日不落帝国讲稿(英文)—— Rise and Fall of The Empire on Which The Sun Never Sets 2

The Rise and Fall of the British EmpireAbstract:The United Kingdom is located in west Europe. It consists of Great Britain, the northeastern part of Ireland and over 5500 small islands.It has long coastline which great contributes to the development of its economic, and compare with others countries in the EU, it also has the most abundant energy. Now, the population of Britain is more than sixty million, and its land area is about 244,000 square kilometers. England is the birthplace of the Industrial Revolution and the first modern country that changed form agricultural civilization to industrial civilization. From the 16th century to the beginning of the 19th century, Britain constant to aggress and expand overseas, which make it become the biggest colonial power in modern history. Up to 1914, its territory even reached 33,500,000 square kilometers, which is 137 times that of the United Kingdom. The First World War is the turning point for Britain from prosperity to decline, and after the Second World War,under the impact of the national liberation movement, the powerful empire was gone forever.Key Words: colonial power; Industrial Revolution; the First World War; the Second World WarI IntroductionThe British Empire was the largest empire in human history, and now it isn’t as powerful as before. This paper aims at analyzing the factors that influence the rise and fall of the British Empire. There are four parts in this paper,colonial expansion of Britain, the Industrial Revolution, Britain in the World War I and Britain in the World War II. We will reappear the history about Britain from prosperity to decline.II Literature ReviewThe British Empire began with private exploration in the search for wealth. With no luck finding precious metals, privatized naval warfare became the norm because robbing Spanish and Portuguese ships was easiest. As sea-faring technology in Britain improved, Britain became an empire of the sea. Ferguson emphasizes the beginnings of consumer culture in early 18th century England as the ultimate driving force behind British imperialism.Britain was able to control an enormous empire. Most important was British mastering of new technology, its naval advances and accurate mapping of British territory. These factors combined enabled the British to swiftly respond to any crisis. By the turn of the 20th century, the British Empire was looking for new horizons to colonize. During this time, the so-called Scramble for Africa began,with an accompanying arms race among the European powers. Britain's expansion in Africa was a combination of financial power and military might. Ferguson explores the birth of three important modern phenomena, namely the mass media, the military-industrial complex, and a global bond market. According to Ferguson, those three factors brought the British Empire to its peak, but were also what would foreshadow its decline. Britain's military was weakened as it became less of a political priority, while global economic dominance shifted to the US. Although the era of European colonization has seemed to end, however, the rise and demise of the British world order and the lessons for global power by claiming that empire is still a reality. Today, though, empire is ruled by a single superpower, the United States, and takes an indirect, more abstract form of economic exploitation and political control.The British Empire fell because of its "Pyrrhic victory" in the two world wars remains a bit dubious, however. Certainly the financial burden held significant immediate consequences, but no one should discount the simultaneous impact of liberal social movements within European societies, rebellion against colonialist within British-occupied territory, and the push from the US and other (smaller) nations to liberate colonies. The horrors of the world wars had much to do with the shift in attitude, including the colonies where large numbers of soldiers were recruited as well as - obviously - in Europe itself. The so-called "era of democracy" in the Western world began with the fall of Nazi Germany and the development of the Cold War.III The Analysis of the rise and fall of the British Empire The British Empire began with the colonization in 16th century, and its first colony overseas is Newfoundland. Later, it controlled Canada, Australia, India and many small states in the West Indies. During the mid-19th century, the British consolidated its colonies by bringing them under the direct control of the government. Britain expand their colonies and sphere of influence in Asia at the beginning of the 19th century, British government waged the Opium War against China, and Hong Kong was ceded to Britain. Meanwhile, Britain also occupied Burma, Sri Lanka, Singapore, Malaya, Sarawak, Brunei and some other small states in Asia. By the end of the 19th century, the British Empire included a quarter of the global population and nearly a quarter of the world’s landmass. By the beginning of the 20th century, it occupied the Gold Coast, Niger, Sudan, Kenya, Uganda, North Rhodesia, Upper Nigeria and South Africa. On the Eve of World War I, Britain was the largest colonial empire the world had ever seen. It controlled a territory of 33.5 million square kilometers, about a quarter of the world’s landmass, about 137 times as large as Britain. It ruled over a population of 393.5 million, about eight times that of Britain itself. The British boasted that they had an empire on which the sun never set.After the Glorious Revolution, the British Parliament was made up of prosperousmerchants and entrepreneurs who supported commerce and industry. Otherwise, Britain fought and won a series of wars against France, which help it won more colonies overseas, and those colonies provided Britain with necessary raw materials and a large market for its industrial products. From the colonies in America and India, England, acquired enormous wealth with which to develop its industries. All these things resulted in the Industrial Revolution. Industrial Revolution began in the textile industry and was marked by a series of important inventions, such as the Spinning Jenny, the water frame, the spinning mule, the power loom and the steam engine. These inventions completed the mechanization of the textile industry and prepared the way for a new system of production: large scale industry. With these developments came a need for a cheap means of transportation. By 1850, Britain had established a railway system encompassing over 10,000 kilometers of track. By the middle of the 19th century, the Industrial Revolution was accomplished in Britain. It changed Britain in many ways. Its industrial productivity increased dramatically. Britain became the most advanced industrial country and also the financial center in the world.By the beginning of the 20th century, the world had entered the period of imperialism. Britain's dominance was challenged by other European nations and the United States, for they had also been industrialized and each were eager to protect their own markets and expand their influence. The power balance in Europe had undergone enormous changes. A conflict of interests and colonial rivalry divided Europe into two camps. The conflict plunged the whole world into two devastating wars. More than 32 countries were involved World War I. Though Britain won this war finally, the cost of the war was great. Britain was drained of its manpower and 70% of the merchant ships were sunk or damaged. As a result, Britain lost the sea supremacy. Business was slack, many factories were closed down and taxes soared. The great depression brought additional problems to the Britain economy and society. Britain’s position in the capitalist world was further weakened. World War II was for all intents and purposes a continuation of World War I. As the result of World War II, most of Britain’s colonies demanded and fought for independence. In the 1960s, an independence movement swept the entire British Empire. More than 20 countries won their independence. The Empire had been replaced by the British Commonwealth of Nations.IV ConclusionIt’s the contingency of the necessity that England chose capitalism and successfully founded the Britain Empire, which was once the largest empire in human history. Though there are so many events and elements contributed to the rise of the Great Britain, there are still many variables because other countries were also developing well with expansion. During the world wars, the few odds hadn’t stood with Britain though Britain was the final winner. So I think it is the wars and the Great Depression that result in the fall of the British Empire.References[1]马歇尔. 剑桥插图大英帝国史[M].北京:世界知识出版社，2004[2]李涛，姜晓东.白金汉宫的倒影——看日不落帝国的兴衰[M].北京:中国友谊出版社，2007[3]凤凰网专稿.大历史下看英国兴衰100年[EB/OL]. /zaixianjiangtang/zjjs/detail_2012_05/09/1441209 5_0.shtml,2012-05-09[4]刘中民，张宝霞.崛起与错失——海权强国兴衰的历史解读[J].海洋期刊，2007（10）：75-80[5]唐晋.大国崛起[M].北京:人民出版社，2006[6]金城，阎晓明.世界历史——英帝国的兴衰[EB/OL]. /v_show/id_XMjA1Mzc4MzY=.html?f=1355559,4年前。

了解18世纪英国工业革命，其中包括圈地运动，殖民剥削和奴隶贸易，工业革命的过程及其影响、宪章运动（1836-1848），殖民帝国的建立，英帝国的衰落与瓦解以及战后英国的概况。

1.The Whigs and the Tories2.Aricultural changes in the late 18th century3.The English Industrial Revolution and its impact on the development of Britain.4.The Chartist Movement and its significance5.The origin of the Labour Party6.The bulding of the British Empire7.Britain and the First World War8.Britain and the Second World War9.Postwar Britain10.ThatcherismThe Parliamentary Politicsin the Late 18th and Early 19th CenturiesWhigs and ToriesWhigs and Tories are the nicknames of the two political parties originated with the Glorious Revolution. Whigs was a derogatory name for cattle drivers, while Tories was an Irish word meaning thugs.The Whigs were those who opposed absolute monarchy and supported the right to religious freedom for Nonconformists. They stood for a reduction in Crown Patronage, sympathy towards Non-Conformists and care for the interests of merchants and bankers. Most Whigs were in favour of some kind of Parliamentary reform, but could not agree how far this reform should go.The Tories were traditionalists who wanted to preserve the powers of the monarchy and the Church of England. They disliked the Nonconformists and considered them a threat to Church of England's influence on people. They wanted strict maintenance of law and order. They might agree to some humanitarian reforms, but were certainly against Parliamentary reforms.The Whigs later formed a coalition with dissident Tories in the mid-19th century and became the Liberal Party. The Tories developed into the Conservative Party, which still bears the nickname today.RadicalsThe Radicals were another force in the Parliament. They wanted fundamental reforms to get to the root of the problems, and their one common aim was the thorough reform of the Parliamentary system. Small as they were, the Radicals were active in Parliament spreading their radical ideas.They were greatly influenced by Jeremy Bentham's ideals known as 'Utilitarianism'. He suggested that government's function should be to achieve 'the greatest happiness of the greatest number', and this should be done in two ways: firstly, government and administration should be made as efficient as possible; secondly, government should interfere as little as possible with the lives of the people as individuals.They advocated laissez faire, a radical idea of free trade, because they believed that the import and export duties interfered with the natural flow of trade.Agricultural Changesin the Late 18th CenturyTraditional farming system: Open field villageVillages were surrounded by 3 great hedgeless fields. Each year only two of them were cultivated, so that the fallow field recovered its richness after two years' cultivation. The farming was done on a community basis. There were also commons and wastelands used by all villages to graze livestock.This system was an ideal basis for the simple community life of the countryside and the subsistence farming before the modern industrial age. There were of course drawbacks. It wasted land, labour, and time; livestock farming was difficult in winter, and diseases spread quickly on commons; it was a barrier to experiments.Land enclosuresIn the mid-18th century the population in England increased rapidly. Demands for greater productivity made the landowners replace the small farms cultivated on the open-field system by larger, more efficient farms with hedge divided fields.During the late 18th and early 19th centuries, the open-field system ended when the Enclosure Acts enabled wealthier landowners to seize any land and divide it into enclosed fields.Enclosure became more frequent after 1740 and climaxed during the turn of the century, when the war against Napoleon meant high food prices.Changes in farming methodsA system of crop rotation was introduced. This meant land could be fully used while the cultivation of fodder crops enabled livestock to be kept through the winter months.Artificial fertilizer and new agricultural machinery, such as seed drill invented by Jethro Tull (1674-1741) also made arable farming more efficient and profitable.Selective breeding of livestock introduced by Porbert Bakewell (1725-95) made animals much heavier than ever before.The idea of encouraging tenants to introduce the changes was associated with Thomas Coke (1754-1842) of Norfolk in Southern England. George III (1760-1820), King of the United Kingdom of the House of Hanover was given the nickname 'Farmer George', because he was very enthusiastic about the agricultural changes at Windsor.Consequences of enclosuresFarms became bigger and consumer goods became more varied.Enclosure was a disaster for the tenants. They were evicted from their lands and had to look for work in towns, which rapidly became hopelessly overcrowded.In Ireland and Scottish Highlands, land enclosure led to mass emigration, partic ularly to the New World.A new class hostility was introduced into rural relationships. The labourers were forced to leave the land to survive because of concentration of land in fewer hands and loss of common land for animals.The Industrial Revolution (1780-1830)Factors leading to the Industrial RevolutionThe Industrial Revolution refers to the mechanization of industry and the consequent changes in social and economic organization in Britain in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. Britain became the first country to industrialize because of the following factors:Britain is well placed geographically to participate in European and world trade. Its main towns are not too far from seaports or rivers. It also has many natural resources, such as mineral resources, and rivers useful for transport as well as for water and steam power.Britain had a peaceful society after the Glorious Revolution. Under the influence of laissez faire and 'Protestant work ethic', it was increasingly interested in overseas trade and colonies, which provided capital in large quantities for industrialization. And the Constitutional Monarchy ensured that the powerful economic interests in the community could exert their influence over Government policy.The enclosures and other improvements in agriculture made their contributions by providing food for the rising population, labour for the factories, and some of the raw materials needed by industry.Britain had many well-trained engineers and craftsmen. The inventors were respected. They solved the practical problems.England, Scotland, and Wales formed a customs union after 1707, and this included Ireland after 1807. So the national market was not hindered by the internal customs barriers.Development of the Industrial RevolutionWhile the movement to enclose the land and use new agricultural methods was at its height, similar changes took place in manufacture. New techniques and water powered machines resulted in organization of industries on a large scale. At this time population became increasingly concentrated in towns, especially in Midlands, North of England, Southern Wales and Central Scotland, which provided the desperately needed laborers for the industrialization.Changes occurred earliest and quickest in textiles, especially silk and cotton, which were first to adopt factory methods of production. By 1760, the silk industry was well established, although it was still no competition for the French and Italians. The real ‘revolution’ in the silk industry was in 1770 when power-driven machinery was introduced.Cotton had been slow to develop, because cotton was mostly imported from West Indies and America, and spinning pure cotton was difficult. Technology aided weaving at first. John Kay's flying shuttle (1733) speeded up hand weaving and created demand for faster spinning. Then spinning was revolutionized by James Hargreaves' spinning jenny (1766), which enabled one hand labourer to spin many threads at a time. Richard Arkwright's water frame (1769) and Samuel Crompton's mule (1779) replaced hand labour altogether, and required waterpower andsteam to drive them. Edmund Cartwright's power loom (1784) eventually enabled weaving to catch up with spinning. British cotton now rivaled the best products of the East.The first steam engine was devised by Thomas Newcomer at the end of the 17th century. In 1765, James Watt (1736-1819), the Scottish inventor, modified and improved the design, and produced a very efficient steam engine with rotary motion that could be applied to textile and other machinery.The most important element in speeding industrialization was Abraham Darby's success in melting iron with coke instead of charcoal in 1709, which hugely increased the production of iron that was used for machinery, railways and shipping. In the forging side of the iron industry,Henry Court's pudding and rolling processes (1840) enabled vastly increased quantities of high-quality iron to replace wood and stone in many sectors of the economy.Improved Transportation, e.g. road and canal construction, ran parallel with production. By the early 19th century, Britain had a road network of some 200,000 km.Consequences of the Industrial RevolutionAs a result of the industrialization, Britain was by 1830 the 'workshop of the world'. No other country was yet ready to compete with her in industrial production. Towns grew rapidly and became the source of the nation's wealth. The north of England was now the most advanced in Britain.The Industrial revolution created the industrial working class, i.e. the proletariat who had to work and live in extremely bad conditions. Because the working men's livelihood had been destroyed by the mechanization, the 'Luddites', led by Ned Ludd, attempted to destroy the hated machines, but were severely punished by the government.The Chartist Movement (1836-48)Factors contributing to the political change in EnglandTwo great international eventsIn the closing decades of the 18th century, two events greatly alarmed the British ruling classes. The first was the American War of Independence (1776), in which the colonists fought for equality, national identity and political representation. Their war cry 'no tax without representation' encouraged the British middle class and working class to struggle forrepresentation in Parliaments, which represented only aristocrats at that time. The second was the French Revolution (1789-93), in which people fought for liberty, equality and fraternity.The general election of 1830Political change in England did not come through revolution but through gradual reform. When the Whigs under Charles Grey (1830-34) were returned to power at the general election of 1830, they turned their minds to the problems of parliamentary reform.Parliamentary reforms (1830-34)Reasons for parliamentary reformsPower was monopolized by the aristocratsIn the 18th and 19th centuries the Lords had far more influence in Parliament than the Commons. Most important ministers were aristocrats and bishops of Church, while the Commons were elected only by a small proportion of the population, and the vote was only a privilege for a small number of male citizens. Besides, the MPs were not paid.Representation of county and town, and North and South was unfair.The county seats and borough seats were very unfairly distributed. All counties with property worth 40 shillings annually could vote two members of Parliament, although some southern villages had already been deserted; but new northern cities like Manchester had no seats, although they were densely populated.There were also so-called rotten or pocket boroughs.Rotten boroughs were those deserted market towns, which had been busy before, but they could still elect MPs. In pocket boroughs, elections were not won by political views but by influence, and the candidate could buy off the voters, so that even before the election, the seat was already 'in his pocket'.Reform Bills passed in the time of the Whigs' GovernmentThe Reform Act of 1832, also called the Greater Charter of 1832, abolished 'rotten boroughs' and redistributed parliamentary seats more fairly among the growing towns. It also gave the vote to many householders and tenants, based on the value of their property.The New Poor Law of 1834 forced the poor people into workhouses instead of giving them sufficient money to survive in their own homes.The Chartist Movement (1836-48)The London Working Men's Association and the People's Charter(1836-38)Dissatisfied with the two Reform Bills and the failure of attempts to develop trade unionism, some radicals and militant workers were determined to renew the working class fight for political equality.In 1836 a group of skilled workers and small shopkeepers, led by William Lovett, formed the London Working Men's Association, aiming to seek every legal means to place all classes ofsociety in possession of equal political and social rights.In 1838 they drew up a charter of political demands (the People's Charter), with the intention of presenting it to Parliament. It had six points: the vote for all adult males, voting by secret ballot, equal electoral districts, abolition of property qualifications for MPs, payments of MPs, annual Parliaments with a General Election every June.The Chartist groups (1838)Other working men formed Chartist groups throughout the country. In 1838 they held a great meeting in Birmingham to launch the movement officially, with the aim of pressing Parliament to accept the People's Charter.The Chartists could be roughly divided into two groups: the Moral Force Chartists and the Physical Force Chartists. The former, headed by William Lovett, wanted to realize their aims by peaceful means (‘politics of persuasion'), while the latter, headed by Feargus O'Connor, wanted to achieve their purpose by violence.The climax and the end of the movement (1839-48)In 1839, a National Convention was held in London. But it revealed conflicts within the movement and great differences between the Northerners (who were fundamentallyanti-industrialists) and the men from the Midlands and London.In November 1839, Chartist riots occurred in Birmingham, Sheffield and Newport, and 24 Chartists were killed in a full-scale rising.In 1840 and 1842, two petitions were presented to Parliament, but both were rejected. At the same time, the Chartist movement was widely split.In 1848, the proposed great Chartist Demonstration ended quietly with the third petition presented to Parliament.Reasons for the failure of the Chartist MovementThe Movement failed because of its weak and divided leadership, its lack of coordination with trade unionism, and the immaturity of the working class.Significance of the Chartist MovementIt was the first nationwide working class movement and drew attention to serious problems. The 6 points achieved very gradually from 1858 to 1918, although the sixth has never been practical. Lenin considered it as the first broad, really mass, political formed, proletarian revolutionary movement.Trade Unions and the Labour PartyEarly trade unionsOwing to the Industrial Revolution, the new working class became established in the industrial towns in the late 18th century. They became aware of the power they could possess if they acted together instead of separately. So various working class organizations such as friendly societies and mutual insurance companies were formed to bring about improvements in their standards of living.However, the movements were regarded by the government as possible centers of revolution. Consequently Parliament passed the Combination Acts of 1799-1800 to forbid the formation of unions. After these laws were cancelled in 1824, the 1825 Act allowed workers to form unions but not to obstruct workers and employers. It was now illegal to strike.The Grand National Consolidated Trade Union (GNCTU)Most early trade unions were small and local. From 1825, large unions began to combine workers in different parts of the country.In 1833, the Grand National Consolidated Trade Union was established to form a national union. But it came to nothing after six Dorsetshire agricultural laborers were tried and transported in 1834 on the charge of administering false oaths.New UnionismFrom 1850, working class energies were taken up with other movements such as the Chartist Movement and the Anti-Corn Law league. And a new kind of trade unionism developed among skilled workers, such as the Amalgamated Society of Engineers (ASE), which was the model for other national craft unions formed in 1850s and 1860s.These new trade unions offered benefits for sickness, unemployment or old age to their members who had paid a certain sum of money per week. But they placed strict restriction of entry to their trades so as to avoid confrontations with employers as far as possible. As a result, this New Unionism was not favored by all workers.Trades Union Congress (TUC)In the 1860s, trade unionists began to meet regularly to discuss matters of common interests, such as regulation of hours, technical education, and conditions of apprenticeship.In 1868, the TUC was started, thus the trade unionism had a national organization capable of coordinating the interests of industrial workers.New legal security for the trade unionsTrade unions had always lacked legal rights. They had to fight two strong opponents together-employers and the State. In the time of the Liberal Government, two new laws were passed to give the movement new legal security.The Trade Union Act of 1871 legalized the trade unions and gave financial security. This meant that, in law there was no difference between collecting money for benefit purposes and collecting money to support strike action.The Conspiracy and Protection of Property Act of 1876 gave unions the right to exist as corporation, able to own property and to defend their rights cooperatively in courts of law.Formation of the Labour PartyThe Labour Party had its origins in the Independent Labour Party (ILP), which was formed in 1893, and led by Keir Hardie, a Scottish miner. The ILP was too idealistic and its leaders too individualistic to become a mass party. So the foundation of an effective party for labour would depend on the trade unions.In 1900, representatives of trade unions (TUC), the ILP and a number of small socialist societies set up the Labour Representation Committee (LRC), with the simple aim to promote the interests of labour in Parliament.In 1906, the LRC changed its name to the Labour Party in time for the General Election of that year. The Labour Party participated in the war coalition government in 1915-18, became the main opposition party in 1922, and formed majority government in 1924 and 1929-35 under Ramsay Macdonald.Colonial ExpansionThe building of the British EmpireEnglish colonial expansion began with the colonization of Newfoundland in 1583.In the early 18th century, settlements were made in North America, while commercial companies were chartered to trade with other lands, notably the British East Company in India.In the late 18th century and the early 19th century, the British colonialists stepped up their expansion, encouraged by Britain's control of the seas, the discoveries of men like Captain Cook, especially by the rising tide of emigration.By 1900 Britain had set up a big empire, 'on which the sun never set'. It consisted of a vast number of protectorates, Crown Colonies, spheres of influences, and self-governing dominions, and it included 25% of the world's population and area.The growth of dominionsCanadaCanada was ceded to Britain by the 1763 Treaty of Paris, after the Seven Years' War (1756-63) between Britain and France.French rights were guaranteed by the Quebec Act of 1774.The Canada Act of 1791 divided Canada into Upper Canada (Ontario) where the British had settled, and Lower Canada (Quebec) populated by the French.One serious revolt against British rule took place in 1837-38.The British North America Act of 1867 established Canada as a dominion. The four founding provinces were Quebec, Ontario, Nova Scotia and New Brunswick.AustraliaAustralia was first discovered by the Dutch in the early 1600s.In 1770, Captain James Cook discovered Botany Bay, and claimed the east coast region for Britain, naming it New South Wales.In 1788, the English began to transport convicts to Australia.Free settlement began in 1816, and no convicts were sent to Australia after 1840.In 1851-92, the gold rushes brought more people here.In 1901, the six self-governing colonies were united in one dominion-the independent Commonwealth of Australia.New ZealandNew Zealand was settled by Maoris in about the 14th century.In 1642, the Dutch seaman Abel Tasman sighted New Zealand and named it the Netherlands province of Zeeland.In 1770s, Captain James Cook visited New Zealand and claimed it for England.In the early 19th century, missionaries became active to come here.In 1840, the systematic colonization was begun by the New Zealand Company.In 1841, the country was made a separate colony, according to the Treaty of Waitangi between Britain and the Maori Chiefs.It achieved self-government in 1852, became a dominion under the British crown in 1907, and was made completely independent in 1931.The Conquest of IndiaThe establishment of the British East India Company in 1600 was a case of economic penetration. The company took control of areas and as a result the British government becamedirectly involved in Indian Affairs. The India Act of 1784 set up a 'Board of Control' to supervise the company.Political instability and French interference promoted further intervention. By 1819, the British conquest of India was almost complete.The Indian Mutiny of 1857 was raised by the native troops of the Bengal army of the East India Company, because of resentment at the British reforms of ancient Indian institutions; fear of forcible conversion to Christianity; and the issue of cartridges greased with cow-fat and pig-fat which offended Hindus and Muslims respectively.After the mutiny, the control of India passed to the British Crown in 1858, and Queen Victoria (1837-1901) became Empress of India in 1877.The Scramble for AfricaThe South of AfricaIn1652, the Dutch East India Company established a settlement at Cape Town. Settlement extended inland to form Cape Colony in the 18th century.In 1806, Britain took the Cape Colony to protect it route to India. Increasing numbers of British settlers arrived in the 1820s.In 1835-36, in order to escape British domination, the native Boers moved northward in the Great Trek (mass migration) to Natal, the Transvaal and the Orange Free State. Britain took Natal in 1843 but recognized the independence of the Transvaal in 1852 and the Orange Free State in 1854.Relations between the British colony and the Boer republics became worse, especially when Britain took Griqualand of the Orange Free State in 1871 when diamonds had been discovered there.An attempt to take the Transvaal in 1877 resulted in war between Britain and the Boers (1880-81) in which Britain was defeated and the independence of Transvaal was recognized.The discovery of gold at Witwatersrand in1886 brought many new immigrants, known as Uitlanders, to the Transvaal. But the President of Transvaal refused to give them the right to vote. This, together with the Jameson Raid in 1895, resulted in the Boer War (1899-1902). After the British victory, the Transvaal and the Orange Free State became British colonies in 1902. In 1910, they were united with the Cape Province and Natal to form the Union of South Africa.The West and the Interior of AfricaAt the beginning of the 19th century, British possessions were confined to forts and slave trading posts on the West Coast.Over the 19th century, the interior of Africa was gradually discovered and colonized by Europeans. In 1885, the involved European countries signed a treaty in Berlin to lay down rules of conducting the scramble for Africa.By 1900, more than 9/10 had been colonized. Britain led the way in this race to take the fertile and productive areas of Africa.The North East of AfricaThe French influence in Egypt was strong since the French engineers built the Sues Canal, and the French owned half the shares in the Canal Company.In 1875, the British government bought almost all the remaining Canal shares from the bankrupt Egyptian ruler, who abdicated in 1879. In 1882-1914, the British occupied Egypt.In 1899, Sudan was put under the joint Anglo-Egyptian rule after the failure of the Mahdi revolt against Egypt in 1881.Aggression against ChinaBritain, France and Germany were also rivals in establishing trading posts and naval stations in the Far East. In the 1830s, British merchants began to smuggle opium to China from India.In 1839, the Chinese, led by the Imperial Commissioner Lin Zexu, confiscated the British opium and burnt them at Canton. This resulted in the Opium war (1840-42) between Britain and China. By the Treaty of Nanking (1842), China ceded Hong Kong to Britain, and opened ports to British trade. Britain were to receive over ￡6 million war indemnity.After the Second Opium War (1856-58), China was forced to sign the treaties of Tianjin (1858) with Britain, France, Russia and the US, by which 11 more ports were opened.Twentieth CenturyBritain before the First World War (1901-14)Reforms continued to come year by yearFactory Acts made further improvements in conditions of work.Housing Acts got rid of some of the worst slums.Education Acts brought free schools and free school meals to poor children.Women's position in society was gradually improved.In 1897 women started to demand the right to vote in national elections. Within ten years these women, the 'suffragettes' led by Mrs. Pankhurst, had become famous for the extreme methods they were willing to use. But the First World War interrupted their campaign.Thanks to this militant feminist movement before the WWI, votes were granted to women over 30 as soon as the war was over, and to all women over 21, equal with men, ten years later in 1929.The Liberal government (1905-22) carried out some reformsThe Parliament Act of 1911 severely limited the powers of the Lords and established the Commons as the supreme legislative body. The MPs were granted an annual salary of ￡400.The National Insurance Act of 1911 provided insurance against sickness and unemployment. Maternity grants and elder pensions were also established.Unions were granted protection from liability for losses caused by strikes. Labour exchanges were established and minimum wages were fixed in certain industriesThe Problem of Ireland remained unsolvedThe Home Rule Bill of 1914 set up an Irish Parliament with limited powers. But it wasn't applied until after the WWI.Britain and the First World War (1914-18)Two European power blocsAt the beginning of the 20th century, France, Germany and America were becoming powerful competitors for world markets. The new united German state was emerging as the biggest threat to Britain.The War was fought primarily between two European power blocs: the Central Powers (Germany and Austria-Hungary), and the Allies (Britain, France and Russia). In wartime, the former were joined by Turkey and Bulgaria, and the latter were joined by Japan, Italy, the U.S.A. and other countries.Beginning of the WarOn June 28,1914, the Austrian Crown Prince Franz Ferdinand was assassinated by a Serbian nationalist.On July 28, Austria, awaiting a pretext for suppressing Slav nationalism, declared war on Serbia, with Germany's blessing. Russia immediately mobilized, and France rejected Germany's demand for its neutrality.Germany declared war on Russia on August 1, and on France on August 3, then invaded Belgium, hoping to win a quick victory in the West before returning to Russia.Britain's entry into the WarOn August 4, Britain declared war on Germany.There were two reasons for Britain's entry into the war. Firstly, Britain was afraid that Germany would overrun Europe and gain control of parts of the British Empire. Secondly, Britain had a treaty with Belgium to guarantee its neutrality.End of the WarOn November 11, 1918, an armistice came into effect after the Central Powers sued for peace.。

The rise and fall of the British EmpireBeginning with expeditions in the early 16th century, the British Empire, dressed as a "gentleman", also joined the ranks of colonial expansion after the completion of unification. During this period, the British Empire first defeated the Spanish "Armada", and then seized dutch sea supremacy and became the hegemon of the sea. Through enclosure movements, overseas trade and colonial plunder, the primitive accumulation of capital was accelerated and the development of capitalism was promoted.In 1688, the Glorious Revolution overthrew feudal rule, and in the Act of Rights promulgated in 1689, the royal power was restrained in the form of law, establishing a constitutional monarchy and laying a good foundation for the development of capitalism. In the 18th century, Britain defeated France, established world colonial hegemony, and gradually established a colonial empire of "empire that never sets". In the 1760s, Britain began the Industrial Revolution, large-scale machine production replaced workshop handicrafts, and the Industrial Revolution enabled Britain to leap from a backward agricultural country to the world's most advanced capitalist-led industrial power, and promoted the process of world industrialization.The Victorian period was considered the culmination of the British Industrial Revolution and the heyday of the economy and culture of the British Empire. Its territory reached 36 million square kilometers. TheBritish Empire accounted for 70% of the world's economy, and trade exports were several times more than the rest of the world combined. The Victorian art scene presented a dazzling spectacle of stars, including classicism, neoclassicism, impressionism and so on.The struggle between imperialism and colonialism, as well as the uneven development between the imperialist powers, the irreconcilable contradictions between the two sides, the First World War was like a needle that broke through the colonial system and hegemonic position of the British Empire in a state of saturation. The British Empire, which was in its peak position, also began to decline. Although Britain won the war and gained new colonies from it, the huge expenses of the war made it impossible for Britain to continue to bear the huge financial expenses needed to maintain an empire. At the same time, nationalism was on the rise in the old and new colonies. Many countries opposed British colonial rule.After the Second Industrial Revolution, Germany rose strongly. On the one hand, economic development had changed from the era of free competition to the era of monopolistic competition, and the main competition had changed from the original Asia to North America. It took German industry almost 40 years to complete the path of Britain's century. By the 1860s, the Ruhr area in Germany had become the largest heavy industrial area in Europe. By 1914, Germany had become the world'ssecond-largest power after Britain.Finally, my feeling is that the world belongs to different countries, and one country or one local organization cannot lead the world. It may temporarily dominate the world, but in the end it will slowly disappear in the tide, only by strengthening national equality and mutual benefit and reciprocity, the world can develop together, and we can move forward in continuous cooperation!。

日不落帝国讲稿（英文）——Ris...第一篇：日不落帝国讲稿(英文)—— Rise and Fall of The Empire on Which The Sun Never Sets 2The plains of North America and Russia are our corn-fields;Chicago and Odessa our granaries;Canada and the Baltic are our timber-forests;Australasia contains our sheep-farms, and in South America are our herds of oxen;Peru sends her silver, and the gold of California and Australia flows to London;the Chinese grow tea for us, and our coffee, sugar, and spice plantations are in all the Indies.Spain and France are our vineyards, and the Mediterranean our fruit-garden;and our cotton-grounds, which formerly occupied the Southern United States, are now everywhere in the warm regions of the ear th.The phrase “the empire on which the sun never sets” has been used with variations to describe certain global empires that were so extensive that there was always at least one part of their territory in daylight.It was originally used for the Spanish Empire, mainly in the 16th and 17th centuries.In the 19th century, it became popular to apply the phrase to the British Empire.It was a time when British world maps showed the Empire in red and pink to highlight British imperial power spanning the globe.In history there are many people who want to become the most powerful leader in the world.None of them can do it.But the British had made his authority extend to almost all over the world.As we all know, Britain is an island country in Western Europe.British Empire reached its highest point in the early 20th century.It hat around the world more than 50 pieces of colonies.The total area of the territory of the British Empire reached 33 million square kilometers, had the largest global colonization.At that timeBritish Empire controlled one-third of the territory and a quarter of the world's population, ruled the world for more than a century, war a veritable “The empire on which the sun never sets.” Why can Britain become do this?First, it has an advantaged geographic location.As an island British local territory is limited, so Britain has always attached great importance of sea power, strongly develop the ocean industry.Britain located in Shipping center.This provides a great convenience to colonial expansion.Second, after the bourgeois revolution rule into bourgeois merce and industry in Britain great developed.In this case, Britain urgently need new markets and material base.This is also an important motivity for British colonial expansion.Third, Britain took the lead in the industrial revolution, cam into the “steam” era.British economic and technological strength has been greatly improved, which provides extremely favorable conditions for the development of the British army.What ist British approach to become “The empire on which the sun never sets”? Britain expand business and business, accelerate and strengthen the development colonies, to control the overseas market, monopolize supply of raw materials, and rob overseas wealth.After Holland has Britain an East India Company established, to set up a commercial colonial system.Britain pay more attention to the construction of navy, build the most powerful navy in the world to control shipping route in the world.British pirates are free to attack and rob the Spanish ship are not subject to punishment.The reason for the decline of Britain Two world wars so that Britain's strength was.There are more powerful countries in the world.Especially in Europe.It depends too much on colonies in aspect of economy.第二篇：温莎家族建立了“日不落帝国”温莎家族建立了“日不落帝国”《环球人物》杂志驻英国特约记者柳棣特约撰稿秦阳2007年，伊丽莎白二世（前排左三）庆祝结婚60周年时拍摄的家庭合影。

The Rise and Fall of the British Welfare StateStephen Berry"My vision is not just to save the National Health Service but to make it better. The money will be there, I promise you that. This year, every year." (Tony Blair, September 30, 1997)n the UK the winter months see a number of events which engage the attention of theloyal British citizen. On ‘Bonfire Night’ (November 5th) children burn an effigy of Guy Fawkes, the leader of the failed Gunpowder Plot (1605) to blow up the Houses ofParli ament, whilst ‘Remembrance Day’ (November 10th), sees the paying of respects to the dead of the two World Wars of this century. These two events mark the defeat of enemies and have a positive message. But the patriotic Britisher is not allowed to rest on his laurels for long. In recent years, another happening has begun to loom large in the national consciousness. Barely have the final fireworks from Bonfire Night disappeared from view in the night sky when the yearly winter crisis of the British National Health Service (NHS) announces its presence.Last year, the problems seem to arrive even before the outbreak of the winter flu epidemic. In The Times newspaper (October 18th, 2000) Professor Michael Joy, consultant cardiologist at St Peter's hospital, Chertsey, wrote to complain that he could not admit very ill patients from his Accident Department due to the unavailability of beds in the main hospital. He said, "If nothing is done, I guarantee within the next weeks there will be a mighty crash. Everybody in the Health Service is totally demoralised. I have never seen morale at such a low level in my 35 year career." We should make due allowance for the hyperbole of a worker under stress, but his claims cannot be dismissed. I have heard this song before. Last year, I had an interesting conversation with a doctor visiting from New Zealand as I was being wheeled to the operating theatre of one of Britain's NHS hospitals. Imagine my state of mind as she cheerfully compared the NHS to a Third World health service. Imagine my relief as the anaesthetic finally brought merciful oblivion.The NHS is the jewel in the crown of the British Welfare State, but it only arrived relatively late upon the scene (1948). The origins of the Welfare State go back to the late Victorian era and the desire to provide cheap housing for the poor, the best healthcare for all and pensions which made satisfactory provision for a comfortable retirement.If one country could be said to have influenced Britain in the formation of its social policiesin the late 19th century, that country would be Germany. It is difficult now to envisage the dramatic impact on the Victorian mind of the rapid unification of Germany under the leadership of Prussia. France, Britain’s main European rival for 250 year s yet so effortlessly dismissed on the battlefield of Sedan in 1870, was now dominated with condescending easeby its dynamic neighbour . There was a new kid on the block, andhis every movement was watched both eagerly and anxiously.Bismarck's social reforms were the inspiration for the British Welfare State >>Bismarck had temporarily banned socialist parties in 1878 andbrought in a form of state welfare to placate the working classesand avoid a socialist revolution (In the late 19th century, Germanyhad the most powerful socialist party in the world). In the 1880sthe German state began to provide accident, health and pension insurance and became the conscious model for Lloyd George and William Beveridge, the latter more than anyone being the architect of the British Welfare State. Beveridge visited Germany in 1907 and Lloyd George followed in 1908. It seems that the motivation of Bismarck and the British reformers was the same. The extension of the franchise to working-class men in the U.K. had occurred in 1885 and the institution of state social insurance was preferred to any socialist solution of the Marxist variety.The profit system, with what were regarded by many as its vagaries and caprices, was to be left in place. Indeed, Beveridge seems to have seen no conflict between state action and the free market. Interventionist social policies would strengthen the market and make it more efficient than ever.<< William Beveridge founder of the Welfare StateSubsequent developments have increasingly diverged fromthese early hopes and expectations. Pioneering work by TheInstitute of Economic Affairs (IEA) in London hasdemonstrated the degree and vitality of the early privateprovision of the social services which were to become theprovince of the State. As British governments increasinglydeveloped the Welfare State during the 20th century andsnuffed out these existing mechanisms for private provision,there was no obvious sense of gratitude from the Britishcitizens to their governments. Instead, we can tracecontinuing attempts by people to protect themselves fromthe poor level of welfare services provided by the State. The history of the Welfare State is the history of the flight from the Welfare State.Rent control came in during World War One (1915) and did not begin to be unwound until the late 1980s. The Local Government housing sector was established in the years after 1919 and was extended thereafter. Large ‘slum’ clearance programmes have transformed whole neighbourhoods and provided serious and unanticipated social consequences. In 1914, 90 per cent of dwellings were privately rented and 10 per cent owned. By 1993, only 10 per cent of dwellings were privately rented, with 20% provided by Local Government. Roughly 70 per cent of homes are privately owned. In other words, the 20th century in the U.K has seen homes go from being largely privately rented to being largely privately owned. Margaret Thatcher’s government in the 1980s launched a successful programme to sell publicly-owned housing to the tenants. Government intervention in the housing market has simply driven Englishmen out of rented accommodation into inflation-hedged miniature castles which they could proudly call their own.In 1893 the famous Cambridge economist, Alfred Marshall, told the Royal Commission on the Aged Poor to resist the call for universal pensions advised by the Fabians, Sidney and Beatrice Webb. He warned that they, ‘do not contain … the seeds of their own disappearance.I am afraid that, if started, they would tend to become perpetual’. State intervention in the provision of retirement income was developed by Acts of Parliament in 1908, 1925 and 1948. By the last Act, state provision covered virtually the entire population, but here again the results have been rather different from those expected by the original reformers.During the 1990s there has been a minor scandal concerning the misselling of private pensions. It has been claimed that salesmen may not have given absolutely correctinformation concerning future returns to prospective customers. I would point out that when you purchase a private pension, the money you pay goes to the creation of a fund of capital which will be at your disposal when you retire from work. With the State Pension, your money is simply taken and used as if it were just any other form of tax revenue. When you retire, you are entirely dependent on the state’s capacity to tax for your future pension, and there is plenty of competition chasing those taxes. That is the great 20th century pensions swindle, perpetrated on a scale which would make the slickest of salesmen shake their heads with bemused admiration.Many people in the U.K. have fled from the trap of the State Pension. The last 30 years have seen a dramatic expansion of private pension provision, whether through company or individual schemes. Around two thirds of the UK population is now covered privately in one form or another. This is in stark contrast to Continental Europe where, with the exception of Holland and Switzerland, pensions are almost entirely funded by the state. For these countries, the problems of the ageing population will be faced in a particularly pronounced form.It was in the area of healthcare that the most radical innovations were made by the state, and it is the in the area of healthcare where the problems have proved to be the most intractable. Private provision for healthcare at the start of the 20th century was extensive and growing with people paying by a variety of methods. By a series of measures in the first half of the20th century, the British state brought in state health insurance for the payment of the cost of healthcare bills. But the postwar Labour Government was not satisfied with such routine measures. It came up with the marvellous wheeze of healthcare ‘free at the point of demand’. You simply turned up at the doctor’s surgery or your local hospital and treatment would be provided – no questions asked. If Socialists were never to realise their dream of a society where money and prices had been abolished, the NHS would remain to provide a gleam of the Promised Land.Intelligent readers with a brief acquaintance of economics might suggest at this point that an important service which is free at the point of demand will have a large take-up. And theywill not be surprised to know that events have proved them right. Rationing has been the main mechanism by which consumption has been contained. Users of the NHS have to wait a considerable length of time for non-critical operations, and it matters very much in which area of the country you are located as to what standard of treatment you get.. The definitionof what is a non-critical operation can be somewhat stretched. One woman caused headlines last year when she wrote to Prime Minister Blair to say that her husband had had to wait so long for his heart-bypass that he had tragically died. But it is rather unfair to expect Mr. Blair to sort out the problems of the NHS. History will see his efforts as a final futile exercise tosave a decaying system. Blair is a modern day Necker, the minister of Louis XVI, whose reforms predictably failed to rejuvenate the enfeebled carcass of the Ancien Regime.In the face of a crumbling state system, people have done what is natural. They have made private provision for their future healthcare bills. Health insurance is becoming increasingly common as part of any job remuneration package, and I have no doubt that it will eventually match the company pension in popularity.Opinion polls still show the NHS to be popular in principle, but even this is gradually fading under the relentless pressure of poor standards and the never-ending cycle of crises. And there is the pertinent point made by Arthur Seldon, one-time economics’ guru at The Institute of Economics Affairs. Many opinion polls are less than informative unless a price label is attached. What people say and what they do can be quite different things. Even those people who profess to admire the NHS never miss the opportunity to take out private health insurance,and they are doing this is increasing numbers.The next 50 years will see the further withdrawal of the state from welfare services and its replacement by private provision. Libertarians of the more radical persuasion who would launch a putsch against the crumbling edifice of the Welfare State will be disappointed. Like Rome, it was not built in a day, and its fall will be a matter of decades, not something simply accomplished by a sweep of the revolutionary’s baton."Paradoxically, it would be cheaper for politicians to give away state-owned houses and apartments to existingtenants and wash their hands of the whole business."But the end, if prolonged, is also certain. Two-thirds of the population have made private provision for retirement and William Hague, the leader of the Conservative Party, wants to offer people under the age of 30 the chance to opt out of the state system entirely. The remainder of the public housing system is expensive to maintain. Paradoxically, it would be cheaper for politicians to give away state-owned houses and apartments to existing tenants and wash their hands of the whole business. Rising incomes will mean that people who as a matter of course expect a foreign holiday in a high standard hotel will not put with third-best in a NHS hospital.What will be the verdict of history on the British Welfare State? Its main crime was the replacement of the burgeoning and varied private provision of welfare with the uniformity and mediocrity of the state monopoly; the values of the entrepreneur substituted with those of the administrator. The aim of state welfare was to remove divisions in society. Ironically, theeffect has been to make those divisions more visible. Nothing is clearer in the UK today than the accommodation gap between the homeowner and the tenant in public housing. Nothing is more poignant than the difference between the pensioner who uses an ample private pension to spend the winter months in Spain, and the pensioner dependent on state benefits alone to fund the winter fuel bills. The charge sometimes levelled thoughtlessly against the Welfare State –that it suffocates by providing security ‘from the cradle to the grave’ – is precisely misplaced. The Welfare State failed because the level of security provided was far below that which the citizen could rightly have expected at the end of the 20th century.Yet perhaps at a more important level, the impact of the Welfare State may not have been that great. I have already pointed out that in the areas of pensions and housing the vast majority of people have been able to circumvent and mitigate the low standards of welfare provided by the state. Even with the NHS, we should be careful not to overestimate the damage. Life-expectancy in the U.K. is not much different from that of countries which have not enjoyed such an extensive Nationalised Health Service. The state sector of the economy in Britain has always been small and the effects of the market are pervasive. Such factors as improved nutrition, central heating, new drugs, and changes of behaviour may well have had a greater impact on health than anything the medical profession could have done. Men’s life expectancy in the U.K. is rising as heart disease and the incidence of lung cancer decline. Conversely, as women become mo re ‘liberated’ and adopt certain male behaviour patterns,such as the increased consumption of cigarettes, the gendergap for mortality statistics narrows. To put it bluntly: aswomen behave more like men, they die more like men, andthere is nothing much that doctors can do about it.So there it is. A 150 year experiment draws ever so slowly toits close. But when in the year 2050 yet another socialistcentenarian appears on our television screens lamenting thedisappearance of the last remnants of the Welfare State, weshould remember that her longevity was not the result of the rather second rate care afforded by the state. Rather, she exists as triumphant evidence of the market’s ability to improve the quantity and quality of our lives – even in the most unpromising of circumstances。