Dbq British Imperialism

Britain and her crown jewel of imperialism A question toiled over for centuries by historians. What was the effect of British imperialism on india? Was it negative or positive? We delve into such a topic today, but first, how did the British get to India? While the Mughal empire was collapsing (the last seat of power before the British came) The East India Company came Hailing from the great British empire to seek out India’s potential and profit. After the sepoy rebellion in 1857 the British government came at the beck and call of the company to take over. India was no longer a trade partner, it was now a colonie. The British government made the political piece of their rule as efficient as possible, dividing the country against each other

Although Lavani claims the life expectancy went up under British rule because they brought vaccines for smallpox and quinine for malaria, the British also had 59 million people die in 40 famines (Doc #11). This all took place over about 200 years, while previously India had only recorded 18 famines happening over the 400 years prior to British rule (Doc #11). While the life expectancy in concerns to disease may have been dramatically raised, repetitive famines killed off many that had been saved from such diseases. Lavani also boasts of fine universities, but the literacy rate under British ruled India never exceed 16%, meaning that those fine universities were built simply for the few rich Indians the British needed to control the population (Doc #9). The British had no interest of educating the Indian population for any other purpose than gains, and cared not if the people were starving, so the British had a negative impact on the Indian

Dr. Lavani has made claims that the British passed the torch of their rule peacefully to India, that they built a beautiful justice system, that the British proposed fair trade, built 10,000 miles of train tracks, that the british extended indian life expectancies and built great universities. While most of these claims hold truth, these systems were always used in british favor. England divided India and kept her bound with a biased court of law. England took away her wealth on trains and force fed it back to her at a price. England taxed India 's people heavily, causing famines and England educated only those that could benefit it. If India were left to its own devices, would the indian peoples hands have been capable enough to bring her to where she is now? Could she have reached this point without the British snatching her reins? We may never