British Isles and Empire — Summary

The colonization and exploration of Africa, particularly the regions of South Africa, was accomplished primarily during the Victorian era, much later than that of Asia, and it was desired to avoid some of the missteps that Britain had taken in Asia. Unquestionably, in Africa there was a more conscious effort to deal fairly with the native populations, and utilize missionary activities to help "civilize" the inhabitants. For most of the 19th century, for example, Britain worked actively against the slave trade, and tried to keep peace among warring tribes, when possible. However, their were, as always, great difficulties, and Britain was pulled into wars in South Africa, against both the Zulus and their enemies, the Boers, who had resisted British rule. Britain was also drawn into conflicts in West Africa, and the Egypt-Sudan region, where native war-lords rose against the Ottoman-Egyptian government, a British ally. The African interior, which was entirely unexplored by white men, was also tackled during this era, most notably by David Livingstone, a Scottish missionary, but other British explorers included H. M. Stanley, Richard Burton, and John Hanning Speke.

Ireland

450 A.D. to 1922 A.D.

St. Patrick brings Christianity to Ireland, to Irish Independence

Saint Patrick baptizing two Irish maidens

Ireland, like Scotland, was a Celtic country, with a language and culture different from their powerful neighbor England. Like Scotland, it had a long history of resisting English dominance and had been, for the greater part of history, antagonistic to England. But in spite of their similar Celtic heritage, the histories of Ireland and Scotland diverged dramatically, particularly at the time of the Reformation. During the late Tudor era, Scotland became Protestant, and Ireland remained Catholic. From that point on, Scotland and England, although remaining antagonistic on many points, were eventually able to merge their countries under a single protestant government, and live in relative peace. Ireland, on the other hand, became even more fiercely Catholic in response the oppressions of the English government, and the antagonism and hatred between the races, became ever worse over the years. When Scotland and England merged to become Great Britain, the Scotsmen enjoyed all due rights of citizenship. The greater population of Ireland, on the other hand, was entirely disenfranchised, dispossessed, and enjoyed no rights of self-government. It was ruled as a conquered colony, and badly ruled at that. As one politician stated in 1892: "the condition of Ireland is universally recognized as the chief scandal and chief weakness of the Empire." How it came to be so, is the sad story of Irish History.

Celtic Ireland was never ruled by a single powerful king, but rather by local tribal chiefs. A large part of Ireland's inability to resist the continued oppressions of England rested on this fact, that the Irish, from their earliest history, were disorganized and disunited. Ireland never came under Roman rule, and therefore never enjoyed the benefits of an advanced civilization or centralized government. There were no roads, bridges, sewers, aqueducts, or public buildings of note, and the weapons and tactics of the Celtic tribes could not resist the organized armies of more advanced civilizations.

Ireland was converted to Catholicism by Saint Patrick in the fifth century A.D. and after that time the Irish monasteries were centers of learning and scholarship. It was mainly Irish missionaries, such as St. Columba and St. Mungo who converted Scotland to Christianity a few decades later. Until the ninth century, the Celtic Church thrived, but then, like all of Western Europe, Ireland suffered from Viking attacks. The general disunity of the Irish tribes however, made it impossible for the Vikings to actually conquer Ireland and the relative scarcity of booty in the impoverished country, to some degree, discouraged the worst depredations. Finally, around 1000 AD Brian Boru, an Irish Chieftain arose who managed to briefly unite the Irish tribes. He is credited with driving away the Vikings, although most of his wars were actually against other Irish clans. He governed well, but subsequent kings were less successful in holding the kingdom together.

One Hundred Years after the Normans conquered England, a Norman army was sent to conquer Ireland. The Normans succeeded in making many of the chieftains own them as overlords, but failed to actually impose a Norman government outside of a few towns on the eastern and northern coasts. Soon after the Battle of Bannockburn, Edward Bruce, the Brother of Robert I of Scotland, landed in Ireland with Scottish troops with the idea of driving the English out of Ireland. The attempt enjoyed early success, but eventually Bruce was killed, and the rebellion died with him. Over time however, English influenced decreased in Ireland, particularly during the War of the Roses, while for two generations, England was involved in a ruinous civil war.

Shane O'Neill and Queen Elizabeth

It was not until the reign of Henry VIII of England, that England began to reassert its dominance of Ireland, with the idea of bringing the monasteries and church under control of the king. Henry's primary objective, as it was in England, was to obtain lands through conquest and foreclosures that he could sell to his noble friends to raise cash for himself. He did not however, complete the conquest, and the matter was not taken up seriously again until the reign of Elizabeth I of England. Once England had won significant military victories over Spain, it was decided that having an independent Catholic nation so close at hand was a strategic risk. The idea of confiscating Catholic land to pass on to English nobles however, was probably an even more important a motive. The Nine Years War in Ireland was fought between 1594 and 1603 and resulted in the complete exile of the traditional Gaelic overlords of Ulster. This gave England free reign to establish Protestant colonies throughout the area. Over the next few decades hundreds of protestant colonists moved into Northern Ireland, pushing the Irish natives to the south and west. At the same time Penal laws were passed which discriminated against both the Irish Catholics and the Scottish Presbyterian residents, leaving virtually all power in the hands of the Anglican English.

When the English Civil War broke out, the Irish took the opportunity to rebel, and in the Irish uprising of 1641, hundreds of Protestant settlers were slaughtered. Eventually the native Irish gentry and clergy put an end to the killing, and formed a defacto government, that ruled until Oliver Cromwell invaded Ireland during the English Civil Wars. At this time he took a terrible revenge for the Catholic outrages against Protestants which had occurred nearly a decade previously. At the Siege of Drogheda he ordered the indiscriminate slaughter of every man, woman, and child in the town, and all of Ireland was under his heel within a year. Cromwell remains one of the most hated characters of Irish History, and the atrocities committed on both sides during the civil war era did much to fan the religious hatreds of the following centuries.

Ireland suffered much under the commonwealth, but worse was yet to come. When the Catholic James II of England was deposed from the English throne, Ireland immediately declared for him, and against William III of England. When the Williamite War in Ireland broke out, the Catholics laid siege to Protestant Londonderry, and the town was nearly starved when English reinforcements arrived. It was finally relieved when one of the English ships rammed through the boom that had prevented reinforcements and provisions from reaching the city. This unexpected setback sent the Irish army into confusion. The following year, the Irish resistance was firmly crushed at the Battle of Boyne, and the English victors took very hard measures to punish the rebels. Penal laws were now passed which not only disenfranchised, and dispossessed Catholics, but discriminated against them in all sorts of other ways, with the explicit intent to force them to convert to Protestantism or be driven to destitution. Instead of converting to Protestantism, however, the Irish only embraced their Catholicism, and suffered under horrible oppressions rather than convert to the religion of the hated English.

By the mid-eighteenth century, there was a large native protestant Irish population, centered mainly in Ulster, and eastern coastal towns. Ireland, however, was governed as a colony, and inspired by the example set by the American Colonists, the local protestant population favored an independent parliament, and eventual Irish self-rule. The idea of extending the franchise to Catholics of course, occurred to no one, but the Protestant population, lead by Henry Grattan, eventually won the right to hold a local parliament. Grattan, was himself sympathetic to granting a very limited franchise to the Catholic gentry, but such proposals only provoked a firestorm of controversy. Very soon after the establishment of the Irish Parliament, the French Revolution occurred, an event which caused great consternation within England, particularly since the Irish Catholics were thought to be sympathetic to the Revolutionaries, and there was fear of an Irish alliance with France. Finally, in the Irish Rebellion of 1798 did occur, and was accompanied by desperate atrocities on both sides. Grattan's parliament was dissolved, and the government of Ireland was taken under direct control of the English government. Ireland was absorbed into the "United Kingdom of Ireland and Great Britain", and although the Irish protestants were still able to elect representatives, they had to meet in London, and had virtually no clout within the English dominated Parliament.

Soon after the , a Catholic hero appeared on the scene. Daniel O'Connell worked tirelessly for years to obtain the franchise for Irish Catholics, and eventually succeeded in doing so. He did this by actively foreswearing violence, and gaining support among protestants as well as Catholics. His heroic stance did much to advance the cause of Irish sympathy among the English, who feared the worst sort of violence were the Irish ever to gain political power. A few years later, spurred on by the Irish Potato famine, the English Parliament was compelled to abolish the corn-laws, which had done so much to create the crisis. Gradually, minor political relief was provided to Ireland, but their desire for Home Rule was violently opposed, not only by the English, but by many Irish Protestants. Charles Parnell and William Gladstone were two statesmen who worked tirelessly for Irish reform, but could not manage to get a Home Rule bill through Parliament. There remained a violent and radical element to the Irish cause, which sabotaged the efforts of moderates to work out a compromise.

It was not until the midst of The Great War that another Irish uprising took place. This one began during the Easter season of 1916, but turned into a guerilla war for Irish Independence. The solution finally agreed to by parliament was to allow Irish counties to withdraw from the United Kingdom on an individual basis, meaning that the Protestant county of Ulster, would be allowed to retain its British identity. Although unpopular with the Irish Nationalists, the partition of Ireland finally occurred in 1922. Even today the republic Ireland includes only the provinces of Leinster, Munster, and Connacht, while Ulster is still governed as part of Great Britain.

Canada

1495 A.D. to 1947 A.D.

Cabot's first voyage to North America, to Union of Canada and Newfoundland

Iroquois attacking Father Jogues and converts

The exploration of Canada by French and English explorers commenced very soon after the discovery of the Americas by Columbus, although permanent settlement of the new world colonies did not occur until the early seventeenth century. The early explorers of North America, whose names are still recorded on lakes, bays, and rivers of the region, began with the voyage of John Cabot in 1497, and include Jacques Cartier, Henry Hudson, Samuel de Champlain, Sir Martin Frobisher, John Davis, William Baffin, Alexander Mackenzie, and many others. Most were in search of the elusive Northwest-passage, from the Atlantic to Asia, that would have meant enormous riches for its discoverers, had it existed.

England's first attempt to colonize Canada was a failed expedition to Newfoundland by Sir Humphrey Gilbert, during the reign of Queen Elizabeth. It was France, lead by the explorers Cartier and Champlain, that claimed the regions of Canada along the St. Lawrence seaway. The earliest French colonies were at Montreal and Quebec, which were established as trading posts for the French missionaries and trappers who went to live among the Indians.

From the beginning, the region of Canada was disputed between England and France. England controlled Hudson Bay, Newfoundland, and the southern coastal areas, while France centered its colonies around the St. Lawrence seaway and the great lakes. Britain’s domination of the seas meant that its settlements were better supplied, and in closer contact with the mother country, but France’s close relations with the Indian tribes gave it almost complete control of the fur trade, and easy access to the interior regions. During the late 17th and early 18th centuries, France and Britain were often at war, and although these conflicts went by different names in Europe, in the Americas, they were called the French Indian Wars. These Indian wars even continued when France and England were official at peace, but in spite of over seventy years of fighting, and many heroic and horrible events, nothing was permanently resolved until 1759, the year in which Britain conquered Quebec. Within a few years of that battle, fought between the famous Generals General Wolfe and Louis-Joseph Montcalm, Britain had driven France from North America, and taken possession of all of her French colonies in the region.

When Britain took control of New France, she allowed the French settlers to continue to govern themselves according to their own customs, and allowed freedom of worship for all Catholics. One exception to this general tolerance of their French subjects, occurred in Nova Scotia, were an independent settlement of Acadians refused to take an oath of loyalty to the British government. In consequence they were forcibly deported from the region, and many ended up in New Orleans. Many ethnic Cajuns in New Orleans are the descendents of these deported Acadians. The French-speaking colonies of Canada continued as a British province until 1791, when New France was partitioned into French-speaking Lower Canada, (modern Quebec), and English-speaking Upper Canada (modern Ontario). The reason for this, was that following the revolutionary war, a great number of Tory settlers had migrated to Upper Canada, and the two settlements were too dissimilar to rule under a single government. During this time other British colonies were also settled in New Brunswick, Newfoundland, and Nova Scotia.

Most of the British settlement at this time were located off the eastern seaboard, but traders from the Hudson Bay Company, a company first chartered by Charles II of England, were busy discovering and mapping the vast land to the west. The colonization of the western plains began in 1811 with the settlement of the Red River Valley, but the settlers there ran into many of the same troubles that plagued the earlier settlers in America: hostile Indians, disease, and hunger. Over a long period of time, however, the southern parts of Manitoba became a thriving colony. In the far west, George Vancouver explored the Columbia river basin and Vancouver Island, and claimed the entire region for Britain. Like most of the rest of western Canada, however, permanent settlement occurred slowly until the opening of the Canadian Pacific Railroad in 1885.

In the early 1830's, the elections reform bill in Great Britain resulted an a grand restructuring of the British Parliament. After this occurred many of the colonies, including the provinces of Canada, became enamored with the idea of democratic self-rule. In 1837 there were widespread riots in both Upper and Lower Canada in protest against the British colonial government. Lord Durham went to investigate and proposed the Union of the two provinces under limited self-rule. While the residents were still British subjects, they were allowed to elect parliaments and pass laws that pertained to local matters. In 1867, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, and Nova Scotia joined the confederation, followed by Manitoba and British Columbia in 1870, and Alberta and Saskatchewan in 1905. The last province to join the Canadian Federation was Newfoundland in 1947.

Australia and New Zealand

1770 A.D. to 1931 A.D.

First Voyage of Captain Cook, to the Statute of Westminster

The Maoris at once attacked the nearest boat

The British Settlement of Australia and New Zealand, proceeded relatively peacefully, since the indigenous residents of these countries were neither populous nor particularly civilized. A great deal of the growth of these colonies was fueled by the enormous population growth within the British realm during the 19th century, and also by the availability of inexpensive land. Very poor young men and women, with limited prospects in their homeland, could move to any of Britain’s provinces and find plenty of opportunity. Aside from these similarities however, the history of the settlement of Austria and New Zealand proceeded quite differently.

Australia and New Zealand were both claimed for Britain by Captain James Cook on his first voyage to the region in 1770, but permanent settlement did not begin in Australia until 1788, several years after Britain lost possession of most of her American colonies. The initial settlement in New South Wales was a penal colony, and many of the first European inhabitants of Australia were criminals. These resulted in a very high degree of self-reliance among subsequent settlers, and a severe system of military justice because from the earliest times, Australia contained a unusually high outlaw population. Other colonies in Australia were founded in South Australia, Victoria and Queensland. They were governed fairly independently because of the large distances between them. In 1850 a gold rush caused a fairly rapid increase in population, but for the most part the population grew slowly and steadily during the 19th century. There were few military actions against the native population for several reasons. First, they were highly susceptible to infection disease, and secondly, the continent was large enough, and European settlement slow enough that when they were forced to resettle, there were few overt land disputes. Because of the almost total lack of military feats in the history of Australian settlement, ANZAC day is honored on the anniversary of the day the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps landed on the Gallipoli Peninsula during the Great War. The united provinces of Australia gained their independence from Great Britain in 1931.

Although in many ways New Zealand's climate was more attractive that that of Australia, she was settled considerably later because of her more populous, and somewhat warlike natives. The earliest European settlers in New Zealand were in fact sailors, traders, and other adventurers who desired to live among the native Maoris without the benefits or oppressions of civilized society. After trying to avoid involvement in the region for some time, in 1830 Britain finally decided to claim New Zealand as a colony and peacefully negotiated a treaty with the major native tribes in the region. From that point on, British colonists began to arrive, especially on the Northern island, but it was not for several generations that the Europeans were populous enough to have serious land disputes with the natives. This led to a serious of land wars which the Maori's, who were skilled guerilla warriors, occasionally seemed to enjoy. Over the long term, of course, the Maori's lost, but their relationship with the British colonizers never soured to the degree of other conquered peoples. There was considerable inter-marriage between the two races and when New Zealand did become independent from Britain the Maoris and their mixed-race progeny were granted full rights of citizenship.

British India

1600 A.D. to 1902 A.D.

First Charter of British East India Company, to Boxer Rebellion in China

City of Delhi

The East India Company, which originally set up British trading centers in Asia, was first charted by Elizabeth I of England in 1600. It was not uncommon for European governments to charter private companies to establish colonies—many of the thirteen American colonies had started out as such. These quasi-governmental institutions had the right to make autonomous decisions and to defend their interests in far flung regions, but were required to make a report to their sovereign, and have their charter extended every twenty to thirty years.

During the first 150 years of its existence, the British East India Company established several trading posts in India, first at Surat; then at Bombay, Calcutta, and Madras. During most of this time, much of India was ruled by the Great Mogul Jehanjir, who was on good terms with the traders, but the Mughal empire was in decline, there was strife between Hindus and Moslems, and other trading companies, from Portugal, Holland and France, competed with the British for trade in India. After the death of the Great Mogul Aurangzeb, much of the power of the Mughal empire devolved to local princes, and these princes, who were often at war with each other, were aware of the advantages of western military power. The French, under Joseph Francois Dupleix, governor at Pondicherry, were particularly astute at making alliances with the Indian Princes (Nawabs), and in a short time the French were the predominant power in Bengal. When the War of the Austrian Succession broke out in Europe, the French used the opportunity to attempt to drive England from India altogether, and thus began the Carnatic Wars.

At this point, there appeared on the scene, Sir Robert Clive, a lowly and miserable company clerk, stationed at Madras, with no military experience. When the French besieged Ft. David, he distinguished himself with such valor, that a few years later the Company entrusted him to embark on a nearly hopeless quest, to take the enemy capital of Arcot. In spite of tremendous odds, Clive took and held Arcot, and greatly improved Britain's standing among the local princes, whose main concern was to make alliances with the predominant European power. Although Dupleix was a brilliant statesman, his generals were no match for the youthful and fearless Clive. Six years, and many battles later, he had greatly improved Britain's reputation with the local princes. Finally, in 1757, at the Battle of Plassey Clive won a brilliant victory over a combined French and native force fifty thousand strong, with only 800 British, and 2000 Native troops. From this point on, Britain controlled Bengal, the riches province of India, and was the most influential foreign power in the entire region.

The first few years of the British rule in Bengal, however, were utterly miserable. The East India company was accustomed to trade and to fight, but not to govern or bring justice to a foreign country. These duties were neglected, to the near ruin of the country, until Warren Hastings was appointed the first Governor of all British Provinces in India, but only after a terrible famine had brought the problems to a crisis point. Hastings was a very controversial governor, and though he did much to improve the situation, many problems were left unresolved, and he made powerful enemies. He ruled for twelve years, but upon his return home was tried for corruption, and acquitted after a contentious trial. Whether or not he deserved to be condemned, his highly publicized trial raised many of the problems of the British rule in India to the public eye.

Several well-known Indian governors followed, including Lord Cornwallis, of American Revolutionary fame, and Marquess Wellesley, an elder Brother of the Duke of Wellington. Britain continued to bring more of India under its sway. In some case, as in the Mysore Wars against Tipu Sultan, they conquered a Nawab and annexed his region. In other cases, they simply made a "mutual defense" treaty with a local prince that gave Britain great advantages. Finally, a policy was established that in cases when no direct heir was left to a region, Britain annexed the area, and appointed its own governor. Yet expansion did not bring peace, nor did it bring good government. The British government continued to put more constraints on the East India Company to curb abuses, but there was not a clear consensus about what the ruling policy should be—only a consensus that more money should be raised. Yet the goals of ruling India well, and at the same time extracting money from her, were at cross purposes.

After numerous missteps, years of misrule, several rebellions and mutinies, and numerous wars against the Marathas, Gurkhas, and Burmah, the British government reformed the to such an extent that the East India Company was no longer allowed to carry on trade at all, and was to focus only on more effective government of the provinces. Indian ports were thrown open to merchants of every country so in this way, the native Indians were not cheated by traders who held a monopoly. This reform occurred in 1833 and was part of the "free trade" movement that was being gradually implemented throughout the growing empire. Soon after, Lord Dalhousie became was appointed Governor and was one of the best rulers of India. He expanded British territory, adding the Punjab to British domains, but accomplished it in such a way that the Sikhs, or native Punjabis, became loyal British subjects, instead of seething rebels. He also built many roads, railways, and telegraphs, which greatly improved communication in the region.

Yet just when conditions had begun to improve in India, disasters struck. First, in 1841, due to some foolish statesmanship, the British forced an unpopular ruler on Afghanistan, and stationed thousands of British soldiers along with their families in Kabul. In the middle of winter, the garrison was surrounded and forced to retreat from through Khyber Pass on its way back to India. Of the entire garrison of ten thousand, only one man survived to tell the tale. It was the worst massacre in British Imperial History. Fifteen years later, the Indian Mutiny broke out in Cawnpore, Lucknow, and Delhi. It was an enormous disaster that cost thousands of lives, and nearly succeeded in driving Britain from Indian soil. But after many atrocities and heroics, the British forces with their loyal Indian allies prevailed, and after consolidating their power, embarked on several important reforms, with the hope of preventing future outbreaks. It was at this time that the East India Company was completely dissolved, and the British Government took full responsibility for development of the Indian colonies.

Nineteenth century Shanghai.

The East India company established a trading post in Canton, China in 1711, but Britain was a relative late comer; Holland and Portugal had firmly establish posts before Britain arrived on the scene. The relations between China and England were not cordial, and all other ports remained closed to the British for over 100 years. Since the Chinese society was relatively closed, there was not a great demand for English manufactured goods, so the most profitable trade the British could establish with China involved opium. Although the opium trade between India and China existed long before Britain got involved, their efficient methods of shipping, and smuggling, increased the trade to the point that it was outlawed and suppressed by the Chinese government. At first the British merchants evaded the Chinese laws by the use of smugglers and Chinese middlemen, but as the Chinese government increased its enforcement, a crisis point arrived in 1840. The British commander in charge at the time, was personally sympathetic to the Chinesese Government's concerns and considered the Opium trade a "blot on British character"; he therefore cooperated with the Chinese confiscation and destruction of thousands of pounds of opium. The British government however, which had long sought an excuse to force China to open its port to her merchants, decided to use this incident as an excuse to declare war on China. Although Britain believed it carried on this war in a humane and measured fashion, the scandal of using the Opium trade as a cause of war has marked the incident with everlasting ignominy.

The second Opium War, which occurred at almost the same time as the Indian Mutiny, was initiated when, after twelve years, the British insisted on renegotiating their treaty with China to provide for even more advantageous trading terms. They were resisted by a commissioner of Canton, and so attacked and took over the city. One of the most important British characters of this time was Harry Smith Parks, a orphan, who ended up with a relative stationed in China, and learned the language fluently as a young man. It was in retaliation for the kidnapping of Parkes that the British army destroyed the emperor's summer palace, an act which historians now deplore as "cultural vandalism". The upshot of the second Opium War however, was that Britain not only won more concessions from China, but agreed to help them fight a terrible civil war, known as the Tai Ping Rebellion, that was going on at the same time. The British General Charles Gordon (who later died at the siege of Khartoum), took command of the Chinese army, which eventually put down the rebellion which devastated much of China. It is estimated that over 20 million were killed in the uprising— more lives than were lost in the Napoleonic Wars.

After the second Opium war, and the Tai-ping rebellion were brought to a close, British citizens and missionaries were allowed to live in China, and the Chinese government itself, although highly resistant to reform, became militarily dependent on the Western powers. This state of affairs continued until the Boxer Rebellion broke out in Southern China, directed against foreigners. Hundreds of westerners were killed along with thousands of Chinese Christians, until it was finally put down in 1901. Most of the reparations demanded by the Western powers in retaliation for this war, were used to educate Chinese students in Western Universities, in hopes of helping to modernize China. Western Educated Chinese, including Sun Yat Sen, helped overthrow the corrupt and feeble Quin dynasty in 1911. Although Western Powers had great hope for the newly founded Republic of China, and did much to aid and support it; the feeble condition of the central government for the previous fifty years had placed much of the country under the control of local warlords, who were essentially ungovernable. Western powers maintained a presence in China however, until the second world war threw the entire country into near total chaos, leaving it susceptible to a communist takeover.

Colonial Africa

1770 A.D. to 1910A.D.

James Bruce discovers the Blue Nile, to Union of South Africa

The lion began to crunch the bone of his arm

Substantial British Influence in Africa was not established until the 19th century, and was confined to several regions which have separate histories. By the turn of the 20th century, British holdings included Sierra Leone, the Gold Coast (modern Ghana) and Nigeria in West Africa; the region now composed of South Africa, Botswana, Zambezi, and Zambia in the south; and Uganda and Kenya in the East. In addition, British forces controlled the regions of Egypt and Sudan, although nominally these were still part of the Ottoman Empire. Although British traders, including slave traders, had operated off the west coast of Africas for several hundred years, they confined their operations mainly to a few coastal trading ports and islands, since the African interior was thought to be uninhabitable by Europeans. Britain did not actually gain control of Capetown in South Africa until around 1800, and did not acquire her other colonial holdings until the late 19th century. British colonization of Africa therefore occurred nearly 100 years after its colonial expansion in Asia, and over 200 years since its colonization of North America.

The British colonization of Africa proceeded in a much more hesitant manner than that of Asia. While Asia was essentially colonized by trading companies, which had but one objective in mind, Britons with imperial interests in Africa included missionaries and humanitarians, as well as traders; but even among the humanitarians there was little consensus about what could or should be done about such native practices as domestic slavery, witchcraft, inter-tribal warfare, and human sacrifice. Because of the difficulties with native populations, an unhealthy climate and uncertain commercial opportunities, there was much reluctance and controversy regarding what Britain’s objectives should be in the region, beyond preventing other countries from colonizing the region. Control of the British government changed parties rather frequently and no grand or consistent colonial policy regarding Africa was pursued from above. For this reason, committed individuals who were willing to work over the long term, were often very influential in determining British "African policy". Some examples of this were Charles Gordon in the Sudan, George Goldie in Nigeria, Cecil Rhodes in South Africa, and David Livingstone.

Certainly, by the 1880’s when the discovery of both gold and diamonds had caused hundreds of fortune seekers to flock to the region, there was a great deal of greed and exploitation involved in the development of Africa, but it is false to characterize British influence in Africa as purely exploitive in nature. Serious colonization of Africa by Britain did not begin until after the slave trade was outlawed, and much of the wrath directed against Britain by the natives, was because of its policy of opposing slavery and witchcraft, which were thoroughly ingrained into native African culture. Millions of dollars were spent on humanitarian relief for the natives; hundreds of missionaries risked their lives to bring the best aspects of civilization to the African tribes. The problems of Africa have always been serious and difficult of redress, before, during, and after colonization, but it is certain that many of the most committed of British colonizers, were motivated to alleviate the suffering of the native populations, and not entirely driven by greed.

The geography of the African interior was almost completely unknown well into the 19th century, but when exploration was finally undertaken most of the adventurers were British Scots. One of the earliest explorers of Africa was James Bruce who discovered the source of the Blue Nile in 1770. Soon after Mungo Park discovered the Niger river by traveling across land, but never determined its source or mouth. Several other British explorers, including Hugh Clapperton and the Landers brothers continued to explore this region over the next few decades. They determined the course and the outlet of the Niger, but not much was done to follow up their efforts because of the extreme danger of traveling inland in this region. The source of the White Nile and Lake Victoria, were not discovered until 1856 by John Hanning Speke and Richard Burton, and David Livingstone, the most famous of African Explorers, did not undertake his first expedition to cross the southern horn of the continent until 1852, and by his death in 1873, much of the interior of the continent was still unknown. It was left to H. M. Stanley, yet another Scotsman, to cross the continent east to west, and in 1874 discover the route of the Congo river. Even after these discoveries were made further development was proceeded very slowly, and large swaths of the continent lay unexplored.

In West Africa, France was the major colonial power in the region, and British traders held only a few outposts, and even held these half-heartedly at times, since it was difficult to retain governors. The climate was deadly for white men, and few ventured into the interior. The coast possessed some honest traders, and mission stations, but the overall character of many of the Europeans who did venture into the regions was poor—pirates and slavers abounded, and even many philanthropic ventures that were naively attempted ended in disaster. During the 19th century, British traders established several additional outposts in the Gold Coast region, and made alliances with the Fanti, who were the dominant coastal tribes at the time. During the same period, the interior Ashanti tribe was becoming more powerful, and sought to displace the Fanti and take over the coastal trade. The first Ashanti War occurred when the Ashanti's made several raids into the coastal settlements protected by the British and burned Fanti villages. Since the area was under their protection, the British made several raids into Ashanti territory between 1826 and 1874 in order to punish the incursions. A final uprising in 1896 resulted in the declaration of the territory as the Crown Colony of the Gold Coast.

The man most responsible for the establishment of Nigeria as a British colony was George Goldie, who for twenty years worked to establish a functioning government to Nigeria. Unable to get Britain to commit, he raised funds privately, and founded a government chartered development company. He essentially governed the region himself for twenty years, until "selling-out" to Britain in 1900. Like most people of the his age, he did not think the natives were capable of governing themselves humanely, and saw his role both as promoting commerce and civilization.

South Africa

Thus did a hundred men keep three thousand savages at bay

The Cape Town region of South Africa was originally settled by the Dutch East India Company in the 17th century, and by the time the colony fell into British hands, around 1800, much of the population had been established in the area for over 150 years. The Native Dutch, also called Boers, or Afrikaners, were fiercely independent slave-owners, and they resented the British interference. When the British government decided to abolish slavery in all of its colonies, many of the Boers decided to pack up their belongings and move out of the sphere of British influence. They first settled in Natal, on the east side of the peninsula, but as Britain had already started to form settlements in the area, they moved across the Vaal river, into a desolate wilderness, inhabited by Zulu tribes. After using their usual methods of slaughter, enslavement, and diplomacy to bring the native tribes to bay, the Boers settled and formed two republics in the region, the Orange Free State, and the Transvaal Republic.

Meanwhile, Cape Town, Natal, and several other towns in the south grew under Britain’s protection. In 1867 however, diamonds were found in a remote area of Kimberly, claimed by both Britain and the Transvaal. The commerce and industry minded English were in a far better position to exploit the discoveries, and so took over government of the area. Within ten years of the discovery of South African Diamonds, Cecil Rhodes, a young man from a middle-class farming family in England, had built a diamond-mining empire that gained greater and greater control of the market until he had a multi-million dollar cartel at his disposal. In spite of his personal riches, Rhodes led a relatively austere life, and threw his entire energies and much of his wealth into the project of unifying the various colonies of South Africa under a single government, within the British commonwealth. With this goal in mind, he negotiated with the native tribes, and helped to lay claim to the regions north of the Transvaal, including modern Botswana, Zambia, and Zambezi. He did much else to the lay the groundwork for unification, but was hotly resisted by the Boers, who hated British rule, and loved their independence.

The population of the Zulu nation increased quickly under British protection, and soon there was conflict with the Boers and other British colonies. The British regiment that was sent to put down Cetewayo, the Zulu king of the time, was caught off guard and slaughtered in one of the worst massacres in British history. It took the British nearly a year to regroup, but they eventually destroyed the Zulu capital, and sent the king into exile. No sooner had the British prevailed against the Zulu’s, and annexed the Boer republic, but the first Boer War broke out and went very badly for the British. The current Prime minister, William Gladstone, was glad to make peace with the Boers and granted them their independence, much to the dismay of Rhodes and other die-hard imperialists, who believed that South Africa could only thrive under a unified government.

Yet the situation would get uglier still. In 1885, an enormous vein of gold was discovered in the Transvaal. The Boers themselves were agricultural and only wanted to be left alone, but could do nothing to prevent the enormous influx of foreigners into their territory. They did however, tax the miners, but did not allow the outlanders to have a say in government. Since many of the outlanders were British, this was an excuse to attempt to annex the area into British territory, and an unofficial "revolution" was staged which ended in disaster. By 1899 the pressure was at an intolerable level, and the Boer’s laid siege to three British cities. This was the start of the very costly and difficult second Boer War. It lasted until 1902, but ultimately, the far stronger British defeated the republic and forced the Boers to submit to British government. It took ten more years to integrate the colonies, but neither the imperialist Cecil Rhodes nor his Boer nemesis Paul Kruger lived to see the birth of the South African Nation.

Egypt-Sudan

In the Soudan, buy two children for a basket full of dhoora.

Even before the Crimean War, during which Britain took the side of the Ottoman Turks against Russia, the British had developed friendly relations with some Ottoman rulers, particularly Mehemet Ali, who had taken control of Egypt and the Sudan, and allowed the British to run a transportation line (P.& O.) from Alexandria to the Red Sea, to facilitate travel to India. Unfortunately, Mehemet’s successors did not govern as ably as he did, and relied on Britain and other European powers provide advice on modernization, and to bail them out of financial trouble. The Suez canal was begun with the aid of the French, but through diplomacy and other shenanigans, Britain ended up controlling an minority share. Soon after the opening of the canal, Britain was called upon to help put down Arabi's Rebellion against the Egyptian government, and at the Battle of Tel-el-kebir drove the rebel leader into exile. By this point Britain was no longer playing merely an "advisory" role in Egypt, but by assuming control of both the finances of the Egyptian government, and also the military, it was in effect, although not in name, ruling the region.

Meanwhile the great British military hero Charles Gordon, who had already distinguished himself by his valiant service in China and Britain, was appointed Governor of Sudan, a region where slavery was still rife, and the natives were severely oppressed by warlords, bandits, and Moslem slavers. Gordon worked ceaselessly for five years to improve the condition of the natives, and returned to Britain in 1879, exhausted. Shortly after Gordon left Sudan a rebellion broke out, lead by the Mahdi, a fanatical Moslem warlord. Within a few years he controlled much of Sudan, and murdered and enslaved those who opposed him. In 1884, when Gordon heard that Khartoum, the capital of Sudan was threatened, he returned to help defend the city and urged the British government to send a relief party. The relief party however, after many delays, arrived too late, and Gordon was killed when the city of Khartoum was taken. It was not until 13 years later, that this disgrace was avenged by Horatio Kitchener, hero of the Soudan Campaign at the Battle of Omdurman, and the Mahdists finally driven out of Sudan. Egypt and Sudan continued under British protection until finally becoming an official colony after the Great War.

The Great War

1902 A.D. to 1922A.D.

Prelude to Aftermath of the Great War

The destruction of a Zeppelin at Cuffley.

Thirteen years after the death of Victoria of Great Britain in 1901, the British Empire faced the worst calamity it its history, the Great War. During the last half of the 19th century, the nation of Germany, dominated by Prussia, had made great gains over its continental neighbors. Its compulsory education and university system produced the best educated population in the world. In the Franco Prussian War of 1870, Germany had established itself as the pre-eminent military force on the continent. Germany was a well-educated, industrious, and ambitious country, with an enormous standing army. It was not, however, a strong naval power and by the time it came to power, most of the desirable areas of the globe had already been colonized by Britain, France, or Spain. Undaunted, Germany realized that if she could get control of the Balkan Peninsula, and ally herself with Turkey, she could control important trade routes to the east.

Great Britain, on the other hand, was very wealthy, powerful, and controlled almost all the strategically important sea routes, but her wealth and industry had given rise to a certain decadence and corruption, and the control of her government alternated between pro-imperialist Tories and liberal, or socialist reformers. Britain, being a self-content, but unwieldly power, did not want war, and was not prepared for it. Germany, being a young, vigorous, and ambitious rising power, did. The leaders in Germany undoubtedly believed they could conquer the corrupt western democracies in a short and decisive campaign, as they had done in the Franco-Prussian war. No one believed in advance that the war would sink to the depths of carnage, barbarism and whole-sale slaughter to which it quickly sank. The Great War, as it was called at the time, was not just a military debacle for all concerned, but a blow at the heart of the modernist idea of moral progress, and the conceits of civilization.

The Western Front

British involvement in the Great war occurred primarily on the Western Front, and in particularly in the regions of Flanders and northern France. The German had planned a very quick foray toward Paris in hopes of a quick victory, but they were frustrated by Belgium's refusal to allow their army to pass through their country. This delayed the German advance by three weeks, giving France and Britain time to marshal forces. Once inside French territory, the Germans advanced rapidly but were stopped and driven back at the First Battle of the Marne. The Germans retreated to a line defense that extended across eastern France from the North Sea to Switzerland, and both sides dug in for a protracted war. Numerous offensives were attempted from this line on both sides, but with modern weapon technology, every offensive resulted in horrendous casualties, and fighting quickly reverted to trench warfare. New weapons, such as poison gas, aircraft bombing, and tanks were invented to make progress on this front, but even these were unsuccessful in breaking the deadlock. The two most famous battles on the Western front, both lasting several months and inflicting hundreds of thousands of casualties, were Verdun and Somme. Yet even these ambitious campaigns failed in their objectives. The western front languished for three years, until Germany instigated a final offensive, in an attempt to break through the french line before American reinforcements arrived. The object failed and by 1818, when significant numbers of Americans arrived the Germans were driven out of their positions and far back into German territory.

Gallipoli

Australians at work at Anzac two days before the evacuation took place

The invasion of Gallipoli was the worst British crisis of 1915. The British desired to gain control of the Black Sea in order to supply its ally Russian, and also to cut off German aid to Turkey. It was determined that the straight of Dardanelles could not be taken by British navy due to heavily fortified forts, so a large scale land invasion of the Gallipoli Peninsula was planned. Although carefully planned, the casualties were extremely heavy, the conditions were terrible, and the British were too exhausted once they had secured each military objective to follow through on their offensive. After several offensives failed to make headway the project was abandoned. Winston Churchill was one of the Navel commanders at the time who lost their position after the debacle.

Mesopotamia and Palestine

After an initial disastrous campaign in Mesopotamia, in which most of a British army was besieged in Kut en route to Baghdad, the allied campaigns in Iraq and Palestine were generally successful. By attacking from British strongholds in the Persian Gulf and Egypt, several British armies were able to land successfully, secure their supply lines, and over run the southern portions of the Ottoman Empire. They were helped in these endeavors by an Arab rebellion, led by Lawrence of Arabia, a British archeologist who had spent several years traveling in Arabia and befriending important sheiks. The first allied victory in the area was the successful capture of Baghdad by General Maude in early 1917. This was followed up by a series of successful campaigns in Palestine and Syria by General Allenby. Jerusalem fell to the British in late 1917, and most important cities in Syria were in British hands by early 1918.

Dissolution of the British Empire

The immediate effects of the Treaty of Versailles, which ended the Great War, was to add Egypt, Iraq and Palestine to Britain's dominions. These new acquisitions were the result of the breakup of the Ottoman Empire. Long term, however, the Great War portended the ultimate dissolution of the Empire. The war had crippled Britain economically, decreased its hold upon its colonies, and most importantly severely diminished its will to power. Britain's war debt was enormous and lead to destabilizing inflation. The Anglo-Irish war of 1919 lead to Ireland's independence from Great Britain in 1922. A few years later the Balfour Declaration of 1926 suggested that the imperial possessions of Canada, New Zealand, Australia, Newfoundland, and South Africa be governed in cooperation with, but independently of Britain. This arrangement was set formally sent forth in 1931 in the Statute of Westminster. Gradually almost all other British possessions gained their independence: Iraq in 1932, India in 1947, Burma in 1948, Egypt in 1953, Nigeria and South Africa in 1960, and Kenya in 1963. Hong Kong was ceded back to the China in 1997. Today the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland enjoys commonwealth trade relations with most of its former colonies, but it directly governs only the Falkland Islands, Gibraltar, and the British West Indies.