Further south, I've got Bermuda and Jamacia, but they can be more or less discounted as anything bar naval bases. They could include executing people and even firing openly onto crowds of civilians, for example during the Amritsar Massacre.I've got one territory in the North, the magnificently named 'Moose Factory', entirely surrounded by either Native American tribes or the French. Punishments for uprisings and protest were harsh. During many of these famines Britain did not organise a large enough relief effort, and millions died across India. Therefore when poor weather affected the harvests, there were food shortages resulting in famines across India. Under British rule, Indians were pushed to produce crops, such as tea, that Britain could sell for high prices. These famines were partly caused by the weather, and the region had suffered from famine before British rule, but British policies often made the situation worse. In the 1700s and 1800s, India experienced several devastating famines. Taxes on colonised people were often high and the British exploited natural resources for their own financial gain. British laws were brought to colonies that often did not take into account cultural differences between the people of the colonies and the British. The colonies were generally run by British government officials who lived in the colony and not by the indigenous people. Māori in New Zealand, has declined dramatically. The number of speakers of some indigenous languages, like that of the English remains the official language of many ex-colonies to this day. The East India Company and the British rulers did little to help with the relief and by the end of the year, 800,000 people had died from starvation.įor people living in the colonies, British rule often meant that their traditional languages, religions and ways of living were replaced with the English language, Christianity and British systems of government and education. In 1838 there was terrible drought in Agra, which meant many crops and cattle died causing a famine. Since the 17th century, the British-owned East India Company had controlled large parts of India. In 1838, British settlers began to forcibly take lands from the Aboriginal peoples and there were several massacres, in which a large number of people were killed over the following years. The Aboriginal people were met with violence and new diseases brought by the settlers. The 1830s had seen a push for colonial emigration to Australia. This allowed British control to continue and prevented most Black people from voting. In 1838, the British governors of Jamaica made plans to introduce a law that ensured only property owners could vote. The British rulers were concerned that those formerly enslaved could now vote in elections and threaten their power. They were forced to work as unpaid apprentices for their former masters. In Jamaica, the abolition of slavery in 1833 had not actually freed enslaved people. Looking at this single year, we can get a sense of the different experiences of life in the British Empire. 1838 was the second year of Queen Victoria’s reign. However, for the people that were colonised, it brought violence, disease and famine. The empire brought Britain wealth, power and influence. Narrator: By 1913, the British had built an empire which ruled over 400 million people and covered a quarter of the Earth’s surface.
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