The British Empire was the largest in the entire world and its power and influence were universally felt. The British Empire grew due to the continuing competition for resources and markets that prevailed between England and its rivals like France, Spain, and Holland. The British Empire began as a mercantile one by ensuring that its exports exceeded its imports in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. This was a positive balance of trade that would be useful in the expansion and growth of the empire.
The British exercised both direct and indirect rule in other countries. Indirect rule, the British rule was in full direct control of a country’s administration and resources but in indirect rule, a country had its own governing system that was under the influence of the British.
The desire to gain more power and become the most powerful nation in the world led to a scramble for Africa in search of resources and a market that would support the industrialization process which greatly promoted economic development within the British Empire. Later on, the British Empire became involved in the acquisition of territory during the Victorian era in the early nineteenth century.
The British Empire was considered a complex society with specific ideas and customs capable of being passed on to other more primitive societies. The British, due to their complexity, were deemed as civilized people. They were civilized with regard to technology, science, and division of labor. Despite the fact that the British invaded the territory of other countries, they did so only to obtain resources for their industries in Britain and partly contributed towards the civilization of the societies they had invaded. In Africa for example, the British and their rivals were involved in bringing about Christianity, education, and urbanization within the continent (Canny, 1998).
References
Canny, N. (1998). The Origins of Empire, the Oxford History of the British Empire Volume I. Oxford: Oxford University Press.