Editing British Empire (section)

== British Empire (1783–1815) ==
=== Exploration of the Pacific ===
{{Main|History of Australia (1788–1850)|History of New Zealand}}
[[File:Captainjamescookportrait.jpg|thumb|''[[Portrait of James Cook]]'' by [[Nathaniel Dance-Holland]], 1775. [[James Cook]]'s mission was to find the alleged southern continent ''[[Terra Australis]]''.]]
Since 1718, [[penal transportation|transportation]] to the American colonies had been a penalty for various offences in Britain, with approximately one thousand convicts transported per year.{{Sfn|Smith|1998|p=20}} Forced to find an alternative location after the loss of the Thirteen Colonies in 1783, the British government looked for an alternative, eventually turning to [[Australia]].{{Sfn|Smith|1998|pp=20–21}} On his first of three voyages commissioned by the government, [[James Cook]] reached New Zealand in October 1769. He was the first European to circumnavigate and map the country.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Trove - Archived webpage |url=http://southseas.nla.gov.au/journals/cook/17691007.html |archive-url=https://webarchive.nla.gov.au/awa/20110205071752/http://southseas.nla.gov.au/journals/cook/17691007.html |url-status=dead |archive-date=2011-02-05 |access-date=2023-05-11 |website=Trove |language=en}}{{cbignore|bot=medic}}</ref> From the late 18th century, the country was regularly visited by explorers and other sailors, [[missionaries]], traders and adventurers but no attempt was made to settle the country or establish possession. The [[New Holland (Australia)|coast of Australia]] had been discovered for Europeans by the Dutch [[Janszoon voyage of 1605–06|in 1606]],{{Sfn|Mulligan|Hill|2001|pp=20–23}} but there was no attempt to colonise it. In 1770, after leaving New Zealand, [[James Cook]] charted the eastern coast, claimed the continent for Britain, and named it [[Colony of New South Wales|New South Wales]].{{Sfn|Peters|2006|pp=5–23}} In 1778, [[Joseph Banks]], Cook's [[botanist]] on the voyage, presented evidence to the government on the suitability of [[Botany Bay]] for the establishment of a [[Penal colony|penal settlement]], and in 1787 the first shipment of [[Convicts in Australia|convicts]] set sail, arriving in 1788.{{Sfn|James|2001|p=142}} Unusually, Australia was claimed through proclamation. [[Indigenous Australians]] were considered too uncivilised to require treaties,<ref>{{Harvnb|Macintyre|2009|pp=33–34}}; {{Harvnb|Broome|2010|p=18}}.</ref> and colonisation brought disease and violence that together with the deliberate dispossession of land and culture were devastating to these peoples.<ref>{{Harvnb|Pascoe|2018}}{{Page needed|date=November 2022}}; {{Harvnb|McKenna|2002|pp=28–29}}.</ref> Britain continued to transport convicts to New South Wales until 1840, to [[Colony of Tasmania|Tasmania]] until 1853 and to [[Colony of Western Australia|Western Australia]] until 1868.{{Sfn|Brock|2011|p=159}} The Australian colonies became profitable exporters of wool and gold,{{Sfn|Fieldhouse|1999|pp=145–149}} mainly because of the [[Victorian gold rush]], making its capital [[Melbourne]] for a time the richest city in the world.{{Sfn|Cervero|1998|p=320}}

The British also expanded their mercantile interests in the North Pacific. Spain and Britain had become rivals in the area, culminating in the [[Nootka Crisis]] in 1789. Both sides mobilised for war, but when France refused to support Spain it was forced to back down, leading to the [[Nootka Convention]]. The outcome was a humiliation for Spain, which practically renounced all sovereignty on the North Pacific coast.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Blackmar |first=Frank Wilson |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=F11GAAAAYAAJ |title=Spanish Institutions of the Southwest Issue 10 of Johns Hopkins University studies in historical and political science |date=1891 |publisher=Hopkins Press |page=335 |access-date=5 June 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230114125414/https://books.google.com/books?id=F11GAAAAYAAJ |archive-date=14 January 2023 |url-status=live}}</ref> This opened the way to British expansion in the area, and a number of expeditions took place; firstly a [[Vancouver Expedition|naval expedition]] led by [[George Vancouver]] which explored the inlets around the Pacific North West, particularly around [[Vancouver Island]].<ref name="pethick0">{{Cite book |last=Pethick |first=Derek |url=https://archive.org/details/nootkaconnection0000peth |title=The Nootka Connection: Europe and the Northwest Coast 1790–1795 |publisher=Douglas & McIntyre |year=1980 |isbn=978-0-8889-4279-1 |location=Vancouver |page=[https://archive.org/details/nootkaconnection0000peth/page/18 18] |url-access=registration}}</ref> On land, expeditions sought to discover a river route to the Pacific for the extension of the [[North American fur trade]]. [[Alexander Mackenzie (explorer)|Alexander Mackenzie]] of the [[North West Company]] led the first, starting out in 1792, and a year later he became the first European to reach the Pacific overland north of the [[Rio Grande]], reaching the ocean near present-day [[Bella Coola, British Columbia|Bella Coola]]. This preceded the [[Lewis and Clark Expedition]] by twelve years. Shortly thereafter, Mackenzie's companion, [[John Finlay (fur trader)|John Finlay]], founded the first permanent European settlement in [[British Columbia]], [[Fort St. John, British Columbia|Fort St. John]]. The North West Company sought further exploration and backed expeditions by [[David Thompson (explorer)|David Thompson]], starting in 1797, and later by [[Simon Fraser (explorer)|Simon Fraser]]. These pushed into the wilderness territories of the [[Rocky Mountains]] and [[Interior Plateau]] to the [[Strait of Georgia]] on the Pacific Coast, expanding [[British North America]] westward.<ref name="innes">{{Cite book |last=Innis |first=Harold A |url={{Google books|eCgps70cHV4C|plainurl=yes}} |title=The Fur Trade in Canada: An Introduction to Canadian Economic History |date=2001 |publisher=University of Toronto Press |isbn=978-0-8020-8196-4 |edition=reprint |location=Toronto, Ontario |orig-year=1930}}</ref>

=== Continued conquest in India ===
{{Multiple image
| caption_align = center
| header_align  = center
| align         = right
| total_width   = 350
| direction     = horizontal
| image1        = India-ImperialGazetteer-1765.jpg
| footer        = Maps of the [[Indian subcontinent]] in 1765 (left) and 1858 (right) showing British expansion in the region.
| image2        = IGI1908India1857b.jpg
}}

The East India Company fought a series of [[Anglo-Mysore Wars|Anglo-Mysore wars]] in [[South India|Southern India]] with the [[Kingdom of Mysore|Sultanate of Mysore]] under [[Hyder Ali]] and then [[Tipu Sultan]]. Defeats in the [[First Anglo-Mysore War|First Anglo-Mysore war]] and stalemate in the [[Second Anglo-Mysore War|Second]] were followed by victories in the [[Third Anglo-Mysore War|Third]] and the [[Fourth Anglo-Mysore War|Fourth]].<ref name="Naravane3">{{Cite book |last=Naravane |first=M. S. |title=Battles of the Honourable East India Company: Making of the Raj |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=bxsa3jtHoCEC&pg=PA172 |publisher=A.P.H. Publishing Corporation |year=2014 |isbn=978-8-1313-0034-3 |location=New Delhi |pages=172–181}}</ref> Following Tipu Sultan's death in the fourth war in the [[Siege of Seringapatam (1799)]], the kingdom became a protectorate of the company.<ref name="Naravane3"/>

The East India Company fought three Anglo-Maratha Wars with the [[Maratha Empire|Maratha Confederacy]]. The [[First Anglo-Maratha War]] ended in 1782 with a restoration of the pre-war ''status quo''.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Battle of Wadgaon |website=Encyclopædia Britannica |url=https://www.britannica.com/topic/battle-of-Wadgaon |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220623110244/https://www.britannica.com/topic/battle-of-Wadgaon |archive-date=23 June 2022 |access-date=23 June 2022}}</ref> The [[Second Anglo-Maratha War|Second]] and [[Third Anglo-Maratha War|Third Anglo-Maratha]] wars resulted in British victories.<ref>{{Harvnb|Hunter|1907|p=203}}; {{Harvnb|Capper|1997|p=28}}.</ref> After the surrender of Peshwa [[Baji Rao II|Bajirao II]] in 1818, the East India Company acquired control of a large majority of the [[Indian subcontinent]].<ref>{{Harvnb|Trivedi|Allen|2000|p=30}}; {{Harvnb|Nayar|2008|p=64}}.</ref>

=== Wars with France ===
{{Main|French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars}}
[[File:Battle of Waterloo 1815.PNG|thumb|upright=1.5|The [[Battle of Waterloo]] in 1815 ended in the defeat of [[Napoleon]] and marked the beginning of ''[[Pax Britannica]]''.]]
Britain was challenged again by France under Napoleon, in a struggle that, unlike previous wars, represented a contest of ideologies between the two nations.{{Sfn|James|2001|p=152}} It was not only Britain's position on the world stage that was at risk: Napoleon threatened to invade Britain itself, just as his armies had overrun many countries of [[continental Europe]].{{Sfn|James|2001|p=151}}

The Napoleonic Wars were therefore ones in which Britain invested large amounts of capital and resources to win. French ports were blockaded by the [[Royal Navy]], which won a decisive victory over a [[French Imperial Navy]]-[[Spanish Navy]] fleet at the [[Battle of Trafalgar]] in 1805. Overseas colonies were attacked and occupied, including those of the Netherlands, which was annexed by Napoleon in 1810. France was finally defeated by a coalition of European armies in 1815.{{Sfn|Lloyd|1996|pp=115–118}} Britain was again the beneficiary of peace treaties: France ceded the [[United States of the Ionian Islands|Ionian Islands]], [[Malta Protectorate|Malta]] (which it had occupied in 1798), [[British Mauritius|Mauritius]], [[St Lucia]], the [[Seychelles]], and [[Tobago]]; Spain ceded [[Trinidad]]; the Netherlands ceded [[British Guiana|Guiana]], [[British Ceylon|Ceylon]] and the [[Cape Colony]], while the Danish ceded [[British Administration of Heligoland|Heligoland]]. Britain returned [[Guadeloupe]], [[Martinique]], [[French Guiana]], and [[Réunion]] to France; [[Menorca]] to Spain; [[Danish West Indies]] to Denmark and [[Java]] and [[Suriname]] to the Netherlands.{{Sfn|James|2001|p=165}}<!--Aruba and Curaçao were returned as well I think-->

=== Abolition of slavery ===
{{Main|Abolitionism in the United Kingdom}}

With the advent of the [[Industrial Revolution]], goods produced by slavery became less important to the [[British economy]].<ref>{{Cite web |title=Why was Slavery finally abolished in the British Empire? |url=http://abolition.e2bn.org/slavery_111.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161126120021/http://abolition.e2bn.org/slavery_111.html |archive-date=26 November 2016 |access-date=31 December 2016 |publisher=The Abolition Project}}</ref> Added to this was the cost of suppressing regular [[slave rebellion]]s. With support from the British [[Abolitionism in the United Kingdom|abolitionist]] movement, [[Parliament of the United Kingdom|Parliament]] enacted the [[Slave Trade Act 1807|Slave Trade Act]] in 1807, which abolished the [[History of slavery|slave trade]] in the empire. In 1808, [[Sierra Leone Colony]] was designated an official British colony for freed slaves.{{Sfn|Porter|1998|p=14}} Parliamentary reform in 1832 saw the influence of the [[West India Committee]] decline. The [[Slavery Abolition Act 1833|Slavery Abolition Act]], passed the following year, abolished slavery in the British Empire on 1 August 1834, finally bringing the empire into line with the law in the UK (with the exception of the territories administered by the East India Company and Ceylon, where slavery was ended in 1844). Under the Act, slaves were granted full emancipation after a period of four to six years of "apprenticeship".{{Sfn|Hinks|2007|p=129}} Facing further opposition from abolitionists, the apprenticeship system was abolished in 1838.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Slavery After 1807 |url=http://historicengland.org.uk/research/inclusive-heritage/the-slave-trade-and-abolition/sites-of-memory/ending-slavery/slavery-after-1807 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210815132941/https://historicengland.org.uk/research/inclusive-heritage/the-slave-trade-and-abolition/sites-of-memory/ending-slavery/slavery-after-1807 |archive-date=15 August 2021 |access-date=24 November 2019 |publisher=Historic England |language=en |quote=As a result of public pressure apprenticeships were abolished early, in 1838.}}</ref> The British government compensated slave-owners.<ref>{{Cite web |date=28 August 1833 |title=Slavery Abolition Act 1833; Section XXIV |url=http://www.pdavis.nl/Legis_07.htm |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080524010152/http://www.pdavis.nl/Legis_07.htm |archive-date=24 May 2008 |access-date=3 June 2008 |publisher=pdavis}}</ref><ref name="Manning">{{Cite news |last=Sanchez Manning |date=24 February 2013 |title=Britain's colonial shame: Slave-owners given huge payouts after |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/britains-colonial-shame-slave-owners-given-huge-payouts-after-abolition-8508358.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191212052103/https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/britains-colonial-shame-slave-owners-given-huge-payouts-after-abolition-8508358.html |archive-date=12 December 2019 |access-date=11 February 2018 |work=[[The Independent]]}}</ref>