Ten Minute History - The Early British Empire (Short Documentary)

1497 and the British Empire didn't exist, neither did Britain. England was the largest and most powerful country in the British Isles at this time. Wales, the Isle of Man and a piece of Ireland called the Pale were firmly under English control. The rest of Ireland was mostly independent, only giving lip service to the English monarchy and in the north Scotland remained independent and a close ally of France. King Henry VII of England wished to improve England's trading situation. The English were not exactly renowned sailors at this point and so Henry did what everyone else did at the time, hire an Italian, a certain Giovanni Cobotto. Cobotto was searching for a northern route to China but landed in North America, becoming the first European to set foot there, at least since the Vikings had 500 years earlier. Henry VII continued the long tradition of English monarchs and died before being succeeded by his son Henry VIII. Henry VIII contributed to the expansion of English holdings by incorporating Wales into the Kingdom of England and giving it representation in Parliament. In 1534 Henry split with Rome, creating the Church of England which would begin the religious divide between England and Ireland. Eight years later he had himself declared the King of Ireland, although in reality this didn't change very much. Henry was succeeded by Edward and shortly after that came Queen Mary I, a Catholic, who married King Philip II of Spain. One important part of Mary's rule was the beginning of the Irish Plantations, which saw lands belonging to Irish laws confiscated and given to the English for settlement. Mary and Philip never had children and so after Mary's death in 1558 the crown passed to her sister Elizabeth because the English Parliament made sure Philip was ineligible. Elizabeth was a devout Protestant and reinstated many of her father's laws which punished Catholics, much to the anger of Philip who saw himself as the defender of Catholicism. Spain held the Netherlands at this point and the northern part, which was a large Protestant population, was rebelling against Spanish rule. England was more than happy to help undermine Spain's power and one way the English helped the Dutch was by giving Dutch privateers shelter in English ports. So privateers were essentially pirates who had the protection of a government and Elizabeth employed many. Spain had a growing colonial empire at this point and there was a lot of trade, particularly in silver, between Spain and its colonies. Privateers would seize this cargo by raiding Spanish ports and ships before taking it back to England. The most famous of England's privateers is Sir Francis Drake who conducted numerous, highly profitable raids against the Spanish. He also circumnavigated the globe and even claimed land in what is now California. Beyond privateers, England also sent explorers to the New World such as Sir Walter Raleigh, who set up a soon-to-be mysteriously abandoned colony at Roanoke Island in North America. Elizabeth also continued the Irish plantations to shore up the English position there. Exploration and colonisation at this time was almost always reliant on royal patronage in order to get funded. English-Spanish relations were not improved by England's moves across the Atlantic since Spain claimed nearly all of the New World and also losing silver was presumably not much fun for Philip either. Relations worsened when Portugal, England's oldest ally, had a succession crisis which saw Philip crowned its king. The final straw for Philip was when Elizabeth had Mary, the Queen of Scots, beheaded in 1587. The reasons for this are complex but it was essentially because Elizabeth did not want Scotland returning to Catholicism. So Philip, now pretty fed up, ordered the creation of an armada which was to sail to the Netherlands before invading England. When the armada reached England, several skirmishes occurred, the most famous being the Battle of the Gravelines where an English victory forced the Spanish fleet to sail around the British Isles in order to return to Spain. Storms, a lack of food and disease killed thousands on the return journey and this failure pretty much bankrupted Spain. The next year England chose to counterattack and launched the English Armada under the command of Sir Francis Drake. The goals of the armada were to destroy the remaining Spanish ships, stir revolt in Portugal and intercept any Spanish silver. So the English Armada was a complete failure and cost the lives of thousands of English sailors and was very expensive. It did however guarantee that England would remain independent. Towards the end of her reign Elizabeth made one last contribution to the empire and founded the East India Company which was given a monopoly on trade with India. Elizabeth died childless in 1603 and was succeeded by James VI of Scotland who was crowned James I of England. James' early reign saw the end of the war with Spain and was marked by several attempts to kill him, most notably the Gunpowder Plot. James contributed to the empire by sponsoring colonial ventures. He sponsored another wave of plantations in Ireland, most notably the Ulster Plantation which contained many Scottish settlers alongside English ones. James also oversaw the first permanent English settlement in the Americas, the colony at Jamestown. Next was Bermuda followed by Plymouth which was famously founded by the Puritans who arrived from the Mayflower. So Jamestown was founded by the Virginia Company of London with the goal of making its shareholders a profit. The colony was famously led by John Smith who maintained good relations with the Native Americans. Smith was forced to return to England after being injured in a gunpowder explosion and for a time relations between the English and the natives remained peaceful. These good relations wouldn't last and soon the English and natives were fighting and after several wars the English managed to push the natives out of the area. In order to grow the cash crops on which the colony relied indentured servants were imported. In this context indentured servants were people who sold themselves into a form of servitude for a period in order to pay for their voyage to the new world. Indentured servants were soon replaced with slaves from Africa since there was no obligation to free them and they were easier to obtain. Indian raids against the colony and rebellions against neglectful rule made it very difficult to make a profit and the colony was turned over to the English Crown. There were many reasons for colonial expansion. There was a strong desire to proselytise and convert the natives of the new world which many believed would civilise them. Some undertook extremely expensive voyages of discovery but the most common reason was money. Spain and Portugal had amassed huge wealth trading with their colonies in China and England didn't need much convincing. Cash crops such as tobacco and sugar were extremely profitable and even more money could be made on the returned voyages via the sale of slaves to the new world, the Atlantic Triangulars this time. Another reason was security. The money from trade as well as large overseas populations loyal to the crown provided extra manpower and money for wars. To support the slave trade England established forts along the coast of Africa from which they operated trading goods for gold, ivory and people. Slaves from Africa were also much easier to obtain than the indentured servants which came from England, Ireland or Scotland. This was because of the numerous major upheavals across the British Isles such as the English Civil War which saw the British Isles briefly become a republic under Oliver Cromwell. The Irish capitalised on a weakened English state and broke away from English rule. Cromwell brutally and swiftly put down these rebellions and seized huge chunks of land and gave it to his veterans. During the civil war the colonies generally sided with the monarchy leading the English Commonwealth to blockade some of them. Cromwell briefly went to war with Spain who ceded Jamaica which would form the backbone of England's sugar and slave trade. So long story short Cromwell died and the monarchy was restored under Charles II who in terms of empire managed to gain New Amsterdam from the Dutch which was swiftly renamed to New York. The monarchy would soon find itself in trouble again when Charles' son James II converted to Catholicism. Protestant England was none too pleased about this and so some lords asked the Dutch William of Orange to become King of England which he did in 1688. William's ascendancy to the throne caused a major French supported uprising in Ireland which was eventually quashed. Scotland also tried its hand at colonisation during the period by founding Nova Scotia and modern day Canada which was quickly lost to the French. The most notorious attempt at Scottish empire building was the founding of the colony at Caledonia in what is now Panama in 1698 which was claimed by Spain. The colony failed due to disease and a Spanish blockade and the English refused to help because they didn't want to provoke war. What makes Caledonia so notable was the cost of its failure since the venture had cost Scotland almost a fifth of its national wealth and bankrupted the kingdom. Thus the Scottish and English empires at the turn of the 18th century looked like this. In return for England financing Scotland's debt both kingdoms were unified by the 1707 Act of Union which gave birth to Great Britain. Great Britain immediately found itself caught up in numerous European wars. From the War of the Spanish Succession Britain gained Gibraltar in southern Spain and large swathes of French territory in Canada. Next came the War of the Austrian Succession which wasn't very important to empire except that it paved the way for a much more important war, the Seven Years War. The Seven Years War was a global conflict which saw British victory and saw the transfer of a great deal of North American territory to Britain from France and Spain. It should be noted here that for many of these countries the wars were nothing more than The war also spread to India where the British and French were trying to squeeze each other out. The reason for this was that trade with India was incredibly lucrative. It focused mainly on textile, spices and the most important consumer good of all time, tea. So by the beginning of the Seven Years War the East India Company had already established factories along the coastline of India much of which was controlled by either the Mughal or Maratha Empires. The company was largely independent and even had its own military. The company was also deeply involved in Indian politics and were very good at playing Indian Lords called Nawabs off of each other for British benefit. Robert Clive also known as Clive of India led the East India Company forces there. The British won a decisive victory against the Indians at the Battle of Plasley mostly due to some double dealing. After defeating the French, the Dutch and later the Mughals British territory in India looked like this. Bengal was particularly important since it had a taxable population twice the size of Britain. After the wars the company began to levy heavy taxes against the locals and Bengal quickly became an extremely important revenue stream for Britain. Robert Clive was for a short period the Governor of Bengal and one of his policies was to force local farmers to grow opium for export to China instead of food. Which meant that whenever crops failed large numbers of Bengali people starved. Britain's colonial successes in India were contrasted by its failings in North America. The number of soldiers, tax disputes and lack of representation in the British Parliament led the 13 colonies to declare their independence. The Americans were led by General George Washington who would later become the first President of the United States of America. Britain at first was able to win some major victories but after years of attrition alongside the French and Spanish aiding the Americans the British accepted American independence and lost all of this territory. The birth of the British Empire was a slow and drawn out process. The reasons for colonial expansion were diverse ranging from religious calling to the desire for wealth. Colonial failure led to the creation of Great Britain but colonial success meant that warfare now had a global scope and it became increasingly difficult for the rest of the world to stay uninvolved from European politics. I hope you enjoyed this video and thank you for watching.