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• 1764 - British conquered Canada

  → Former New France became British → but the population remained French
• 1768-1771 - James Cook' First Voyage

  • Mapped New Zealand
  • Landed at Botany Bay and claims land for Britain
  • Botany Bay → where Sidney lies nowadays
  • Contribution to science:
  • Many unique plant specimens
• 1772-1775 - James Cook' Second Voyage

  • → Crossed Antarctic Circle and nearly encountered mainland Antarctica.
• 1773 - Jamaica became 5x more profitable than BNA
• • Jamaica is five times more profitable than British North America (BNA)
  • → profit from sugar plantations
  • Caribbean planters were willingly to pay roughly eight or nine times what a slave costs on the West African coast.
• 1776-1779 - James Cook' Third Voyage

  • Hawaii and coastline California-Alaska
  • Killed by Hawaii locals on return
• 1787 - First ships with criminals to Sydney

  → There was a need for a new penal colony → seeing as British North America was no longer theirs
• 26 January 1788 → establishment of new penal colony (still today Australia’s National Day) → the day that the ships arrived in Australia

  Convicts liberated after some years

  • Only 1 in 14 returns home, rest starts a new life in Australia
  • 1828 → for first time more free people than convicts
  • 1868 → last convicts transportation
• Australia remains a white colony

  • Procreation → eight months on sea
  • Steep decline of population of 350,000 Aboriginals
  • Due to disease, resettlement, cultural disintegration
  • Tasmania → regulated ethnocide
  • Local population declined, white population gradually grew

  → economic development

  • Land acquisitions from Aboriginals
  • Urban development (governor Lachlan Macquarie)
  • Sheep and gold → economic growth
• 1788 - New South Wales, Australia

  • The Brits expanded more and more in Australia. It all started in New South Wales.
  • Eventually there were 6 colonies:
  • Unification → 1901: Commonwealth of Australia + Canberra became the capital
  • There was also a growing autonomy (dominion)
• 1791 - Constitutional Act

  → Constitutional act to accommodate English-speaking settlers → because of trouble between the French-speaking population and the English-speaking population

  Division of the province of Québec:

  • Canada West/Upper Canada (Ontario) → English Law
  • Canada East/Lower Canada (Québec) → French Law
• 1791-1795 - George Vancouver charted North America’s northwestern Pacific Coast Regions
• 1792 & 1799 - Mysore (Tipu Sultan)

  • Reasons for British expansion in India:
  • Protection of trade and influence
  • French threat, more imagined than real
  • Reasons for the British success:
  • Indian discord (castes, religions, ethnicities, …)
  • British technological and military superiority
• 1798 - British victory against France

  • Britain won the seven years war → wants to expand more
  • Egypt was strategically and economically important → shortcut to India
• 1801 - Oudh (=Awadh)
• 1803 - Delhi
• 1816 - Treaty with Nepal Gurkhas were sent to fight in India

  → The Tripartite Agreement between the United Kingdom, India and Nepal is a treaty concerning the rights of Gurkhas recruited in military services of the United Kingdom and India.
• • Rebellion of 1837 in Canada (BNA) → rebellions resembles the American rebellions (they also wanted representations → “no taxations without representation”)
  • House of Assembly neglected by London governor → house of assembly = house in the parliament which represents the Canadians
  • Cf. United States two generations earlier
  • → Britain sends Lord Durham to figure it out
• 1838 - Durham Report

  • Lord Durham detects two problems
  • Ethnic conflict between French and English → apparently the act of 1719 did not work, so they abolished the act and made a new one
  • 1840: Act of Union (United Province of Canada) → Québec was united again
  • Encouraged immigration from Britain to Canada → again a majority of English population in regard to the French population
  • People’s representation and control
  • Power and control to Legislative Assembly → Durham suggests a kind of parliament with competences/power that was recognised as a governmental institution
• • 1848: Responsible government in Nova Scotia → responsible government = new term (to give the colonies/ white settlers in these colonies more power)
  • What?
  • Governments are responsible to parliament rather than to the monarch or the imperial government
  • When and where?
  • 1848: Nova Scotia
  • 1849: Province of Canada
  • 1851: Prince Edward Island
  • 1854: New Brunswick
  • 1855: Newfoundland
• 1867 - Constitutional Act

  The Dominion of Canada comes into being with the constitutional act of 1867
• • United Province of Canada (1840-) impracticable → the act of 1867 was a reaction to the united province of Canada
  • Three colonies formed into four provinces → so they decided to establish 4 provinces
  • Ontario, Quebec, New Brunswick and Nova Scotia
  • Canada: a federal dominion with own institutions → a dominion is a next step to complete autonomy (it has a lot of autonomy already, but is still part of the monarch)
  • Autonomous polity nominally under British sovereignty
• 1839 - New Zealand Company

  • Promotion of settlement and trade
  • 1840 Treaty of Waitangi with Maori chiefs
  • New Zealand as bi-cultural society, but:
  • Differences between English and Maori versions
  • Ignored by settlers and courts
• 1806 - The Cape Colony became British

  • After the Napoleonic wars, the British conquered the Cape Colony from the Dutch.
  • So the Cape Colony became British.
• 1835-1837: ‘Groot Trek’ (Great Trek)

  • About 12 thousand farmers moved away from the Cape Colony because they weren’t happy with the colonial power.
  • Farmers gradually move to the north and east
  • Because the farmers were moving places, they met with other people, which resulted into frontier wars → resulting in frontier wars (Boer wars)
• 1838 - Defeat Zulu (Battle of Blood River)

  • The Great Trek did not go easily → the farmers had to fight with the Zulus as they were already there.
  • The farmers did finally win the fight → Battle of Blood River
• 1931 - South Africa became independent.
• 1902 - Peace of Pretoria

  → Treaty that ended the South African War
• 1901-1902 - Boers’ Guerilla War and British Atrocities

  • Seeing as the Boers didn’t want to just give up, they decided to continue fighting
  • But this resulted into extreme response from Britain
  • Living hostages, barbed wire, executions, …
  • Concentration camps for women and children
• 1900 - British advance to Boer Republics

  • Orange Free State turned into Orange River Colony
  • Transvaal turned into Transvaal Colony
  • Kruger died in 1904
• 1884 - Gold near Witwatersrand

  → Gold was found in Transvaal → Transvaal was a farmer's republic, very conservative

  • Transvaal’s transformation
  • From agriculture to industry
  • 20% of global gold production
  • From white to multi-ethnic
  • Immigration
  • Threat to traditional community
  • ‘Uitlanders’ (foreign workers): no political rights
• 1872 - Cape Colony gets a responsible government

  • Cape Colony gets a responsible government from Great Britain, which results in Cape Colony becomes a very British looking colony
• 1899-1902 - The Second Boer War

  Unequal battle?

  • Cape Colony: initially 35,000 troops, eventually half a million
  • Cape Colony was backed by the British Empire
  • Boers: 100,000 men
  • The Boers were backed by the local population, and they also had more knowledge of the area
  • This war resulted into the first succession for the Boers
  • Battle of Spion Kop
  • European sympathy with Boers (Netherlands and Flanders)
  • But there was no intervention → too far away and no interest
• • Difference between the First Boer War and the Second Boer War → in the Second Boer War Britain had a more firmness instead of opposition
• 1867 - Diamond near Vaal River

  • Diamond was found near the Vaal River → The British claimed the area, and turned it into one of the most important diamond exports
• 1893 - Natal receives responsible government, but the government is still dominated by the British.
• 1854 - Orange Free State recognised by Britain

  → Creation of Boer Republics

  • Transvaal
  • Natal
  • Orange Free State
• 1880-1881 - The First Boer War

  • 1877 → annexation of Transvaal → but the Boers weren’t happy with this, they wanted to be independent.
  • So the Boers went to war → Boers’ victory under Paul Kruger → London recognises independence of Transvaal
• 1843 - Natal annexed by British
• 1852 - Transvaal recognised by Britain

  → Creation of Boer Republics

  • Transvaal
  • Natal
  • Orange Free State