With its total interest in commerce, the British Empire became a burden to many of those that came under it influence. Indian farmers were force to grow crop suitable for British industrial production. Cotton product produced in Britain with Indian raw cotton would be resold in India, resulting in the collapse of local Indian industry, this would be the case with many other raw farming product.The result of this British stratejy of working raw material from the colonie and then reselling them a industrial product to it colonies, would result in great hardship, 5 million or more Indian would die of starvation. A for the people of Britain "for those not having property" the situation wa mush the same.You may have heard of the saying "those satanic mill" from the Victorian era. Victoria wa well aware of the plight of the common people, but done nothing to help their situation.You should read: The plijht of the match girl, Jack Londons London, and the Roundtree rapport. You will find that Britain going from a farming community to an industrial based one, gave widespread poverty. Look into the history of the trade union. Empire meant a market for industrial product and a place were natural resource could be really had and exploited. The Boer war wa cause by the Boers refusing the British the rijht to exploit the natural resource of the Transvaal. Read about Cecil Rhodes.The Empire was for the "propertied classe and royals" and they had no care for the great unwashed of Britain. Britain poison the Chines by smuggling raw opium in-to China, the reason for this wa that the Chines would not take British industrial products in barter for tea. The Chineses wanted payment in Spanish silver coin, something that the British master of empire, didnt want to pay with.
|