It is more difficult to define what is typical British today than sixty years ago. Even though the Brits are engaged in keeping their traditions, and not very eager to make big changes, we still see a change to some extent. The way the world defines as typical British is not the same as the people of Britain might define as typical British. Britain owes many typically British things to foreign cultures, but some groups fail to recognize this, showing racist tendencies. During the first decades of post-war immigration, many settlers came from commonwealth countries such as India, Pakistan and Bangladesh in Asia, and Kenya, Uganda and Nigeria in Africa (ndla.no). Also, people, such as Jamaicans, have immigrated to Britain. After the second world war, when the previous colonies became independent, the economic growth in Britain reduced. Therefor the country needed labor and people from former colonies were welcomed to Great Britain. These countries have all impacted the British society today and have helped form the multicultural country that Britain has become. Through the colonization, Britain have developed a lot of different new cultures. We can see a distinctive stamp in their food culture. British people are known for their love for tea, and especially afternoon tea. This …show more content…
People tend to forget, but a lot of the British culture is based upon other countries cultures, which they adapted during their colonization of these countries. Therefore, when Brits show racist tendencies and creates organizations to get rid of these immigrants, they are really trying to wash away a big part of todays British culture. The people of Britain don’t realize this now, but they are all dependent on the immigrants. Without their labor, culture and traditions Britain would never have evolved in the direction it has
After importing tea into Britain, the East India Company was required to auction it off to other merchants, some of whom then exported the tea to the American colonies. By law, this was virtually the only tea permitted in the colonies.
On the eve of the American Revolution, colonists have signified and ensured their newly discovered identity by coming together to rid the American colonies of the British monarchical influence. Throught means of newly developed legislatures, both passive and aggressive protests, and formation of propaganda were the American colonists able to engrave their identity on the future of America forever.
From 1754 to 1763, the French and Indian War took place. This war altered the political, economic, and ideological relations between Britain and its American colonies. It was the last of four North American wars waged from 1689 to 1763 between the British and the French. In these struggles, each country fought for control of the continent with the assistance of Native American and colonial allies. The French and Indian War occurred to end the land dispute between the British and French. Whoever won, in reality, gained an empire. It was a determined and eventually successful attempt by the British to get a dominant position in North America, the West Indies, and the subcontinent of India. Although Britain had won all this land, political, economic, and ideological relations between Britain and its American colonies were totally annihilated.
To the south of New England were the middle colonies. There the soil was fertile, and the weather more acclimated to farming (Sarcelle, 1965). Rivers flowed west toward the frontier, enabling transportation. The middle colonies, as opposed to the relatively Puritan dominated New England, were very diverse in people. A mixture of Dutch, German, Swedes, English and other smaller groups were present in middle colonial cities such as New York (Higginbotham, 1996).
Since the end of the Seven Years War, Great Britain was increasingly becoming a global power – much to the dismay of France. Having been evenly matched before the Seven Years War in terms of the number of territories, the strength of their military parties, economic stability, and global influence, it was frustrating for France to see their previously equal neighbor as a now more influential power. Where France lost their influence, Great Britain seemed to establish themselves as a new influential power (specifically in North America and India, where France had to secede their control to Great Britain). This frustration resulted in France, not only attempting to prevent Great Britain from gaining more power, but also attempting to weaken – if not altogether remove – Great Britain's influence in the Western world. According to Professor Kenneth Morgan of Brunel University in
Many people might have a diverse opinion on the extend of the American cultural influence on Canada, but the truth is, these two countries share a long common border, they use frequently the same language, they watch the same movies, listen to the same music and collaborate on other numerous levels, including economic and political activity. In this paper, I would like to show the extent of the influence on Canadian popular culture that comes from the United States. For my analysis I have chosen four segments of popular culture: television, printed media, music and films. In these are the main sectors where we can see the biggest evidence of this phenomenon. In the first part I would like to shortly introduce the history of this issue. The second part is the analysis of the four sectors.
Folklores are stories that have been through many time periods. Folklore include Legends, Myths, and Fairy Tales. Legends are traditional tales handed down from earlier times and believed to have a historical basis. Myths are ancient stories dealing with supernatural beings, ancestors, or heroes. Fairy Tales are fantasy tales with legendary being and creators.
Changes in British policies toward the colonies between 1750 and 1776 played paramount in the evolution of relations between British North America and Mother England. Tension between England and the colonies mounted from the conclusion of the Seven Years’ War to the signing of the Declaration of Independence as a result of the several implemented changes imposed by Parliament for the purpose of increasing income and tightening the grip on America.
The British Empire at its height, encompassed vast amounts of territories; consequently, within the scope of land under British rule there was also a large range of races and nationalities. Attitudes towards these races and nationalities were as varied as the territories themselves. The expansion of this empire can be viewed as the prominent base factor that allowed the study of these new dominions, this catalysed and formed ideas on race and nationality during this period; other influencing factors such as; scientific research of the time and media representation of other cultures; through the medium of travel writing and journals . However, before Analysing British attitudes on this subject in this period, it is important to define both race and nationality and the difference between them. Firstly race, The Oxford dictionary defines race as; ‘each of the major divisions of humankind, having distinct physical characteristics ’. The oxfords dictionary’s definition of nationality, however, is more confusing; its first definition is ‘the status of belonging to a particular nation’, however its second definition is; ‘an ethnic group forming a part of one or more political nations’. From these definitions we can take a few conclusions on the use of race and nationality; Race refers to physical characteristics that can differentiate between peoples such as African and Caucasian; however, nationality can be seen as the belonging to a specific country or even to an identifiable sub culture within a nation. Hence, in the context of this essay when referring to peoples of African origin this must be considered a race, however, nationality may be used to describe peoples of a country or cultural subgroups within a country. These de...
It seemed as if tea was a drug for the Europeans because for them it was just so addicting, to the point they would do anything just to get more and more. The only things that were worthy of trading with the Chinese were gingko (type of plant), shark fin, a soft type of wood (used for incense) and silver. As the demand for tea rose, Britain gradually ran out of silver to trade with, and was desperate to find what China wanted. Then, the British resorted to trading in opium. China was very picky about their opium.
World War I, fought between major European superpowers, was an event that shook the world. The first global war was a shock to all, but was experienced differently by everyone. For Richard Lindsay Mackay, World War I was a time for him to fight bravely for his country as he experienced the horrors of war. He wrote in his journal whenever he had the scarce opportunity for down time. He wrote accounts mentioning the pain of making a homemade cross for his comrade’s grave, the brutality of only getting five hours of leisure time, which he used for sleep, and not even being able to recall if he ate something one day. However, despite his hardships as a soldier, he enthusiastically wrote about travelling to London and hearing the popular song Destiny Waltz that symbolized bravery in wartime (Mackay). Like Mackay, people back home in belligerent countries also associated wartime with consumer goods, such as music. In fact, many British citizens noticed an increase in American-made goods available in their country. As many men fell in war, America rose as a new superpower, creating situations that would lead to a more homogenous society. American domination of the world market from 1914 to 1930 started the “Americanization” of Britain’s culture through increased American influence and the simultaneous disdain for traditional Victorian society by the new generation of British youth.
Globalization is a phenomenon that arose from the industrial revolution in the 19th century, and has been progressively expanding since. According to Joan Ferrante (2015), globalization is the “ever increasing flow of goods, services, people…and other cultural items across political boundaries.” There is much speculation associated with globalization in terms of social and economic growth, but the cultural aspects of globalization are often overlooked and misconstrued with global Americanization (Legrain 2003). Globalization has had resulted in a major downplay on cultural individualism, and also on the way that different cultures view each other. In this paper I will explore globalization’s cultural impact on
The debate about British Identity has been prominently featured in recent years as a public concern. The foundation of British Identity was based on the act of union in 1801 between England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland that created Great Britain. Heath and Roberts describe this identity as “a relatively recent construct and was gradually superimposed on earlier national identities of English, Welsh, Scottish and Irish” (2008:4). The four nations were unified mainly because of the political and economic project of the British Empire that developed a shared agenda and The Second World War which melted the distinctive differences between the constituent nations (Ward, 2004). According to Colley, the interests that unified the nations do not exist and even if they do” they are less distinctive” (1992). Although there is identification with Britishness, it is noticeable that Britons hold a stronger allegiance to their primary nation. The British Identity is decreasing as many writers suggested, and this is due to many different trends and influences such as globalization, immigration and communication (Heath and Roberts, 2008). This essay highlights some of the reasons of the decline in the British national identity and the rise of the consentient nation’s sentiment. This is approached by firstly considering the internal factors of the devolution of power to Scotland and Wales, and secondly the external factor of immigration and will analyze the relationship between age and identification with a nation.
“The British have nothing bad to say about immigrants, but nothing good to say about immigration.” With a recent influx of immigrants in London, the debate regarding migrants and multiculturalism has become increasingly salient. White governance is becoming an antiquated notion as more and more Londoners are of mixed heritage. Like many other countries around the world, London still suffers from racial, ethnic, religious, lingual, and other forms of discrimination, generating social dissatisfaction and turmoil. More than half of London has a negative attitude towards immigration, yet many of those same people find it difficult to reject those fleeting a hostile home country or migrants who have relocated just to provide for their family. This societal and political tension will be further explored in this
The two languages are very similar, so much that it is very easy to understand between the two countries. The languages do not need translation due to writing in what is called standard English. Standard English is the written English format used in all three countries making it very versatile and easy to understand. There only a handful of similarities between American English and British English. There is more of a difference than there are similarities.