How did Great Britain have so much power and influence considering how small it is? How did they manage to colonise the entirety of India so easily?
In: 167
Others gave great answers re navy, industry, trade, so I’ll just add one thing about colonial strategy.
Different colonizers had different strategies. They weren’t always consistent (see North America) but it was generally the British way to go to a place they wanted, find the existing ruling class, and tell the existing ruling class that they could keep ruling as long as they permitted Britain to sit at the top of the totem pole. They’d get some benefits, they’d keep most of what they had, and they’d bow their heads to the Crown. So many soon-to-be colonies weren’t given the choice of “become slaves or die.” It was more like “hey you are already subjugating your population to stay wealthy and in power. Want to keep doing that, with our armies behind you, but we get final say and a cut of everything and safety to travel and stay here etc etc.”
It wasn’t the worst offer for the ruling class of existing political entities that knew if they did force a war with Britain they’d likely lose anyways.
This is also why lots of British colonies have more stable democracies than other former colonies. The British came in and integrated the ruling class instead of running them over. So when the British left they didn’t need to suddenly reshape their institutions, since the same people would be in power either way.
Not trying to make light of famines and genocide, the poor in colonized regions often had it as bad or worse under British rule as before colonization, but the British didn’t piss off the wealthy rulers directly below them if they didn’t need to. And if they did need to, guns.
Latest Answers