dogs” (privateers) attacked Spanish ships bringing treasures back from the newly discovered continent of America. *Privateers were part of naval warfare of some nations from the 16 th to the 19 th century. 2) encouraged English traders to settle abroad and to create colonies. The second policy led directly to Britain’s colonial empire of the 17 th and 18 th centuries.

Francis Drake Vice Admiral (1540 – 27 January 1596) was an English sea captain, privateer, navigator, slaver, a renowned pirate, and a politician of the Elizabethan era. Admiral Sir John Hawkins (also spelled as John Hawkyns) (1532 – 12 November 1595) was an English shipbuilder, naval administrator and commander, merchant, navigator, and slave trader. As treasurer (1577) and controller (1589) of the Royal Navy, he rebuilt older ships and helped design the faster ships that withstood the Spanish Armada in 1588.

1570 Spain’s refusal to allow England to trade freely with Spanish American colonies. -English ships started attacking Spanish ships -Elisabeth helped the Dutch Protestants in the Netherlands in their rebel against Spain 1587 Spain conquered England -Catholics -fleet called “Armada” to move Spanish army across the English Channel from the Netherlands. -Francis Drake

• “I am come. . . to live or die amongst you all, to lay down for my God, and for my kingdom, and for my people, my honour and my blood even in the dust. I know I have the body of a weak and feeble woman, but I have the heart and stomach of a king, and of a king of England too”

• Colonies - Sir Walter Raleigh – brought tobacco back to England - Virginia • “Chartered” trade - 1579 the Eastland company (Scandinavia and the Baltic) - 1588 the Africa Company to trade in slaves - 1600 the East India Company (India etc) : Spice trade - the Dutch - three wars - cooperation with Holland against France

• 1713 France accepted limits on its expansion as well as a political settlement for Europe. • the rock of Gibraltar, the entrance to the Mediterranean.

Why was this victory important? • 1588, until 1713 – less important than France, Spain and the Holy Roman Empire. • by 1714 – a leading European power. • Trade and politics: “Trade is the wealth of the world. Trade makes the difference between rich and poor, between one nation and another” (Daniel Defoe, 1728) • British pride was expressed in a national song, written in 1742 “Rule Britannia, Britannia rule the waves, Britons never, never shall be slaves”

• the 18 th century: Increase and loss of colonies - No taxation without representation - 1773 the Boston Teaparty - 1783 loss of the American colonies - no new colonies until the 1830 s. - safe trade routes, protection of “areas of interest”.

• 1840 s Canada, Australia and New Zealand • shameful events in British colonial history: - The settlers arrived to take over land to farm it. In Canada and Australia most of the earlier populations were either killed or pushed away. - the “Opium Wars” in China (trade in opium from India to China).

• After 1850 Britain was driven more by fear of growing European competition than by commercial need. • The war in Afghanistan in 1839 -42. • The war in Sindh (a part of modern Pakistan). • The war with Russia in Crimea in 1854. • “The Indian Mutiny” (a revolt in India) in 1857. • The occupation of Egypt in 1882 to protect international shipping (which allowed to control the Suez Canal, the route to India), invasion and takeover of Sudan in 1884. • The treaty of 1890 to divide Africa into “areas of interest”, the Boers wars.

19 th -20 th centuries • The growth of Germany and the United States had eroded Britain's economic lead by the end of the 19 th century. • no longer a peerless industrial or military power. • The Second World War saw Britain's colonies in South. East Asia occupied by Japan, • India, Britain's most valuable and populous colony, won independence within two years of the end of the war.

• Most of the territories of the British Empire became independent, ending with the handover of Hong Kong to the People's Republic of China in 1997. • the Commonwealth of nations, a free association of independent states. • Sixteen Commonwealth nations share their head of state Queen Elisabeth II, as Commonwealth realms. • Fourteen territories remain under British sovereignty, the British overseas territories.

Commonwealth of Nations