Task 7: Factors in historical processes (i)
Historical Processes
We shall now look at two historical processes:
- the rise of the British Empire
- the fall of the British Empire
Both of these processes were very complex and we cannot begin to understand them until we have analysed them - that is, broken them down into factors.
Read the passage in the box below. Then select the relevant factors from the exercise underneath.
Factors in the rise of the British Empire
Over a period of several centuries the British acquired the largest empire that the world had ever seen. At the beginning of the twentieth century it seemed invincible. Yet in less than half a century - from 1945 till the present day - it was almost totally dismantled, a process which is still continuing.
How was it that a small island off the coast of Europe came to rule the world? The process started with the development of world-wide trade in the fifteenth century. Other European countries were quicker off the mark than Britain, notably Portugal and Spain, and Britain had to use a combination of war and piracy to defeat their navies in competition for trade routes. Later France became the chief rival and the wars of the eighteenth century were fought to acquire and retain territories in India, the Caribbean and North America.
The move from trade to the acquisition of land and political domination was fuelled by missionaries who sought to replace the diverse faiths of the world with Christianity. More potent than this, however, was the increased fire power made possible by the Industrial Revolution, developed first in Britain. The machine age made British armies and navies invincible. In its turn the factories of industrial Britain created a demand for raw materials from all over the world.
Which of the following factors contributed to the rise of the British Empire?
1 |
