British Empire Research Paper

By 1920, the British Empire was one of the most dominant empires the world has seen owning a quarter of the globe. India was in the grasp of the British. Once controlled by the British East India Company as a placement for cotton, indigo, and tea, the British sought and took India’s political, economical, and social power completely after the Sepoy Rebellion in 1857. With an abundant amount of resources only the British could dream of and a massive population with the potential of being consumers, India was no doubt the “Jewel in the Crown” of the British Empire. Britain’s government in India ran smoothly, creating massive infrastructure across the country and education that would create an elite class of Indians. On the contrary, the British

When India gained independence 136,000 bridges had been constructed with 10,000 miles of track joining parts of the nation(Lalvani). These products of the British would make a distinct factor in making India the world's greatest railway employers with 1.6 million(Lalvani). During British rule in India however, these railroads were fast lanes for the British that were made to collect and extract raw materials back to England and to be sold back to India(Gandhi). With the large portion of raw materials being shipped and extracted to England, many Indians felt they were being robbed in their own country. India within 40 years after the East India Company would have 22 bases supplying England with raw materials, which helped India’s economy(Lalvani). In reality however more cheap products from England were flooding and destroying much of the Indian economy when Dhaka, once the greatest center of cloth production had several hundred thousand weavers in 1760, then plummeted in the 1820’s with only 50,000(Doc#3). The loss of jobs in India and the loss of their raw materials would leave India stripped of any wealth while the British soaked up all the riches that they have taken

By 1914 when the British brought vaccines to combat malaria and smallpox, in which the life expectancy of Indians improved(Lalvani). On the contrary, however famines only increased while the British were controlling India and 40 famines total occurred killing 58 million people(Doc#7). Not only did this mean that the British ley millions of people die under their control, but they simply ignored the fact that they would have anything to do with it. Young Indians were starting to be packed off to Britain to study to return home well trained(Lalvani). Quite the opposite was happening as most of the population of India, about 8 percent of people actually knew how to read and write, while only increasing their percentage after India gained independence(Doc#5). This shows that the British only made good schools for their own people while the Indians were left out of the