IDU Process Journal
History:
What is an empire?
Brief history about the British empire:
The British Empire was the largest empire and was a strong and powerful empire that included territories from the United Kingdom. This empire took over 23% of the world’s land, meaning it controlled more than 458 million people and was known to be the largest colonial empire. During the 17thcentury the British empire started to make colonies in the north America and India which lead to major conflicts. There were two wars that occurred which were, the Anglo-Dutch War and Seven Years’ war, and after these wars the Britain involved almost all the Dutch and French domains in the New World and Asia. When the American colonies gained independence in 1776, they thought it would influence the British Empire, but it looked like they weren’t influenced. In 1919, after the Britain’s won World War I people were saying that “the sun never sets on the British Empire” but after world War II, the Britain’s global empire had been distorted. Most nations saw the British Empire as a ‘role model’ and mostly the Germans. Germany would always start wars in Europe, partially because they wanted to be like the British Empire and wanted an empire of their own. After World War II occurred the Britain’s slowly started decolonizing which is when they give back the colonies. They decided to make this decision because World War II had left the British Empire destroyed and ruined, and many people that were ruled by the Empire wanted to go back to their countries and be in charge.
Origins and how it all started:
Between the 1600 and 1700s there was a good time for exploration, and that’s how the British Empire started to grow, because new lands were discovered. There were settlements that were made by companies like East India company to become colonies that would be controlled by Great Britain. Later, Britain started to gain a lot more settlements in Virginia, New England, Canada, the West Indies and Africa. There were a lot of wars between Britain and France, and Britain won more land because they had better statistics and a stronger a navy. In North America, during 1776, thirteen colonies had announced independence and were then a part of United States. After this, the British Empire had lost these colonies were yet still enormous, since they were growing in other parts of the world and one of them would be Africa. Britain had seen these colonies as a way to make money since these colonies had given Britain what they needed to earn money. North America had given them tobacco and India had served them with spices. England would make products and the colonies would buy it from them and while this trade was occurring Africa had been forced to work as slaves. The Britain used their ships to issue these trades.
Where did the British empire expand and what countries it took over:
At the start of the 20thcentury the British Empire had covered an enormous amount of land, approximately 11,400,00 square miles. They were known has the largest empire in the world. There were foundations for the empire and they were laid in between 170 and 1850 which is when Britain gained Australia, Canada, India, south Africa, Rhodesia, Hong Kong, New Zealand, Gibraltar, loads of islands in the west indies and a lot of colonies in Africa.
Hong Kong was one of the last parts of The British Empire, but China had taken over Hong Kong in 1997. A while later, there was a war against Argentina because they wanted to win the Falkland Islands, and this is where Britain recalled themselves as a ‘Superpower’. All of this occurred in 1982. One of the few reasons the British started an empire was because Spain and Portugal started an empire and the British empire were fearful of them.
3 colonies in the British empire:
The British ruled countries so that they could benefit themselves with all the land and any valuable good the countries had. East coast of America had a good amount of gold, and within days of their colonization the British stole most the gold they had. Not only did they steal from America, they stole tea and biscuits from India. If you think this is bad, wait for what’s next. The British took people from Africa and used them as slaves and most of the slaves didn’t even get paid. As minutes, days, months and years passed the British started to gain so much success, money and respect it was unbelievable.
In 1686, the empire had rose massively in business matters, they shipped goods that were worth £1,000,00 to London. These goods were filled with, slaves, tobacco, rice, sugar, textiles and tea. Most of these goods were from Africa, India and United States of America. After the occurrence of World War II, Britain had started to slightly drop and slow down. They were less than barely able to afford the expenses for countries, and weren’t able to imperialize more than one quarter of the world’s population. 
How Africa and India were affected (positive and negatives)
The British Empire built many infrastructures in India for their selfish needs, like hospitals, roads, schools and other projects. But this did benefit the Indian citizens and made life easier for them. Even though the British Empire were selfish and want everything to benefit them, they actually created new ideas and new avenues, like the British Empire introduced the Indian railways but this was in self-interest on the British Empire, they used this to ship raw materials to Britain. Many rulers of India made unnecessary land tax and other laws that were random, this was to increase incomes just for when they need it, Whereas British stayed mature and kept the uniform tax rules. The British kept this going throughout their time in India and this massively helped in keeping the country stabilized and helped their economy stable. The British empire had given India many job opportunities and these were mainly for the Indian locals to earn money and to give their family happiness even though most of the jobs had given the British a lot of advantages and had given them opportunities to earn more money. There were other jobs too, like joining the military, daily laborers, drivers and obviously there were servants for the British. Later the Indian civil services earned the living during the British imperialism.
The British Empire had also affected India in negative ways like loss of money due to loss of goods. Wars had occurred between Britain and India, and these wars had happened against leaders and had been started by Great Britain, which was again another reason to why India had lost a lot of money. Britain controlled mostly everything the Indians did and one of their orders were for the Indians to import their goods from Britain and for them to not buy their own goods from India. There were different industries such as the handmade cloth industry, clock-making, metal and carpentry industries. These industries had started to drop and fall apart because the resources sold from these industries were made with better quality and were sold for cheaper prices in Britain because of mass production. India was soon under the control of Britain because of the colonization, and they had to rely on Britain’s imported goods. Britain used India like slaves and made them import goods from Britain, the goods that weren’t able to be found in India were imported from Britain. India was left with no right or choices, and were unable to keep their businesses and trading companies successful due to the interference of the Britain.
The African continent were massively impacted by the colonization. They were impacted politically, socially and economically, that too in both positive and negative ways. A few of the positive impacts included the introduction of Christianity which had brought many religious opportunities. Africa had also been given education opportunities, the Europeans had made missionary school in Africa which would educate the local kids and teach them more about their culture and land. The Africans were fortunate enough to have the Europeans defend them against their enemies, they were give weapons they could use to fight against their enemies and this helped the Africans feel like they were living in a safe environment. The colonization of the Africans had helped them populate more around the world and had also shown the world Africa’s rich culture, even though some of their culture had included the European culture. Africa was introduced to new goods including household goods. This introduction had increased the job opportunities in Africa and had taught them new trading proficiencies especially the tribal groups. There were many successful and powerful institutions that had been built and created to administrate the people, and a few of these institutes actually still exist till today.
With all the advantages, the Africans didn’t quite live the so called perfect life, because they did have various disadvantages too. A few of them would be how the Africans were used as slaves and were forced to work on farms and weren’t paid for their hard work. The Europeans had taken land from the Africans to create plantations for their own selfish needs, and forced people to work on the plantations. The African culture was miserably destroyed, traditions were snatched and their lifestyles were ruined. One of the reasons the African religion was destroyed was due to the introduction of Christianity, Africans were forced to live the way Europeans lived, eat the food they ate, dress the way they did, this absolutely diluted the African culture and religion, they had no speak in this either. This had led to partition in Africa and conflicts with their own kind. Families were torn apart, which started to create new boundaries and now this has led to a new conflict of slave trade. In addition to that the Europeans had completely taken away all of their resources especially gold, diamonds. Ivory and agriculture primary products. This had removed all the opportunities for the Africans to learn how to use their own resources to help develop something.
Leaders during the British Empire
Sir Anthony Eden was known as the Prime Minister of UK. He was born on June 12, 1897 in Windlestone Hall and unfortunately dies on January 14, 1977 at the age of 79, in Alvediston. Before his death, he was first married to Beatrice Beckett and after 27 years of marriage he decided to get a divorce. Soon enough, 2 years later he got married to Clarissa. Anthony Eden had a very successful career. He was an English politician and he helped as Foreign Secretary three times in his career, later he had also become the Prime Minister of UK. He was a Foreign Secretary in the Foreign office during significant periods like World War II and the Cold War. His role had taken a big part and, played a key part in controlling outside arrangements to confront the ascent of the fascist powers. Anthony Eden gets all his good traits from his family, since he was raised is a very conservative environment. He showed a lot of ambition and courage in his role during the First World War. After three years of being a Foreign Secretary, Eden finally became the leader as the British Prime Minister. He was the 42nd-longest lasting British Prime Minister and had lasted for 1 year and 279 days. He resigned after the Suez Crisis.
George William Frederick, also known as George III was King of Britain and was also King of Ireland from 1760 to 1801. On January 1st,1801, Great Britain and Ireland had united, and George III was King of both countries until his death. George III was born on June 4th, 1738, in Norfolk House and died at the age of 81, on January 29th, 1820, in Windsor. He was the son of Fredrick Prince of Wales, and Princess Augusta of Saxe-Goth, so he was brought up in a royal and moderate family. George was known before and after his lead for his considerate, compassionate and obedient nature. George had become King of England in 1760 and during this time his grandfather had unfortunately passed away. But fortunately, a year later, on September 22nd, George III had been coroneted as the Royal Head of State. Three years later, the King had signed the ‘Treaty of Paris’. This treaty was signed with Spain and France, after this treaty was signed the Prime Minister Lord Bute had taken a step back from the office and George and his party took a step forward and took over.
Alexandra Victoria was the Queen of Great Britain and Ireland. She was born on May 24th, 1819 in Kensington which already shows that she was born premature. Queen Victoria unfortunately passed away on January 22nd, 1901 in Osborne House at age 81. Queen Victoria was the daughter of Prince Edward, Duke of Kent and Strat Hearn and Princess Victoria of Sax-Coburg-Saalfed. King Willian IV and unfortunately passed away, he was Queen Victoria’s uncle and due to his death, she had the rights and she had become legal heir to the throne. She had officially been chosen to be the Queen of the United Kingdom, and hence this, her first name had been replaced by Queen, so she was now known as Queen Victoria. She was crowned Queen of the United Kingdom in 1837. While she had taken lead of the United Kingdom, she had gone through several hurdles and attempts of assassination. Her life was first threatened by John Francis, and he had tried taking away her life twice. After him three others had endeavored too, and they were, John William, William Hamilton and Robert Pate.
Legacy of the empire
Till today most of Britain’s former colonies still have the British influenced traits in them and most of the traits have helped the different former colonized countries in many successful ways. A few of the visible traces include language, education, politics and culture. If there’s so much left behind, what legacy did the empire leave behind. When the British Empire was at its highest point, it included a lot of land and has been said that it included more than 25 per cent of the world’s land mass and with that much land it had also included a quarter of its population.
The vast majority of the general population in the settlements were uneducated when the British assumed control. Thus, the English took up "the white man's burden" to illuminate and instruct the local populace of these nations. The English decision class established schools and instructive frameworks that would bolster their own status and sway, as in India where a gathering of local Indians was taught as authorities to serve the British Empire as mediators between the British and the Indians. With decolonization, the most troublesome test was setting up a just political framework. These nations had no custom for popular government or self-manage, and the outcome was difficulty and struggle between various power-chasing gatherings. By and large the circumstance turned out to be very turbulent and even prompted civil war.
English conventions and traditions are as yet kept up in a considerable lot of the previous settlements. Australia and New Zealand were principally settled by British exiled people, and they carried with them their own particular traditions and qualities. The banners of the two countries give testimony the way that they formally still have the English ruler as their sovereign.
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