Colonies of Great Britain

Colonies of Great Britain - a lot of territories around the world that were captured, taken under the protectorate or somehow acquired between the 16th and 18th centuries by one of the most powerful empires in the past - the British Empire.

The goal was its territorial development. During this period there was a strong competition for resource sources and potential markets for producers between England and its continental rivals - Spain, France and Holland. During the reign of Queen Elizabeth I, trading companies were established in Turkey, Russia, the East Indies, and the coast of North America was explored.

Historians believe that the territorial expansion of the country began when Elizabeth I granted her favorite Sir Walter Raleigh the right to establish English colonies in North America.

Initially, the policy of the empire was based solely on the ideas of mercantilism. Under the Stuarts, Jacob I and Charles I, and Oliver Cromwell, the construction of an empire based on trading schemes became more obvious. The favorable trade balance (import-export) was believed to provide the wealth needed to expand and maintain the empire.

In 1707, after the unification of England and Scotland into a single sovereign state, many British colonies (including former Scottish colonies) became the backbone of the famous empire.

The first foreign settlements of the British were founded in Ireland. The systematic seizure of the country was carried out under Oliver Cromwell. After successful wars with the Dutch, French and Spanish in the seventeenth century, Great Britain managed to take control of most of the eastern coast of North America, the St. Lawrence River basin in Canada, Bermuda, the West Indies and Africa to acquire slaves and gain a foothold in India.

Some historians argue that in general Wales should be considered the first English colony, since the term does not necessarily mean foreign territory.

At the end of the eighteenth century, British colonies in America were lost. Although the discovery of Australia did not serve as a kind of compensation, since the distant lands served mainly as a place of exile for convicted people, but this loss affected the so-called "swing to the East" - the acquisition of strategic bases along trade routes between India and the Far East. By the end of the eighteenth century, British control over India extended to Afghanistan and Burma.

As a result of the Napoleonic wars - the last global wars between empires - the UK turned out to be in a very difficult situation, but without a doubt having strong positions. For example, the Dutch Cape colony (South Africa) was acquired. Despite the fact that the main concern of Victorian foreign policy was the expansion of the Russian Empire, which threatened its interests in India, almost all traditional competitors by that time lost their importance and greatly diminished in size, thus the British imperial position was unquestionable. In addition, it became the leading industrial country in Europe, more and more territories in the world were concentrated under the domination of its commercial, financial, naval power.

At the same time, the situation could not be called stable. The empire, based on the ideas of mercantilism, was weakened in the late eighteenth - early nineteenth centuries by a number of factors. In 1807, slavery was abolished in England itself, the movement led by the evangelists demanded radical changes in other places of the empire. From 1833, for the sake of economic prospects (largely due to the influence of Adam Smith's ideas), some British colonies began to move to self-government and free trade, which minimized the influence of the old oligarchic and monopolistic trading corporations. At the same time, during the Victorian era, the acquisition of territories and further trade concessions, promoted by strategic considerations and justified by philanthropic motives, continued. Its predatory policy of Britain reached its peak when Queen Victoria, beaten up by Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli, proclaimed herself in 1876 as Empress of India.

In the empire, however, nationalist movements continued to develop, sooner or later, foreshadowing its disintegration. The process accelerated after the First World War, although in the post-war period the empire for some period increased in size, when under the British protectorate were the former German and Turkish territories.

Colonies of Great Britain Canada and Australia acquired the status of dominions in 1907. In 1931, the Commonwealth of Nations was formed , which included Great Britain and the self-governing dominions of Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, the Irish Free State, whose head was recognized by the British monarch. Dominions actively supported Britain during the Second World War. Many historians today are wondering whether it would be possible to win this terrible war without the support of the colonial troops to the Allies. They participated in every theater of military operations. But the loss of the British in the Far East made it clear that the United Kingdom no longer possesses an imperial power capable of maintaining the classical order in the world. Americans gradually replaced the British.