British Empire - Asia

676 Words2 Pages

For several hundred years, one of the most powerful empire in history ruled the face of this earth. This empire, widely known as the British Empire, fearlessly conquered countries after countries; nearly two-thirds of the world fell under their demise. Their military strength exceeded their neighboring countries tremendously, and they had established many colonies in Asia, Africa, and America. One of the most successful colonies they established was in India.

In 1600, the East India Company received a Royal Charter from Queen Elizabeth to begin trading into the East Indie. Shortly after the establishment of the East India Company in India, the company began interacting with multiple countries in Asia, such as Malaysia, Singapore, India, and China. However, these interactions also caused great revolt among the empire when the “1857 rebellion” started in 1857. Not only did the British merchants brought their customs to Asia, but they also brought various drugs and foods such as Opium.

Opium was a huge export from India, especially into China, which created huge revenue for the East India Company. At first the company struggled to maintain trade with China, as it would accept only silver as payment. To get the Chinese to trade with them, they smuggled huge quantities of opium from the Indian Bengal where they had large harvests of opium resulting serious social and economic disruption in the country. The Chinese got addicted to opium, and so they began trading secretly with the British merchants for opium in exchange the British merchants received tea and silk. This interaction between the Britain and China created dispute over trade and diplomatic relationships. Eventually, in 1839, The Chinese government confiscated all opium w...

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...ressively expanding in Southeast Asia. Britain came to the realization that it was no longer realistic for them to prolong their control of India. In March 1946, the Prime Minister released India from British Rule.

The British Empire had colonized most of the Asia pacific for over 300 years. The interaction with other civilizations had brought both positive and negative inferences. The trading between Asia and British Empire linked Asia countries to other world regions. The expansion of British colonization has brought religion, western cultures, form of governments, and new technology to Asia. However, during the British Raj, they were very aggressive, wanted more control, and undermining many commercial deal, and people felt that they were not being treated fairly and with respect. As a result, an empire once ruled the world finally was forced to come to an end.

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