British Empire Research Paper

me to recall to your mind that time in which the arms and tyranny of the British Crown were exerted with every powerful effort in order to reduce you to a State of Servitude, look back I entreat you on the variety of dangers to which you were exposed; reflect on that time in which every human aid appeared unavailable, and in which even hope and fortitude wore the aspect of inability to the conflict…” (Banneker).

It provided the Allied Forces with roughly $45 billion of support, nearly $30 billion of which went to the British Empire. However, even with US aid, Britain was still devastated by bombing raids, which destroyed not only public works but private estates as well. Britain economy steeply declined and luxuries her citizens once took for granted, such as meat, bread, and tobacco, were rationed even post-war. For the first time in history, Britain was a debtor nation (“Lord of the Flies,” World 228-231). Although her economy is relatively stable in the 21st century, the United Kingdom was never as great as she was pre-World War II.

This was a significant victory for the American colonists because they now knew their actions could change the British policy. As a result of the British systems, the colonists all began to come together against them. After that, several more events would lead them to want independence. For example, the Townshend act of 1767. This placed a tax on various items, like glass, paint, and lead. Parliament used the money to pay for the income of the British imperial officers serving in the colonies. This took a little bit of power away from the American colonies since local governments used to pay their incomes. After came the Boston Massacre in 1770 when British soldiers guarding a customs house began to fire shots into a mob killing five Bostonians.

Throughout the eighteenth and nineteenth century, the United States and Great Britain have repeatedly clashed heads due to disagreements on views and opinion of other nations. War had become a constant struggle between both nations, starting from the American Revolution. Twenty nine years after the American Revolutionary War had ended in 1783, the Americans partook in yet another war with Great Britain, the War of 1812. Great Britain’s disturbances and ignorance had pushed America over the edge, thus igniting a war. Ultimately, the War of 1812 was due to impressment of American soldiers, continual threat to the “rights of the people”, and

This shows that the British upper class or elite, were primarily interested in making large imperialistic investments due to the fact that they knew it was in their economic interest to do so. By doing so they would allow themselves to profit from their investments. Much like our government and private investors do today with oil in the mid east. : (

The British applied a new imperial policy upon the American colonies in order to pay off the debt accumulated from the French and Indian War. Some of these policies included acts that the British enforced in order to further regulate the colonies and make themselves more money for the mother country. These acts showed the colonies that they were still controlled by the British and that they were inferior to them. Britain's transition from salutary neglect brought about great social and political problems. The social, political, and economic conflict grew in large extent due to the new imperial policies that were implemented.

Moving forward, it is also highly unlikely that Britain would have survived after the Battle of Britain had the Royal Canadian Navy not been assisting merchant convoys crossing the Atlantic from the US and Canada. The air effort presented similar trends as the RCN – in May 1945, there were 784 aircraft in Coastal command, with 511 used against submarines and the rest for enemy attacks. Approximately 153,000 flight personnel were trained out of a total of 239,761 that were engaged in British and Commonwealth flying operations, a pivotal choice in gaining air superiority – victory over the sky would never have happened so quickly without Canada’s involvement. The RCAF famously worked with the RCN throughout the Battle of Britain, the attempt by the German war machine to destroy Britain’s Royal Air Force (RAF) and prepare for invasion after already conquering most of Europe, including France, which was one of Canada’s first campaigns during the first nine months or so of war. Founded in 1924, the RCAF was the smallest of Canada’s services when war broke out in 1939. Attempts to expand and improve the force up until 1935 were futile, only growing from 569 to 1,031 personnel, just enough for the needs of war. The Second World War undoubtedly established an aircraft industry and the progression of civil aviation formed a reserve of skilled pilots from a developed training scheme established in Canada. The inauguration of the British Commonwealth Air Training Plan (BCATP) took place, a strategy conceived by Prime Minister King to train pilots and flight personnel in Canada, so that the Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF) would remain a safe distance away from the fighting in Europe and North Africa. This allowed for contribution from the war effort on home

Like all world national games everyone wants to be number one above all, they want to show that they are the best. But to reach there, you have components in which you need to build upon to get to that level. It’s just like the history of our country around the 1500's where countries were constantly battling each other trying to be on top with the policy known as Imperialism. Imperialism is the domination by one country or people over another group of people. But depending on who it comes from, Imperialism can be seen as something positive or negative.

In this essay I will explain why I think The Battle of Britain was the

Warfare has been apart of British history for many centries. During the 1700’s, battles such as The Battle of Quebec, The Battle of Yorktown, The Battle of Bunker Hill, and The Battle of Ticonderoga helped show the strength and weakness of the British Army. During the 1800’s, battles such as The Battle of Lake Erie, The Battle of Waterloo, and The Battle of Rorke’s Drift helped demonstrate and give examples of alliances, national pride, and victories. During the 1900s, battles such as The Battle of Mons, The Battle of Britain, and The Battle of Singapore demonstrated positivity and defense. From the early 1700s to the late 1900s, numerous British battles took place that influenced great change in Britain’s society or government.

First, the development of the British imperial ideology and the formation of an identity that plays an integral role within the narratives and the development of a unique

In The Empire Writes Back (Ashcroft, et al.), the term ‘post-colonial’ is defined as covering “all the culture affected by the imperial process from the moment of colonization to the present day”. Post-colonial theory, then, provides an insight into the complicated power dynamic that occurs between the coloniser and the colonised, and, at its simplest, responds to colonialism with emphasis on the effects, both positive and negative, on the coloniser and the colonised. Having read Jones’s Mister Pip with a post-colonial lens, it becomes clear that Mr Watts and Matilda are a metaphor for the coloniser and the colonised. Within this metaphor, they each take on unbalanced roles in different relationships, and are represented in different ways, though Mr

The Effect of World War I on Britain Economically and Socially The outbreak of the war in August 1914 produced immediate changes. It is often said that war is the 'locomotive of history' - that is what drives it along. Certainly the First World War helped to produce major changes in British government, society, the economy and industrial relations.

“Australia sent her best men and some of her equipment now sorely needed at home to relieve British needs elsewhere … the United Kingdom turned deaf ears to every plea.” (‘The Fall of Singapore’ 1942, The Canberra Times)

The first cause that I will discuss that led to British decolonization was its debt from back to back World Wars and the overall affect on the wars itself. World War 1 was costly to the British economy, but for World War 2, the economic losses were far heavier. World War 2 ate up Britain’s monetary reserves and a quarter of its stored wealth. Britain was also stripped of two-thirds of its pre-war export trade. This economic loss forced Britain into acquiring loans from the United States. This meant that after World War 2 Great Britain had emerged from war as a debtor nation with an empire still intact. The once great financial resources of Britain were devastated by the high cost of the wars and even the Great Depression before. Ultimately, this meant that Britain’s foreign policy could not be as extravagant as it was before the Wars.