The British Empire expanded greatly during the Victorian era in the 19th century. New colonies were established in Africa, Asia, the Pacific, and Australia to replace territories lost in North America. The British justified this imperial expansion by claiming their culture and religion were superior and needed to be spread for the benefit of indigenous peoples. In reality, the main motivations were economic, with colonies providing raw materials and new markets that strengthened British industry and trade. While the Empire enriched Britain, controlling vast territories was also very costly and damaged local cultures.

1. BRITISH EMPIRE
Tahiti was one of the numerous islands of the Pacific Ocean explored between the XVIII and XIX
centuries by English companies. One of those was the famous James Cook’s company.
These explorations usually led to settlement and providing incentives for commerce, but interest in
annexing other lands began later, when Great Britain lost The American colonies.
The Victorian Age saw the largest expansion of the Empire all over the world.
New colonies were in Africa, Asia, the Pacific Ocean and were for example India, Australia, Egypt,
New Zealand and more besides.
Imperialism was justified by the moral, cultural and intellectual superiority of white Europeans.
The British were Christian and theirs was the one true faith. Therefore they had a moral and
religious duty to spread Christianity.
They had achieved a high level of scientific and technological development, so they had to educate
other peoples to improve their quality of life.
The British considered their own form of government to be the best; therefore they had to govern
peoples they considered incapable of good self-government.
But really reasons of the Empire lay in economic and of national prestige.
The colonies gave the British access to all sorts of raw materials (gold from New Zealand,
diamonds from South Africa, rubber from Malaya, sugar from the West Indies). They also
represented new markets for British goods, so British trade was enhanced.
Imperialist power appropriated the natural and human resources of subject nations for its own
enrichment.
Nevertheless not only a large wealth of the British power but also tough business was derived from
imperial possessions.
Enterprises were expensive and buildings, railways had been constructed in colonial territories.
However, in imposing their own culture upon the population of the subject nations the British
guaranteed damage to indigenous culture.
Moreover Imperialism robbed the subject peoples of their full human dignity.