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St. Ursula Gymnasium, Dorsten

1, 2012

Kristina B. ©
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The British Empire and Commonwealth

Inhalt

The British Empire

From the beginnings to 17th century

17th century - 1815

Imperial century

End of British Empire

Commonwealth

Foundation

Further Development


The British Empire

The United Kingdom’s British Empire was the biggest colonial power in history. It included dominions, crown colonies, mandates and protectorates. Being a mandate means that the British possessed guardianship of these territories whereas protectorates were formally autonomous nations under British control.

And we will explain the terms of dominion and crown colony to you later. At its summit, the British Empire covered a quarter of Earth’s landmass and nearly a third of Earth’s population of that time. It was called an “empire where the sun never sets” because it had colonies all over the world.

Before we start telling you about the British Empire now, we are going to show you a picture of the origin of all of it and we will explain some terms to you so we can make sure                                                                that you all know what we will be talking about.

First of all there are the British Isles. On this picture you can see what islands                                                              belong to them. There are the two main islands, Ireland and Britain, but also                                                                 the Shetlands, Orkneys and Hebrides, the Channel Islands, the Isle of Wight,                                                             Isle of Man and the Isles of Scilly (which is spelled wrong in this picture).

Furthermore we will be talking about the old Kingdom of England and Scotland                                                                        whose territories can only be partially compared with those today. So England                                                                    also covered the Welsh land and the three island groups in its south.                                                                         The land in the north of the Scottish-English border plus the three island                                                                     groups belonged to the Kingdom of Scotland.

In the 12th century, the Kingdom                                                       of Ireland which covered the whole isle of Ireland also came under English occupancy. There has been no division of Ireland and Northern Ireland yet.

So, at that time you strictly differed between the Scottish and the English because those were two independent kingdoms. It was only the island that was called Britain or Great Britain. The reason for these two names is very easy: In historical terms, there is absolutely no difference but in the 13th century, the English occupied a part of the French Atlantic Coast.

Because of this, the French called this area “Bretagne” which means little Britain. And so that people just don’t mix up the names, Britain was now called Great Britain. So now there is a small and a Great Britain. Anyway, I start telling you about the empire now.


From the beginnings to 17th century

The beginning of the British Empire traces back to the middle of the last millennium where the Spanish and Portuguese have already conquered a lot of countries in the world and established their “own” empire. In 1497, the English King Henry VII commissioned John Cabot to cross the Atlantic and to find a sea route to Asia which led to the discovery of Newfoundland and Nova Scotia (today: Canada).

Thereupon, Henry VII increasingly supported the development of seafaring and refined the English fleet which was the predecessor of the Royal Navy. Through Reformation rivalry with the catholic Spain rose and the demand for an English empire that was able to compete with the Spanish and Portuguese got louder.

The English now tried to loot Spanish cities in South America or to raid those who came back with valuable treasures. The result of this was a row full of failures until in 1603 the Scottish King James VI climbed the English throne. England and Scotland were now connected in personal union. So, there was one king for both kingdoms.

King James ended rivalry with Spain and England’s focus was now to create and establish an own empire around the world.



17th century - 1815

In the early 17th century, colonization became “successful”. A part of North America and the first Caribbean islands were settled. Furthermore, there was the foundation of East India Company to carry on trade with Asia. Through the contemporaneous foundation of the Dutch East India Company and the proximity of London and Amsterdam, the Dutch-English sea wars had begun which the Netherlands won.

Therefore, they were temporarily granted supremacy in Asia which led to occupancy of most of the South Sean islands. Nevertheless, Glorious Revolution in 1688 sealed peace between the English and the Netherlands. Symbolic for this peace was William III of England’s climb of the British throne. You all might have heard of William III of England as Wilhelm von Oranien-Nassau.

Oranien-Nassau was the most important aristocrat family in the Netherlands and this is by the way the reason why all Dutch national sport teams play in orange today. So, William was the son Oranien-Nassau and the Scotch Stuart family which supplied the English and Scottish king for 85 years back then. And I think it is self-explicable why this event sealed peace between England and the Dutch.

In 1707, the Act of Union united England and Scotland to the United Kingdom of Great Britain after Scotland had failed several times at trying to build colonies as well. In following wars against Spain and France, the British gained French parts of North America but also Gibraltar which was very important because they could control the passage to Mediterranean Sea.

Seven Years’ War - the first war that was located around the whole world - and Britain’s victory was the trigger for its eventual universal supremacy. This entails that the British East India Company was the leading trading company, too.

The loss of the thirteen colonies in America meant the loss of the highest settled part of British North America. From then on, Britain focused on keeping conquering Asia, Oceania and Africa. First of all, the invaded and colonized Australia and New Zealand that had just been recently discovered by James Cook.

During Napoléon Bonaparte’s reign, the British fought against the French once again and won. Within the Congress of Vienna, they were given the Ionian Islands, Malta, Mauritius, St. Lucia, Tobago and the Seychelles by Napoléon, Trinidad by the Spanish and Guiana and the Cape Colony by the Dutch.

Technical inventions and innovations enforced Britain’s position in the world in the following years.


Imperial century

According to historians, the 18th and the beginning of the 19thcentury is called “imperial century”. In this age, Britain focused on the one hand on saving and promoting reign in India. It was the most important colony because of the trade with spices and textiles which was one of the most important economic sources of income for the British.

This office can be compared with our president Joachim Gauck. So there is him as the head of state that is granted the highest honor and represents our country around the world. And there is Angela Merkel as our head of government that is granted the highest power and is responsible for the realization of political decisions. The Governor General then determined the government.

To express his power as representative of the Queen he was given the title “Viceroy of India”. In 1877, Queen Victoria was deputized as “Empress of India”. Both titles were kept until India’s independence in 1950.

On the other hand, the British aimed to conquer parts of Africa. Eventually, they colonized more than 15 countries, most of them in the east and south of the African Continent.

Nevertheless, with the end of 19th century the demand for independence or at least self-government of some colonies rose. Already in 1867 the North American colonies combined to the State of Canada. Later same happened to Australian and New Zealand colonies. All three states were granted the status as dominion.  This means, they have an autonomous government but the British monarch is still head of state in shape of a Governor General, just as in India.

Same came along with the Union of South Africa in 1910, a union of Cape Colony with other colonies in today’s territory of South Africa.

Shortly before World War I, the Irish, that were member of the United Kingdom since 1800, also demanded self-government. The British accepted, the only reason why it couldn’t be forced through was the beginning of war. The Irish War of Independence in 1921 led to the division of the isle of Ireland into Irish Free State, a dominion, and Northern Ireland which remained a member of the United Kingdom.


End of British Empire

The British Empire has finished World War II successfully as a member of the Anti-Hitler-Coalition. Nevertheless, the demonstration of British power was destroyed as the USA and the Soviet Union has left war as new global Super Powers. Europe, a continent that has ruled Earth for millenniums, literally lied in ruins.

The end of British Empire was predictable. The UK accepted and followed a retreat from the colonies as soon as the state authority could be handed to a solid, anti-communistic government.

Territories outside of Europe were also peacefully decolonized through the building of an autonomous government and constitution. At the beginning of the 1980s, decolonization was almost completely finished. Great Britain only commanded a few territories around the globe. Canada, Australia and New Zealand were constitutionally completely apart from the UK.


Commonwealth

Now we are coming to the Commonwealth. The first thing we were wondering about was what exactly the “Commonwealth” is. Today, Commonwealth of Nations, once called British Commonwealth of Nations, is a community of the United Kingdom and its ex-colonies. You could say it’s the successor of the British Empire.

But there’s one big difference between Commonwealth and the Empire. The nations which become members of Commonwealth are free and independent nations. They are no colonies anymore. Nobody forces them to be in the Commonwealth. It is their own decision. Today, the members of the Commonwealth have common interests and goals and they built a political community.

By this time, the Commonwealth was a community within the Empire and all members had the same rights and were united by loyalty towards the Empire. The first were Canada, South Africa, Australia and New Zealand.

The members of British Commonwealth were all connected to Britain and the British King was their head of state. When time went by, more and more dominions joined the “British Commonwealth”. In 1955, there were eight members. Ten years later, there were even 20 members. And soon a lot of the other British dominions became part of it, too, and so it was called the “New Commonwealth”.


Further Development

The members of the New Commonwealth won more and more independence and since India has become a Republic, the membership of Commonwealth wasn’t conditioned anymore by the acknowledgement of the British monarch as its head of stead.

These days, Commonwealth of Nations has 54 members. 16 of them called “The Commonwealth Realms” still keep the British monarch as their head of state including the United Kingdom of course. But this is their own decision. However, to underline these nations’ sovereignty, the Queen is then called “Queen of Canada”, “Queen of Australia” and so on.

Over 30 % of the people who live on earth (that are 1.8 Million people), live in a nation which is a member of Commonwealth. India is the country with the most inhabitants.

In London there is the Commonwealth Office, the head office of the Commonwealth. Every member country has its own representative there so that information can be exchanged.Two times a year, all members of Commonwealth meet to discuss about the current situation in the world and about problems. It’s traditionally the Queen or King of Great Britain as the head of Commonwealth who opens the meeting.



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