East Influence on British Culture

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Introduction

Britain's relationship with her Indian colony was one of political subordination, but economic exploitation formed the core of this relationship. This process of colonization was geared clearly to benefit the mother country, even at the cost of the colony. In this chapter we will discuss the aspect of economic exploitation within the process of colonization. Colonial exploitation was carried on broadly through three phases. The first phase (1757-1813) of 'mercantilism' was one of direct plunder in which surplus Indian revenues were used to buy Indian finished goods to be exported to England. In the second phase (1813-1858) of free trade India was converted into a source of raw material and a market for British manufactured goods. The third phase (1858 onwards) was one of finance imperialism in which British capital controlled banks, foreign trading firms and managing agencies in India. This phased exploitation was carried out through a range of economic policies, primarily in the industrial and agricultural sectors of the colonial economy.

Britain and Sub-Continent

The Indian subcontinent later became the jewel in the crown of the British Empire. Starting in the 17th century, the British East India Company established footholds in this domain, founding the city of Calcutta (now Kolkata) in 1603. India, which is predominantly Hindu, had long been controlled by Muslim rulers, chiefly the Mughals, whose power was gradually usurped by the foreigners. A vast land that stretched from Muslim Afghanistan in the east through Hindu India to Buddhist Burma, the Indian colony was the largest colonial possession on Earth.

Britain had enormous economic impacts on this land. In the 19th century, British textile imports flooded India, destroying the Mughal textile industry, a classic example of colonial deindustrialization. This event later became symbolically important in the independence movement after World War II. Indian laborers were exported throughout the British Empire, including the Caribbean, Eastern Africa, and parts of the Pacific, such as Fiji. Tea plantations were established in Bengal and Ceylon (now Sri Lanka). Britain also built railroads to facilitate the extraction of Indian wealth .

In 1857, a mass uprising against the British took place known as the Sepoy Rebellion. Encouraged by the local raj, or the Mughal ruler of Calcutta, the revolt claimed the lives of tens of thousands of Indians when it was crushed. Although it failed, the action forced the British crown to assume direct control over this land rather than administer it through the East India Company. East Asia, comprising China, Korea, and Japan, also had a unique colonial trajectory. Japan, as noted earlier, was never colonized. When it emerged from a long period of isolation which began early 17th century and lasted until 1868, Japan rapidly Westernized and industrialized and became the only non-Western power to challenge the West on its own terms, gradually expanding its power through Northeast Asia. Korea, which opened up under the threat of force in the 1870s, was taken over by Japan in 1895 and annexed in 1905, and Japan held it until ...