BRITAINS

COLONIAL PAST

TheBritish Empirecomprised thedominions,colonies,protectorates,mandatesand

otherterritoriesruled or administered by theUnited Kingdom. It originated with
theoverseas coloniesandtrading postsestablished byEnglandin the late 16th and
early 17th centuries. At its height, it was the largestempirein history and, for over a
century, was the foremostglobal power.
By 1922 the British Empire held sway over about 458 million people, one-fifth of the
world's population at the time. The empire covered more than 33,700,000
km2(13,012,000sqmi), almost a quarter of the Earth's total land area. As a result,
its political,legal,linguisticandculturallegacy is widespread. At the peak of its power
it was often said that "the sun never sets on the British Empire" because its span
across the globe ensured that the sun was always shining on at least one of its

After the end of the Second World War, as part of a

larger decolonisation movement by European powers,
Britain granted independence to most of the territories of
the British Empire. This process ended with the political
transfer of Hong Kong to China in 1997. The 14 British
Overseas Territories remain under British sovereignty.
After independence, many former British colonies joined
the Commonwealth of Nations, a free association of
independent states. Sixteen Commonwealth nations
share their head of state, Queen Elizabeth II,
as Commonwealth realms, of which all but about two
million live in the six most populous states: the United
Kingdom, Canada, Australia, Papua New Guinea, New
Zealand, and Jamaica.

At the height of the British Empire, the power and prestige of the institution were unmatched
anywhere else in the world. Companies and advertisers were keen to use the imagery
associated with this powerful Empire in order to sell their own products.

British Colonisation in Africa

It is important to note that the advent of British colonization of Africa coincided with
the era of scientific racism as represented by social Darwinism (survival of the fittest).
The British believed that because they had superior weaponry and were therefore
more technologically advanced than the Africans, that they had a right to colonize and
exploit the resources of the Africans in the name of promoting civilization.
Why were Europeans enslaving Africans?
Because they needed labourers to work for
them in this world new to Europe the
Americas. In the process of conquest they
had annihilated many of the native peoples;
those who survived the Europeans' guns and
diseases not unnaturally refused to work in
the mines taken over by their conquerors, or
on the plantations they created. The
Europeans tried two solutions: export
prisoners, and export men who indentured
themselves to pay off debts. But both groups
either succumbed to diseases new to them,
or ran away to freedom. So another solution
was sought. Africans did not have guns either,
so why not enslave and transport them?

Britain followed in the footsteps of the Portuguese in voyaging to

the west coast of Africa and enslaving Africans. The British
participation in what has come to be called the 'nefarious trade'
was begun by Sir John Hawkins with the support and investment
of Elizabeth I in 1573. By fair means and foul, Britain outwitted its
European rivals and became the premier trader in the enslaved
from the seventeenth century onwards, and retained this position
till 1807. Britain supplied enslaved African women, men and
children to all European colonies in the Americas.
The effects on Africa
A few thousand Africans gained out
of the slave trade, but millions
suffered. There had been slavery for
centuries in West Africa, though the
work that slaves did varied from
place to place. At first, criminals and
prisoners of war were sold to
Europeans by African kings and
chiefs but they became greedy and
neighbouring kingdoms were
attacked to capture young, strong
males. On the coast, local crafts
faced stiff competition from massproduced European goods that were
traded for captives, and much farm
land was turned over to growing

The 'Slave Coast' came to be dotted with European forts, their massive
guns facing out to sea to warn off rival European slave traders. Each
'castle' incorporated prisons or 'barracoons' in which the enslaved women,
children and men were kept, awaiting purchase by the traders, who could
initially only reach the coast at those times of the year when the winds blew
in the right direction. The prisons without sanitation, with little air must
have been hell-holes in the humid coastal climates.
Before slaves could work on plantations in America
they first had to journey all the way across the
Atlantic ocean from their homeland Africa. From the
mid 1500's to the late 1800's africans, in groups of
about 150, were brutally swept up from their
villages, chained together, and forced to march
many, many miles to the sea. On this journey the
slaves were provided with very little food, water, or
opportunities to use the bathroom. The slaves
picked up diseases from the Europeans who
captured them. If the slaves were walking too slow,
or even asked a simple question to their captors
they would be either whipped, shouted at, or
beaten. An estimated 40% of the horribly
mistreated slaves on these journeys died.

Upon arriving at the coast slaves were put in dark airless European dungeons
where they were held for weeks, months, or even years to be sold to traders
and shipped across the Atlantic ocean (as slavery became a big business
large pens were built called baracoons). When it was finally time to be sold the
slaves were dragged out of their holding places, stripped of their clothing, and
inspected by doctors and European traders. Traders only wanted to buy strong
healthy men and women. After sale the salves were branded with a hot iron,
given a marking to determine weather they belonged to the English, French, or
to people from other nations.
Oladaudah Equiano, a salve who gained his
freedom and got an education wrote this about
his first experiences on the voyage:
"I was soon put down under the decks, and there
I received such a salutation in my nostrils as I
had never experienced in my life. So that with
the loathsomeness of the stench and [people]
crying together, I became so sick and low that I
was not able to eat."
"The closeness of the place, and the heat of the
climate, added to the number in the ship, which
was so crowded that each had scarcely room to
turn himself, almost suffocated us. This produced
copious (abundant) perspirations (sweat), so that
the air soon became unfit for respiration
(breathing), from a variety of loathsome smells, and
brought on a sickness among the slaves, of which
many died."

Zululandis an area in Southern Africa which has a rich and vibrant history.
The Zulus became historically important in the early 19th century under the
leadership of Shakthe people who conquered and united many of the
people to creat a large nation in southern Africa.

Most Zulu people state their beliefs to be Christian.

When the British succeeded the Boers as rulers of Natal in 1843, they encountered a
hostile Zulu people led by Mpandes son, Cetshwayo. In 1878, the British laid claim
on the whole of Zululand and demanded that the Zulu King, Cetshwayo, submit to
British rule. Cetshwayo refused and Great Britain launched an attack, starting the
Anglo-Zulu War where the British initially suffered a high number of casualties. The
battle at the Isandlwana Mountain on 22 January, 1879 was particularly disastrous for
the British where 20,000 Zulu soldiers overran the British army camp. The British
army was routed with more than 2000 causalities. At first, the Zulu victory shocked
the British, however England decided to send more troops and the Anglo-Zulu War
continued with heavy losses of life on both sides. In 1887, the British defeated the
Zulus, and annexed Zululand and declared it a British Colony.
They remain today the most numerous ethnic group in South Africa, and now have
equal rights along with all other citizens.

British Colonisation in the USA

In 1578 Elizabeth granted royal permission to Sir Humphrey Gilbert (c.153783), an
early advocate of American colonization, to
discover, search, find out and view such remote heathen and
barbarous lands countries and territories not actually possessed of any
Christian prince or people
As Spain had already laid claim to much of South and Central America, this
meant that English attention was directed northwards, to the eastern coast of North
America. Gilbert led three unsuccessful attempts to establish a colony in America,
and was lost at sea on his last voyage in 1583. The following year, Elizabeth
granted a patent to his half-brother, Walter Ralegh (15541618), to whom she
transferred Gilbert's rights to a large swathe of land on America's east coast.

RaleghandRoanoke

Ralegh was a soldier, poet, courtier and adventurer. He charmed Elizabeth with his
good looks, wit and manners, and became one of her favourites during the early
1580s. In addition to his patent for America, he was granted a wine-trading monopoly in
1583 and appointed Captain of the Queen's Guard in 1586. He used his influence at
court to promote a colonial policy that challenged Spain's global domination.

After an exploratory voyage in 1584, Ralegh decided that Roanoke Island, off the coast
of present-day North Carolina, was the spot to plant a colony. Ralegh lobbied
vigorously for state funding but to no avail. To the frustration of a number of her
advisers and merchant-adventurers, Elizabeth did not allow high-risk ventures to be
sponsored by the state, offering only royal permissions. Thus the initial forays into the
colonization of America were initiated by individuals and paid for by private investors.
As Ralegh put it, 'private purses are cold comfort to adventurers'.

Ralegh sponsored a number of attempts to establish an English colony at

Roanoke, in the territory he claimed on the east coast of America and which
he named 'Virginia' in honour of Elizabeth, the Virgin Queen, in 1585. The
first group of 107 men landed in July 1585. Included in the group were artist
John White and Thomas Harriot, as scientific adviser. They were charged
with surveying and mapping the new territory and recording the indigenous
people, plants and animals. This first attempt was abandoned within a year
owing to harsh weather and insufficient supplies but the work of White and
Harriot maps, drawings, notes helped to garner interest and investment
for another expedition.
The drawings also provide a unique visual record of the life of the Native
Americans of the territory, before English settlement was established.

TheLostColony

The next attempt at founding a colony in Virginia was more ambitious. This time, John
White was named governor and the group included families, who were also investors
in the project. In July 1587 White and around 150 men, women and children arrived
safely in Virginia. Ralegh had instructed the group to head for the Chesapeake Bay
area north of Roanoke but, for some reason, the group returned to the previous
settlement on Roanoke Island instead. The birth of the first English child in America,
White's granddaughter, Virginia Dare, was recorded on 18 August 1587 in the 'Citie of
Ralegh in Virginia'.
The settlers had arrived too late to plant crops, so White returned to England for more
supplies. When he reached home, England was on the brink of war with Spain, which
erupted in 1588. All ships and supplies were diverted from the Virginia enterprise to
national defence. Ralegh and White's relief voyage was delayed until 1590 and White
arrived to discover the settlement abandoned and no trace of its inhabitants. The fate
of the 'Lost Colony' was never ascertained and remains a source of speculation to this
day.

 The fate of Sir Walter Raleigh's famed "lost colony" in the New World and the disappearance

without a trace of more than 100 English settlers has been an unsolved mystery for 400 years, a
lost chapter of Anglo-American history. That so many men, women and children could simply
vanish has become the stuff of American folklore. Many assume that they were either slaughtered
by native American Indians or assimilated into their communities.
Now, a clue has emerged that experts hope could help solve the centuries-old mystery of the

settlers' disappearance, and lead them to the site of what Raleigh and Queen Elizabeth I hoped
would be a capital, the first English attempt at colonisation.
Concealed on an Elizabethan map of the east coast of North America, but now identified by the

British Museum, is a hint at the colony's location drawn in what appears to be invisible ink, further
disguised by a barely-discernible patch of paper glued to it.
Scientific tests have revealed that a lozenge, the
symbol for a fort, was hidden on the map drawn by
John White, who accompanied Raleigh's first attempts
to establish a colony. White led the settlers who were to
establish the "Cittie of Raleigh" of which he was
intended to be governor.
Its concealment on the map reflects an age mired in
political intrigue Elizabeth I was then facing plots to
place the Catholic Mary Queen of Scots on the English
throne and fears of such a map getting into the hands
of court spies.
Invisible ink was concocted at that time from milk,
citrus juice or urine, and usually revealed by applying
heat.

 England's success at colonizing what would become the United States

was due in large part to its use of charter companies. Charter
companies were groups of stockholders (usually merchants and wealthy
landowners) who sought personal economic gain and, perhaps, wanted
also to advance England's national goals. While the private sector
financed the companies, the King provided each project with a charter or
grant conferring economic rights as well as political and judicial authority.
The colonies generally did not show quick profits, however, and the
English investors often turned over their colonial charters to the settlers.
The political implications, although not realized at the time, were
enormous. The colonists were left to build their own lives, their own
communities, and their own economy
-- in effect,(also
to start
the
The LondonCompany
calledconstructing
the Charterofthe
rudiments of a new nation. VirginiaCompanyofLondon) was an English joint
stock company established by royal charter by King
James I with the purpose of establishing colonial
settlements in North America

Opium War: Britain Stole

Hong Kong From China

BritishHongKong ( ) refers to Hong Kong as a Crown colony

and later, a British dependent territory under British administration from
1841 to 1997.(A Crowncolony, also known in the 17th century as royal
colony, was a type of colonial administration of the English and later British
Empire.)
The British Hong Kong period began in the 19th century when the British,
Dutch, French, Indians and Americans saw China as the world's largest
untapped market. The British empire launched their first and one of the most
aggressive expeditionary forces to claim the territory under Queen Victoria
in 1840, three years after she became the queen of the United Kingdom of
Great Britain and Ireland. The territory that would later be known as Hong
Kong was gained from the last dynasty of Imperial China.

The FirstAnglo-ChineseWar (18391842), known popularly as the First

OpiumWar or simply the OpiumWar, was fought between the United
Kingdom and the Qing Dynasty of China over their conflicting viewpoints on
diplomatic relations, trade, and the administration of justice.
Chinese officials wished to control the spread of opium, and confiscated
supplies of opium from British traders. The British government, although not
officially denying China's right to control imports, objected to this seizure
and used its military power to violently enforce redress.
In 1842, the Treaty of Nankingthe first of what the Chinese later called the
unequal treatiesgranted an indemnity to Britain, the opening of five treaty
ports, and the cession of Hong Kong Island, thereby ending the trade
monopoly of the Canton System. The failure of the treaty to satisfy British
goals of improved trade and diplomatic relations led to the Second Opium
War (185660). The war is now considered in China as the beginning of
modern Chinese history.

Crown Colony of Singapore

(18671942)

Singaporein theStraitsSettlements refers to a period in the history of Singapore

from 1826 to 1942, during which Singapore was part of the Straits Settlements
together with Penang and Malacca. From 1830 to 1867 the Straits Settlements was a
residency, or subdivision, of the Presidency of Bengal, in British India. In 1867, the
Straits Settlements became a separate Crown colony, directly overseen by the
Colonial Office in London. The period saw Singapore establish itself as an important
trading port and developed into a major city with rapid increase in population.
British rule was suspended in February 1942, when the Imperial Japanese Army
invaded Singapore during World War II.

As Singapore continued to grow, the deficiencies in the Straits Settlements

administration became increasingly apparent. Apart from the indifference of
British India's administrators to local conditions, there was immense
bureaucracy and red tape which made it difficult to pass new laws.
Singapore's merchant community began agitating against British Indian rule,
in favour of establishing Singapore as a separate colony of Britain. The
British government finally agreed to make the Straits Settlements a Crown
colony on 1 April 1867, receiving orders directly from the Colonial Office
rather than from India.
As a Crown Colony, the Straits Settlements was ruled by a governor, based
in Singapore, with the assistance of executive and legislative councils.
Although the councils were not elected, more representatives for the local
population were gradually included over the years.

The British Raj

The BritishRaj is a term of history. "Raj" is a word of Indian languages

which means "rule", so "BritishRaj" means rule by the British in India.

The British first arrived in India around 1600. They came to trade. The
British East India Company was formed to facilitate that trade. The French
were also there. At the end of the Seven Years War (1756-1763), the
French lost there trading rights in India and the British East India company
began to establish greater control, generally through agreements with the
Mughal rulers. By the 1840's the British East India Company had control
of much of India. In 1857, the Sepoy troops used by the BEIC rebelled
against the British. Conditions were bad in India. Following the rebellion,
the British government ended the charter of the British East India
Company and took over the management of India, making it a colony.
Queen Victoria became the Empress of India. It remained a British colony
until 1947, 5th August.

The British conquered India with the help of Indian soldiers, but did not
treat them properly. They were denied higher positions in spite of their
abilities. The Indians were also traded as slaves to other British colonies.
The company was indifferent to education and so the old system of
education suffered under the British rule.
The British introduced modern technology with the intention to sell
manufactured goods like textiles and machines for profit. In the process
of trying to make a profit and exploiting India, the British did of course
benefit India. They built railways throughout India in order to make
everything readily accessible. They established Law Courts, civil services
and transport systems. They also established factories, schools and
universities to introduce western ideas and to incorporate the idea of
democracy. Missionaries came to India and spread Christianity. This was
all done in the name of Britains economy.

British Colonialism and

Darwinism
Darwin's close friend Professor Adam Sedgwick
was one of the people who saw what dangers the
theory of evolution would give rise to in the future.
He remarked, after reading and digesting The
Origin of Species, that "ifthisbookweretofind
generalpublicacceptance,itwouldbringwith
itabrutalisationofthehumanracesuchasit
hadneverseenbefore." And truly, time showed
that Sedgwick was right to have doubts. The
20th century has gone down in history as a dark
age when people underwent massacres simply
because of their race or ethnic origins.

Mussolini

Franco

Hitler

Lenin

Stalin

Mao

The country which profited most from Darwin's racist views was Darwin's own land,
Britain. In the years when Darwin put forward his theory, Great Britain was in the
position of having founded the world's number one colonialist empire. All the natural
resources of an area stretching from India to Latin America were exploited by the
British Empire. The "white man" was plundering the world for his own interests.
But, of course, starting with Great Britain, no colonialist country wanted to be seen
as a "plunderer" and to go down in history as such. For this reason, they were
looking for an explanation to show that they were right in what they were doing. Such
an explanation might be to portray the colonised peoples as "primitive people" or
"animal-like living creatures." In this way, for those who were massacred and
subjected to inhuman treatment to be able to be seen not as human beings, but as
half-human half-animal creatures, and their mistreatment would not be regarded as a
crime.
Actually, this search was not new: the first spread of colonialism in the world went
back to the 15th and 16th centuries. Claims to the effect that some races had semianimal characteristics were first put forward by Christopher Columbus on his
American journey. According to these claims, Native Americans were not human
beings, but a species of developed animal. For this reason they could be put to the
service of the Spanish colonialists.

No matter how much Columbus is portrayed in films about the discovery

of America as having a warm and humane attitude to the natives, the fact
is that Columbus did not regard the native people as human.

THE MASSACRE OF THE NATIVE AMERICANS

With Christopher Columbus' discovery of America there began a
dreadful massacre of the Native Americans.

Christopher Columbus was the person who first set in motion a

great massacre. Columbus established Spanish colonies in the
places he discovered, made slaves of the natives and was
responsible for the starting of the slave trade. The Spanish
"conquistadors" saw the policy of oppression and exploitation that
Columbus implemented, and continued it: the massacres carried
out reached enormous dimensions. For example, the population of
one island, 200,000 when Columbus first came to it, was only
50,000 20 years later, and by 1540 only a thousand people
remained.

But these claims of the colonialists did not win many supporters. In Europe at
that time, the truth that all people were created equal by God and that they all
descended from one ancestorAdamwas so widely accepted that the Catholic
Church in particular took a clear position against such plundering invasions. One
of the best known examples of this is the reply by the bishop of Chiapas,
Bartolome de las Casas, who set foot in the New World together with Columbus,
who said that the natives were "each a real human being," in reply to the
colonists' claim that the natives were "a species of animal." Pope Paul III cursed
the savage treatment of the natives in a papal bull in 1537, and declared that the
natives were real human beings with the capacity for faith.
But in the 19th century the situation changed. Together with the spread of
materialist philosophy and societies' growing distant from religion, the truth that
human beings were created by God began to be denied. This, as was touched on
in the preceding pages, was at the same time the rise of racism.
With the rise of Darwinist-materialist philosophy in the 19th century, racism grew
stronger, and this created a great support for Europe's imperialist system.

Darwin'sEnmityTowardstheTurks
The most important target British colonialism set itself towards the end of the
19th century was the Ottoman Empire.
At that period the Ottoman state ruled a huge area from Yemen to BosniaHerzegovina. But by now it was finding it hard to control this area which it had
managed in peace, calm, and stability. Christian minorities were beginning to rise up
in the name of independence, and such great military powers as Russia were
beginning to threaten the Ottomans.
In the last quarter of the century Britain and France joined the powers which were
threatening the Ottomans. Britain particularly set its eyes on the Ottomans' southern
provinces. The Berlin Agreement, signed in 1878, is an expression of the European
colonialists' decision to divide up the Ottoman territories. Five years later, in 1882,
Britain occupied Egypt, which was an Ottoman territory. British colonialism set about
its plans to later take over the Ottoman territories in the Middle East.

As always, Britain based these colonialist policies on racism. The British government
deliberately tried to portray the Turkish nation, the basic element of the Ottomans, and
particularly the Ottoman state, as a so-called "backward" people.
British Prime Minister William Ewart Gladstone openly said that the Turks are examples of
mankind's non-humans, and for the sake of their civilisation, they must be pushed back to
the Asian steppes and eliminated from Anatolia.
These, and words like them, were for decades used by the British government as a
propaganda tool directed against the Ottomans. Britain tried to portray the Turkish nation
as a backward nation that had to bow its head to more advanced European races.
The so-called "scientific basis" for this propaganda was Charles Darwin!

DARWIN'S ENMITY OF
THE TURKS IN HIS
PRIVATE LETTERS
Charles Darwin used his
theory with the aim of
adding to Britain's political
plans against the Ottomans,
and attempted to show that
the Turkish nation was a
backward race. In our time
the enemies of the Turks
still draw support from this
nonsense of Darwin's.

Darwin's comments regarding the Turkish nation appeared in the book The Life
and Letters of Charles Darwin, published in 1888. Darwin proposed that by the socalled "backward races" were eliminated as a result of natural selection and
therefore natural selection would play a role in the development of civilisation, and
later said these exact words about the Turkish nation:
I could show fight on natural selection having done and doing more for the
progress of civilization than you seem inclined to admit. Remember what risk the
nations of Europe ran, not so many centuries ago of being overwhelmed by the
Turks, and how ridiculous such an idea now is! The more civilized so-called
Caucasian races have beaten the Turkish hollow in the struggle for existence.
Looking to the world at no very distant date, what an endless number of the lower
races will have been eliminated by the higher civilized races throughout the world.

THE GALLIPOLI
CAMPAIGN
In the Gallipoli
campaign the Turkish
Army heroically
fought against the
enemy forces, with
the British at their
head, and lost
250,000 men.

Bibliography
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colonial_Singapore
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colonial_Hong_Kong
http://www.serendipity.li/wod/hongkong.html
http://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Raj
http://
harunyahya.com/en/works/971/the-disasters-darwinism-br
ought-to/chapter/3207
http://britishempire.co.uk/

http://
www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/this-britain/drawn-in-invisib
le-ink-is-this-the-site-of-walter-raleighs-lost-colony-7707
486.html