1.

Discuss British participation in the establishment and enforcement of the

ban on the export of new slaves from Africa. What motivated the British, what
methods did they use to carry out their agenda, and how successful were they?

The British was one of the first countries to outlaw slavery in the 19th century.
They helped to enforce the banning of this practice by not only enforcing heavy
penalties for anyone caught trading slaves, but they also sent out patrol boats along
the African coast to seize any suspected slave ship, British or not. There are some
people who believe that the government realized that slavery was bad and wanted to
out law it, but most of Britain’s reasons were economic and political.
In 1808 the British made carrying slaves from Africa and trading them to any
other country illegal. They did this despite the fact that they had been one of the most
prominent and greatest slave traders prior to this movement. Their ships would sail
into Africa, capturing and buying slaves from African princes, and then sailing across
the Atlantic to the Americas. They would then sell the slaves to the American
plantation owners in the United States and Latin America. By 1850 most other
counties had followed Britain’s example and banned slave trade, but most could do
nothing other than offer harsh punishments for offenders, whom they could often
times not catch. The British, however, enforced this anti-slave trade movement in full
force. They spent almost $60 million dollars trying to enforce these laws, sending
patrols from the royal navy to watch along the African coast and stop any slave ships
from operating. They would sail along, capturing and raiding suspected slave-trading
ships. They would do so, even if that meant raiding another nation’s ship. Although
the trade was difficult to stop, the British managed to capture 1,635 ships with these
patrols and free over 160,000 slaves.
During this time period there were many abolitionist and activists who fought
against slavery and petitioned the government over and over again to try and outlaw
slavery. The government heard these people but the true reason why they decided to
outlaw slavery was politically and economically motivated. The biggest social reason
was the many slave-led revolutions that caused great social panic among the elites.
In Saint Domingue in the 1790s, there were hundreds of plantations operating and
using slavery for labor. The slaves led a huge revolt, which led to the successful
overthrowing of the plantation owners and slave masters. This greatly worried the
elites and other plantation owners around the globe because they realized that that
could happen to them at any given time. Also now the slaves knew they outnumbered
the numbers of the elites, and tensions ran high. This was a huge motivating factor in
the abolition of slavery, as Britain did not want a revolt on their hands and did not
want to have to deal with slave uprisings. Their second reason for cutting of slave
trade was mainly competition. The Americans had just won their freedom from their
mother country in the 1700s. Now they were struggling to gain world prominence and
the British felt as though they could cripple the American attempts at this. They knew
that much of America’s economy relied on the large plantations worked by the slaves.
They also knew that if they could cut of that flow of workers, it would severely cripple
the American economy and help them to strengthen their own. These were the two
main reasons for the large abolition of slavery.
2. Discuss the underlying goal of British expansion up to 1870. How successful
were they in attaining their goals?

The British expanded far beyond their borders before the end of the 19th
century. They did so in the form of colonies, creating small communities separate
from the main country. Yet they did not care as much about the territory as they did
the trade that it brought them. The underlying goal of the 19th century expansions was
to secure wealthy trading posts and the raw materials that it would bring.
There were 39 colonies that the British had established before 1770 and they
were spread far from the borders of Great Britain. They were located all over the
world in the American and African continents, and the Indian and Asia subcontinents.
They obtained these colonies mostly through exploratory expeditions that set out and
established themselves on foreign soil. These colonies were small, and they were
usually self-sufficient, bringing large amounts of trade from Britain with them. Most of
them were not like the enormous plantation colonies like in Latin America, but instead
had a vast plethora of raw materials and resources. It soon became clear though that
the British were not after land when the king passed an act forbidding the colonists
from expanding the colonies and taking lands from the local inhabitants. This
generally infuriated the colonists, as the rapidly growing population could not expand
beyond its small borders. This led to the loss of the American colonies when the
colonist revolted and broke off. By the 1870s though the British had added several
other dozens of colonies to the 26 it had after it lost the American colonies.
The British colonies not only served as British outposts, but also as trading
ports. The new industrialization in Great Britain coupled with the new shipbuilding
technologies inspired a truly global network in which the British could ship 2,000 tons
of manufactured goods from Britain to the Americas to be traded for more raw
materials in less than 3 months. The new free trade policy also served as an impetus,
allowing private companies like the East India Trading Company to ship and buy
huge quantities of goods each month. These ports would serve as centers of
production and distribution to local markets around the colony.
The British also relied on these colonies for raw materials that they could
otherwise not get. The industrial revolution demanded materials like wood, coal, and
other plants like cotton. Because of the size of Great Britain it had limited natural
resources, and deforestation was an enormous problem in Britain. In order to try and
fix this problem they would import raw goods from other countries. Another issue that
they could not make enough farms to supplement the large industries likes the textile
industry. So instead they had to import large quantities of cotton grown in other
countries and process it there. They would then take the manufactured goods and
sell them to other countries, making a large profit.
3. Describe the new labor migrations of the nineteenth century. Why did
individuals choose to migrate, why did some governments encourage
migration, from where and to where did people migrate, and what were the
results of these migrations?

Slavery being abolished was one of the worst things that could happen for
plantation owners during the nineteenth century. They desperately needed workers to
work on their farms but with the slave trade being stopped they could no longer rely
on slaves to be the backbone of their workforce. Instead they turned to indentured
servants who came to the Americas in the nineteenth century as part of a huge labor
migration. Immigrants would move to try and improve their economic and social
situation, and were sometimes encouraged by their governments if there was political
upheaval going on in the country. The result was a massive population skyrocketing
in the Americas and the influx of indentured servants helped to keep the economy
stable as the slaves were freed.
In the early 1800s slavery was abolished by the Britain, making it impossible
for the large plantation owners to import slaves to work to the plantations. This was a
major setback for them as their crops were in high demand due to the industrial
revolution taking place in Britain. The large landowners soon realized that there was
another group that they could exploit for work, the poor working class. The labor
recruiters would recruit the poorer class barely surviving in either the countryside or
city and offer them a new life. They agreed that they would transport the indentured
servant for free across the ocean, and then that servant would be obligated to serve
for a term of about 7-10 years before they would be allowed to be free again. They
were paid a small salary each week and they were given food and basic necessities
like a place to live.
Most of these indentured servants came from India, China, and Africa, and
they were all looking for a new life. Some had financial troubles and needed the
servitude in order to feed themselves and their families. They would take the money
paid to them and then send it back to their families oversees. Others left in fear for
their lives as the government encouraged them to leave because of internal warfare
and turmoil. Many others just hoped to be someone more respected than they were
in their home countries. This however was not the case. On the trip to the plantations,
they were forced into small and cramped quarters, and many often died from hunger
and disease. After they stepped of the ship they were fought over and bargained for
by the plantation owners. They were then treated just as slaves were. Despite the fact
that they would be treated almost no better than slaves, these immigrants would
come in flocks off of each ship. Between 1834 and 1870, thousands of immigrants
flocked to the plantations of Cuba, Brazil, and the Caribbean. After 1870, tens of
thousands of immigrants came to these areas as well as the Americas.
Even though the migration helped to stabilize the economy the local
populations were very suspicious about the newcomers and immigrants, who were
taking up all of the available jobs and housing in the cities. They did not think that
these newcomers would adapt and adopt their culture and they were very worried
that the growing foreign population would overrun them. The immigrants could not
obtain good jobs after their time of servitude, they could not hold office, and were
sometimes even segregated because of their race.

4. What internal and external pressures faced land-based empires in the

nineteenth century? How did the empires deal with those challenges and how
successful were they?

The land-based empires of the nineteenth century faced many internal

pressures as well as external threats from the different water bordering empires.
Most of the external threats were a result of the internal fighting that weakened
the government and helped to destroy the organization built up by its leaders.
Trade was also a problem because it took longer than it did with the oceanic
trade, and it was much more inefficient than water-based trading. They faced
religious disagreements, power vacuums, and corruption, and they were
constantly surrounded by constant warfare.
One of the most influential land-based empires in the early centuries of
civilization was the Ottomans. They had now gone from world power to struggling
country as the worldwide maritime trade network took hold. The biggest problem
that the Ottomans faced was that they were separated from an open body of
water, giving them no influence in this new trade network and causing them to be
left behind in the new age of industrialization. There was trade that was going on,
but it was much slower and not as efficient as ocean trading. They were also
facing outside threats because unlike Britain, they were not isolated; they were
instead located in the middle of several volatile countries all wanting the
Ottoman’s strategic position right outside the Mediterranean.
The Ottomans also faced internal threats. The main problem was the
conflict of religion and government. One good example of this was the
Janissaries. They were a group of elite Christian fighters used to certain political
rights. When those rights clashed with the popular Muslim belief though, fights
broke out. One ruler, Muhamad II felt that these rights needed to be dissolved so
he created a totally secular law system allowing all religions to be prosecuted
equally. As the government fell farther and farther behind in trade, they began to
become dependant on foreign loans. Corruption ran rampart in the government
and there was little regard for authority. In response to this the government
launched war campaigns to try and expand and imposed heavy taxes. It made no
difference however, as they pushed outward a power vacuum was created and
their weak government could not hold on to the land. Outside threats from the
Russians and French threatened them and they were always on the defensive.