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Expansion and empire

During the 19th century the British Parliament in Westminster became increasingly worried about the autonomy of the East India Company (EIC) and many in Britain were also worried about the Company’s declining profits. This caused Parliament to begin to take greater control over Britain’s business in India.

The EIC Governor-General, Warren Hastings, resigned in 1784 and was forced to come to London to face charges in Parliament for corruption and for governing India badly. During his time in office, Hastings had waged countless wars against Indian princes and the high taxes he demanded from the people of Bengal to pay for these wars had led to disastrous famines. Hastings’ trial lasted for nine years between 1784 and 1796. In this time Parliament took steps to increase their control over India:

• The British government decided that the EIC could no longer be left with complete control of Britain’s business in India. They passed the 1784 India Act which gave Parliament at Westminster and the EIC joint control of British India.
• The Governor-Generals would now be men chosen in London, not by the EIC in India. These London-appointed Governor-Generals would follow Parliament’s policies in India. These included changes to Indian education, government and warfare.
• Indian soldiers, known as sepoys, rebelled against their British officers in 1857 when they felt their status and religion had been degraded by the British. The Great Rebellion of 1857 prompted the British Government to introduce the first Government of India Act in 1858. Parliament took full and complete control over British India and the EIC was abolished. Britain’s representatives in India would be referred to as viceroys and they took their orders from the newly created Secretary of State for India.

Canada and the Durham Report

Rebellions in Canada against British authority in 1837 forced Parliament to send the political reformer, Lord Durham, to investigate and solve the problems. The main problem was the issue of greater control over local political issues.

Lord Durham’s Report recommended that Upper and Lower Canada be merged into one colony. His recommendations were ignored until 1847 when a new British Government was elected and wanted to reduce the cost of governing a growing empire. Local self-government was granted to the white colonies of the British Empire.

Transportation

The Scramble for Africa

The British Government had been working to secure their interests in Africa throughout the 18th century. Initially this involved supporting gold and diamond mining in Southern Africa but after the opening of the Suez Canal in 1869, British expansion in Africa rapidly increased. The east coast of Africa was secured to protect shipping and commerce with India but it did not take long for Britain to begin claiming territory across the whole of Africa.

In 1885, the major European countries gathered in Berlin for a conference on how to avoid violent competition in Africa. Britain, France, Portugal, Belgium and Germany agreed that a country needed to have soldiers on the ground before it could claim the territory. This led to a ‘scramble’ to acquire African colonies and the British Government led the way in the European colonisation of Africa between 1885-1900.