Britain and her crown jewel of imperialism A question toiled over for centuries by historians. What was the effect of British imperialism on india? Was it negative or positive? We delve into such a topic today, but first, how did the British get to India? While the Mughal empire was collapsing (the last seat of power before the British came) The East India Company came Hailing from the great British empire to seek out India’s potential and profit.
The third stage is the beginning of the eighteenth century when the British tried to oust the Dutch, the French and the Portuguese from the sub-continent. They started English as a medium of education which influenced Urdu even with more force. After 1857, particularly the transference of the English words into Urdu was faster. After the War of Independence 1857, the British occupied India and became enemy of the Muslims of the sub-continent. The British considered The Muslims responsible for the rebellion against them but virtually all it was because of the Hindu’s conspiracies.
Into the bargain, imperialism which refers to a country that increases its power and wealth by bringing additional territories under its control. Before world war 1, Africa and parts of Asia were points of contentions among the European countries. Because of the raw materials these areas could provide, tensions along these areas ran high. The increasing competition and desire for greater empires led to an increase in confrontation that helped to push the world into world
The British East India Company took control over India in 1770. The British East India Company had control of many colonies, India was one of them. They initially came for their need of coal, cotton, indigo, and tea. But after the Sepoy Rebellion in 1857, the British took full political, economic, and social control over India. British imperialism had a negative impact on the politics and economy of India because the army, justice system, government and resources of India were run to benefit the British, not the Indians.
“The rich and powerful now have new means to further enrich and empower themselves at the cost of the poorer and weaker” - Nelson Mandela. As the European colonies imperialized multiple areas of the world to gain gold, God, glory, commerce, civilization and Christianity, their Eurocentric worldview had an effect towards various groups within the world. The Europeans colonized numerous regions such as India, Canada, and Africa to help expand globalization. As they colonized these areas, it created both tragic and beneficial legacies towards the Indigenous societies. Using colonialism and globalization the Europeans were able to take control and rule by creating a dictatorship in these new areas.
But the lasting devastating consequences of imperialism and colonialism showed that colonialism was exploitation of the resources in the colonized territories besides degradation and abuse of indigenous people for the sake of industrialization of global market. The lasting outcomes of colonialism that persist to present day resulted in many dilemma and crisis. Bill Ashcroft et al state in The Empire Writes Back that “more than three-quarters of the people living of the world today have had their lives shaped by the experience of colonialism” (Ashcroft, 1). Conceptually, postcolonial is the term used for the period when colonies gained independence from European colonization. It was first used by historians after World War II as “post-colonial state” referring to post-independence period.
In the era of imperialism, some countries seized the world hegemony by plundering the territories of others countries and developing their own economy and culture aggressively in their colonial countries. As an important fuse, the emergence and development of capitalism had a significant impetus of formation of imperialism. Just as the core-periphery geographical form conveys, these imperialist countries divided the world greedily, and the capitalist classes suppressed the lower classes unfairly in both their own country and colonial countries. Take the Great Britain as an example, since Columbus discovered the new route, the world have become more connected. Gradually, the Atlantic coast of Europe became the world’s major trading centre started
An Evaluation of Imperialism in India “The reason why the sun never set on the British Empire: God wouldn’t trust an Englishmen in the dark.” Princeton Professor Duncan Spaeth once claimed turning the poetic way of declaring the British as the feared and mighty ruler of the world against them. European imperialism in the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries resulted in the carving up of areas of Africa and Asia into vast colonial empires. This was the case for British colonialism in India. As imperialism, or a policy of extending a country 's power and influence through diplomacy or military force, spread the colonizer and the colonies viewed imperialism differently. By 1857, the British, through the East India Company, directly ruled two thirds of India.
By 1707 the Mughal Empire was collapsing, small states were breaking away from Mughal power. In 1757 the East India Company took over the Mughals territory by the battle of Plassey. After this the East India Company was the biggest power in India and the area grew over time. This imperialism by the British wasn 't all bad for India though. For India 's political and economic standpoint, imperialism helped improve there government, travel, and trade.
Though India reportedly had the world’s largest economy during the years 1 AD and 1000 AD [1], due to the vagaries of history, India’s economy had plunged during British rule. Though industrialisation proceeded rapidly in Britain, the British had different policies for the regions under its rule. However the economic impact of British imperialism in India is still being debated. On the one hand, the British established a good network of railways, laid out a telegraph system for communication and established a legal system. The other view is that the infrastructure was established to facilitate the exploitation of natural resources, for example, in shipping gold, spices, and other raw materials from India to Britain and other markets.