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
Great Britian, being an island nation, had no real land-based conflicts. This meant that they didn’t need to waste much money on armies, comparatively. It also meant that they didn’t get embroiled in many of the conflicts of the European mainland.
They did, however, have strong enemies just a short boat ride away. This mean that their naval forces needed to be very powerful – as any act of offense or defense would start with the navy. Naval supremacy allowed them to not only colonize far away, but control the shipping lanes to and from colonies.
Controlling those shipping lanes meant that if you wanted to trade, you needed to be in the good graces of the British Empire. Local colonies would support colonization because the _right_ local people were made very rich through the profits from trade. As is true today, if you make the right people rich you can subjugate any society.
Latest Answers