Was The British Empire A Good Essay

Was the British Empire a force for good?

The British Empire brought many changes to the world, good and bad, to many people in different countries e.g. Africa and India. Some of these changes involved innovations in medical care, education and railways. The British Empire profited from slavery in the eighteenth century, but fought to abolish slavery in the nineteenth century. For many people, the British Empire meant loss of lands, discrimination and prejudice. Such a big empire had lots of everlasting impacts; a lot of them positive. The British Empire took science and technology across many parts of the world. They built railways, bridges and canals that helped improve communications in other territories. They built hospitals for those people in need who didn’t have enough money to get treatments. Schools were also another big aspect of education for the natives who didn’t have enough

Colonists carried diseases overseas that killed millions of non-Europeans. In India and Africa, colonial rule caused an increase in prevalent diseases. The modern transportation and communication links that enabled colonists to travel around the world, as their empire grew, could prove to be a double-sided sword. Not only could Europeans travel half way around the world, but when they travelled back, they brought new and deadly diseases with them. The most devastating example of this was the way that Cholera was brought back to Britain from the Indian sub-continent with devastating results. The imperialists also had a habit of moving slaves and laborers around the world to tend the new plantations and factories. This would increase the danger of introducing disease to populations that had no natural resistance against