Origins of the British Empire and the Competition with France

Friday, November 16, 2018

Origins of the British Empire and the Competition with France

Britain began to make first tentative efforts to establish overseas settlements in the 16^th century. Mostly driven by the competition with France and commercial ambitions, its maritime expansion accelerated in the 17^th century. Results of this expansion were settlements in North America and in West India. In 1670 the British American colonies where in New England, Virginia, Maryland and also new settlements in the Bermudas, Honduras, Antigua, Barbados and Nova Scotia. Jamaica was obtained in 1655 by conquest, and what later became Canada from the 1670´s on, was first established as the Hudson´s Bay Company. Trading post were established in India around the 1600´s by the East India Company. Penang, Singapore, Malacca and Labuan became British colonies through an extension of that company´s activities. James Island was the first permanent British settlement on the African Continent. In was in 1661 in the Gambia River. This is also around the time when British began with Slave trading. The first trades began in Sierra Leone, even though it was not a British colony. In 1806 Britain acquired south African parts, like the Cap of Good Hope.

Almost all of those settlements or colonies were a result of enterprises of companies or magnates. The English crown did not make much of an effort to obtain any of these territories. Another important fact about the colonies of the British Empire is, that they were mostly self-managing. The crown only gave some ground rules and supervised them.

Competition with France

Under the leadership of Robert Clive, James Wolfe and Eyre Coote, the british military and naval forces gained the most important parts of its empire - India and Canada. The British and French colonies were fighting against each other in North America in the first half of the 18^th century. This war was also known as the “French and Indian War” But this seven year long war ended after the Treaty of Paris (in 1763) was made. This war left Britain dominant in Canada. In India on the other hand, the east was occupied and confronted by the French. Robert Clive managed, through military victories against the French forces and the rulers of Bengal to evict them from those east territories and claim them for the British colonies. This ensured Britain the supremacy in India as well.

During 1776-1783 Britain suffered a loss of 13 colonies in America. But those losses were compensated by new colony settlements in Australia. Through the Napoleonic Wars the British empire managed to acquire further colonies. The Treaty of Amiens (1802) brought them Trinidad and Sri Lanka. And the second Treaty of Paris, this time in 1814, brought them Tobago, Mauritius, Saint Lucia and Malta. Stamford Raffles conquered Singapore in 1819 and Malacca joined the British Empire in 1795.

Dominik König