Communications and Media

The British Empire was once the most powerful empire of all that existed in the world with respect to both its political and economic power. The British Empire was made up of colonies, mandates, protectorates and mandates that were centrally administered by the United Kingdom. The regions that fell under the larger British Empire originated from trading posts and overseas territories that England established in the 16th and 17th Century. During its peak years it was the largest single empire of the world.

The British Empire ruled over a population of approximately 458 million people which represented a whooping quarter of the earths population. The empire also occupied approximately 13,000,000 square miles which also represent an approximate one quarter of the earths area. This resulted into linguistic, political and cultural characteristics spreading widely across the globe.

The Erstwhile Empires
Areas that formed part of the British Empire had unique organization that was characterized by different levels of governance from the core to the periphery that represented the colonies and the mandates. The central British Empire was founded in 1496 by King Henry VII of England after the success of Spain and Portugal in overseas exploration. This saw the establishment of the Empire that was centrally governed by the United Kingdom.

The core was mostly composed of the administrators and rulers back in England and in the colonies themselves while the periphery was composed of the majority who were natives or subjects that were under the rule of the British imperialists. The core managed to dominate over the periphery during the height of the British Empire thanks to a number of methods of governance they employed.

These empires consisted of The Empire of India, dozens of colonies, four self governing countries known as Dominions and other territories. The empires were ruled from England but had complex administrative organization at individual territories.

For example the Empire of India had a stratified administration system that saw different portions of the protectorates under different leaders.

The central powers of the British Empire had a unique way of instilling their influence on it protectorate that allowed the regions to have their own independent structure of governance but still had to report to England.

The Indian empire was not controlled by the government but rather by East India Company until 1858 after which British took over control. The company had control over a huge region of the Indian Empire that span from Aden in Arabian Region to Penang which was leased from Malaysia in 1786. The company has remained as the most powerful private company to ever exist. The company ruled over India by means of direct rule on the subjects and partly by using the princes from the Indian communities who imposed British ideologies on the natives across the empire.

These regions had one thing in common that applied to all the other territories that were associated with the British Empire they were all important trading points for the British Empire, Aden and Penang served as important ports onto which British Ships would dock during on their trade routs across Asia.
The companys power was based on the fact that it had such a powerful army at that time that very few other companies could rival. The relationship that existed between the company and the central administration of colonies of the British Empire was that of mutual benefit. Whereas the company helped the British to spread their ideologies and political control over India owners of the East India Company gained financial and economic power from operating in a British protectorate.

Just like the Indian Empires, other periphery of the British Empire had similar relations with England. Sometimes the relation between these colonies and the UK was not so rosy since the imperialist British Empire not only established colonies for economic gains but sometimes also for national prestige.
Negative ideologies saw the relationship between the periphery and the core shift from mutual benefits to the core dominating and gaining economic prowess over the periphery who now served more or less as the cores servants. The vast Indian Empire was assembled without some form of proper organization that saw soldiers, explorers and missionaries play an important role in shaping up of the empire. The poor who formed the majority of the periphery were subjected to oppressive conditions that sometimes forced them to revolt against the central government.

To maintain the dominance over the periphery, the core resorted to the use of intimidating method of rule that saw British officers employ high handedness with the subjects in these colonies. It has been reported in many history books that the colonial officers were so harsh to the subjects that in the Indian Empire for instance they would whip anyone they found in the street just to intimidate the natives. By so doing the core managed to keep the natives so scared that for a very long time (centuries), the natives never even dared to revolt against the imperialist rule.

Any form of revolt or radical behavior was met with such brute force that very few went against the ideologies that were set by the core and implemented by the East India Company. This form of high handed rule was witnessed in virtually all periphery of the British Empire and helped the core so much in maintaining their dominance in Asia and other parts of the empire.

Besides the high handedness of British officers in colonies in Asia, the core employed another very successful method of maintaining dominance over the periphery divide and rule method. In this method, the core found differences ideologies that existed among the natives with respect to religion, culture and social stratification.

A case in hand is the great Indian Empire.
Before the mutinies that occurred in these peripheries, the social structure of England was replicated in most colonies. This changed when the core devised ways to keep the natives divided. They embraced the social stratification structure of the natives that usually divided individuals into different classes that usually rivaled each other. In India for Example, the caste system was exploited by the British to assert dominance over the natives.

They enacted legislations that recognized the caste system which saw the division of people into classes. These classes kept the natives busy fighting each other that they had no time opposing or fighting the imperialists. The government officials in the empire began to think in terms of separating the masses in terms of caste and religion. This kept the core dominating for centuries over the periphery.

The British achieved this by becoming friendly to the princes in the Indian society who they influenced to be harsh to individuals of lower caste. These individuals in the lower caste in return began fighting the rich and the royal. With all this happening the imperialist managed to hold onto power and control the divided masses.

In order to prevent the natives from opposing or questioning the British regime, the rulers ensured that certain core skills imported from England were not transferred to the natives in all the colonies. For example, administrative position were never given to the natives owing to the fact most were illiterate and very few were trained in these trades to start with.

Natives were employed in trades that required physical labor and it was on very rare occasions that one would be trained in professional courses such as accountancy. This coupled with the intimidating form of rule kept the core dominating over the periphery in the British Empire. The strained relationship that existed between the core and the periphery eventually led to the crumbling of the once great British Empire.

Communication and transportation network determined the establishment of colonies that formed part of the British Empire. The colonies were established by the British with respect to the accessibility of these regions to the colonial powers and their strategic location for the trade.

The ability to relay information from the capital of the British Empire actually influenced the establishment of colonies in Europe and most of Asia. With respect to the other colonies in the world that the British Imperialist established, the British were able to quickly travel or communicate and this saw the rapid expansion of the railway lines to these protectorates as it became apparent that it would be easy to communicate to these colonies from the capital.

The invention of the telegraph considerably changed the way that the British determined the establishment of new colonies. Railway lines construction were also a determinant of whether colonies would be established within allocation or not. The two telegraph and railway were the predominantly reliable means of communication and transportation respectively in the 18TH century. Countries or regions of the world that had favorable terrain for the construction of railway lines and telegraph networks were favored during the establishment of many British Protectorates.

The ability to lay submarine cables for the telegraph networks that would connect England to its colonies greatly influenced the establishment of colonies mostly in Asia and Africa. The core could therefore govern its colonies without to necessarily having to wait for long periods to relay information.