Britain’s strategic motives in Africa centred on thwarting the growth of rival European powers as well as securing its interests in Africa. However there was a clear symbiotic relationship between strategic and economic concerns, during the expansion period. One of the first incidents in Africa where this was made manifest was when Britain invaded Egypt in 1882. The Suez Canal was of major strategic importance as it allowed ships to access the empires ‘Jewel in the crown’ India faster, through the red sea instead on going around Africa, as well as faster transportation of Arab oil. The canal was also of economic significance as historian Simon Smith reminds us that ‘80% of the Suez traffic was British, and13% of Britain’s trade passed through the canal’ , this is due to most of Britain’s trade with India passing through the Suez.
The Suez crisis caused great controversy within Britain and also did a lot to threaten Britain’s world relations, especially with the USA. The Crisis began as a result of Egypt’s Colonel Nasser failing to get funding from the USA for his high dam project which he believed would help Egypt to become a more powerful wealthy nation and bring its industry in line with that of other global powers. Nasser then turned to the Suez Canal for a source of national income. The canal was vital to Britain and France to allow for trade with many eastern countries. Britain had recently removed its troop from the area around the canal, so Nasser decided to nationalise the canal and impose a toll which he could use to fund the dam.
WHAT IN YOUR OPINION WAS THE SHORT TERM IMPORTANCE OF THE SUEZ CRISIS IN TERMS OF BRITAIN’S AFRICAN EMPIRE? There are two main schools of thought with regards to the immediate effects of the Suez Crisis on Britain’s African empire: the first is one that accredits the rapid dismantling of the empire entirely to the crisis, enabling us to describe it as a watershed moment in the decolonisation process. The second, however, insists that the importance of the Suez debacle is limited. Suggesting that decolonisation was already on its way and Suez did very little, if not nothing, to influence it. The former would be most associated with Brian Lapping, while Lord Home, (former Commonwealth Secretary and Prime Minister) would be more likely to agree with the latter.
The Missouri Compromise created a geographical boundary that separated which states were to legalize slavery and which would not (Doc F). This line represented a huge conflict between the two halves of the nation that would eventually influence the start of the Civil War. Another detriment of the Era of Good Feelings was the economic crisis that hurt the entire nation. This economic crisis was caused by two factors: Congress’s decisions and the Second National Bank. Congress increased tariffs on imports to reduce the competition for domestic goods, but this decision hurt the farmers in the south (Doc A).
The British public, army and the government themselves were not expecting such a strong resistance by the Boer tribes. This made the public question the current government. It seemed to them that the government had allowed the British army to become weak and send them into battle without preparation and also without them being healthy enough to fight, this began to give the Tories a bad name. Also the Boer war may have been a reason and incentive for Chamberlain, the sectary of state for the colonies, tariff reform campaign, which had a huge part to play in the Unionist split.
The causes of the American revolution differ a lot from the causes of the French revolution. Both revolutions intended to change the actual government into a republic, but the causes that brought them in a revolution were different for many reasons. The French were used to the idea and life associated with a monarchy, and they did not have this change necessary until a nearly fatal economic depression showed them the weak points of their absolute monarchy. Before the revolution in France there were many inequalities in society. Under the Old Order with the King at the top, then the First, Second and the Third Estate there was a distinct difference between the rich people and the poor ones.
The course of the war itself significantly affected the political and ideological relationship of the colonials to their mother country, inasmuch as the colonists found the British imposition of restrictions and its hierarchical army to be repulsive to liberty, while the British saw the need for greater imperial control. However, it was the economic aftermath of the war, which left Britain with a changing war debt and a need to raise new colonial revenues that militated most heavily against colonial cooperation with the British. The French and Indian War, called the Seven Years’ war in Europe, had its antecedents in the settlement of the French and the British in the Ohio valley region of the American continent. Both the French and British sought to control lands in the region, while the Native Americans resisted the attempts of both to settle. The Indians largely played off of both sides to maintain an uneasy balance of power, but one group eventually decided to great trading concessions to the British, giving England greater access to the interior of the continent.
However, the French and Indian War (1754-1763), also called the Seven Years’ War, altered the political, economical and ideological relations between American colonies and Britain. The political and ideological views were changed because of the British belief in imperializing all the American colonies, while the Americans believed in liberty. Economical changes were also important because the French and Indian war created debts which resulted in taxation in the colonies. The French and Indian War created tension between Great Britain and the American colonies politically because of the expansion of and and borders, economically by high taxes, and ideologically through taxation without representation. The expansions TS.
Assess the importance of the colonel’s revolt in Britain’s decision to colonise Egypt European interest in Egypt was first sparked in 1798-99 by a Napoleonic campaign which was intended to strike at Britain by posing a threat to the newly acquired Indian empire, although militarily unsuccessful, it had the long term affect of changing the government in Egypt and establishing the French as the dominant European power in Egypt. Although Britain hadn't had any specific intentions to colonise Egypt at this point, because of reasons such as European rivalry and the location of Egypt as a convenient trading route to India, when events like the colonels revolt, the fall of the ottoman empire and France investing in the Suez canal occurred, It was more beneficial than detrimental to become increasingly involved in Egypt Although the colonel’s revolt was important in Britain’s decision to colonise Egypt, there are other factors to consider that led up to it, one of which is the strategic economic factors such as the Suez Canal and the Egyptian debt crisis. Because of it's positioning between the red and Mediterranean sea's Egypt had previously been used for it's overland trading route, used extensively from 1840, even more so after 1850 when a railway line from Alexandria to Cairo was constructed, however that route was too complicated for bulk cargo and it could only take dispatches which limited how much trade could be done with India The Suez Canal had always been seen as a potential trade route but it wasn't until the middle of the nineteenth century when a Frenchman put forward a method of how to feasibly construct it that it became a possibility. The British initially opposed the construction of it even though it would increase trade because the risk of it falling into enemy hands and gaining access to India was too great, they also contended that during times of
During the late 1800’s Britain was taking notice in three major interests in Africa that they wanted to take over for their own colonization and also for trade routes and for scrambles they could use during wars against the other countries. After the completion of the Suez Canal in 1869 that Britain began to take notice of different point of the continent especially Egypt. After the Canal was built the British found out that the Canal was a faster route to India, which could increase trade and increase the countries economy. The only problem was that the Canal was built by the French and at this time the French and the British weren’t so friendly with each other. While stocks were selling the British the Canal quietly bought a majority of