British Empire

B

18th Century

During the early 1700s, public interest in overseas affairs faded. During his long premiership (1721-1742), Sir Robert Walpole adopted a policy of laissez-faire, in which the government did not interfere in economic affairs. Nevertheless, significant developments occurred. The Transportation Act of 1718 subsidized the transportation of convicted criminals from Britain to North America. Georgia, originally a refuge for debtors, became the 13th American colony in 1732, while the New England seaboard began to fill out and extend further into the interior, where it threatened to bump up against French settlement. Sugar emerged as the chief import into Britain, fueling the West Indian plantation economy, and with it the flow of 70,000 slaves annually across the Atlantic.

B

1

The Seven Years’ War

During the Seven Years’ War in Europe (1756-1763), Britain made large imperial gains at the expense of France. The North American segment of the Seven Years’ War was known as the French and Indian War. It was launched by the British against French possessions in North America in 1754, and in 1758 the British captured the French fortress of Louisbourg, which gave them access to French territory in the St. Lawrence Valley. In the following year Québec was captured, marking the end of the French presence in Canada. In the Caribbean, British forces captured many of the French possessions, including the large sugar-producing islands of Martinique and Guadeloupe.

At the Treaty of Paris in 1763, which ended both the Seven Years’ War and the French and Indian War, the British handed Guadeloupe and Martinique back to France, but retained control of Canada. This was especially important to the British in guaranteeing the security of the New England colonies.

B

2

The American Revolution

For the British, an expanded empire meant new responsibilities and new costs. The British government wanted to tap American revenues to pay for American necessities, and consequently increased taxation with the Stamp Act (1765). Although the British considered the act to be perfectly fair, many American colonists saw it as a violation of their rights. After riots in the colonies, the Stamp Act was repealed, but other taxes soon replaced it, setting off a controversy in which the colonies united against Britain in the Continental Congress. A skirmish at Concord, Massachusetts, in April 1775 deteriorated into general fighting, and in July 1776 the Congress issued the Declaration of Independence. During the American Revolution that followed, the Congress controlled most of the land area, but the British were secure in their stronghold in New York until their position was weakened by a defeat at Saratoga (1777), which encouraged France to intervene on behalf of the rebellious colonists. British resistance ended when General Charles Cornwallis surrendered with his army at Yorktown, Virginia, in October 1781.

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This defeat marked not only the end of the American war, but also the end of the First British Empire. Yet because France had not been able to challenge British supremacy at sea, Britain’s losses did not extend beyond the American colonies themselves. At the same time, the British presence in Canada was reinforced by the establishment of the colony of New Brunswick, resulting from the migration northwards of over 30,000 citizens of the American colonies who were still loyal to Britain.

III

The Second British Empire

After the loss of the American colonies, British commerce turned from the Americas to the east in its search both for spices for re-export and, increasingly, for markets to sell ever-growing amounts of British manufactured goods. The Industrial Revolution had transformed the British economy from a primarily agricultural one to one based much more on mechanized manufacturing, and as a result had drastically increased the amount of British products available for export. The quest for new markets for international trade was the economic incentive behind the Second British Empire. Free trade, the belief that international trade should not be restricted by any one nation, replaced the old colonial system, which had relied on mercantilist ideas of protected commerce.

The Second British Empire, focused more on Asia and Africa, continued to expand in the 1800s and early 1900s and reached its apex at the end of World War I. However, a growing nationalism among the British colonies gradually weakened the power of the empire, and Britain was eventually forced to grant independence to many of its former colonies.

A

18th Century

A

1

India

Although the first empire was centered in the Americas, the English were also active in India in the 17th century. The English East India Company founded trading posts known as factories at Surat (1612) and Madras, now Chennai, (1639) under the auspices of the native Mughal Empire. Rapid expansion followed, and in 1690 the company set up a new factory further up the River Hugli, on a site that became Calcutta (now Kolkata). By 1700 the company was extending its commercial activities in Bengal and had established itself as a leading player in Indian politics.

After the death of the Mughal emperor Aurangzeb in 1707, the Mughal Empire in India entered a period of instability. During this time the East India Company—while remaining above all a commercial organization—entered more directly into politics in order to preserve its position. Then, during the 1740s and 1750s, the East India Company fought the French Compagnie des Indes for primacy in India during the Carnatic Wars. A series of engagements culminated in the Battle of Plassey in June 1757, in which the British defeated their Indian and French rivals and established the East India Company as the dominant power in the important region of Bengal.

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