Dear learners:
This is the material that we will be using on our "Zoom" meeting.
Regards,
Ms. López
The sun never set…
This is the material that we will be using on our "Zoom" meeting.
Regards,
Ms. López
The sun never set…
1. 
No country has ever ruled over
the entire planet, but the British have come the closest. The British Empire
was the largest in history. By 1921, approximately one quarter of the world’s
population was part of the British Empire, and its power and influence extended
to every continent. At its peak, it covered so much of the surface of the Earth
that it was literally true that the sun never set on it. It was always daylight
somewhere in the Empire.
No country has ever ruled over
the entire planet, but the British have come the closest. The British Empire
was the largest in history. By 1921, approximately one quarter of the world’s
population was part of the British Empire, and its power and influence extended
to every continent. At its peak, it covered so much of the surface of the Earth
that it was literally true that the sun never set on it. It was always daylight
somewhere in the Empire.
2. Eh Empire was expanded over
hundreds of years by trade, settlement and conquest. In 1497, John Cabot, an
Italian mariner sponsored by King Henry VII, landed in Newfoundland and made it
an English overseas territory. During the reign of Queen Elizabeth I (1533-1603),
the English navy became the most powerful in the world after defeating the
Spanish navy (the Armada). In 1580, Sir Francis Drake – a key participant in
that victory – was the first Englishman to circumnavigate the globe, and
English colonization started. North America was first, including Canada and
Caribbean islands like Jamaica and Barbados. Although Dutch explorers visited
Australia in the 17h century, it was the English who first settled there,
starting with penal colonies. This was followed by the colonization of New
Zealand.
3. En the East, Britain’s Asian
empire was established by the British East India Company. It became extremely
powerful during the 17th and 18th centuries, and by the
1850s the company had grown from a commercial trading organization to one which
virtually ruled India. It even had its own army and fought many wars with local
Indian rulers during its conquest of the country. The British crown took
control of the company in 1858.
4. It can be argued that the
colonies benefited from British occupation in several ways: the form of
government, the legal system, the English language – even sports such as
football, rugby and cricket. However, the colonies also suffered under British
rule: many developed only as raw materials suppliers of crops such as sugar and
cotton, to satisfy Britain’s trading interests. This meant they were
dangerously reliant on harvests and economic conditions. The British also
committed terrible atrocities in some countries, and transported across the
Atlantic millions of African slaves, many of whom died during the journey. The
slave trade was finally made illegal in Britain in 1807, and abolished
throughout the Empire in 1834.
5. Despite its continuing physical
expansion in the 19th century, above all in Africa, the Empire had
actually begun to decline in the previous century, especially after the
American War of Independence. Canada and Australia became self-governing
colonies in the 1840s and 1850s, India finally became independent in 1947, and
after that nearly all of Britain’s other colonies followed over the next two
decades.
6. However, most of the former
British colonies still remain linked through the Commonwealth of Nations, an
association of 53 independent countries. Britain, like other ex-imperial
powers, still has control of a number of small overseas territories. These include
islands in the Caribbean, South Atlantic and elsewhere. In the cases of the
Falkland Islands and Gibraltar, there are disputes with neighbouring countries
– Argentina and Spain respectively – over sovereignty.
Homework
1. Read
the text again and answer the following questions:
a)
How
many people lived in the Empire in 1921?
b)
What
made England stronger during the Elizabethan era?
c)
Who
were the first Europeans to reach Australia?
d)
What
was unusual about the British East India Company?
e)
What
were the positive and negative aspects of British influence on the colonies?
f)
Which
event helped start the decline of the Empire?
g)
What
is the Commonwealth?
h)
Which
European country says a British colony is part of its territory?
2. Choose
a former British colony and write a short FactFile about it. Use the internet
and/or books to find details about it. Include information on:
·
When
and how it became a British colony
·
What
effects colonization had on it
·
When
and how it became independent
·
What
the country is like now
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