Colonization anf fighting for independence. History of Colonization

chief motives for establishing or winning colonies was to get control of trade already existing between a territory and the rest of the world; to get possession of precious metals, gems, or raw materials; to get a market in the colony; to provide an outlet in the colony for a surplus population; to take advantage of the cheap labor of native peoples. During the early and mid-sixteenth century, the English tended to conceive North America as a base for piracy and harassment of the Spanish. But by the end of the century, the English began to think more seriously about North America as a place to colonize: as a market for English goods and a source of raw materials and commodities such as furs. English promoters claimed that New World colonization offered England many advantages. Not only would it serve as a bulwark against Catholic Spain, it would supply England with raw materials and provide a market for finished products. America would also provide a place to send the English poor and ensure that they would contribute to the nation’s wealth.

The geographic and political units formerly under British control, included dominions, colonies, dependencies, trust territories, and protectorates. At the height of its power in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the empire comprised about one quarter of the world's land area and population and encompassed territories on every continent, including the British Isles, British North America, British West Indies, British Guiana, British West Africa, British East Africa, India, Australia, and New Zealand.             British Empire grew out of the seafaring voyages of the Tudor age. The first British colony was Virginia, settled in 1585, but not for long. A ship returning four years later found that the colonists had disappeared. In 1607 the colony was re-established, and survived. Other places were also colonized, especially some Caribbean islands. Trading posts were established in India.  It was mainly a commercial empire, run by chartered monopoly companies, and defended by the Royal Navy. Britain made sure its benefits accrued to her exclusively, by a series of Navigation Acts passed in the mid-17th century to prevent the colonies dealing with anyone else. The Seven Years War (1756-7) saw Britain take control of much of India. That marked the peak of what later came to be called the “first” British Empire, which came to an end with the rebellion of the thirteen American colonies in 1776.             The loss of America (except Canada) threatened the British empire as a whole. In fact, however, it continued to expand. Even while America was being lost, Captain Cook was sniffing out new possibilities in the antipodes. The first colony in Australia, New South Wales, was established in 1788. Sierra Leone in West Africa was established as a home for freed slaves at the same time. Other gains—Trinidad, Malta, Gibraltar, and the Cape of Good Hope — were made as a result of the French Revolutionary wars.             In the 1880s Britons became infused with a conscious mood of imperialism. They sought empire deliberately; instead of merely accepting its growth. It sparked off the scramble for Africa, which added much of the eastern and southern part of the continent to Britain's collection. The culmination of this phase was the second Boer War (1899-1902). The only substantial additions to the British empire after this were the “mandated” territories—ex-German and Ottoman possessions—which were allocated to it in the wake of the First World War.             This was the empire's zenith. The wonder was that so small a country as Britain was able to exercise so wide a sway. How was it done?  The simple answer to that is: “with difficulty”. Britain's empire would have been too much for her, if she really had tried to dominate it. She succeeded in holding it mainly by persuading others to take the strain. In the “white” dominions these were the European settlers, who were