The British
empire
PART ONE
A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE EMPIRE
The industrial revolution
A mill – a factory – a plant
Smokestack industries
Manufactured goods
Production lines
Produce on a massive scale =
mass produce
A loom – weave
Unskilled workers
Long woring hours
Streamline = rationalize
A drudgery = a painful,
backbreaking job
The work force
A cheap labour force
A foreman
Live below the poverty line /
below the bread line
The monied classes – the
factory owners – the
industrialists
Squalid tenements – slums
Upgrade = improve
A huge increase in the
population
Rampant urbanization
VOCABULARY
Trade: commerce, affaires, échanges
Overseas trade: commerce
international
Do a lot of trade with
A trade agreement
A two-way trade
A trader
The merchant class - merchandise
A privateer: un corsaire
A buccaneer: boucanier, filbustier
A trade barrier: barrière douanière
Raw materials: matières premières
Goods: bien (de consommation)
A chartered company: société
bénéficiant d’un privilège octroyé
par la couronne
Competition: concurrence
Purchase = buy
Covet a market: convoiter
An outlet: un débouché
Growth: la croissance
A provider: un fournisseur
To provide a country with
Levy a duty: percevoir une taxe
Import levy
Enjoy a monopoly over
Mercantile law
The birth of the empire
The British command of the seas (after the defeat of the
Spanish Armada) made it possible for the country to
develop trade.
The Crown encouraged private commercial ventures
through the creation of chartered companies.
The first fortified trading posts gradually extended their
powers and gained political control over larger
territories.
The European demand for sugar and tobacco led to the
growth of the plantations and the ensuing slave trade.
England exported its manufactured goods and cloth to
the colonies).
Navigation Acts
• The Navigation Act 1660 : ships' crews (équipages) had to
be three-quarters English, products not produced by the
mother country, such as tobacco, cotton, and sugar were to
be shipped from the colonies only to England or other
English colonies.
• The Navigation Act 1663 required all European goods
bound for (à destination de) America (or other colonies) to
be shipped through England first. The trade had to be
carried in English ships, imports of 'enumerated
commodities' (such as sugar, rice, and tobacco) had to be
landed and taxes had to be paid before going on to other
countries. This increased the cost to the colonies, and
increased the shipping time.
East India Company Wall Painting
This image was painted on the ceiling of
the headquarters of the British East
India Company in London in 1778.
It uses a range of figures to illustrate
different aspects of the work of the
East India Company.
Britannia is sitting on a rock to show how
well established the empire was and
is guarded by a lion to show its
power.
The children behind Britannia and under
her protection represent the British
East India Company.
The stream of water at the bottom of the
painting is the Indian river Ganges.
Calcutta (the main settlement of the
Company in Bengal) presents a
basket with pearls and other jewels.
China is represented by jars of porcelain
and a box of tea, and Bengal by an
elephant and a camel. In the
background a ship is taking the
treasures of the east back to Britain.
Mercantilism
England aimed at reaching self-sufficiency.
To do so, the naval strength had to be reinforced
and colonial trade had to be regulated.
Several Navigation Acts were passed as early as
1651. They aimed at putting an end to the
increasing power of Dutch merchants and were
passed against the backdrop of the development
of the Spanish and Portuguese empires. They
stipulated that English trade was to be conducted
by English vessels only.
• In keeping with the general policy of mercantilism, England
encouraged the colonists to specialize in the production of
raw materials. English factories converted raw goods to
products which were then shipped back to the colonies.
This provided the British with a profitable market, free from
competition. In order to discourage manufacturing,
regulations governed certain industries that would have
been competitive with the British, such as the woolengarment industry, hat making, and the iron industry.
Meeting domestic needs was permissible within the
regulations; they were intended mainly to prevent exports.
In fact, there were many advantages that the colonists
received from this system, such as having a built-in market
for their raw products.
The Secret of England’s Greatness (1863) by Thomas Jones Barker
• It depicts Queen Victoria
presenting a bible to a
kneeling African chief in the
Audience Chamber at
Windsor.
• In the background are her
husband, Albert, and
members of the
government. The painting
was reproduced in
engravings and was very
popular at the time.
• Despite the frequent
depiction of empire as a
masculine world, the queen
was the symbolic figurehead
of the British Empire.
PART TWO
MAPPING THE EMPIRE
The Map of Empire: A conversation
with Linda Colley
http://www.princeton.edu/prok/is
sues/2-2/colley.xml
“Very often, as I say in the book, the map
mades the empire seem even more
connected, by presenting stretches of
homogeneous red territory joined by a web
of telegraph wires extending across the
world. It is a very powerful image, and of
course it was intended to be a very
powerful image, but one's got to go beyond
it. As for the use of pink on imperial maps,
as far as the British are concerned-the first
time that I know that it happens is in James
Rennell's maps of India from the
1770's/1780's. You can see him using pink
and red there. Now I don't know how pink
and red came to be the British color. It
could be because British troops wore red
coats. I'm not sure if cartographic scholars
have worked that out. But that convention
does seem to be coming into maps in the
last third of the eighteenth century, which
is exactly what you would expect, and
becoming much more pronounced over the
course of the nineteenth century.”
The British Empire, 1897
PART THREE
DEPICTING THE COLONIZED
• This watercolour (aquarelle)
is taken from an illustrated
book.
• It features all the peoples
who compose / make up
the British Empire.
• The frame (le cadre) is richly
decorated, its colors being
in harmony with those of
the British flag.
• In the top right and left
hand corner, two
cornucopias (cornes
d’abondance) with grapes
and exotic fruit symboolize
the wealth of the Empire.
• In the foreground, two
colonial officials are
leading the retinue
(cortège).
• They are followed by the
representants of verious
continents (North America,
Africa, Asia).
• The British flag stands in
the middle of the crowd.
• Farther beyond, an
elephant represents India,
« the jewel of the crown »,
as it is usually called.
• The colonized people are
dressed in traditional
costumes.
Johan Zoffany, 1790, 'Colonel Mordaunt watching a cock fight at Lucknow',
India.
• The scene is set in a tent, under
which Company officers and
administrators from the East India
Company are sitting.
• In the foreground two cocks with
metal spurs fight, watched by
attendants. Various members of
the surrounding Indian crowd
hold their fighting cocks in
readiness for their turn.
• A group of women stand apart on
the left with musicians behind
them.
• This picture once belonged to
Warren Hastings (1732-1818), the
first Governor-General of India.
• It shows that colonial officers
delighted in the exotic spectacles
and liked being entertained by
the local populations.
The British administrators are in a
superior position; they stand on a
plateform, under a red canopy that
distinguishes them from the colorful
crowd. They seem to despise
(mépriser) these traditions.
The ceremony of Ayudha Puja, 1850-54
This watercolor
documents the
celebration of a
traditional ceremony in
Uttar Pradesh.
It suggests that the
colonizers respected local
customs even if the
Indian priests are
surrounded by many
British soldiers and have
to perform their
ceremony under British
authority. The flag,
represented in the
middle of the picture
symbolizes British rule in
India.
British Empire Throughout the World
Exhibited In One View, 1872
British Empire Throughout the
World Exhibited In One
View. Compiled By John
Bartholomew Junr. F.R.G.S.
A. Fullarton & Co.
Edinburgh, London &
Dublin.
Author: Fullarton, A. & Co.
Date: 1872
This historical cartographic
image is part of the David
Rumsey Historical Map
Collection
Detail
Detail
THE BRITISH EMPIRE, 1886
Illustrated map by
M.P. Formerly
An inset: un encart
A peacock: un pan
Feathers: plumes
A shield: un
bouclier
A trident: un
trident
A headdress: une
coiffe
A cornucopia:
corne
d’abondance
A dove: une
colombre