Birth and Decline of the British Empire The short stories in this book were written when the British Empire was at its fullest extent. Two main driving forces determined its development. First, it was seen as defence against the growing military strength of other European powers. The Empire would provide military manpower1 and the economic means to support British leadership. Secondly, the interest in the Empire was commercial. By the end of the 19th century, Britain imported most of its raw materials2 and resources from the colonies, which in turn provided the main markets for the products manufactured in Britain. The foundations of the Empire were laid under the Tudors, especially during Elizabeth I s reign, when English explorers dared to challenge Spain s supremacy in the New World, and corsairs like Francis Drake or Walter Raleigh had a royal licence to rob the treasures of the Spanish galleons coming from South America. The first British colonies in the New World were located on the Eastern coasts of North America. In Virginia and Maryland economy boomed thanks to the experimental planting of tobacco. The Puritan Pilgrim Fathers settled further north and prospered in New England. The British government used the colonies as a place to send undesirable people, such as Catholics and Puritans, criminals, Irish rebels and prisoners of war. Although the West Indies had first been settled by the Spanish, when the British discovered fertile Barbados, they invested in sugar plantations which resulted in immense riches and accelerated the occupation of other islands. As the tobacco and sugar plantations required a high number of labourers, their owners adopted the Spanish system of imported African slave labour. In three centuries of slavery, more than 3 million Africans died, many of them on British vessels. The British expanded their Empire all over the world: India, East Asia, Africa, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and the South Seas. Colonisation took two different forms: the colonies of occupation (invaded colonies) and those of settlement (settler colonies). In the former like Nigeria and India the indigenous people remained a majority ruled by the British elite through the army and the administrative network. In the latter like Australia, New Zealand and Canada the Europeans exterminated or marginalized the natives, and became the majority population. The decline of the Empire started in the 1920s-30s. Most of Ireland became the Irish Free State (with dominion status) in 1922 and a sovereign independent state (Eire) in 1937. During the 1930s, there was unrest3 throughout the Empire, most notably in India with non-violent leader Mahatma Gandhi. In 1931, the Statute of Westminster changed the relationship between Britain and its dominions by establishing the British Commonwealth of Nations , an organisation of countries equal in status but united by common allegiance4 to the Crown . World War II caused the end of all colonial empires. India gained independence in 1947, Sudan, Ghana and Malaya in the 1950s, and most of the remaining African countries in the 1960s. By 1970 British colonies in the West Indies were independent, too. In 1973, when Britain entered the EEC, only a few small possessions remained, including Gibraltar and Hong Kong, which was returned to the Chinese in 1997. 1. manpower: the number of workers needed to do a particular job. 2. raw material: a basic material used to make a product. 3. unrest: a political situation in which people protest. 4. allegiance: loyalty.