Links
This website article from The Victorian Web gave me more information about the reasons behind British expansion. As the Industrial Revolution began, British investors wanted to take advantage of their technological superiority by invading other territories. The invasion of these regions became much easier with inventions such as the Gatling Gun, steamship, and railways. This brought more capital back to Britain, which hopefully went to increasing wages for workers.
This article from BBC gave me a better understanding of Britain at the time and the position it was in during expansion. The website talks about how Britain was the most powerful nation and had the best navy, which was the true reason for their relatively easy expansion. It also gave a great statistic when it mentioned that the empire stretched over one fifth of the world when Victoria’s reign ended. This was more helpful for me to understand what the country was like during this time period.
This website article from Westchester University mentions some of the effects that British colonialism had on Africa. When Britain was taking over and acquiring land, they had advanced technology that made it easy to defeat their opponents. As time spread, they shared this technology with the Africans. They also caused religious reforms with their infusion of European beliefs. Both of these had major effects on Africa’s future.