Megan on British Colonialism

Colonialism (Megan Baeumler)

Picture: http://sites.psu.edu/afr110/2014/10/08/african-and-american-colonialism-under-britain

The European nations were of the quickest in the world to develop. This led them to explore the world to expand and to grow even bigger.  At the start of the 16th century Great Britain took its first steps in establishing oversea settlements. Maritime expansion was driven by commercial ambitions and by a competition with France. By 1670 there were British American Colonies throughout New England, Virginia, and Maryland. The British Empire also had settlements in Honduras, Barbados and Nova Scotia.  England established two trading companies the Hudson Bay Company, focused more on commercial exploitation in Northwest Canada and the East India Company, established trading posts all around India.  The East India Company’s activities added four new territories under the British Empire, they are referred to as the Straits Settlements.  The Empire also established its first settlement in Africa in 1661 and gained control of the slave trading region of Sierra Leone in 1787. And in 1806 The Cape of Good Hope was added to their arsenal

The British American Empire was mainly expanded through war and colonization. The Empire gained New York after the Second Anglo-Dutch War during negotiations. The American Colonies kept journeying westward for new agricultural land. In 1760 Britain gained even more control over North America after defeating the French at the Plains of Abraham and capturing all of New France during the Seven year’s War. Later the entire Australian content was claimed for Britain and the settlement of it and New Zealand crated a major zone of British migration. 

Almost all the early settlements arose with hardly any effort from the Crown. Magnates (wealthy and influential people) and the Enterprise of companies did all the work. In fact the colonies were self-managing enterprises, but the English crown did have some rights of supervision and appointment. One of the main areas of control over the colonies was trade and shipping. Colonies were just a source of raw materials for England. The Navigation Act of 1651 and other subsequent acts set up a closed economy between Britain and its colonies; all exports had to be shipped on English ships to the British market, and all colonial imports had to come by way of England. This arrangement ended around the start of the 19th century due to the combined effects of the loss of the American colonies, the growth of free-trade in Britain and a book by Adam Smith the Wealth of Nations.

So in the end England acted like an octopus with many, many arms. Reaching across land and water to place hands all over the world to claim the most land and trade to expand their growing Empire.