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The Gambia

The Gambia

The Republic of The Gambia is a country in West Africa. It is the smallest country within the African continent and is entirely surrounded by Senegal, with the Gambia River emptying into the Atlantic Ocean in its center. In 1965, The Gambia became independent from the British Empire. Banjul is its capital.

History

Main article: History of the Gambia Gambia was once part of the Empire of Ghana and the Songhai Empire. The first written accounts of the region come from records of Arab traders in the 9th and 10th centuries A.D. Arab traders established the trans-Saharan trade route for slaves, gold, and ivory. In the 15th century, the Portuguese took over this trade using maritime routes. At that time, The Gambia was part of the Mali Empire. In 1588, the claimant to the Portuguese throne, Antonio, Prior of Crato, sold exclusive trade rights on the Gambia River to English merchants; this grant was confirmed by letters patent from Queen Elizabeth I. In 1618, King James I granted a charter to a British company for trade with The Gambia and the Gold Coast (now Ghana). Between 1651 and 1661 Gambia was (indirectly) a colony of Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth; it was purchased by the Courlandish prince Jakub Kettler. At that time Courland was a fiefdom of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. Courland During the late 17th century and throughout the 18th, England and France struggled continuously for political and commercial supremacy in the regions of the Senegal and Gambia Rivers. The 1783 Treaty of Versailles gave Great Britain possession of The Gambia, but the French retained a tiny enclave at Albreda on the north bank of the river that was ceded to the United Kingdom in 1857. American author Alex Haley (Roots) traced his ancestry to the Mandinka tribe in the Gambia River village of Juffure, during the 1760s. As many as 3 million slaves may have been taken from the region during the three centuries that the transatlantic slave trade operated. In 1807, slave trading was abolished throughout the British Empire, and the British tried unsuccessfully to end the slave traffic in The Gambia. They established the military post of Bathurst (now Banjul) in 1816. In the ensuing years, Banjul was at times under the jurisdiction of the British governor general in Sierra Leone. In 1888, The Gambia became a separate colonial entity. In 1889, it became a crown colony. Roots After World War II, the pace of constitutional reform quickened. Following general elections in 1962, full internal self-government was granted in 1963. The Gambia achieved independence on February 18, 1965, as a constitutional monarchy within the British Commonwealth. On April 24, 1970, The Gambia became a republic following a referendum. Until a military coup in July 1994, The Gambia was led by President Sir Dawda Kairaba Jawara, who was re-elected five times. The relative stability of the Jawara era was first broken by a violent, unsuccessful coup attempt in 1981. In the aftermath of the attempted coup, Senegal and The Gambia signed the 1982 Treaty of Confederation. The result, the Senegambia Confederation, aimed eventually to combine the armed forces of the two nations and to unify economies and currencies. The Gambia withdrew from the confederation in 1989. 1989 In July 1994, the Armed Forces Provisional Ruling Council (AFPRC) seized power in a military coup d'etat, deposing the government of Sir Dawda Jawara. Lieutenant Yahya A.J.J. Jammeh, chairman of the AFPRC, became head of state. The AFPRC announced a transition plan for return to democratic civilian government. The Provisional Independent Electoral Commission (PIEC) was established in 1996 to conduct national elections. The PIEC was transformed to the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) in 1997 and became responsible for registration of voters and conduct of elections and referenda. In late 2001 and early 2002, The Gambia completed a full cycle of presidential, legislative, and local elections, which foreign observers deemed free, fair, and transparent, albeit with some shortcomings. President Yahya Jammeh, who was re-elected, took the oath of office again on December 21, 2001. The APRC maintained its strong majority in the National Assembly, particularly after the main opposition United Democratic Party (UDP) boycotted the legislative elections.

Politics

Yahya A.J.J. Jammeh Main article: Politics of the Gambia Before the coup d'état in July 1994, The Gambia was one of the oldest existing multi-party democracies in Africa. It had conducted freely contested elections every 5 years since independence. After the military coup, politicians from deposed President Jawara's People's Progressive Party (PPP) and other senior government officials were banned from participating in politics until July 2001. Following the coup in July 1994, a presidential election took place in September 1996, in which retired Col. Yahya A.J.J. Jammeh won 56% of the vote. Four registered opposition parties participated in the October 18, 2001, presidential election, which the incumbent, President Jammeh, won with almost 53% of the votes. The APRC maintained its strong majority in the National Assembly in legislative elections held in January 2002, particularly after the main opposition United Democratic Party (UDP) boycotted the legislative elections.

Government

The 1970 constitution, which divided the government into independent executive, legislative, and judicial branches, was suspended after the 1994 military coup. As part of the transition process, the AFPRC established the Constitution Review Commission (CRC) through decree in March 1995. In accordance with the timetable for the transition to a democratically elected government, the commission drafted a new constitution for The Gambia, which approved by referendum in August 1996. The constitution provides for a strong presidential government, a unicameral legislature, an independent judiciary, and the protection of human rights. See also: Heads of State of the Gambia, Foreign Relations of the Gambia, Military of the Gambia

Subdivisions

Military of the Gambia Main article: Subdivisions of The Gambia The Gambia is divided into five divisions and one city:
- Lower River
- Central River
- North Bank
- Upper River
- Western The national capital, Banjul, is classified as a city.

Geography

Banjul Banjul Banjul Banjul Banjul Banjul Banjul Banjul Banjul Main article: Geography of the Gambia The Gambia is a very small and narrow country with the border based on the Gambia River. The country is less than 48km wide, with a total area of 11,300 km². Its present boundaries were defined in 1889 after an agreement between the United Kingdom and France. It is almost an enclave of Senegal and the smallest country on the continent of Africa.

Economy

Main article: Economy of the Gambia The Gambia has a liberal, market-based economy characterized by traditional subsistence agriculture, a historic reliance on groundnuts (peanuts) for export earnings, a re-export trade built up around its ocean port, low import duties, minimal administrative procedures, a fluctuating exchange rate with no exchange controls, and a significant tourism industry. Agriculture accounts for 29% of gross domestic product (GDP) and employs 75% of the labor force. Within agriculture, peanut production accounts for 6.9% of GDP, other crops 8.3%, livestock 5.3%, fishing 1.8%, and forestry 0.5%. Industry accounts for 12% of GDP. Manufacturing accounts for 5.5% of GDP. The limited amount of manufacturing is primarily agriculturally based (e.g., peanut processing, bakeries, a brewery, and a tannery). Other manufacturing activities include soap, soft drinks, and clothing. Services account for 19% of GDP. The U.K. and other EU countries constitute The Gambia's major domestic export markets, accounting for 86% in total; followed by Asia at 14%; and the African subregion, including Senegal, Guinea-Bissau, and Ghana at 8%. The U.K. and the other EU countries--namely, Germany, France, Netherlands, and Belgium--were the major source of imports accounting for 60% of the total share of imports followed by Asia at 23%, and Cote d'Ivoire and other African countries at 17%. The Gambia reports 11% of its exports going to and 14.6% of its imports coming from the United States.

Demographics

Main article: Demographics of the Gambia A wide variety of ethnic groups live in The Gambia with a minimum of intertribal friction, each preserving its own language and traditions. The Mandinka tribe is the largest, followed by the Fula, Wolof, Jola, and Serahule. Approximately 3,500 non-Africans live in The Gambia, including Europeans and families of Lebanese origin. Muslims constitute more than 95% of the population. Christians of different denominations account for most of the remainder. Gambians officially observe the holidays of both religions and practice religious tolerance. More than 63% of Gambians live in rural villages (1993 census), although more and more young people come to the capital in search of work and education. Provisional figures from the 2003 census show that the gap between the urban and rural populations is narrowing as more areas are declared urban. While urban migration, development projects, and modernization are bringing more Gambians into contact with Western habits and values, the traditional emphasis on the extended family, as well as indigenous forms of dress and celebration, remain integral parts of everyday life.

Culture

Main article: Culture of the Gambia See also: Music of the Gambia

Miscellaneous topics

- Communications of the Gambia
- Birds of the Gambia
- List of Gambian companies
- Public holidays in the Gambia
- Transportation of the Gambia

References

- Much of the information presented here comes from the CIA World Factbook 2000 and the 2002 U.S. Department of State website.

External links

Government
- [http://www.suha.consul.cc/ Consulate of Gambia in Hungary]
- [http://www.nationalassembly.gm/ National Assembly of The Gambia] official site
- [http://www.gambia.gm/ Republic of The Gambia - Department of State for Trade, Industry and Employment (DOSTIE)] official site News
- [http://allafrica.com/gambia/ allAfrica.com - Gambia] news headline links Overviews
- [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/country_profiles/1032156.stm BBC News Country Profile - The Gambia]
- [http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/ga.html CIA World Factbook - The Gambia] Directories
- [http://gambiagateway.atspace.com/ Gambia Gateway websites] directory category
- [http://dmoz.org/Regional/Africa/Gambia/ Open Directory Project - Gambia] directory category
- [http://www-sul.stanford.edu/depts/ssrg/africa/gambia.html Stanford University - Africa South of the Sahara: Gambia] directory category
- [http://www.afrika.no/index/Countries/Gambia/ The Index on Africa - Gambia] directory category
- [http://www.sas.upenn.edu/African_Studies/Country_Specific/Gambia.html University of Pennsylvania - African Studies Center: Gambia] directory category
- [http://dir.yahoo.com/Regional/Countries/Gambia__The/ Yahoo! - The Gambia] directory category Tourism Music
- [http://www.coraconnection.com/ Cora Connection] West African music resources Other
- [http://www.erslah.com/attaya/ Friends of Senegal and The Gambia] (Returned Peace Corps Volunteer site)
- [http://gambiagateway.atspace.com/information/index.html Gambia Information] Gambia Gambia
- zh-min-nan:Gambia ko:감비아 ms:Gambia ja:ガンビア

West Africa

West Africa is the region of. western Africa that is generally considered to include the countries of Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Côte d'Ivoire, The Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Liberia, Mali, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone and Togo. In addition, the region is sometimes considered to include Cape Verde, Chad, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Mauritania, São Tomé and Príncipe, and Western Sahara. West Africa is an area with a great span of geography, bioregions, and cultures. It is oriented west of an imagined north-south axis, principally on what is known as the Bulge of Africa. The Atlantic Ocean forms the western and southern borders of the region. The northern border is the Sahara Desert, with the Niger Bend generally considered the northernmost part of the region. The eastern border is less precise, with some placing it at the Benue Trough, and others on a line running from Mount Cameroon to Lake Chad. Colonial boundaries are reflected in the modern boundaries between contemporary West African nations, cutting across ethnic and cultural lines, often dividing single ethnic groups between two or more countries.

Geography and climate

The fourteen countries that constitute the strictest definition of West Africa occupy an area of about 5,091,980 km². The vast majority of this land is plains lying less than 300 meters above sea level, though isolated high points exist in Côte d'Ivoire, Guinea, Liberia, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, Togo, and particularly in Cameroon. Mount Cameroon is the region's highest point at 4,095 meters. The northern section of West Africa is composed of semi-arid terrain known as Sahel, a transitional zone between the Sahara desert and the savannahs of the western Sudan to the south. Equatorial forests form a third belt between the savannahs and the southern coast, ranging from 160 km to 240 km in width.

Culture

The game Oware is quite popular in many parts of West Africa. Football is also a pastime enjoyed by many, either spectating or playing. The national teams of some West African nations, especially Cameroon and Nigeria, regularly qualify for the World Cup. Mbalax music and oral history as conveyed over generations by Griots are typical of west african culture.

History

The history of West Africa can be divided into five major periods: first, its prehistory, in which the first human settlers arrived, agriculture developed, and contact made with the Mediterranean civilizations to the north; the second, the Iron Age empires that consolidated trade and developed centralized states; third, the slave-trading kingdoms, jihads, and colonial invaders of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries; fourth, the colonial period, in which France and Great Britain controlled nearly the whole of the region; fifth, the post-independence era, in which the current nations were formed.

Prehistory

Early human settlers, probably related to the Pygmies, arrived in West Africa around 12,000 BCE. Sedentary farming began around the fifth millennium, as well as the domestication of cattle. By 400 BCE, ironworking technology allowed an expansion of agricultural productivity, and the first city-states formed. The domestication of the camel allowed the development of a cross-Saharan trade with Mediterranean cultures, including Carthage and the Berbers; major exports included gold, cotton cloth, metal ornaments and leather goods, which were then exchanged for salt, horses, and textiles.

Empires

The development of the region's economy allowed more centralized states to form, beginning with the Soninke Ghana Empire in the eighth century. Based around the city of Kumbi Saleh in modern-day Mauritania, the empire came to dominate much the region until its defeat by Almoravid invaders in 1052. The Sosso Empire sought to fill the void, but was defeated (c. 1240) by the Mandinka forces of Sundiata Keita, founder of the new Mali Empire. The Mali Empire continued to flourish for several centuries (most particularly under Sundiata's grandnephew, Kankan Musa I before a succession of weak rulers led to its collapse under Mossi, Tuareg and Songhai invaders. In the fifteenth century, the Songhai would form a new dominant state based around Gao, the Songhai Empire, under the leadership of Sonni Ali and Askia Mohammed. Meanwhile, south of the Sudan, strong city states arose in Ife, Bono, and Benin around the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. Further east, Oyo arose as the dominant Yoruba state in modern-day Nigeria.

Slavery and colonialism

Following the 1591 destruction of the Songhai capital by Moroccan invaders, a number of smaller states arose across West Africa, including the Bambara Empire of Ségou, the Bambara kingdom of Kaarta, the Peul/Malinké kingdom of Khasso, and the Kénédougou Empire of Sikasso. Portuguese traders began establishing settlements along the coast in 1445, followed by the French and English; the African slave trade began not long after, which over the following centuries would debilitate the region's economy and population. The slave trade also encouraged the formation of states such as the Bambara Empire and Dahomey, whose economies largely depended on exchanging slaves for European firearms, which were then used to capture more slaves. In the early nineteenth century, a series of Fulani reformist jihads swept across the Western Sudan. The most notable include Usman dan Fodio's Fulani Empire, which replaced the Hausa city-states, Seku Amadu's Massina Empire, which defeated the Bambara, and El Hadj Umar Tall's Toucouleur Empire, which briefly conquered much of modern-day Mali. However, the French and British continued to advance in the Scramble for Africa, subjugating kingdom after kingdom. With the fall of Samory Ture's new-founded Wassoulou Empire in 1898 and the Ashanti queen Yaa Asantewaa in 1902, West African military resistance to colonial rule came to an effective end. Britain controlled the Gambia, Sierra Leone, Ghana, and Nigeria throughout the colonial era, while France unified Senegal, Guinea, Mali, Burkina Faso, Benin, Côte d'Ivoire and Niger into French West Africa. Portugal founded the colony of Guinea-Bissau, while Germany claimed Togoland, but was forced to divide it between France and Britain following World War I. Only Liberia retained its independence, at the price of major territorial concessions.

Postcolonial era

Following World War II, nationalist movements arose across West Africa, most notably in Ghana under Kwame Nkrumah. In 1957, Ghana became the first sub-Saharan colony to achieve its independence, followed the next year by France's colonies; by 1974, West Africa's nations were entirely autonomous. Since independence, many West African nations have been plagued by corruption and instability, with notable civil wars in Nigeria, Sierra Leone, Liberia, and Côte d'Ivoire, and a succession of military coups in Ghana and Burkina Faso. Many states have failed to develop their economies despite enviable natural resources, and political instability is often accompanied by undemocratic government. AIDS is also a growing problem for the region, particularly in Côte d'Ivoire, Liberia, and Nigeria. Famine has been a problem in parts of northern Mali and Niger, the latter of which is currently undergoing a food crisis.

Regional organizations

The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), founded by the 1975 Treaty of Lagos, is an organization of West African states dedicated to promoting the region's economy. The West African Monetary Union (or UEMOA from its name in French, Union économique et monétaire ouest-africaine) is limited to the eight, mostly francophone countries that employ the CFA franc as their common currency. The Liptako-Gourma Authority of Mali, Niger, and Burkina Faso seeks to jointly develop the contiguous areas of the three countries. Every country of West Africa is also a member of the African Union.

Reference

- Davidson, Basil. Africa in History. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1995.

External links

- [http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/ht/09/sfw/ht09sfw.htm Timeline of Western Sudan] Category:Western Africa ko:서아프리카 ja:西アフリカ

Gambia River

The Gambia River is a major river in Africa, running 1,130 km (700 miles) from the Fouta Djallon plateau in north Guinea to the Atlantic Ocean at the city of Banjul. It is navigable for about half that length. The river is known largely because of The Gambia, the smallest country in Africa, which consists of little more than the downstream half of the river and its two banks. From the Fouta Djallon, the river runs northwest into the Tambacounda province of Senegal, where it flows through the Parc National du Niokolo Koba, then is joined by the Nieri Ko and Koulountou before entering The Gambia at Fatoto. At this point the river runs generally west, but in a meandering course with a number of oxbows, and about 100 km from its mouth it gradually widens, to over 10 km wide where it meets the sea. According to Alex Haley's novel Roots, the Gambia River provided one of the clues that helped him trace his American family history back to Africa. The words "Kamby Bolongo" were among the few words that his family had passed down from generation to generation; he discovered that a bolongo was a "moving water" or "river" in the Mandinka language, so he concluded that the phrase probably referred to the Gambia River. His theory was confirmed when he traveled to Juffure, The Gambia, on the north bank of the river, and found that their oral family histories complemented his own. Along the river near Juffure is James Island, a place used in the slave trade which is now a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

External link

- [http://gambiainformation.atspace.com/river-gambia.html River Gambia Information site, with wildlife details] Category:Rivers of Guinea Category:Rivers of the Gambia Category:Rivers of Senegal

Atlantic Ocean

The Atlantic Ocean is Earth's second-largest ocean, covering approximately one-fifth of its surface. The ocean's name, derived from Greek mythology, means the "Sea of Atlas". This ocean occupies an elongated, S-shaped basin extending in a north-south direction and is divided into the North Atlantic and South Atlantic by equatorial counter currents at about 8° north latitude. Bounded by the Americas on the west and Europe and Africa on the east, the Atlantic is linked to the Pacific Ocean by the Arctic Ocean on the north and the Drake Passage on the south. An artificial connection between the Atlantic and Pacific is also provided by the Panama Canal. On the east, the dividing line between the Atlantic and the Indian Ocean is the 20° east meridian. The Atlantic is separated from the Arctic Ocean by a line from Greenland to northwestern Iceland and then from northeastern Iceland to southernmost tip of Spitsbergen and then to North Cape in northern Norway. Norway on a fair day.]] Covering approximately 20% of Earth's surface, the Atlantic Ocean is second only to the Pacific in size. With its adjacent seas it occupies an area of about 106,400,000 km² (41,100,000 square miles); without them, it has an area of 82,400,000 km² (31,800,000 mi²). The land area that drains into the Atlantic is four times that of either the Pacific or Indian oceans. The volume of the Atlantic Ocean with its adjacent seas is 354,700,000 km³ (85,100,000 mi³) and without them 323,600,000 km³ (77,640,000 mi³). The average depth of the Atlantic, with its adjacent seas, is 3,332 m (10,932 ft); without them it is 3,926 m (12,881 ft). The greatest depth, 8,605 m (28,232 ft), is in the Puerto Rico Trench. The width of the Atlantic varies from 2,848 km (1,770 miles) between Brazil and Liberia to about 4,830 km (3,000 miles) between the United States and northern Africa. The Atlantic Ocean has irregular coasts indented by numerous bays, gulfs, and seas. These include the Caribbean Sea, Gulf of Mexico, Gulf of St. Lawrence, Mediterranean Sea, Black Sea, North Sea, Labrador Sea, Baltic Sea, and Norwegian-Greenland Sea. Islands in the Atlantic Ocean include Faroe Islands, Greenland, Iceland, Rockall, Great Britain, Ireland, Fernando de Noronha, the Azores, the Madeira Islands, the Canaries, the Cape Verde Islands,Sao Tome e Principe, Newfoundland, Bermuda, the West Indies, Ascension, St. Helena, Trindade, Martin Vaz, Tristan da Cunha, the Falkland Islands, and South Georgia Island. South Georgia Island

Ocean bottom

The principal feature of the bottom topography of the Atlantic Ocean is a great submarine mountain range called the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. It extends from Iceland in the north to approximately 58° south latitude, reaching a maximum width of about 1,600 km (1,000 miles). A great rift valley also extends along the ridge over most of its length. The depth of water over the ridge is less than 2,700 m (8,900 ft) in most places, and several mountain peaks rise above the water, forming islands. The South Atlantic Ocean has an additional submarine ridge, the Walvis Ridge. The Mid-Atlantic Ridge separates the Atlantic Ocean into two large troughs with depths averaging between 3,700 and 5,500 m (12,000 and 18,000 ft). Transverse ridges running between the continents and the Mid-Atlantic Ridge divide the ocean floor into numerous basins. Some of the larger basins are the Guiana, North American, Cape Verde, and Canaries basins in the North Atlantic. The largest South Atlantic basins are the Angola, Cape, Argentina, and Brazil basins. The deep ocean floor is thought to be fairly flat, although numerous seamounts and some guyots exist. Several deeps or trenches are also found on the ocean floor. The Puerto Rico Trench, in the North Atlantic, is the deepest. The Laurentian Abyss is found off the eastern coast of Canada. In the south Atlantic, the South Sandwich Trench reaches a depth of 8,428 m (27,651 ft). A third major trench, the Romanche Trench, is located near the equator and reaches a depth of about 7,454 m (24,455 ft). The shelves along the margins of the continents constitute about 11% of the bottom topography. In addition, a number of deep channels cut across the continental rise. Ocean sediments are composed of terrigenous, pelagic, and authigenic material. Terrigenous deposits consist of sand, mud, and rock particles formed by erosion, weathering, and volcanic activity on land and then washed to sea. These materials are largely found on the continental shelves and are thickest off the mouths of large rivers or off desert coasts. Pelagic deposits, which contain the remains of organisms that sink to the ocean floor, include red clays and Globigerina, pteropod, and siliceous oozes. Covering most of the ocean floor and ranging in thickness from 60 m to 3,300 m (200 ft to 11,000 ft), they are thickest in the convergence belts and in the zones of upwelling. Authigenic deposits consist of such materials as manganese nodules. They occur where sedimentation proceeds slowly or where currents sort the deposits.

Water characteristics

sediment The salinity of the surface waters in the open ocean ranges from 33 to 37 parts per thousand by mass and varies with latitude and season. Although the minimum salinity values are found just north of the equator, in general the lowest values are in the high latitudes and along coasts where large rivers flow into the ocean. Maximum salinity values occur at about 25° north latitude. Surface salinity values are influenced by evaporation, precipitation, river inflow, and melting of sea ice. Surface water temperatures, which vary with latitude, current systems, and season and reflect the latitudinal distribution of solar energy, range from less than −2 °C to 29 °C (28 °F to 84 °F). Maximum temperatures occur north of the equator, and minimum values are found in the polar regions. In the middle latitudes, the area of maximum temperature variations, values may vary by 7 °C to 8 °C (13 °F to 15 °F). The Atlantic Ocean consists of four major water masses. The North and South Atlantic central waters constitute the surface waters. The sub-Antarctic intermediate water extends to depths of 1,000 m (3,300 ft). The North Atlantic deep water reaches depths of as much as 4,000 m (13,200 ft). The Antarctic bottom water occupies ocean basins at depths greater than 4,000 m (13,200 ft). Within the North Atlantic, ocean currents isolate a large elongated body of water known as the Sargasso Sea, in which the salinity is noticeably higher than average. The Sargasso Sea contains large amounts of seaweed, and is also the spawning ground for the European eel. Due to the Coriolis effect, water in the North Atlantic circulates in a clockwise direction, whereas water circulation in the South Atlantic is counter clockwise. The South tides in the Atlantic Ocean are semi-diurnal; that is, two high tides occur during each 24 lunar hours. The tides are a general wave that moves from south to north. In latitudes above 40° north some east-west oscillation occurs.

Climate

diurnal The climate of the Atlantic Ocean and adjacent land areas is influenced by the temperatures of the surface waters and water currents as well as the winds blowing across the waters. Because of the oceans' great capacity for retaining heat, maritime climates are moderate and free of extreme seasonal variations. Precipitation can be approximated from coastal weather data and air temperature from the water temperatures. The oceans are the major source of the atmospheric moisture that is obtained through evaporation. Climatic zones vary with latitude; the warmest climatic zones stretch across the Atlantic north of the equator. The coldest zones are in the high latitudes, with the coldest regions corresponding to the areas covered by sea ice. Ocean currents contribute to climatic control by transporting warm and cold waters to other regions. Adjacent land areas are affected by the winds that are cooled or warmed when blowing over these currents. The Gulf Stream, for example, warms the atmosphere of the British Isles and northwestern Europe, and the cold water currents contribute to heavy fog off the coast of northeastern Canada (the Grand Banks area) and the northwestern coast of Africa. In general, winds tend to transport moisture and warm or cool air over land areas. Hurricanes develop in the southern part of the North Atlantic Ocean.

History and economy

The Atlantic Ocean appears to be the second youngest of the world's oceans, after the Southern Ocean. Evidence indicates that it did not exist prior to 180 million years ago, when the continents that formed from the breakup of the ancestral supercontinent, Pangaea, were being rafted apart by the process of seafloor spreading. The Atlantic has been extensively explored since the earliest settlements were established along its shores. The Vikings, Portuguese, and Christopher Columbus were the most famous among its early explorers. After Columbus, European exploration rapidly accelerated, and many new trade routes were established. As a result, the Atlantic became and remains the major artery between Europe and the Americas (known as transatlantic trade). Numerous scientific explorations have been undertaken, including those by the German Meteor expedition, Columbia University's Lamont Geological Observatory, and the U.S. Navy Hydrographic Office. The ocean has also contributed significantly to the development and economy of the countries around it. Besides its major "transatlantic" transportation and communication routes, the Atlantic offers abundant petroleum deposits in the sedimentary rocks of the continental shelves and the world's richest fishing resources, especially in the waters covering the shelves. The major species of fish caught are cod, haddock, hake, herring, and mackerel. The most productive areas include the Grand Banks of Newfoundland, the shelf area off Nova Scotia, Georges Bank off Cape Cod, the Bahama Banks, the waters around Iceland, the Irish Sea, the Dogger Bank of the North Sea, and the Falkland Banks. Eel, lobster, and whales have also been taken in great quantities. All these factors, taken together, tremendously enhance the Atlantic's great commercial value. Because of the threats to the ocean environment presented by oil spills, marine debris, and the incineration of toxic wastes at sea, various international treaties exist to reduce some forms of pollution.
- In 1858, the first Transatlantic telegraph cable was laid by Cyrus Field.
- In 1919, the American NC-4 became the first airplane to cross the Atlantic (though it made a couple of landings on islands along the way).
- Later in 1919, a British airplane piloted by Alcock and Brown made the first non-stop transatlantic flight from Newfoundland to Ireland.
- In 1921, the British were the first to cross the North Atlantic in an airship.
- In 1922, the Portuguese were the first to cross the South Atlantic in an airship.
- The first transatlantic telephone call was made on January 7, 1927.
- In 1927, Charles Lindbergh made the first solo non-stop transatlantic flight in an airplane (between New York City and Paris).
- After rowing for 81 days and 2,962 miles, on December 3, 1999 Tori Murden became the first woman to cross the Atlantic Ocean by rowboat alone when she reached Guadeloupe from the Canary Islands. Location: body of water between Africa, Europe, the Southern Ocean, and the Americas Geographic coordinates: Map references: World Area:
- total: 76.762 million km²
- note: includes the Baltic Sea, Black Sea, Caribbean Sea, Davis Strait, Denmark Strait, part of the Drake Passage, Gulf of Mexico, Labrador Sea, Mediterranean Sea, North Sea, Norwegian Sea, almost all of the Scotia Sea, and other tributary water bodies Area - comparative: slightly less than 6.5 times the size of the US Coastline: 111,866 km Climate: Tropical cyclones (hurricanes) develop anywhere from off the coast of Africa near Cape Verde to the Windward Islands and move westward into the Caribbean Sea or up the east coast of North America; hurricanes can occur from May to December, but are most frequent from late July to early November. Storms are common in the North Atlantic during northern winters, making ocean crossings more difficult and dangerous.

Terrain

The surface is usually covered with sea ice in the Labrador Sea, Denmark Strait, and Baltic Sea from October to June. There is a clockwise warm-water gyre (broad, circular system of currents) in the northern Atlantic, and a counter-clockwise warm-water gyre in the southern Atlantic. The ocean floor is dominated by the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, a rugged north-south centerline for the entire Atlantic basin, first discovered by the Challenger Expedition.

Elevation extremes

- lowest point: Milwaukee Deep in the Puerto Rico Trench -8,605 m
- highest point: sea level 0 m

Natural resources

Petroleum and gas fields, fish, marine mammals (seals and whales), sand and gravel aggregates, placer deposits, polymetallic nodules, precious stones

Natural hazards

Icebergs are common in the Davis Strait, Denmark Strait, and the northwestern Atlantic Ocean from February to August and have been spotted as far south as Bermuda and the Madeira Islands. Ships are subject to superstructure icing in extreme northern Atlantic from October to May. Persistent fog can be a maritime hazard from May to September. So can hurricanes north of the equator (May to December). The Bermuda Triangle is popularly believed to be the site of numerous aviation and shipping incidents, due to unexplained and supposedly mysterious causes, but coastguard records do not support this belief.

Current environmental issues

Endangered marine species include the manatee, seals, sea lions, turtles, and whales. Drift net fishing is killing dolphins, albatrosses and other seabirds (petrels, auks), hastening the decline of fish stocks and contributing to international disputes. There is municipal sludge pollution off eastern US, southern Brazil, and eastern Argentina, oil pollution in the Caribbean Sea, Gulf of Mexico, Lake Maracaibo, Mediterranean Sea, and North Sea, and industrial waste and municipal sewage pollution in the Baltic Sea, North Sea, and Mediterranean Sea.

Notes on geography

Major chokepoints include the Strait of Gibraltar and the Panama Canal; strategic straits include the Strait of Dover, Straits of Florida, Mona Passage, The Sound (Oresund), and Windward Passage; the Equator divides the Atlantic Ocean into the North Atlantic Ocean and South Atlantic Ocean (previously known as the Ethiopic Ocean). During the Cold War the so called Greenland-Iceland-UK (GIUK) Gap was a major strategic concern, the seabed in that area was laid with extensive hydrophone systems to track Soviet submarines.

Ports and harbours

- A Coruña (Spain)
- Abidjan (Côte d'Ivoire)
- Accra (Ghana)
- Amsterdam (Netherlands)
- Antwerp (Belgium)
- Bahia Blanca (Argentina)
- Baltimore (US)
- Banjul (The Gambia)
- Belfast (Northern Ireland)
- Bergen (Norway)
- Bissau (Guinea-Bissau)
- Bodø (Norway)
- Bordeaux (France)
- Boston (US)
- Bremen (Germany)
- Brest (France)
- Bristol (England)
- Cadiz (Spain)
- Cape Town (South Africa)
- Casablanca (Morocco)
- Cayenne (French Guiana)
- Charleston (US)
- Cherbourg (France)
- Conakry (Guinea)
- Cork (Republic of Ireland)
- Cotonou (Benin)
- Dakar (Senegal)
- Douala (Cameroon)
- Dublin (Republic of Ireland)
- Dunkirk (France)
- Edinburgh (Scotland)
- Fortaleza (Brazil)
- Georgetown (Guyana)
- Glasgow (Scotland)
- Gothenburg(Sweden)
- Hamburg (Germany)
- Halifax (Canada)
- Jacksonville (US)
- Lagos (Nigeria)
- Las Palmas (Spain)
- Le Havre (France)
- Libreville (Gabon)
- Lisbon (Portugal)
- Liverpool (England)
- Lomé (Togo)
- London (England)
- Luanda (Angola)
- Maceió (Brazil)
- Malabo (Equatorial Guinea)
- Miami (US)
- Monrovia (Liberia)
- Montréal (Canada)
- Morehead City (US)
- Nantes (France)
- Nantucket (US)
- Narvik (Norway)
- New Haven (US)
- New London (US)
- New York (US)
- Newcastle upon Tyne (England)
- Newport News (US)
- Norfolk (US)
- Nouakchott (Mauritania)
- Oslo (Norway)
- Ostend (Belgium)
- Paramaribo (Suriname)
- Philadelphia (US)
- Port Harcourt (Nigeria)
- Portland (US)
- Porto (Portugal)
- Porto-Novo (Benin)
- Portsmouth (England)
- Portsmouth (US)
- Providence (US)
- Puerto Cortes (Honduras)
- Québec (Canada)
- Rabat (Morocco)
- Recife (Brazil)
- Reykjavík (Iceland)
- Rio de Janeiro (Brazil)
- Rotterdam (Netherlands)
- Salvador (Brazil)
- Saint-Nazaire (France)
- Santa Cruz de Tenerife (Spain)
- Santander (Spain)
- Santos (Brazil)
- Savannah (US)
- Seville (Spain)
- Saint John (Canada)
- St. John's (Canada)
- Southampton (England)
- Stavanger (Norway)
- Tangier (Morocco)
- Tromsø (Norway)
- Trondheim (Norway)
- Vigo (Spain)
- Vitória (Brazil)
- Walvis Bay (Namibia)
- Wilmington (US)
- Yarmouth (Canada)
- Ålesund (Norway)

Note on transportation

The Saint Lawrence Seaway is an important waterway.

References

- Much of this article comes from the public domain site http://oceanographer.navy.mil/atlantic.html (dead link). It is now accessible from the Internet Archive at http://web.archive.org/web/20020221215514/http%3a//oceanographer.navy.mil/atlantic.html.
- Disclaimers for this website, including its status as a public domain resource, are recorded on the Internet Archive at http://web.archive.org/web/20020212021049/http%3a//oceanographer.navy.mil/warning.html.

External links

- [http://dapper.pmel.noaa.gov/dchart/ NOAA In-situ Ocean Data Viewer] Plot and download ocean observations
- [http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/zh.html CIA – The World Factbook – Atlantic Ocean] Category:Atlantic Ocean Category:Oceans als:Atlantik zh-min-nan:Tāi-se-iûⁿ ko:대서양 ja:大西洋 simple:Atlantic Ocean th:มหาสมุทรแอตแลนติก

British Empire

The British Empire was the world's first global power and the largest empire in history. It was a product of the European Age of Discovery that began with the global maritime empires of Portugal and Spain in the late 15th century. By 1921 the British Empire held sway over a population of about 470–570 million people—roughly a quarter of the world's population—and covered about 14.3 million square miles (more than 37 million km²), almost a third of the world's total land area. Though it has since almost completely disappeared, there remains a strong influence across the world, such as in economic practice, legal and government systems, the spread of many traditionally British sports (such as cricket) and also the spread of the English language.

Background: The English and Scottish Empires

The Anglo-Norman Kingdom

In 1066, William, Duke of Normandy, conquered England and made asserted his right to be king, giving England its first overseas territory (Normandy). The new rulers had dual roles. First, as kings of England they were sovereign lords. Second, as dukes of Normandy, they were vassals of the kings of France. This led to centuries of conflicts which ended with their loss of French holdings in 1558. In the meantime, the annexation of Ireland began in 1172 and Wales was conquered in 1282.

Growth of the overseas empire

1282, site of England's first overseas colony.]] The overseas British Empire — in the sense of British oceanic exploration and settlement outside of Europe and the British Isles — was rooted in the pioneering maritime policies of King Henry VII, who reigned 1485–1509. Building on commercial links in the wool trade promoted during the reign of his predecessor King Richard III, Henry established the modern English merchant marine system, which greatly expanded English shipbuilding and seafaring. The merchant marine also supplied the basis for the mercantile institutions that would play such a crucial role in later British imperial ventures, such as the Massachusetts Bay Company and the British East India Company. Henry's financial reforms made the English Exchequer solvent, which helped to underwrite the development of the Merchant Marine. Henry also ordered construction of the first English dry dock, at Portsmouth, and made improvements to England's small navy. Additionally, Henry sponsored the voyages of the Italian mariner John Cabot in 1496 and 1497 that established England's first overseas colony - a fishing settlement - in Newfoundland, which Cabot claimed on behalf of Henry.

Henry VIII and the rise of the Royal Navy

The foundations of sea power, having been laid during Henry VII's reign, were gradually expanded to protect English trade and open up new routes. King Henry VIII founded the modern English navy (though the plans to do so were put into motion during his father's reign), more than tripling the number of warships and constructing the first large vessels with heavy, long-range guns. He initiated the Navy's formal, centralised administrative apparatus, built new docks, and constructed the network of beacons and lighthouses that greatly facilitated coastal navigation for English and foreign merchant sailors. Henry thus established the munitions-based Royal Navy that was able to repulse the Spanish Armada in 1588, and his innovations provided the seed for the imperial navy of later centuries.

The Elizabethan era

Elizabethan era.]] During the reign of Queen Elizabeth I, Sir Francis Drake circumnavigated the globe in the years 1577 to 1580, only the second to accomplish this feat after Ferdinand Magellan's expedition. In 1579, Drake landed somewhere in northern California and claimed for the Crown what he named Nova Albion ("New Albion", Albion being an ancient name for Britain), though the claim was not followed by settlement. Subsequent maps spell out Nova Albion to the north of all New Spain. Thereafter, England's interests outside Europe grew steadily, promoted by John Dee, who coined the phrase "British Empire". An expert in navigation, many of the early English explorers visited him before and after their expeditions. His conception was derived from Dante's book Monarchia. A Welshman himself, his use of the term British fitted with the Welsh origins of Elizabeth's Tudor family. Humphrey Gilbert followed on Cabot's original claim when he sailed to Newfoundland in 1583 and declared it an English colony on August 5 at St John's. Sir Walter Raleigh organised the first colony in Virginia in 1587 at Roanoke Island. Both Gilbert's Newfoundland settlement and the Roanoke colony were short-lived, however, and had to be abandoned due to food shortages, severe weather, shipwrecks, and hostile encounters with indigenous tribes on the American continent. The Elizabethan era built on the past century's imperial foundations by expanding Henry VIII's navy, promoting Atlantic exploration by English sailors, and further encouraging maritime trade especially with the Netherlands and the Hanseatic League. However, the Elizabethan navy suffered severe defeats against the Spanish fleets in the Anglo-Spanish War following the Spanish Armada campaign, which weakened the Royal Navy and allowed Spain to retain effective control of Atlantic sea lanes until the 1630s, when decisive victories by the Dutch made the Netherlands the dominant seafaring nation in the Atlantic.

The Stuart era

The defeat of the Spanish Armada in 1588 during the Anglo-Spanish War (1585-1604) helped to strengthen England's advance toward becoming a major naval power, but this naval advantage was lost in the attack upon Spain by the disastrous Drake-Norris Expedition of 1589, and subsequent naval and land defeats at the hands of Spain in the 1590s thwarted attempts to settle North America, and helped damage the English Exchequer. However it did give English sailors and shipbuilders vital experience. Finally in 1604, King James I of England negotiated the Treaty of London which ceased hostilities with Spain, and the first permanent English settlement followed in 1607 at Jamestown, Virginia. During the next three centuries, England extended its influence overseas and consolidated its political development at home. In 1707, the parliaments of England and Scotland were united in London as the parliament of Great Britain.

Scottish Empire

There were several pre-union attempts at creating a Scottish Overseas Empire, with various Scottish settlements in North and South America. The most famous of these was the disastrous Darién scheme which attempted to establish a settlement colony and trading post in Panama to foster trade between Scotland and the Far East. After union many Scots, especially in Canada and Australia, took up posts as doctors, lawyers and teachers. Progressions in Scotland itself during the Scottish enlightenment led to advancements throughout the empire. Scots settled across the Empire as it developed and built up their own communities such as Dunedin in New Zealand.

Colonisation

In 1583 Sir Humphrey Gilbert claimed the island of Newfoundland as England's for Elizabeth I, reinforcing John Cabot's prior claim to the island in 1497, for Henry VII, as England's first overseas colony. Gilbert's shipwreck prevented ensuing settlement in Newfoundland, other than the seasonal cod fishermen who had frequented the island since 1497. However, the Jamestown colonists, led by Captain John Smith, overcame the severe privations of the winter in 1607 to found England's first permanent overseas settlement. The empire thus took shape during the early 17th century, with the English settlement of the eastern colonies of North America, which would later become the original United States as well as Canada's Atlantic provinces, and the colonisation of the smaller islands of the Caribbean such as Jamaica and Barbados. The sugar-producing colonies of the Caribbean, where slavery became the basis of the economy, were at first England's most important and lucrative colonies. The American colonies providing tobacco, cotton, and rice in the south and naval materiel and furs in the north were less financially successful, but had large areas of good agricultural land and attracted far larger numbers of English emigrants. materiel.]] England's American empire was slowly expanded by war and colonisation, England gaining control of New Amsterdam (later New York) via negotiations following the Second Anglo-Dutch War. The growing American colonies pressed ever westward in search of new agricultural lands. During the Seven Years War the British defeated the French at the Plains of Abraham and captured all of New France in 1760, giving Britain control over the greater part of North America. Later, settlement of Australia (starting with penal colonies from 1788) and New Zealand (under the crown from 1840) created a major zone of British migration. The entire Australian continent was claimed for Britain when Matthew Flinders proved New Holland and New South Wales to be a single land mass by completing a circumnavigation of it in 1803. The colonies later became self-governing colonies and became profitable exporters of wool and gold. See also British colonisation of the Americas, Colonial history of America

Free trade and "informal empire"

Main article: Pax Britannica. Pax Britannica The old British colonial system began to decline in the 18th century. During the long period of unbroken Whig dominance of domestic political life (1714–62), the Empire became less important and less well-regarded, until an ill-fated attempt (largely involving taxes, monopolies, and zoning) to reverse the resulting "salutary neglect" (or "benign neglect") provoked the American War of Independence (1775–83), depriving Britain of her most populous colonies. The period is sometimes referred to as the end of the "first British Empire", indicating the shift of British expansion from the Americas in the 17th and 18th centuries to the "second British Empire" in Asia and later also Africa from the 18th century. The loss of the Thirteen Colonies showed that colonies were not necessarily particularly beneficial in economic terms, since Britain could still dominate trade with the ex-colonies without having to pay for their defence and administration. Mercantilism, the economic doctrine of competition between nations for a finite amount of wealth which had characterised the first period of colonial expansion, now gave way in Britain and elsewhere to the laissez-faire economic liberalism of Adam Smith and successors like Richard Cobden. The lesson of Britain's North American loss — that trade might continue to bring prosperity even in the absence of colonial rule — contributed to the extension in the 1840s and 1850s of self-governing colony status to white settler colonies in Canada and Australasia whose British or European inhabitants were seen as outposts of the "mother country". Ireland was treated differently because of its geographic proximity, and incorporated into the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland in 1801; due largely to the impact of the Irish Rebellion of 1798 against English rule. During this period, Britain also outlawed the slave trade (1807) and soon began enforcing this principle on other nations. By the mid-19th century Britain had largely eradicated the world slave trade. Slavery itself was abolished in the British colonies in 1834, though the phenomenon of indentured labour retained much of its oppressive character until 1920. The end of the old colonial and slave systems was accompanied by the adoption of free trade, culminating in the repeal of the Corn Laws and Navigation Acts in the 1840s. Free trade opened the British market to unfettered competition, stimulating reciprocal action by other countries during the middle quarters of the 19th century. 1840s and the beginning of the Pax Britannica.]] Some argue that the rise of free trade merely reflected Britain's economic position and was unconnected with any true philosophical conviction. Despite the earlier loss of 13 of Britain's North American colonies, the final defeat in Europe of Napoleonic France in 1815 left Britain the most successful international power. While the Industrial Revolution at home gave her an unrivalled economic leadership, the Royal Navy dominated the seas. The distraction of rival powers by European matters enabled Britain to pursue a phase of expansion of her economic and political influence through "informal empire" underpinned by free trade and strategic pre-eminence. Between the Congress of Vienna of 1815 and the Franco-Prussian War of 1870, Britain was the world's sole industrialised power, with over 30% of the global industrial output in 1870. As the "workshop of the world", Britain could produce finished manufactures so efficiently and cheaply that they could undersell comparable locally produced goods in foreign markets. Given stable political conditions in particular overseas markets, Britain could prosper through free trade alone without having to resort to formal rule. The Americas in particular (especially in Argentina and the United States) were seen as being well under the informal British trade empire due to Britain's enforcement of the Monroe Doctrine keeping other European nations from establishing formal rule in the area.

British East India Company

Main article: British East India Company The British East India Company was probably the most successful chapter in the British Empire's history as it was responsible for the colonisation of the Indian subcontinent, which would become the British Empire's largest source of revenue, along with the conquest of Hong Kong, Singapore, Ceylon, Malaya (which was also one of the largest sources of revenue) and other surrounding Asian countries, and were thus responsible for establishing Britian's Asian empire, the most important component of the British Empire. The British East India Company originally began as a joint-stock company of traders and investors based in Leadenhall Street, East London, which was granted a Royal Charter by Elizabeth I in 1600, with the intent to favour trade privileges in India. The Royal Charter effectively gave the newly created Honourable East India Company a monopoly on all trade with the East Indies. The Company transformed from a commercial trading venture to one which virtually ruled India as it acquired auxiliary governmental and military functions, along with a very large private army consisting of local Indian sepoys, who were loyal to their British commanders and were probably the most important factor in Britain's Asian conquest. The British East India Company eventually became the world's first multinational corporation and Britain's largest source of income until its collapse in 1857. [http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0FQP/is_4718_133/ai_n8694155] The Company also had interests along the routes to India from Great Britain. As early as 1620, the company attempted to lay claim to the Table Mountain region in South Africa, later it occupied and ruled St Helena. The Company also established Hong Kong and Singapore; employed Captain Kidd to combat piracy; and cultivated the production of tea in India. Other notable events in the Company's history were that it held Napoleon captive on Saint Helena, and made the fortune of Elihu Yale. Its products were the basis of the Boston Tea Party in Colonial America. In 1615, Sir Thomas Roe was instructed by James I to visit the Mughal Emperor Jahangir (who ruled over most of the Indian subcontinent at the time, along with parts of Afghanistan). The purpose of this mission was to arrange for a commercial treaty which would give the Company exclusive rights to reside and build factories in Surat and other areas. In return, the Company offered to provide to the emperor goods and rarities from the European market. This mission was highly successful and Jahangir sent a letter to the King through Sir Thomas. The British East India Company found itself completely dominant over the French, Dutch and Portuguese trading companies in the Indian subcontinent as a result. In 1634, the Mughal emperor Shah Jahan extended his hospitality to the English traders to the region of Bengal, which had the world's largest textile industry at the time. In 1717, the Mughal Emperor at the time completely waived customs duties for the trade, giving the Company a decided commercial advantage in the Indian trade. With the Company's large revenues, it raised its own armed forces from the 1680s, mainly drawn from the indigenous local population, who were Indian sepoys under the command of British officers.

Expansion

sepoys established the Company as a military as well as a commercial power.]] The decline of the Mughal Empire, which had separated into many smaller states controlled by local rulers who were often in conflict with one another, allowed the Company to expand its territories, which began in 1757, when the Company came into conflict with the Nawab of Bengal, Siraj Ud Daulah. Under the leadership of Robert Clive, the Company troops and their local allies defeated the Nawab on 23 June 1757 at the Battle of Plassey, mostly due to the treachery of the Nawab's former army chief Mir Jafar. This victory, which resulted in the conquest of Bengal, established the British East India Company as a military as well as a commercial power, and marked the beginning of British rule in India. The wealth gained from the Bengal treasury allowed the Company to significantly strengthen its military might and as a result, extend its territories, conquering most parts of India with the massive Indian army it has acquired. They fought many wars with local Indian rulers during their conquest of India, the most difficult probably being the four Anglo-Mysore Wars (between 1766 and 1799) against the South Indian Kingdom of Mysore ruled by Hyder Ali, and later his son Tipu Sultan. Mysore was only defeated in the Fourth Anglo-Mysore War by the combined forces of Britain and of Mysore's neighbours, for which Tipu Sultan and Hyder Ali are remembered in India as legendary rulers. There was a number of other states which the Company couldn't conquer through military might, mostly in the North, where the Company's presence was ever increasing amidst the internal conflict and dubious offers of protection against one another. Coercive action, threats and diplomacy aided the Company in preventing the local rulers from putting up a united struggle against it. By the 1850s, the Company ruled over most of the Indian subcontinent and as a result, the Company began to function more as a nation and less as a trading concern. They were also responsible for the illegal Opium trade with China against the Qing Emperor's will, which later led to the two Opium Wars (between 1834 and 1860). As a result of the Company's victory in the First Opium War, it established Hong Kong. The Company also had a number of wars with other surrounding Asian countries, the most difficult probably being the three Anglo-Afghan Wars (between 1839 and 1919) against Afghanistan, which were mostly unsuccessful.

Collapse

The Company's rule effectively came to an end 100 years after its conquest since 1757, when the 1857 Indian Mutiny took place, known to many Indians as the First War of Independence, which saw many of the Company's Indian sepoys begin an armed uprising against their British commanders, after a period of political unrest triggered by a number of political events. One of the major factors was the Company's introduction of the Lee-Enfield rifle, where its cartridges, which were covered by greased cow fat and pig fat, were supposed to be cut by the teeth before the cartridges were loaded into the rifles. Cow fat was forbidden for the Hindu soldiers, while pig fat was forbidden for the Muslim soldiers, so they had to either "bite the bullet" or resist their commanders. Another factor was the execution of the Indian sepoy Mangal Pandey who was hanged for attacking and injuring his British superiors, possibly out of insult for the introduction of the Lee Enfield rifle or a number of other reasons. These factors combined with a number of other reasons resulted in the Mutiny, which eventually brought about the end of the British East India Company's regime in India, and instead led to 90 years of direct rule of the Indian subcontinent by Britain, after the British East India Company was dissolved. The period of direct British rule in India is known as the British Raj, when the regions of India, Pakistan and Bangladesh would collectively be known as British India. The former British East India Company headquarters in Leadenhall Street, East London was taken over by Lloyds Bank in 1873. Leadenhall Street is now resided by a large Bengali community, around where the former headquarters were.

Breakdown of Pax Britannica

As the first country to industrialise, Britain had been able to draw on most of the accessible world for raw materials and markets. But this situation gradually deteriorated during the 19th century as other powers began to industrialise and sought to use the state to guarantee their markets and sources of supply. By the 1870s, British manufactures in the staple industries of the Industrial Revolution were beginning to experience real competition abroad. Industrialisation progressed rapidly in Germany and the United States, allowing them to take over the "old" British and French capitalisms as world leader in some areas. The German textile and metal industries, for example, had by 1870, surpassed those of Britain in organisation and technical efficiency and usurped British manufactures in the domestic market. By the turn of the century, the German metals and engineering industries would even be producing for the free trade market of the former "workshop of the world". While invisible exports (banking, insurance and shipping services) kept Britain "out of the red," her share of world trade fell from a quarter in 1880 to a sixth in 1913. Britain was losing out not only in the markets of newly industrialising countries, but also against third-party competition in less-developed countries. Britain was even losing her former overwhelming dominance in trade with India, China, Latin America, or the coasts of Africa. Britain's commercial difficulties deepened with the onset of the "Long Depression" of 1873–96, a prolonged period of price deflation punctuated by severe business downturns which added to pressure on governments to promote home industry, leading to the widespread abandonment of free trade among Europe's powers (in Germany from 1879 and in France from 1881). The resulting limitation of both domestic markets and export opportunities led government and business leaders in Europe and later the US to see the solution in sheltered overseas markets united to the home country behind imperial tariff barriers: new overseas subjects would provide export markets free of foreign competition, while supplying cheap raw materials. Although she continued to adhere to free trade until 1932, Britain joined the renewed scramble for formal empire rather than allow areas under her influence to be seized by rivals.

Britain and the New Imperialism

Main article: New Imperialism. New Imperialism.]] The policy and ideology of European colonial expansion between the 1870s and the outbreak of World War I in 1914 are often characterised as the "New Imperialism". The period is distinguished by an unprecedented pursuit of what has been termed "empire for empire's sake", aggressive competition for overseas territorial acquisitions and the emergence in colonising countries of doctrines of racial superiority which denied the fitness of subjugated peoples for self-government. During this period, Europe's powers added nearly 8,880,000 sq mi (23,000,000 km²) to their overseas colonial possessions. As it was mostly unoccupied by the Western powers as late as the 1880s, Africa became the primary target of the "new" imperialist expansion, although conquest took place also in other areas — notably south-east Asia and the East Asian seaboard, where the United States and Japan joined the European powers' scramble for territory. Britain's entry into the new imperial age is often dated to 1875, when the Conservative government of Benjamin Disraeli bought the indebted Egyptian ruler Ismail's shareholding in the Suez Canal to secure control of this strategic waterway, a channel for shipping between Britain and India since its opening six years earlier under Emperor Napoleon III. Joint Anglo-French financial control over Egypt ended in outright British occupation in 1882. Fear of Russia's centuries-old southward expansion was a further factor in British policy: in 1878 Britain took control of Cyprus as a base for action against a Russian attack on the Ottoman Empire, after having taken part in the Crimean War 1854–56 and invading Afghanistan to forestall an increase in Russian influence there. Britain waged three bloody and unsuccessful wars in Afghanistan, as ferocious popular rebellions, invocations of jihad and inscrutable terrain frustrated British objectives. The First Anglo-Afghan War led to one of the most disastrous defeats of the Victorian military when an entire British army was wiped out by Russian-supplied Afghan Pashtun tribesmen during the 1842 retreat from Kabul. The Second Anglo-Afghan War led to the British debacle at Maiwand in 1880, the siege of Kabul and British withdrawal into India. The Third Anglo-Afghan War of 1919 stoked a tribal uprising against the exhausted British military on the heels of World War I and expelled the British permanently from the new Afghan state. The "Great Game" in Inner Asia ended with a bloody and wholly unnecessary British expedition against Tibet in 1903–04. At the same time, some powerful industrial lobbies and government leaders in Britain, later exemplified by Joseph Chamberlain, came to view formal empire as necessary to arrest Britain's relative decline in world markets. During the 1890s Britain adopted the new policy wholeheartedly, quickly emerging as the front-runner in the scramble for tropical African territories. Britain's adoption of the New Imperialism may be seen as a quest for captive markets or fields for investment of surplus capital, or as a primarily strategic or pre-emptive attempt to protect existing trade links and to prevent the absorption of overseas markets into the increasingly closed imperial trading blocs of rival powers. The failure in the 1900s of Chamberlain's Tariff Reform campaign for Imperial protection illustrates the strength of free trade feeling even in the face of loss of international market share. Historians have argued that Britain's adoption of the "New imperialism" was an effect of her relative decline in the world, rather than of strength. The evolution of colonialism in India should dissuade people from sweeping generalisations and over-simplifications regarding the roles of inter-capitalist competition and accumulated surplus in precipitating the era of the New Imperialism. Formal empire in India, beginning with the Government of India Act of 1858, was a means of consolidation, reacting to the abortive Indian Mutiny, which was in itself a conservative reaction among Indian traditionalists to British policy in the subcontinent.

Britain and the Scramble for Africa

Main article: Scramble for Africa. Scramble for Africa In 1875 the two most important European holdings in Africa were Algeria and the Cape Colony. By 1914 only Ethiopia and the republic of Liberia remained outside formal European control. The transition from an "informal empire" of control through economic dominance to direct control took the form of a "scramble" for territory by the nations of Europe. Britain tried not to play a part in this early scramble, being more of a trading empire rather then a colonial empire; however, it soon became clear it had to gain its own African empire to maintain the balance of power. As French, Belgian and Portuguese activity in the lower Congo River region threatened to undermine orderly penetration of tropical Africa, the Berlin Conference of 1884–85 sought to regulate the competition between the powers by defining "effective occupation" as the criterion for international recognition of territorial claims, a formulation which necessitated routine recourse to armed force against indigenous states and peoples. Britain's 1882 military occupation of Egypt (itself triggered by concern over the Suez Canal) contributed to a preoccupation over securing control of th