Question

Conclusion of British rule

Answer 1

The British Empire had a huge effect on the world, with some good consequences and some bad. It would be hard to imagine what the world would be like if the British had not spread their influence. Without the empire the U.S. would have been colonised by another powerful country during the 17th century – for example, France, the Netherlands or Spain. This would have had sever effects on the Industrial Revolution as it would have taken much longer for the changes in agriculture, manufacturing, mining and transport to spread from Britain had it not had the Empire that it could share its technology with. This could have meant that common technologies such as the computer and electricity would not have been invented yet. One of the biggest, and what we agree to be the most important impact of the British Empire, is the influence and improvement the British had over her colonies’ governments and infrastructure. While it is widely debated whether the methods used to enforce British power over rebelling countries were too much, it is without-a-doubt that when the British gave her colonies freedom, many of Britain’s ideas of democracy and nationalism were adopted into those countries in order to improve the government without British support. Despite all of this, the British Empire didn’t only cause improvements to the world. It also brought many tragic and sometimes brutal ideas to foreign countries; a good example of this was during the British rule of South Africa. The British enforced the apartheid during its reign between 1948 and 1994 – while they did repeal the more offensive Boer laws, they made a decision that had harsh effects on the African people; they disenfranchised all non-whites – they no longer had the ability to vote and this resulted in the government being able to lower their standard of living without any opposition. While it is obvious that the British Empire did cause many problems while conquering foreign countries, like the Mau Mau Uprising; they also left countries with problems after they left –either because they left them too early, like in the case of African colonies which were forced to mature quickly to match with the English Government and then be left independent in a bad position, or they were kept hold of for too long, like India and Kenya, and caused conflict within the countries. It is debatable whether the technologies, beliefs and medicine that Britain provided to its colonies made up the violence it caused. However, we believe that the British Empire was mainly a bad thing. It forced countries into very awkward situations for the benefit of Britain and left them with very little support after they gave them independence – only very few countries gained independence without any problems.