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The British Empire colonized parts of North America, Africa, Asia, and Oceania and controlled nearly 25% of the world's land area at its peak. [1] In the 21st Century the UK still maintains holds on many of its former colonies, imposing the British Monarch as the head of state on several of them. The UK is also a key contributor to US imperialism, having colonialized what is now the US in the 17th and 18th centuries.
By continent
Africa
Britain took part in the Scramble for Africa a land grab carving the continent into colonies occurring between 1876 and 1914 resulting in the percentage of Africa under European occupation growing from 10% in 1876 to more than 90% in 1900. The British goal was to carve an empire from north to south also known as 'from Cairo to the cape' which would link existing colonies in Egypt, East Africa and South Africa. This plan was prevented by the German Empire who occupied Tanzania.[2]
Botswana
Botswana gained independence from British colonial rule on 30 October 1966.[3]
Ghana
Ghana gained independence from British colonial rule on 6 March 1957.[3]
Kenya
During the Mau Mau Uprising of 1952 in Kenya, nearly the entire civilian population of the Kikuyu was placed in work camps by the British. Some were dragged across the ground by military vehicles or mauled by guard dogs.[1]
Kenya gained independence from British colonial rule on 12 December 1963.[3]
Lesotho
Lesotho gained independence from British colonial rule on 4 October 1966.[3]
Malawi
Malawi gained independence from British colonial rule on 6 July 1964.[3]
Mauritius
Mauritius gained independence from British colonial rule on 12 March 1968.[3]
Nigeria
Nigeria gained independence from British colonial rule on 1 October 1960.[3]
Seychelles
Seychelles gained independence from British colonial rule on 5 June 1976.[3]
Sierra Leone
Sierra Leone gained independence from British colonial rule on 19 April 1960.[3]
South Africa
During the Boer Wars in South Africa, the British destroyed farms and dumped salt in wells. In the Second Boer War, between 1899 and 1902, they built over 100 concentration camps for Boers and Africans. 30,000 Boers died in these camps, mostly children, as well as 20,000 Africans who were not largely involved in the war.[1]
In 1909 the British granted South Africa independence under settler colonial rule. Through the Native Land Act 1913, the parliament of these colonial settlers allocated 93% of the African land to the 349,837 white settlers. This colonial parliament then allocated the remaining 7% of land to the over five million African owners of this African country.[3]
Eswatini
Eswatini gained independence from British colonial rule on6 September 1968.[3]
Tanzania
Tanzania gained independence from British colonial rule on 9 December 1961.[3]
Uganda
Uganda gained independence from British colonial rule on 9 October 1962.[3]
Zambia
Zambia gained independence from British colonial rule on 24 October 1964.[3]
Zimbabwe
Zimbabwe gained independence from British colonial rule on 18 April 1980.[3]
Asia
East Asia
India
Over five million Indians died in famines during the 1870s under the British Raj. During another famine in 1943, Prime Minister Winston Churchill blamed the Indians for the famine, saying "Famine or no famine, Indians will breed like rabbits."
In 1903, the British Indian Army invaded Tibet due to rumors that the Qing dynasty was going to allow Russia to occupy Tibet. When they encountered 3,000 Tibetans blocking a road, they fired on them, killing over 700 people. Parts of Tibet were occupied by the British until 1908.
In Amritsar, Punjab, in 1919, a large crowd gathered to celebrate the festival of Baisakhi. The British Indian Army blocked the exits and fired on the crowd, killing over a thousand and wounding 1,100 more.[1]
India gained independence from British colonial rule on 15 August 1947 following the bloody partition of India into Hindu India, and Muslim Pakistan.[3]
Malaysia
During the Malayan Emergency of the 1950s, the British forcibly relocated Chinese people in Malaya into 450 "New Villages." No one was allowed in or out without the permission of the guards.[1]
Hong Kong
The British took control of the Chinese territory of Hong Kong in the 19th century following the Opium Wars. For 150 years, a British-appointed governor ruled the territory without being chosen by the people of Hong Kong. Hong Kong returned to Chinese sovereignty on 1 July 1997 and is administered under One Country, Two Systems.[4]
West Asia
During the First World War, the British made a secret treaty with the French in 1916 known as the Sykes–Picot Agreement, to divide the Ottoman Empire between themselves when the war finished. This agreement was the basis for which West Asia was divided at the end of the war, with Britain taking control of Iraq, Jordan, and Palestine, and subsequently creating the Zionist Entity through the Balfour Declaration.[5]
Europe
Ireland
In 1845, potato blight destroyed the potato harvest in Ireland, beginning a famine. The British appointed Charles Trevelyan to administer Ireland during the famine. Trevelyan adopted a laissez-faire attitude and wrote that the famine was an "effective mechanism for reducing surplus population" and "the judgement of God to teach the Irish a lesson." Exports of food from Ireland increased during the famine and over a million people starved to death.[1]
North America
Oceania
Fiji
Fiji gained independence from British colonial rule on 14 October 1970.[3]
South America
See also
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 Larry Holzwarth (2018-03-17). "10 Atrocities Committed by the British Empire that They Would Like to Erase from History Books" History Collection.
- ↑ Neil Faulkner (2013). Marxist History of the World: From Neanderthals to Neoliberals: 'Imperialism and War' (pp. 170-171). [PDF] Pluto Press. ISBN 9781849648639 [LG]
- ↑ 3.00 3.01 3.02 3.03 3.04 3.05 3.06 3.07 3.08 3.09 3.10 3.11 3.12 3.13 3.14 3.15 3.16 Motsoko Pheko (2017-07-11). "Why Africans Have No Land in South Africa" Black Agenda Report.
- ↑ Kenny Coyle (2022-09-28). "British Imperialism – A Threat to World Peace" Australian Marxist Review.
- ↑ "A century on: Why Arabs resent Sykes-Picot". Al Jazeera. Retrieved 2024-01-20.