Small Island，Big worldAs it is a fact that England has been a big country in the world for a long period,not only on the land ,but also on the sea.The British Empire was the largest country at that time,which occupied about 33 million square kilometers,taken up one fifth of the world’s total dry land and about 135 tomes as large as Great Britain.It ruled over a population of 560 million,which was more than ten times as large as that of Britain.It was called an empire “on which the sun never set”.Because on almost all the continents of the world Britain had its colonies that kept the sun can be seen on the sky all the time.Britain’s Overseas ExpansionBritish overseas expansion was clearly part of an older tradition of European empire building.They traced this back to classical Greece and Rome,Spanish and Portuguese expansion following Columbus’ voyage to the new world.Britain’s overseas expansion was begin with several battles against Spanish during Elizabeth ’era.Elizabeth avoided open hostility with Spain,but she secretly encouraged English seadogs to raid Spanish colonies and plunder the Spanish ships that were returning back home to Spain.At first,the Spanish king did not know that Britain was their most dangerous rival or Elizabeth’s intention until Spanish king Philip was at the helm of the state.So ,in 1588,the king dispatched a fleet of 130 vessels which named “the Invincible Fleet ”to England.The fleet sailed up the English Channel and a large naval battle out.The English battleships threw their enemies into panic with fire ships.The badly battered the Spanish’s fleet fled to northward in confusion.Caught in a storm ,many of the Spanish warships died and only half of them survived and went back to Spain,never dare to come to England again.The lost of the war made Spain lose its lead position on the sea,while ,on the other hand,Britian could take over Spanish power became the leader.The victory not only established the position of England as a major sea power but also paved the way for its foreign expansion as a colonizing nation.What’s more,British overseas expansion helped the state gather many property for this empire’s construction.British Foreign ExpansionIn the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries,Britain experience the Industrial Revolution.It is a big event for all the British.During the Industrial Revolution,a varity of chater companies were the tentacles and they spearheaded the foreign expansion and colonization.These companies,such as the East India Company,had the right to use the English Navy.Charter companies would first force a foreign country to open its market,then they would control the market and establish the British sphere of influence.If the British had occupied the land,the natives would have to leave their land or controlled by them.At the same,as a result of the Industrial Revolution,the empire was quite eager for raw material and expanding its foreign market.So the Britain began to expand its colonies all over the world.The expansion began with the colonization of Newfoundland,soon,many continents had became British colonies.In Asia,the East India company was founded in 1600.At first,it traced with India through a few trading posts it had managed to secure on the coast and the southern tip of the peninsula.They also managed to edge out the French and Portuguese colonists who had also come for conquest.By 1819 the British conquest of India was almost complete.The British aggression caused angeramong the natives.In 1857,a large anti–aggression mutiny broke out when the colonial authority ordered the hired native Indian soldiers to use greased catridges.Many of the Indian troops were from the Hindus,who regarded touching of the fat of a cow as contamination worse than death,and the Mohammedans who were also horrified by the fat of the swine.Many parts of the country were involved in the revolt.After the mutiny was suppressed,the control of India was passed to British Crown in 1858,and Queen Victoria became Empress of India in 1877.After conquering India,British merchants tried to make a profit in China.But because the Chinese economy was still based on agriculture and self–sufficiency,British used to suffer a deficit in the early trades.To make a profit,British merchants started to import opium into China from India .After China banned the opium trade in1799,still some British merchants continued to smuggle opium into China .In 1839,the Imperial Commissioner Lin Zexu ordered the confiscation of about 20 000 chests of opium and burnt them at Canton.The British used this as a excuse and launched a war of aggression against China in 1840.The British troops occupied Hong Kong in 1841,and invaded Zhenjiang before threatening Beijing itself.Due to failure of the Opium War,the Qing dynasty signed the Treaty of Nanjing,which included China ceded Hong Kong to British,opened five ports to British trade and many money to Britain .Among all the colonies of Britain ,Hong Kong was the last one to get its independence until 1997.As for other areas of Asia ,Btitish invaded Burma and occupied the coastal areas.At the same time,Singapore was forced to become British colony.So,Britain had a strategic base to the Indian Ocean and the Far East.After that,British power could expand to the whole Malaysia.It controlled the Strait of Malacca and built the Straits Settlements.In Africa,at the end of the 19 century,this continent is the focus of British colonial expansion.As for its abundant mineral resources, British wanted to control this area and get the resources for their industrial development .Besides,Btitish confined to a number of forts and slave trading posts on the West Coast.The Cape of Good Hope at the southern tip and Egypt in the northern part of the continent were the two chief centers of British advance in Africa.Britain was eager to control the Cape of Good Hope in order to protect its route to India. After England seized Cape Town from Dutch in 1806,English setters began to flock in and they brought in the English language.Then the English colonists pushed northward until the South Africa Union was organized by the English Parliament in 1910.Britian was also interested in controlling Egypt and Sudan.Egypt and France built the Suze Canal which was opened to navigation in 1869.In 1875,the British government bought half of the Suez Canal shares from the bankrupt Egyptian ruler,while the other half was still held by the French .After fierce struggle,the British drove the French from Egypt and gained control of the Suez Canal in 1882.The British suppressed a rebellion and occupied Egypt.By the beginning of the twentieth century,about one third of Africa was controlled by British colonialists.In East Africa,British occupied Somali,Zanzibar,Malawi and Buganda in 1980s and 1990s.In South Africa ,the British South Africa Company invaded to Zambia in 1890.In North America,when the old colonial powers:Portugal,Spain were concentrating their attention on dominating on the sea the deserted east coast of North American became the first British colonial areas of activity.The early immi grants were actually “pushed out of Europe” because they refused to conform to the rules they did not like in their home country .They hated the system which had impoverished and persecuted them. The first colony was Newfoundland,established in 1583.Until 1733, 13 colonies on the east coast of North America were under British control.In the 18th century the population in the British colonies inNorth America quickly increased from 260000 to 2, 3 million within a fewdecades(1700-1770). Also, 3, 4 million slaves were brought to the British colonies from Africa between 1162 and1807. The settlers in the colonies were mostlyself-governed while still under rule of the English Crown.But conflicts started. Additional taxes on tea or legal documents led to discrepancies. The settlers rejected any sort of taxation .The confrontation tightened up through the Townshend Acts or the Boston Massacre.The reaction of the settlers was for instance the Boston Tea Party in 1773. After several tough battles,i n 1776 the Declaration of Independence was signed. In the North American Independence War (1776-1783) Britain had to admit defeated and with the Peace of Paris in 1783 acknowledged the independence of the colonies. At the early 17 century,France and Britain began to compete in establishing colonies in Canada.But after seven years war ,Britain defeat France and monopolized Canada in1763.by the 1840s, British North America had 1.5 million people: 650,000 in Lower Canada, 450,000 in Upper Canada, and more than 300,000 in Atlantic Canada.In Latin American,British began to immigrate to Bahama Islands and controlled it in 1783.After that,British could controlled Caribbean.In Oceania,as a newly found continent ,it was a large continent of low populationdensity.During 1583 and 1587,a British named James Cook investigated the east coast of Australia and claimed the east coast region for Britain,naming it New South Wales.The British began to immigrant to the land.In 1788,the British government began to transport convicts to Australia and established some penalty settlements for these convicts.As more and more free colonists had come to settle,the British government was forced to stop transferring convicts to Australia after1840.The sudden discovery of gold in Australia led to the gold rushes which brought large numbers of free immigrants to Australia,resulting in the founding of six separate colonies.In 1901,the six separate and self-governing colonies were united to form one dominion----the independent Commonwealth of Australia. Until 1900 Australia became profitable exporters of wool and gold.At the southeast to the Australia land, lying another country----New Zealand, originally settled by Maoris,was first discovered by Dutch in1642.James Cook visited New Zealand in the 1770s and claimed it for England.English missionaries began to arrive in the early nineteenth century before the New Zealand Company started systematic colonization in the1840s.New Zealand achieved self-government in 1852 .Then Britain had completed its control in the Oceania,this area also became one of British accesses to raw materials for the industrial constriction and foreign market for their goods.Decline of the British EmpireThe old Btitish colonial system began to decline in the 18th century.during the longperiod of unbroken Whig dominance of domestic political life,the Empire became less important and less well-regarded,until an ill-fated attempt to reverse the resulting“salutary neglect”provoked the American War of Independence,depriving Britain of her most populous colonies.Although Britain was the first country to industrialise,other countries,such as Germany,United States also took rapidly step to start their industrialization,Britain experienced real competition abroad.Especially after the World War 1,British suffered a heavy lose,which led to debt accumulation,loss of capital markets and manpower deficiencies in the staffing of far-flung imperial posts in Asia and the African colonies.The Empire’s end began with the onset of the World War 2,when a deal was reached between the British government,and the Indian independence movement,whereby the Indians would cooperate and remain loyal during the war,after which they would be grantedindependence.Following India’s lead,nearly all of Britain’s other colonies would become independent over the next two decades.This vast colonial empire finally out of sight.Effect of British Foreign ExpansionThe foreign expansion ,as for the Britain,has reached their goals----achieve accesses to more materials and foreign markets.Through the expansion all over the world,British got a large amount of capital fund,which contributed quite a lot to British economic construction.Cities grew and prospered with the development of industry and foreign trade.The Strand in London became the finest street in Europe.Fleet Street flourished as a publishing center.British foreign expansion has changed people’s life.“Respectable”districts for rich people in the near suburbs were expanding.A middle class house in England in the nineteenth century commonly had there or fourservants ,usually women,while a rich house had many more.But the majority of workers excluded from a decent life.The street swarmed with barefooted children who wore very few clothes that were no protection against rain and wind.Many children were forced to go to factories to work more than 12 hours a day at the age of eight or nine.An increasing number of people required the government to solve these problems.Under the pressure of public demand,the government took some measures to ensure workers rights and mitigate the social conflicts.When it comes to the colonies,British expansion was a disaster for the colonial people.After the settler arrive at a new place,they would try every method to make the colonial people give in.When the land was under their control,they plundered the raw materials and bullied the locals.They had to leave their home land for decades of years before independence.The plunder also slow down the economic development of the colonies.However,on the other hand,since the Britain was more developed than any other countries at the time,the colonialists brought many advanced technology,culture and experience,which helped the colonies developed,anyhow.Although the colonial era has passed,we must bear in mind a saying“Backwardness will lead to defeat”.Only our nation is strong enough can we avoid bullied by the stronger countries.。