Discuss the contribution British colonialism made to the accumulation Term Paper

Discuss the contribution British colonialism made to the accumulation of capital during the First Industrial Revolution - Term Paper Example The British colonial expansion was motivated by various factors. One of them was the need to make profits across the world. Due to the Britain’s desire to strengthen its economy, it decided to expand its colonies so as to access more land wherein they would invest. The need for Britain to establish both political and religious freedom was a motivation for colonial expansion as suggested by Liska (187). Britain wanted to ensure that most of the people in the world adopted their religion. By expanding its colonial interests the country was able to gain more followers. There was also the issue of political freedom which forced Britain to increase the number of colonies that it had so that it could rule the larger part of the world. The need for better life by the Britons also motivated their need to expand its colonial interests. The Britons needed big tracts of land where they could settle without congestion. As a result, Britain ventured across the world expanding its territori es in order to acquire more land for its nationals. The fact that Britain had managed to acquire slaves motivated it to colonize more places considering that the slaves could be used as workers. There was also a growing need for more plantation areas where the slaves could be taken to work for the benefit of the British economy. Yet another factor that motivated Britain’s colonial activities was the need for new markets. After increasing its production capacities, Britain no doubt needed markets in which to sell its products. The country also needed raw materials for its industries and the easiest way that this could be done was to get them from colonies. The desire of the British colonialists to have control of the most strategic places in the world motivated the country’s need for industrial expansion. The industrial revolution was another motivation for colonial expansion as it brought with it great effects. Essentially the increase in industrial production and the expansion of urban centers brought much wealth and overcrowding making it a necessity to seek more land for expansion. British colonial expansion was faced with a number of remarkable constraints. One of these constraints was the economic imbalance. Britain was relying more on imported raw materials from its colonies and other territories more than on the export of products. This state of events led to an unfavorable balance of trade in Britain. There was also growing competition from industrialized countries as they had new factories and had access to inexpensive labor as suggested by West (132). Fighting this completion was a major challenge to Britain colonial expansion. Due to the economic changes there also arose political issues which were a major challenge to colonial expansion. Britain experienced a transformation of the political parties that existed during the pre-industrial period. They were getting fragmented into various interest groups such as land owners, industrialis t, labor unions and bankers. This made politicians to become disunited and desperate for new ideologies which would unite the colonies. The international tension which was increasingly heightening was another constraint for British colonial expansion. The emergence of strongly integrated German and Italy greatly impacted the weak balance of power in the European countries. These adversely affected Britain which faced rebellion from