Britain, migration and empire overview, c790 - present dayBritish Empire's expansion in Africa, 1700s-1920s

Expansion and empire

The Seven Years’ War may have indirectly led to the loss of Britain’s American colonies but it also gave Britain dominance over its European rivals for trade with Asia, particularly India.

Learn more how the East India Company took control of India in this podcast.

Listen to the full series on BBC Sounds.

The East India Company greatly expanded its activities in the 18th century until they became more than just merchants in India and began to assume the role of a government over large areas of the country. After a large part of the Indian army rebelled against Company rule in 1857, the British government took direct control of India, and by 1876 had declared that the British Queen was Empress of India. British authorities ruled India with the collaboration of an anglicised Indian elite, who would later develop ideas of Indian national unity and independence.

The continued expansion of Britain’s global empire in the 19th century relied on pioneering technological advances, such as the development of the railways, steam-ship travel and the telegraph. These technological advances made it easier for people to travel and communicate in Britain’s vast empire, and huge numbers migrated to Canada, Australia and New Zealand. Closer to home, hundreds of thousands of Irish migrants came to Britain to escape poverty and famine, whilst thousands of Eastern European Jews chose to settle in Britain to escape persecution.

Although Britain had reformed its relationship with Africa in the early 19th century by abolishing the inhuman Transatlantic Slave Trade, British traders continued to seek riches from Africa and worked to dominate other trades on the West African coast. By the late 19th century Britain faced competition from other European powers and decided to co-operate with them in a wholesale land-grab across the African continent. This ‘Scramble for Africa’ was promoted by ambitious ‘men on the spot’. This was a term used for British businessmen in Africa, such as Cecil Rhodes, who took major decisions without consulting the British Government. This then forced Parliament to support these men after they had already taken action. A famous example of this is when Rhodes pulled the London government into a war against Dutch settlers, known as Boers, in South Africa.

Britain eventually expanded its control over vast swathes of southern, eastern and western Africa by 1920.