Victoria Kraj
Relationship of Britain and India
AP World
February 27, 2015
During the age of European exploration, Europeans were trying to find direct trade routes to India for their silk, spices, and other goods. Barriers in land travel such as the Ottoman Empire encouraged exploration for the purpose of finding a trade route by sea. In addition, Europe no longer wanted to deal with the Muslim middleman and have to deal with prices that are more expensive. By the middle of the 19th century, Britain had control (whether direct or indirect) over all of India. This control of India by Britain caused many long and short-term consequences that were both good and bad. Some of the better outcomes being unity and the rise of a middle class. However, some negative things include deaths due to famine, lack of resources, higher taxes, and deaths due to crusades. If you focus on the good consequences and outcomes of the British ruling of
India, at first when India was taken over by brute force from Britain it created unity in
India because the nation hated Britain and was going to have to work together to get their freedom. This was a short term affect because the unity didn’t last. Then Britain forced upon India it’s government and economic system, which lead to them having a democracy and parliamentary government. Shortly after Britain started promoting education which created a middle class in India that was previously non-existent. Both of these last consequences were long term affects that shaped what India has become today.
Looking at the bad things that happened that affect India, the British only colonized India due to their natural resources such as spices. Thus, they only used India really for their natural resources and using the knowledge that colonies don’t last forever they went on the motto of taking whatever they could. This left India with the left over resources and scraps, which fueled their hate for Britain. However, this was only a temporary affect because like Britain thought, colonies do not last forever. Although
Britain did not just stop at taking India’s natural resources, which actually led to the terrible famine in