topic 1 introduction

• 1600


  Britain's East India Company is established when Elizabeth I grants a charter to a 'Company of Merchants trading into the East Indies'
• 1607


  Colonists establish the first lasting British settlement in the new world, at Jamestown. This becomes a major hub for the slave trade.
• 1842


  The Treaty of Nanking with China after the Opium War grants Britain access to ports in China, and also cedes Hong Kong to Britain
• 1839


  A British army invades Afghanistan and installs a puppet ruler, Shuja Shah, as the Afghan amir. However, the locals turn on Britain and only one soldier of the army survives
• 1627


  A British colony is founded in Barbados and within fifteen years has 18,000 settlers
• 1841


  Britain sends four naval ships up the river Niger to make anti-slavery treaties with local kings
• 1783


  The United States of America secures independence from Britain after the American Revolution
• 1696


  Fort St William is built by the East India Company in the Ganges delta, and subsequently develops into Calcutta
• 1757


  Robert Clive defeats the nawab of Bengal at the battle of Plassey, and places his own man on the throne. Britain is now the dominant European power in India
• 1769


  Captain Cook reaches New Zealand and sets off to chart its entire coastline
• 1798


  The British acquire a foothold in the Persian Gulf by making Oman a protectorate
• 1763


  In the treaty of Paris France cedes to Britain all its territory north of the Great Lakes and east of the Mississippi river, except the district of New Orleans
• 1788


  After a journey of eight months from England the First Fleet, carrying 750 convicts, reaches Australia, anchoring in Botany Bay
• 1820


  The first big influx of British settlers, numbering some 5000, arrives at Cape Town in South Africa
• 1831


  The last surviving Aborigines of Tasmania are moved by the British to a small island where they soon die out
• 1833


  Britain ejects the Argentinians from the Falklands and begins the process of settlement with British farmers
• Imperialism


  Where a nation is dominant in international affairs
• Formal Empire


  Judging a different culture solely by the values and standards of your own culture
• Paramountcy


  Where a nation is dominant in international affairs
• Indigenous

  The term for people who are native to a specific place / land
• Informal Empire

  This describes an area where a country has a sphere of influence normally due to commercial or strategic interests.
• Free Trade

  When a government remove restrictions on trade so that markets become self-regulating
• Metropole

  The name given to the centre of the British Empire e.g the UK or London
• Administrator

  The term for those from Britain who helped maintain British rule and govern in the colonies
• Monopoly

  This is when an individual or business has sole control / power over particular goods or services
• Colonialism

  The settlement of a territory in a foreign land by migrants with links to a mother country that enable them to establish political supremacy
• Protectionism

  Policies instituted by government to restrict trade between nations through tariffs, quotas and regulations to protect a country’s own industries and economy.