British imperialism
Victorian colonial dominance
British imperialism refers to the expansion and maintenance of the British Empire from the 16th through 20th centuries, when Britain controlled territories across every continent.
The term encompasses both the historical fact of colonial rule and the ideology justifying it—notions of civilizing missions, racial superiority, and economic exploitation.
Today it often appears critically: The border conflicts trace back to British imperialism.
The legacy shapes discussions of global inequality, postcolonial identity, and reparations.
- AnglicizationAdapting to English conventions
- divide and ruleControl through fragmentation
- protectoratesTerritories under external control
- Scramble for AfricaRapid European colonization period
- naval supremacyDominant fleet control
viceroys · colonial era · mercantilism · Commonwealth of Nations · East India Company · Treaty of Waitangi · triangular trade · Bandung Conference · Pan-Africanism · Mau Mau Uprising · Opium Wars · indentured labor · missionary work · mandates · tea trade · crown colonies · Industrial Revolution · civilizing mission
- South AfricaCape Town, Johannesburg, Nelson Mandela, Pretoria, Durban
- Boer WarBoer War, Transvaal, Orange Free State, concentration camps, scorched earth
- Raj LiteratureAnglo-Indian, Kim, Rudyard Kipling, Kipling, E.M. Forster
- South African Historyapartheid, Nelson Mandela, Mandela, Soweto, Sharpeville
- Zulu WarCetshwayo, Zulu warriors, assegai, Zululand, buffalo horns
British imperialismanti-imperialism
Opposition to foreign domination
isolationism · non-interventionism · decolonization · insularity · neutrality
British imperialismcolonial independence
Freedom from imperial rule
national liberation · anti-colonialism · self-determination · indigenous sovereignty · Indian independence
British, Britain, Briton, Britons, Britishness, imperialism, imperial, imperially, imperialist