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U49 - Coggle Diagram

- - - - North America & the Caribbean
        
        India (East India Company)
        
        By the 17th c., Britain established some colonies in North America (in Jamestown, Virginia & Plymouth, Massachusets) & the Caribbean (the islands of Bermudas, Barbados & Jamaica), as a way to secure resources & markets, while enriching themselves through transatlantic trade of slaves, where British ships transported enslaved Africans to work on (sugar & tobacco) plantations in the Americas.
        
        Another factor was the creation of private companies, such as the East India Company (1600) which gave Britain a monopoly on trade over the Portuguese & the Dutch, and the establishment of trading posts in Madras, Bombay & Calcutta. Later (1757), the Company would exert military influence/force in a moment of weakness to become the ruler of much of India, which became the jewel of the British Empire.
    - - vs Spain & Portugal
        
        During the 15th & 16th centuries, Spain & Portugal began to explore & colonize territories across the globe, including Cristobal Columbus' discovery of the Americas in 1492. England was relatively late to this "age of exploration", but managed to weaken Spain through piracy & the defeat of the Spanish Armada (1588), which was a turning point for England's maritime power & its dominance over the Americas.
  - - - vs France & the Netherlands
        
        vs the Thirteen Colonies
        
        In the 18th c. Britain emerged victorious in a series of conflicts with its European rivals, especially the Anglo-Dutch Wars with the Netherlands (starting in mid 17th c.) & the Seven Years' War (1756-1763, known as the French & Indian War in North America) with France, whose Treaty of Paris granted control of Canada, some Carribean islands & its North American territories east of the Mississipi River.
        
        However, despite its triumphs, the loss of the Thirteen Colonies in the Indepence War (1775-1783) with support from France & Spain meant the end of the First British Empire, forcing England to shift its focus from the Americas to other parts of the world: Asia (India), Africa & Oceania (the South Pacific).
  - - - West & South Africa
        
        After the abolition of the slave trade in 1807, Britain got even more involved in Africa, patrolling the coasts if West Africa to intercept slave ships & enforce the ban. This was taken as a justification/excuse in order to establish British naval bases & trading posts that became strategically important for its control over the key sea route to India, as well as for economic interests: the exploitation/extraction of natural resouces in West & South Africa (minerals & precious metals such as gold, diamonds, copper or coal & agricultural products such as palm oil, rubber, cocoa, coffee, tea, cotton, etc.), especially after the discovery of diamonds & gold (1867,86).
        
        However, British expansion in South Africa brought them into conflict with the Boers (Dutch settlers who had established independent republics) in the Boer Wars (1899-1902). Britain's involvement got to its highest point in the Scramble for Africa in the late 19th c, where European powers competed to claim as much African territory as possible.
      - Australia & New Zealand
        
        The loss of the Thirteen Colonies meant that Britain needed a new location for the transportation of convicts, so they began to colonize Australia as a penal /convict colony in 1788, after being claimed by the famous Captain James Cook, who declared that it was "nobody's land". New Zealand had an evil reputation for its savage inhabitants (fierce warriors & cannibalism) & European outlaws which operated beyond the reach of British law.
        
        Over the 19th c. British emigrants moved & settled in Australia & New Zealand as a consequence of the massive increase in population of the Industrial Revolution. They tried to escape from urban Britain's poor living conditions & overcrowding, driven by the promise of land & economic opportunity, thus further expanding the empire.
  - - - During the Victorian Age (1837-1901), Britain became the world's dominant imperial power (known as the "Empire on which the sun never sets"). The middle class was central to supporting & justifying the empire's global expansion, as it was a source of economic opportunity (middle-class Britons could make fortunes in the colonies by investing in plantations, mining or infrastructure projects & rise socially), providing access to raw materials (e.g. cotton, rubber or tea) & new markets for manufactured goods. Also, the policy of Free Trade allowed Britain to import raw materials from its colonies at low cost, process them in its factories, and export finished goods around the world, often back to the colonies. The embrace of free trade brought about the belief that Britain could maintain its global economic dominance through trade & influence, rather than through direct colonial rule.
      - & the British Empire's gobal expansion: Free trade
    - - The Industrial Revolution (1760-1840, beginning in the late 18th c. but accelerating in the 19th c.) transformed Britain's economy from an agrarian economy to an industrial one. It was a period of rapid growth of population & a demographic shift from the country to cities (urbanization). As a result of this economic expansion, a middle class revolution of factory owners, merchants & educated professionals emerged. This rising middle class began to demand more political power, leading to significant political reform movements in the 19th c. regarding education, health & labor conditions. For instance, the Great Reform Act of 1832 expanded Parliamentary representation, the Factory Acts improved working conditions.
      - & the rise of the Middle Class: population, urbanization & reforms
- - - - Heart of Darkness (1899)
        
        Lord Jim (1900)
        
        Nostromo (1904)
        
        The Shadow Line (1917)
        
        Heart of Darkness
        
        Personal experience
        
        Critique of Imperialism
        & its "civilizing mission"
        
        1 more item...
        
        Lord Jim
        
        Philosophical & psychological
        
        Jim's identity & inner life
        
        1 more item...
        
        Nostromo
        
        Dark side of humanity
        
        Critique of Imperialism
        
        "Silver" & "Nostromo" as symbols
        
        1 more item...
- - - - The Man Who Would Be King (1888)
        
        The Jungle Book (1894)
        
        Captains Courageous (1897)
        
        The White Man’s Burden (poem, 1899)
        
        Kim (1901)
        
        If— (1910)
        
        Kim
        
        1 more item...
        
        The Jungle Book
        
        1 more item...
        
        If—
        
        2 more items...
        
        The White Man’s Burden
        
        2 more items...
- - - - The British Empire, at its height, was both imperialistic & colonial. Britain established formal colonies in many regions (such as North America, Australia, Canada, Africa & India) which were directly ruled by British settlers, the indigenous people often being marginalized or opressed. Instead of establishing colonies, Britain also exerted imperial power through economic control & political influence (e.g. using treaties in China, protectorates in Egypt, or initially in India through the East India Company).