- Define and explain The British Empire in your own words
- Use key terms such as Empire accurately
- Apply what you have learned to new examples and questions
- Avoid the common mistakes learners make with this topic
This lesson focuses on The British Empire: how Britain built a worldwide empire and what it meant for the peoples ruled.
How Britain built a worldwide empire and what it meant for the peoples ruled.
Key ideas
Empire and industry fed each other
Factories needed raw materials such as cotton, and colonies supplied them cheaply; colonies then bought Britain's finished goods. This trade made Britain rich, but it was built on unequal power — and, in earlier centuries, on the transatlantic slave trade, which Britain abolished in 1807 and 1833.
Steam changed everything
The steam engine powered factories, mines, ships and railways. Raw cotton could be spun in Manchester, carried by train, and shipped worldwide. Steam made Britain the 'workshop of the world', but it also tied the country's wealth to coal, colonies and harsh factory labour.
Key term — Empire: A group of countries ruled by one powerful state. At its height the British Empire covered about a quarter of the world's land.
Explain one way the British Empire was unequal.
Britain held the political and military power while colonised peoples had little say in how they were governed.
Answer: Britain held the political and military power while colonised peoples had little say in how they were governed.
- Claiming empire was only about trade Trade mattered, but empire also meant political control, military power and the belief that British rule was superior — ideas many colonised peoples resisted.
- Saying the Industrial Revolution happened everywhere at once It began in Britain from about 1760 and spread to other countries over many decades. Even within Britain, some regions industrialised much earlier than others.
Practice
Colonies supplied cheap raw materials like cotton and bought Britain's manufactured goods.
1928, when women over 21 could vote on the same terms as men.
Fewer farm jobs pushed them out; factory wages and work pulled them in.
The growth of factories and machine-made goods, replacing hand-made production.
Quick check
Which of these best defines "Empire"?
Why was the steam engine so important?
- The British Empire: how Britain built a worldwide empire and what it meant for the peoples ruled.
- Empire and industry fed each other: Factories needed raw materials such as cotton, and colonies supplied them cheaply; colonies then bought Britain's finished goods.
- Industrialisation: The growth of factories and machine-made goods, replacing hand work.
- Watch out for: claiming empire was only about trade