European Empires

By the 17^th century, European trade with Asia was so important that the British, Dutch and French set up companies to control their interests. These companies laid the foundations for colonies. During the long reign of Queen Victoria, Britain became the world’s most powerful nation, ruling a huge empire.

The Dutch concentrated on the islands of Indonesia. The British and French fought over India until 1763, when the British East India Company took control of much of the country.

In the 1830s, the Dutch decided they wanted to control more than just trade with Indonesia, and so they started to oversee agriculture on the islands. They set up plantations to grow crops including coffee and indigo (a plant from which a blue dye is made). Enormous profits were made by Indonesian princes and Dutch colonists at the expense of the ordinary people, who no longer had the time or land to grow the crops they needed for themselves.

As well as controlling India, Britain also began to build up colonies in Southeast Asia. One of the earliest, in 1819, was Singapore on the tip of the Malay peninsula. By 1867, Malacca and Penang had also become British colonies, and, in 1896, the remaining Malay states formed a federation under British advisers. Ruling through the local sultans, the British controlled Malaya, setting up rubber plantations and tin mines. From 1824, Britain also tried to take control of Burma. The Burmese resisted, but were finally defeated in 1885.

THE CRIMEAN WAR

During the Crimean War (1853-56), Turkey, France and Britain fought against Russia. Thousands of British soldiers died from neglect and disease. Florence Nightingale and her team of nurses cleaned up the military hospitals and set up Britain’s first training school for nurses.

France, meanwhile, began to take control of Indochina (now Cambodia and Vietnam), and later added Laos.

Much of Britain’s wealth came from her colonies. Colonies and trading posts had been established in the 17^th and 18^th centuries in places as far apart as Canada, India, Australia and the Caribbean. More were added by the Treaty of Vienna at the end of the Napoleonic Wars. During Victoria’s reign, still more colonies were adding, including New Zealand, many islands in the Pacific and Atlantic oceans, parts of the Far East and large areas of Africa. At its greatest extent, in the late 19^th century, the empire contained a quarter of the world’s land and a quarter of its people.

The colonies provided raw materials for British factories and a market for their goods. At first, some were run by trading companies, such as the East India Company in India. However, gradually they all came under direct rule from Britain. In many colonies, plantations were set up to produce tea, sugar, coffee, spices, rubber and cotton.

The British empire’s influence was worldwide, with other countries adopting British laws, technology and culture. During the 20^th century, however, Britain’s influence declined and the country was no longer supreme as an industrial power. After World War II, the empire began to break up as countries sought independence.