Links vvith the past
Top ic a British colonialism
Co unt ri es a Britain . Ire land. India . Sinqapore. Honq Konq. USA.
West Afr ica. West Indies
Vocabulary a Wordbuildinq
links a ld . 3d. 31. 4c. 4 e. 6c. 7 a. 91. lid . li e. 11 1
I Britain's colonial past
Food from the Colonies
H ow d id the following everyday food s sha pe th e history of Britain , Irela nd and th e USA?
Spices
Sugar
In 1600 the East Indi a Company was for med
"'; . . u nde r Elizabe th I to com pete with Dutch traders
".,oC':-.::"~ in the or iental spice trad e. The co mpany was
;~ . . give n a monopol y on all egoods im ported to
ft..
Engla nd from Asia. From the 1750s the co mpa ny
beca me more ambi tiou s, sta rting to invad e and conquer parts
o f India . It was now the b iggest compan y in the world. and
also an un offici al ar m o f the British govern me nt. w hen Queen
Victor ia came to the th ron e in 1837, th e whol e of Indi a was
un der British rule, and she was made Empress of India. when
she d ied in 1901, the British Empire had expa nded so mu ch
th ai it includ ed o ne fifth of the tota l population of th e world .
As tea and coffee gre w in po pular ity in Britain
in the 18th century, the dem and for suga r to
e sweeten the m also grew. Suga r pla nta tio ns in
~ the west Ind ies ow ned by Euro pean colonists
..- need ed more wor kers, so th eir ow ners imported
slaves from west Africa. A circu lar trad e develop ed and islands
such as Jamaica and the Bah amas became British colonies. Ships
from Britain carr ied cotton and meta l goods to Africa, where
th ey we re traded for slaves, \ VI1O were taken on a three- mo nt h
voyage to th e \-Vest Indies. They were trade d with the plantation
own ers for sugar, and the sugar return ed to Britain . a Georgia n
Brita in, especi a lly th e ports of Liverpoo l and Bristol, gre \v rich
on the profi ts o f the slave trade, a tu rn ing i.l blind eye to the
cruelty a nd th e suffering involved.
QueenVictoria with Indianserva nts.
The slave trade.
Healing the past
I n rece n t years Bristo l City Council has
b egu n to publicly ack no wledge th e
con tribut ion that the slave trade ma de
10 the city's wea lth. In 1999 a foo t brid ge
na med Pcro 's Bridge was o pe ned ,
na med after a n African slave wh o was
the se-rvant to a rich Bristol fa m ily, and
the plaq ue below can be see n on the
Wil li o f the city's Ind ustrial Muse u m.
T h is lett er ap pea red in the Bristol Even ing Post abo ut the possibili ty of
building a new co nce rt hall to repl ace the city's old o ne. The old concert
hall is nam ed after Edwa rd Colsto n, a busi ness man who beca me rich from
th e slave trad e in the 18th century.
mwm
~J~
cro p III pl ants grown for hum an use
to forg ive III to pardon
the Georgian period III the per iod 1714-1830 in Brita in. w hen Georg es
I. II and III were t he kin gs
q oads III thin q 5 t ha t ar e bou qht an d so ld
to sweeten Q to make sw eet
to turn a blind eye a t o igno re so methinq t hat you kn ow is w rong
to wrong D t o hu r t or o ff end
yield III t he amo unt produced in a cro p
Tea
Potatoes
The East India Compa ny also held a mono poly
on the import of Ch inese tea, which b ecame
pop ular a nd fas hiona b le in the 18th cen tu ry.
Trad ing posts a ro u nd China suc h as Singa po re
and Hon g Kong so o n b ecame co lo nies. At th e
same tim e, people in Ame rica, whi ch the British had colonised
in Elizabetha n times, were prot esting about high taxes on th e
impor t of commo n goods from England. A revoluti onar y
group ca lled the Sons of Liberty b egan tu rning bac k British
tea ships from American ports, an d in 1773 they threw tea
worth thousands of pounds into Boston Ha rb our. The 'Bosto n
Tea Party' was the first of many acts of reb ell io n tha t q uickly
led to war with England and , in 1776, to Ame rica n
ind ependence.
Po ta to es, origina lly from Co lombia, were
introduced to Eng la nd by Elizab ethan exp lorers .
Sir \Valte r Raleigh g rew th em o n h is land in
Ireland, wh ich in those days w as und er British
ru le. The Irish , poor and con stantl y a t war
in te rna lly or w ith the Eng lish, began to n-lv o n this e r- ro p.
wh ich wa s easy to gro w an d prod uced a go od e yicld. The
poo rest fa m ilies at e nothing else . But in the IH40s a fungus
infect ed the crops and mor e tha n o ne mi llion people died of
h un ger. Anot her two m illion emigrated, mo st ly to Nort h
America. a nd d de-populated In-la nd remained un der British
ru le u ntil 1922.
. ·/lIu'r trrm.,
tlurJw;,!l/ tlu (;'-(1!llt'J III 'tltl' I~ J'Iuiv Into thr I&Vrr ,
(1'
Hurtnn
The Irish potato fami ne of the 1840s.
The Boston Tea Party in 1773.
r
Before you read
2
(] Look quickly at the English everywhere units in this book.
Which countries do they deal with? Why do you think that
there are so many English-speaking countries in the world?
How did the English languagetravel so far?
El Look at the photos of the foods. How could these things
havehelped to spread Briti sh influence aroundthe world?
Vo c a b u l ary
noun(the person)
to colo
::n
.::i::se: .-_ _
to
.
_settlement
to trade
- - _.c
..;.::
.
Reading
[] ffif) Insert the names of the countries in the correct
sente nces.
America
Jamaica
1
China
Hong Kong
Singapore
India
5
6
questions.
noun(the place)_
-_
.
4
III Look at the texts about Bristol on page 38and answer the
I!J Complete the table wi th w ords from the texts.
verb
3
became a British colony as a result of the
sugartrade in the 18th century.
became a British colony as a result of the
spice trade in the 18th century.
was a British colony from medieval times
until 1922.
was a British colony from the 16th century
until 1776.
was never a British colony.
Ireland
and
became British colonies
as a result olthe tea trade in the 18th century.
1. Who was Pero?
2.What is significant about naming a bridge after him?
3. Why was 1997 an appropriate yearto put up a plaque in
memory of African slaves?
4. What position did Ian White have in 1997?
5. What do you think Philippa Gregory's book is about?
6.Who was Edward Colston?
7.What does t he writer of the letter think about Edward
Col ston?
Sl?eaking
o Do you think that Britain should feel guilty about its
involvement in the slave trade? Dogestures li ke the ones
made by Bristol City Council help to heal the past?Discuss
w ith the class.
39