Systems of governance and authority can have a profound influence on the development of human societies. For example, the major influence of the British Empire in the development of Indian and American human societies. All types of governments – from local politics to federal bureaucracies to huge empires – maintain their authority through specific techniques, including fostering a shared identity (nationalism), developing economic interdependence, and sometimes using overt force. Challenges to that authority through violent and nonviolent revolution can have significant consequences, including the collapse and replacement of whole systems of governance. Both the American Revolution and the Indian Independence Movement gained their freedom by challenging the British Empire with the use of alternating tactics and policies.
The rise of Imperialism in India began when the East India Company gained control of India after the decline of the Mughal Empire. East India Company was a joint-stock company that was established when Britain showed economic interest in India’s natural resources. Initially, the East India Company created trading posts in Surat, Madras, Bombay, and Calcutta mainly to increase trade. The East India Company traded in cotton, silk, tea, and opium. These East India Company trading posts were supported by British troops and private armies, also known as sepoys (Indian soldiers). The East India Company functioned as military authority in parts of India with an increase in administrative and political powers. The East India Company ruled India until 1858.
Under British rule, native customs were being banned, schools and railroads were being built, and missionaries were spreading Christianity. Many Indians ...
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The English took their land and disrupted their traditional systems of trade and agriculture. As a result, the power of native religious leaders was corrupted. The Indians we...
Document 4 explains how the system was to work, “the Indians should work on the Christians’ building, mind the gold, till the fields, and produce food for the Christian’s.” This system benefited the Europeans immensely. On the other hand, many Native’s working were treated very poorly and faced brutal punishment and labor. The enslavement of Native people was another cause of the great decrease in population. The disappearance of Native people leads to the disappearance of their customs, beliefs, and way of life.
laws. This is a book source it talks about how the Indians were tormented by the
Religion was a very big part in many Indians life. Almost every part of Indian life is related to religion, the land is sacred, and religion plays a part in what can be done with it, the first Indians had many different religions, and they continued to have religion for the whole of their lives. Dress was affected, many Indians wore special clothes and jewellery of religious importance. Religion often changed family life, the children respected their elders, especially their grandparents, and the Indians believed in divorce and marriage. Education was religious, the boys were taught to hunt, and the girls to treat leather and prepare food. The Indians believed all life to be sacred, but it could be hunted, as long as it was treated with respect, so this affected the way they hunted, and what food they had.
The American Revolution (1775-1783) was a war between England and the colonies which were settled earlier by the English. There were many factors and events that led to the American Revolution. The Revolution was mainly an economic rebellion that was fueled by taxation without representation following the French and Indian War. The English Parliament was more often than not considered cruel and unfair by the colonists. With conflicts over trade, taxes and government representation, the colonies were at a starting line of a revolution that would later transform into the basis of the United States of America.
American Indians shaped their critique of modern America through their exposure to and experience with “civilized,” non-Indian American people. Because these Euro-Americans considered traditional Indian lifestyle savage, they sought to assimilate the Indians into their civilized culture. With the increase in industrialization, transportation systems, and the desire for valuable resources (such as coal, gold, etc.) on Indian-occupied land, modern Americans had an excuse for “the advancement of the human race” (9). Euro-Americans moved Indians onto reservations, controlled their education and practice of religion, depleted their land, and erased many of their freedoms. The national result of this “conquest of Indian communities” was a steady decrease of Indian populations and drastic increase in non-Indian populations during the nineteenth century (9). It is natural that many American Indians felt fearful that their culture and people were slowly vanishing. Modern America to American Indians meant the destruction of their cultural pride and demise of their way of life.
“Is there a single trait of resemblance between those few towns and a great and growing people spread over a vast quarter of the globe, separated by a mighty ocean?” This question posed by Edmund Burke was in the hearts of nearly every colonist before the colonies gained their independence from Britain. The colonists’ heritage was largely British, as was their outlook on a great array of subjects; however, the position and prejudices they held concerning their independence were comprised entirely from American ingenuity. This identity crisis of these “British Americans” played an enormous role in the colonists’ battle for independence, and paved the road to revolution.
...ntegrated, the were not allowed to "swear a Christian oath," they were "denied the right to vote, bring suit, even to testify in court," and they were "subject to state taxes, militia duty, and suits for debt." Also, "after gold was discovered on Cherokee property, the Indians were prohibited from digging or mining gold on their own land."
Though there were religious concerns that contributed to the settling of British North America, the economic concerns outweighed the notable religious concerns. A religious concern that played a role in British colonization was that the British wanted to have the Indians of North America converted to Protestant Christianity (Boorstin et al. 34). In addition, specific groups that were seeking religious freedom used the British colonizing as a venue to achieve this objective. Such groups included the Puritan separatists who had begun to lose their freedoms in England, and thus they became colonists in New England.
They built the East Indian Company. The East Indian Company created a charter and a monopoly in the trade industry. In 1615 the company began in Surat on the northwest coast of India. In 1634 the emperor of India allowed trade to expand to Bengal in the northeast. The major trades that Britain wanted were silk, tea, and manufactured textiles. In 1711 the company began a trade post in southern China for silver and tea after the Mughal Empire began to fall. The company had trouble trading with the Qing and Britain was not making much of a profit. The East Indian Company created a monopoly on opium in Bengal. The British would smuggle the opium into China causing them to become addicted to opium to make a large profit of tea off of the Chinese. Qing banned the import of Opium, but it was ineffective. The British used the opium to develop an empire on trade. The Chinese saw the western people to be barbarians. They had many inventions that made them superior to the west. Until the industrial revolution where the British developed the steam engine in which they could travel and transport goods much faster than
After the Battle of Plussey in 1757, Britain gained a much control over India. The British East India Company exercised power in this region instead of the Queen of England. The Company brought British soldiers and missionaries to the foreign land. The military in India was comprised of European troops and Indian troops resulting in a variety of weapons present. The weapons of the English people were a lot more different than those of the Indian people. The Europeans were the officers in this military and the Indians were common soldiers. The Indian Soldiers were known as the Sepoys. There were various events before the actual revolution that were significant to the cause of the Sepoy Revolution. In 1806, the introduction of new clothing/appearance regulations sparked a minor rebellion, but this was easily controlled and suppressed by the British. In 1856, the East India Company anne...
The American Revolution marked the divorce of the British Empire and its one of the most valued colonies. Behind the independence that America had fought so hard for, there emerged a diverging society that was eager to embrace new doctrines. The ideals in the revolution that motivated the people to fight for freedom continued to influence American society well beyond the colonial period. For example, the ideas borrowed from John Locke about the natural rights of man was extended in an unsuccessful effort to include women and slaves. The creation of state governments and the search for a national government were the first steps that Americans took to experiment with their own system. Expansion, postwar depression as well as the new distribution of land were all evidence that pointed to the gradual maturing of the economic system. Although America was fast on its way to becoming a strong and powerful nation, the underlying issues brought about by the Revolution remained an important part in the social, political and economical developments that in some instances contradicted revolutionary principles in the period from 1775-1800.
For centuries, India was a country of separate dynasties and kingdoms, which often led to a wide variety of cultural and ethnic tensions and continuous change of power for many of the kingdoms. They viewed each other as enemies, which created an opportunity for countries, such as England, to invade and eventually rule much of the country. Britain colonized the Indian subcontinent (present-day countries of India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh) from 1757 until 1947 (Iyer 2). Not all areas were directly under British control, in other cases Indian rulers governed them, and power was split between the two (Iyer 2). For the British, India was strategically placed in terms of geography, manpower, natural resources, and land, as well as many other sectors (Maddison 1).
They were brutally persecuted and were not allowed to practise their religion, because they said that the beliefs taught by the Anglican church were against the Bible. When they arrived in the New World, they were confronted with numerous threats from the outside. Their trying to take land away from the Indians caused many fights and attacks. Moreover, they had to deal with the total wilderness surrounding them. Under these frontier conditions, they needed harmony and peace inside the community in order to survive.
India was the first major Asian civilizations to fall victim to European predatory activities (Duiker 31). With conquering India, the British had various purposes behind it. Their main purpose was to achieve a monopolistic trading position (The Economic and Social Impact of Colonial Rule in India). The second purpose was the control of India; this was a key element in the world power structure, in terms of geography, logistics and military manpower (The Economic and Social Impact of Colonial Rule in India). When the East India Company continued to trade under the British, huge armies were created, largely composed of Indian sepoys (Marshall). The armies were used to defend the Company’s territories protect the Indian states (Marshall).