Why did the British Empire Expand so Dramatically in the Indian Ocean World between 1750 and 1815 - Essay Example

Why did the British Empire expand so dramatically in the Indian Ocean world between 1750 and 1815, and what forms did this expansion take? Britain isa relatively small island on the edge of Europe, and to some extent this has isolated it. On the other hand, because it was an island , sea craft was important, and over time Britain developed the world’s most efficient and capable navy, as well as trading vessels, the merchant navy, and this enabled it to establish trade and other connections right round the world. Braudel had described the seas in an earlier age as having been:- The great divider, the obstacle that had to be overcome.1 This essay will consider how and why Britain did that during the days of Empire. .Frost describes those same seas completely differently, as a positive thing ,as a unifying force for the empire :- The idea that the sea unites rather than segregates territories and regions, through the linkages created by maritime networks has been a feature of modern history writing. 2 He argues that the sea, often seen as creating divisions, actually served as a unifying force, adding strength to Britain’s imperialistic conquests. Links made were not just about trade. Bose 3sees the sea routes used as a :- Web’ for information exchange that depended on oceanic communications. Many of these connections were made as a result of sea voyages and explorations, which turned into control, and then into empire. The establishment of the empire required not only leaders, but also the efforts of many very ordinary people who were prepared to take risks for what they wanted, a life they believed would be better than they were leaving behind. The term empire or imperialism has been defined as :- An unequal human and territorial relationship, usually in the form of an empire, based on ideas of superiority and practices of dominance, and involving the extension of authority and control of one state or people over another .4 The British were of course not the first to sail across the waters of the Indian Ocean. Frost5 describes how, from the early sixteenth century onwards, there is written evidence of India having a coastal region which was highly commercialized, and also trade with what is modern-day Indonesia and of southern China. There were fleets of large, sailing vessels operating between the Arabian Gulf and western India, and smaller vessels Malaysia world and Burma and other places in the ocean rim region. Yet, by the early years of the 18th century it was British trade which predominated. In the east, for 150 years the Indian sub-continent had been under the domination of the East India Company. Established by Elizabeth Tudor in 1600 as the Company of Merchants trading into the East Indies6 this had begun as only a very loose company of merchants, but without it the British empire would never have been able to establish itself in the east The East India Company, which conquered Bengal in 1757, and which gradually expanded inland, by this action of putting down roots in the sub-continent, gained control of the Bengal textile market7. Importantly at the same time it took over control of the cultivation of opium within India, in order to export it to China. So, although China, except for Hong Kong, never became part of the Empire, trading links there helped the Empire because of the profits made. These profits were often used to purchase tea for sale within the British Isles, and enabled the merchants of the East India Company to pay off any debts they had incurred. Frost explains that this trade enabled Britain to change from yet another country competing at sea to become instead ‘master of the seas.’8 Later, after the 1820s, steamships would become dominant, and ships became even larger and more efficient, but their voyages were based upon patterns already established in the earlier years of the Empire9. Before that time, and of course before the opening of the Suez canal in 186910, going out to India, or even coming back, was a major event, under poor and crowded conditions, both for seamen and their passengers, especially as most ships would have been carrying large cargoes.. Even letters were scarce, with ships having to travel right round Africa and taking anything from 5 to 8 months to do so, and even this could be controlled by the arrival of the monsoon11. The opening of the canal cut the journey time to Indian ports down by some 4,500 miles as ships no longer needed to sail right round southern Africa and the cape. Steam ships could traverse the distance in only 13 days . It was the actions of individuals, traders included, as well as the ability of the British government to raise both taxes and loans in order to support military policies against native people which allowed the empire to grow. To this can be added the superiority of the Royal Navy, over and above that of European and other navies. All these played their part in creating the conditions through which trade, and so the empire, could expand, establish and flourish. The British Empire at its height was the largest Empire the world has had throughout its long history, and included a quarter of the world’s land masses and population. Such a vast empire did not rise overnight, but was the result of the great European age of discovery, which really began which began with the explorative sea voyages which began in the 15th century, and which led quickly into the era of the European colonial empires such as those of Portugal, France and Spain, and to a lesser extent of Italy, Germany and Belgium. Britain began to acquire these territories early in the 17th century when a number of settlements were established in North America and the West Indies, and in Southern Asia, and around African trading posts. These however were not in the first instance set up by the British government , but were founded by either by private individuals or trading companies, and only later did the government send out representatives to govern these territories, large and small. To a large extent the expansion of what would become an empire was not so much due to government policy as the actions of a number of individuals, in many cases responding to ideas put forward by that government. Yet before the 1750s, although the British Raj was all but non-existent, and the condition of England at that time was at a low ebb , with defeat following upon defeat12. In India, in 1744, Robert Clive arrived to work in a small trading post in Madras13. He found this boring, then, because of the European War of Succession, his trading post and a competing French one were put on the war footing, with Clive, although not a commissioned officer, taking charge. When the war ended Clive returned to civilian life, but his reputation was made. The Mogul Empire was coming to an end at this time, and many minor princes vied for power. France sought out trading alliances with some of these men, and the others looked around for similar alliances. In 1756 the Nawab of Bengal imprisoned 200 British citizens in one room – the Black Hole of Calcutta ( Heritage-history, 2012). Clive and his troops were able to retake the city . Although outnumbered he was victorious against the Nawab at the battle of Plessy. As a result the Bengali treasury fell into British hands. After a while Clive returned to England for the last time, but without his strong leadership, corruption set in. The first Governor-General of India was Warren Hastings who ruled in the name of the British crown from 1773 to 178414. Up to that point General Robert Clive had led British troops within the sub-continent, and Indian princes , at least in theory, were often still in charge, at least nominally. Under Hastings the former Mogul emperor, based in the royal city of Lahore15, who had up to that time continued to rule alongside the British, had his powers much reduced , and he no longer was able to collect the tribute which made him so rich. Hastings would support one ruler against another and he ‘borrowed’ from many of the former rulers, often under threat of gunfire, a crime for which he was eventually ousted and tried. Despite this a framework for British India was built up gradually, and the final piece was put in place in 1849, when the Punjab region was finally annexed and Lord Dailhouse became governor, heading a very military and judicial regime. The Indus Valley civilization was one of the oldest in the world, dating back at least 5,000 years. There would be many invasions over the years, and up to the present time, the last of these was by European traders, beginning in the late 15th century. In the next 400 years Britain gradually took not trade, but political and military control of all almost Indian lands. This expansion in the area of the Indian Ocean was part of a more general expansion, which included settlements in many parts of the world such as North America, the Caribbean, and later in Africa. In 1776 the colonies in North America declared their independence. The colonies in what is now the United States of America decided enough was enough and rebelled against the British government with the beginning of the American War of Independence ,and so Britain lost some of its oldest colonies. This though spurred Britain to look elsewhere, mainly to the east and south. Independence was seen at first a major blow to British imperial strength, but there was a rapid recovery from this calamity. Between 1793 and 1815 a number of new territories were acquired in the West Indies and in the African Cape, but Britain also subjugated Mauritius and Ceylon as well as various Indian states. In considering what was driving this expansion it has to be asked was it a case of trade and economic need which was the impetus, or was it a case of having an empire and this then stimulating trade. It is very difficult to separate the two, as they were in a symbiotic relationship as Morgan describes.16. The British government benefitted by expanding its power base and of course being able to collect huge amounts in taxes, and trade benefitted as the original settlements grew and the various situations became more stable, allowing ever increasing networks to be established. Also, because Britain was now in control of so much of the world’ s seaways, this allowed trade routes to be traversed in safety, because of the strength of the British navy. As the song says Britannia ruled the waves. The period was a time when science and the acquiring of new knowledge became very important with the arrival of the Age of Enlightenment17, which lasted from approximately 1700 to 1800, and that included gaining knowledge about the universe .James Cook’s had travelled towards Australasia in 1769 in the first instance to watch the transit of Venus. He would go on to look for the great Southern continent , which Magellan and his crews had sailed round, but not explored on his 16th century voyage round the world. He wanted to explore ‘Terra Australis Incognita’ which geographers had predicted. In other parts of the world other explorations took place. Another factor in the expansion of empire was the rise of the industrial revolution, which began in England in about 1760. Not only did the industrial expansion change the British landscape, with a massive increase in the sizes of towns and cities, as opposed to a mainly agricultural landscape in earlier times, but these new industries required materials such as cotton and ores, which it needed trading links overseas to acquire, but it also needed new markets to buy the hugely increased amount of goods supplied. India for instance became a major buyer of cotton, until it was able over time to establish its own industries. According to Hendrick 18 Britain, as part the industrial west, was able to innovate and develop new technologies, which allowed it to control and also exploit much of the world for hundreds of years. These technologies were often useful to the people of the Empire, but at the same time, speaking of possessions on the edge of the Pacific, Bose19 described throughout his book how many indigenous and long established systems of trade and communication in this arena were changed as they adjusted, resisted or re-emerged as new structures in reaction to the British imperial expansion, as well as that of other European nations with interests in the area . The trading ships of the East India Company fleet dealt in the main with bullion, textiles and tea. This even greater expansion of British rule overseas , referred to by Thackery and Findling 20 as the second British Empire, took place especially in Asia and also the Middle East during the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic era period , after the loss of America and this included later partition of Africa between various European powers . According to Morgan 21 the British population increased dramatically in the years after 1770, and in the next 40 years grew to approximately 12 million in number. This meant even more people to travel overseas to reinforce and expand the empire. By 1775 Britain had more land and people under its control within the Americas than the other two main European rivals, the Dutch and the French .Despite the long war with France which lasted from 1793 to 1815 Britain was still able to establish even more colonies such as St Lucia, Guyana, in Africa the Cape Colony and Mauritius and Ceylon in the east. After the taking over of Mauritius from the French in 181022 the British navy in the main switched from fighting to patrolling and controlling. Mauritius was in a key position, and possessing it allowed Britain to establish their control and supremacy over a very wide area. Before that time they had been hampered by Corsairs from Mauritius, then referred to as Isle de France by the French, who attacked British merchant vessels and stole their precious cargoes being taken back to Europe for sale loaded in India for trading in Europe . From this time on British merchant ships could continue in relative peace, which must have encouraged even more merchants to be involved, as profits would be increased, and trade with eastern ports also increased, a move away from trade with nearer neighbours within Europe. Frost23 cites improved communications, as well as improvements in technology, in these safer sea ways as being an important factor in this story of success. It was not all positive though, especially when one considers the position of the conquered peoples , no longer self-governing and in a very subservient position. New forms of economic activities were developed, and boundaries drawn up which suited European rather than the interests of local people, disrupting established patterns of trade and communication24. The British on the other hand saw their Empire and its expansion as a pragmatic move.25 This of course had a massive impact upon local people and their societies, often in a destructive way. It has been said that colonial rule destroyed long established economic and cultural relationships, and replaced them with foreign rule and control by people who had their main political interests, culture outside the region, but Bose , writing about the Indian Ocean rim in the days of the Empire, states that rather than being destroyed, many local and indigenous systems of trade and communications in the region simply adjusted, and resisted, often re-emerging in a somewhat restructured form in response to expansion by Europeans26. With the beginnings of the Industrial Revolution in the early years of the 19th century Hendrick stated that this:- Shattered traditional trade, technology and political relationships and in their place laid the foundations for a new global civilization based on Western technology.27 Conclusion. Although this essay is concerned with the British Empire between 1750 and 1815, and in particular the land edging onto the Indian Ocean, this is only a section of time for the empire. Changes and expansion, were based upon the work of earlier adventurous Britons, enabled by its great skill on the sea, and bolstered by British government policies. This did not stop in 1815, although, with the end of the war with France changes did come about. The Empire still continued to expand for a number of years, as in southern Africa under the leadership of Cecil Rhodes, but that too was built upon the work of earlier explorers, not all of them British. By the time of Victoria though, in the main, running the Empire was a matter of supervision and consolidation, and of course in the 20th century it was realised over time that it was not right to rule people who had the right to self-government as fellow human beings. Also, there developed a large gap between exports and the imports obtained, especially in the Indian sub- continent, so over time the area around the Indian Ocean became an expensive drain upon the British economy. Over time non-Europeans gradually played more and more part in leading roles within the colonies, until finally it was felt right to hand over the reins for good, the reverse of Rhode’s 19th century idea that :- I contend that we are the first race in the world, and that the more of the world we inhabit the better it is for the human race…If there be a God, I think that what he would like me to do is paint as much of the map of Africa British Red as possible 28 Conclusion. The empire was gradually broken up in the years after 1945, with George VI being the very last emperor. This does not mean that British influence has disappeared, and there is still the Commonwealth, and of course the world wide influence of English as a world language and lingua franca. This has been ,in the most modern times, reinforced by the arrival of new means of trade and communication via the World Wide Web, where English is a very dominant language, and where many people are bilingual or even multilingual, with one of their languages often being English, a reminder of the old empire that was once so dominant. . References Bose, S. Space and time on the Indian Ocean rim: Theory and History’ in Modernity and culture from the Mediterranean to the Indian Ocean, ed.( Bayly,C. and Fawaz, L., New York: Columbia Univ. Press, 2002), BBC, Mauritius Profile, 2014,< http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-13882731> Accessed 28th April 2014 Brandel, F. The Mediterranean and the Mediterranean world in the age of Philip II, 2nd English ed., abridged, (London: Harper Collins, 1992) Columbia Encyclopaedia, Sir Cecil John Rhodes, 2001, Accessed 28th April 2014 Frost, M., The Age of Enlightenment, undated, Accessed 28th April 2014 Frost, M., Asia’s Maritime Networks and the Colonial Public Sphere 1840 -1920, pages 63-94, New Zealand Journal of Asian Studies 6, 2 (December, 2004) Accessed 28th April 2014 Gregory, D., The Dictionary of Human Geography,( U.K., Blackwell Publishing, 2009) Hendrick D., 2010, Power over peoples: Technology, environments and western imperialism, 1400 to the present , (Princeton, Princeton University, 2009) Heritage-history, Sir Robert Clive,2012, < http://www.heritage-history.com/www/heritage.php?Dir=characters&FileName=clive.php> Accessed 28th April 2014 McPherson, K , The Indian Ocean, a history of people and the sea, (Delhi, Oxford University Press, 1993), Morgan, K., Symbiosis: Trade and the British Empire, 2011, Accessed 28th April 2014 Pennington,J. and Pollen,J., Truths about India, Preface X, Leaflets Issued by the East India Association, 1909 – 1933, University of California, Accessed 28th April 2014 Royal Museums, Greenwich, Steam Power, 2014,< http://www.rmg.co.uk/explore/sea-and-ships/facts/ships-and-seafarers/steam-power> Accessed 28th April 2014 Schweizer , K. Hastings, Warren ( 1732-1818), The Encyclopaedia of the Early Modern World, 2004< http://www.encyclopedia.com/topic/Warren_Hastings.aspx> Accessed 28th April 2014 Sommerville, J., Elizabeth I: exploration and foreign policy , undated Accessed 28th April 2014 Thackery, F. and Findling, J. editors, Events that Formed the Modern World, (California, ABC-CLIO, LLC, 2012), The map as history, The British Empire : Trading Routes and Construction, undated > Accessed 28th April 2014 Victoria and Albert Museum, Muguls & the royal city of Lahore, 2014 Accessed 28th April 2014 Read More