Colonial Corporation of the British Emperor - Coursework Example

Colonial Corporations This study highlights the Colonial Corporation of the British Emperor. They expanded their emperor through trade and by forming different companies. The rice people of Britain invested in these companies and invaded in many countries of the world. They established their business to those countries and formed many colonies out this. This case study gives a detailed description of the policies of the British to exploit the people of the colonies for getting benefits and wealth from them. Different policies which were undertaken by The British Corporation are discussed here. Their main intension was to strengthen their own economy at the expense of their colonies. Here in this case study the American Revolution is mentioned in a detailed way. Many American countries were under the rule of British. Their sufferings and problems which were aroused for the British rule are highlighted in this case. Introduction Colonialism is defined as the establishment of political power by a country in another territory. The powerful country maintains their authority over the occupied country and expands their territory over there. It explodes the acquired colonies. Colonialism develops unequal relationship between the colony and the colony power. The British colonial period started from 16th century and continued till 20th century. During this period many European powers acquired many colonies in Africa, Asia and America. By following colonialism the British Empire became the most extensive empire of the world. The country became the strongest global power. By 1921 this empire ruled around 570 million people. Their colonialism started by the territorial expansion through maritime policies. The British established commercial links with different colonies and ended in acquiring those colonies. They build up a Chartered company for the purpose of trade, colonisation and exploration. It was an association which was composed of shareholders or investors. This company permitted the British merchants to undertake different ventures. Gradually the companies started earning profit from the exploited colonies. Some of the British companies developed extensive administration on the colonies for their business ventures. England expanded its colonies in America by war. It gained control of New Amsterdam by negotiation. At the time of the Seven Years War the greater part of North America was controlled by British. Exploitation of the American colonies resulted in The American Revolution where thirteen colonies rejected the authority of British rule. History of Corporate Rule The British established its colonialism in North America by European settlement. These colonial corporations are also known as Crown Corporation. It exported wealth back to the investors. The monarch chartered the British Corporations. By the creation of those Corporations the British expanded its empire. It helped to make their aristocracy wealthy. The early crown corporation had the right to wage war, levy taxes, and imprison persons. They were enjoying a monopoly trade in many regions of North America where they were operating its business (Egerton, 2010). These British corporations did not possess any right of their own but they were the artificial establishment of the monarchy which was presented for the advantage of the sovereign monarch. At any time the British could start a Corporation charter. The bitterness and the colonial anger grew against the corporate power as the English parliament implemented measures which protected the trade of Crown Corporation against the local merchants of the American colonies. Colonies under British Rule The main British colonies are Australia, Canada, Pakistan, Sir Lanka, India, South Africa, Newfoundland, New Zealand and the Irish Free State. These colonies became the monarchies of the British. They were administered by UK. Spain & Portugal was the pioneer of the British exploration. As a result they established huge overseas empires. France, Netherland settled trade networks and colonies in Asia and America. Initially the British adopted mercantilist policies for making their home economy strong at the cost of their rivals. Therefore these colonies were only allowed to trade with mother country. In the mid of 19th century The British gave up this policy and trade restrictions. They introduced free trade but it also had some restrictions. In the beginning they followed exploitation colonialism in these eight colonies (Deutschmann, 2011). They were focused to access the resources of these colonies and export them to England. Gradually they started in involving it the economic and political administration. The British exploited and tortured the people of theses colonies bin an extreme level. Even they started slave trade. When the labour was unavailable then people of these colonies are brought as slaves and they were imported to America. This was first initiated by Portuguese and then it was followed by Dutch, Spanish, French and British. In the latter part a large scale of British people moved to these colonies and settled down there. The British established East India Company in India and started colonialism in India. This company was chartered by Elizabeth I who was the granddaughter of Henry. In the Elizabethan era colonialism was mainly developed by expansion of trade. Many pre union attempts were made by them in favour of expanding colonialism in North and South America. The British corporation founded the Dominion status and achieved the ruling power in the British colonies. Gradually they became full responsible government. With the legislative power of the colonies they were able to make laws and rules. All the power of these colonies was in the hand of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. There colonial policies were mainly driven by the trading interests. They developed the infrastructure of the colonies to support the development. Some African countries were developed in a large extent by the British for supporting the supply of the raw materials for their business. Their comparative advantage policies created a dangerous condition in the economy of these colonies. They had to produce a single cash crop which the British will export to other countries. The British also had influenced and manipulated different conflicts in these colonies which gave a rise of serious religious, ethical, racial issues. The British government followed the policy of divide and rule. This aroused communal problems in the colonies like India, Ireland, and Africa etc which had diverse populations. During the rule of Queen Victoria, it was the moral responsibilities of the British to the people who were half child and half devil. The British are white man. So for their skin colour they thought themselves as a superior race and the black skinned people were inferior to them. The British Emperor had two important holding in Africa. It was the British Cape Colony and Algeria. In 1899 British completely acquired South Africa (Greene and Pole, 1984). They expanded in the northern part of South Africa by their private owned company Rhodes. In 1914 Britain controlled 30% of the total population of Africa. They extremely exploited the people and the resources of Africa. The Sugar Act, the Townshend Acts, the Stamp Act raised money in the British emperor. These acts did not support the bad condition of the colony. As a result it created tension and it increased more when the British Parliament granted the Coercive Act. This Act influenced colony like India to take its first step for gaining its independence. India had a long and bitter fight with the British. Most of the colonies started rebelling against the British colonialism as the British exploitation became unbearable. They waged a war against British. But the European people had several advantages in the war. They had a large well trained army, loyalists, navy who supported them. But many British were against the system of slavery and promised to free the slaves who joined the royal army. The unfair administration and the exploitation of the British government in all its colonies ended up in a civil war. Individual states began to fight for its rights and power against the corporate charter. The situation was influenced by the bitterness and fear of the British power. These influential factors bloomed and resulted in the industrial revolution and civil war in all these colonies (Grigg and Mancall, 2008). American Revolution Between 1765 and 1783 The American Revolution took place. This revolution was against the British Colonial Rule. This revolution resulted several political, intellectual, social transformations in the society of America. It changed the government and the thinking process of the people. Through this revolution thirteen colonies rejected the authority of British rule. They revolted against exploitation of British Tax system and the trade regulations imposed there. This revolution was marked in the history as it was the first fight of the people for their independence, constitutional rights, laws, sovereignty. The root of this revolution mainly began with the strengthening of the British reins in 1763. As a result the relation between the colonies and the British rule became very conflicting. The land policy of British irritated the people American people. In 1765 the American co0lonies rejected the taxes of the British government. They also did a major protest in Boston Tea Party in 1773 against the British rule (Constantine, 2005). The rebellion became formal against the British rule in 1774 with the replacement of government in Massachusetts. It confined British to control Boston. They focused on this incident and captured New York. They blocked ports and captured many countries of America. The crown colonies of British America were New Jersey, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, North Carolina, Georgia, Virginia and Massachusetts. These colonies experienced the constitutional structure of mixed monarchy under the rule of Great Britain. Each of these colonies had a lower house of legislature which was composed of an elected assembly. A council was appointed by the crown which constituted the legislature’s upper house. The British also appointed a governor who represented the King. The laws of these colonies were submitted to the British for the approval. The British parliament imposed Sugar Act which put custom duties on a number of articles. This created a major problem in for the local traders of these colonies. The stamp act imposed direct taxes on the colonies. All the official documents of the American colonies were needed to have stamps. The colonies objected on this. They were not able to pay high taxes. Even they did not have any representative in the British Parliament. The Sons of Liberty was formed in 1765. The American used violence, public demonstrations, threats for ensuring that the British laws and taxes were unenforceable. The Sons of Liberty was burned in Boston and the chief justice home was looted. Many Legislatures were called for joint actions. Delegates were sent from Nine Colonies to New York in the Stamp Act Congress. John Dickinson led the moderates and drew up the declaration for grievances and rights. It stated that taxes which were imposed on them without their representation in the British Parliament violated the right of the American people. They also rejected the idea of providing representation in the British parliament because of the distance issues. The American colonies emphasized on boycotting the imports goods of the British merchandise. British levied heavy taxes on the colonies without their approval. They claimed that legally the colonies were under British corporations. Therefore they are subordinate to their parliament. The British parliament had the right to make and impose laws on them. In 1767 Townshend Acts was passed by British government in America which imposed huge duties on many essential goods like glass, paper, tea etc. The American colonies were against this Act. This is because this Act was imposed by the British to raise their revenue and not to regulate their trade. The Colonists boycotted the British goods. The Assembly of Massachusetts Bay in 1768, issues a letter to the colonies wanting them to coordinate the resistance. When the assembly refused to rescind that letter the governor dissolved the assembly. British troop was deployed to Boston. British colonization caused much turmoil in the American civilization. They were the most important colonizer of this country. Conflicts aroused in many parts of the American colonies against the British rule. By the excellent leadership of George Washington contributed a lot in making America free from the British colonialism. British commander made many mistakes in American Revolution which also contributed in their victory. There is always confusion that the victory of American is short or long. The victory of America was almost a miracle. There were many rebels in America which also influenced this revolution. The Peace treaty of America with Britain gave US its land in the south of the Great lakes and east of river Mississippi (Birnhack, 2012). Conclusion The British Empire was the largest empire of the world. Its immense power and influences helps the empire to expand throughout the world. From the very beginning they started their colonialism in by settling up trades in different countries of the world. They expanded their trade and exploited the peoples of their colonies for earning more revenues and using the resources of those places. The British made themselves rich by levying high taxes on their colonies. Slowly the British acquired many colonies and began to rule those colonies. The British parliament made laws for those colonies without taking approval from them. For their unfair administration the people of the colonies suffered a lot. The British also influenced many riots and internal fights among these colonies for making them weak. The long time suppression of the British had created a bitterness and anger among the people of the company. All this resulted in the revolt against the British rule. The American Revolution is also an example of revolt against the exploitation of British rule. Many incidents occurred in America which influenced this revolution. References Birnhack, M., (2012). Colonial Copyright: Intellectual Property in Mandate Palestine. London: Oxford University Press. Constantine, S., (2005). The Making of British Colonial Development Policy 1914-1940. London: Routledge. Deutschmann, M., (2011). Edward Said and the Cultural History of British Colonialism in India. New York: GRIN Verlag. Egerton, H., (2010). A Short History of British Colonial Policy. New York: Cambridge University Press. Greene, J. and Pole, J., (1984). Colonial British America: Essays in the New History of the Early Modern Era, Volume 2. Canada: Johns Hopkins University Press. Grigg, J. and Mancall, P. (2008). British Colonial America: People and Perspectives. California: ABC-CLIO. Read More