Queen Victoria Timeline Of Conquest How Victoria’s British Empire became the world’s biggest 1838 PICAIRN ISLANDS 1842 HONG KONG 1848 INDIA 1853 TRUCIAL OMAN (TRINIDAD & TOBAGO) Australia British involvement in Australia began when Captain James Cook landed on the continent in the late-18th Century The number of Indigenous Australians living there quickly plummeted because of European diseases and loss of land Australia became a penal colony and thousands of British convicts were transported there as punishment When gold was discovered in 1851, immigrants many of them British - raced to these sandy shores in search of their fortune (SOMALILAND) 1884 PAPUA NEW GUINEA 1885 NIGERIA 1885 KENYA 1887 MALDIVE ISLANDS 1888 BRITISH EAST AFRICA (KENYA) 1888 BRUNEI 1888 COOK ISLANDS (NZ ASSOC) 1888 GAMBIA 1888 SARAWAK (MALAYSIA) 1889 RHODESIA (ZIMBABWE) 1889 TRINIDAD (TRINIDAD & TOBAGO) 1890 TANGANYIKA (TANZANIA) 1891 MALAWI 1894 UGANDA 1898 SUDAN 1899 KUWAIT India After largely being controlled by the East India Company, India became part of the British Empire after the Government of India Act in 1858 Known as the ‘jewel in the crown’, India was the most valuable piece of Britain’s empire, with lucrative trade from spices, jewels and textiles The most important provision of India, though, was its manpower, which contributed massively to Britain’s military might symbols of British might, which occupied half of the entire display space, served as clear examples of what the British Empire was capable of and fostered the ideas of national supremacy in the eyes of Victoria, the government and the majority of the British population The Great Exhibition proved that far from the crumbling remains of a once-powerful nation, the British Empire had the might, ingenuity and limitless ambition to conquer the world The opportunity to pave the road for this empire arose in 1857 with the Indian Mutiny India had been ruled by a private entity – the East India Company – from 1757 The rebellion manifested the discontent felt by the Indian people for the blatant disrespect of their beliefs and customs The 1857 ADEN (YEMEN) 1862 BRITISH HONDURAS (BELIZE) 1868 BECHUANANLAND (BOTSWANA) 1874 FIJI 1878 CYPRUS 1878 SOUTH WEST AFRICA (NAMIBIA) 1881 NORTH BORNEO (SABAH) 1884 BASUTOLAND (LESOTHO) 1884 BRITISH SOMALILAND company showed disregard for the Indian caste system and issued new cartridges greased with cow and pig fat that had to be opened with the mouth, highly offensive to Muslim and Hindu soldiers These actions opened the eyes of the Indian people to the daily injustice they were being subjected to, and unrest snowballed into mass riots and an uprising Although the mutiny was eventually quelled, the rebellion led to the dissolution of the company, the passing of power to the British state and the creation of what Victoria would call the jewel in her crown – the British Indian Empire Queen Victoria welcomed the country to her empire in a lavish ceremony, promising that Indian native customs and religions would be vk.com/englishlibrary respected and that she would “draw a veil over the sad and bloody past.” She presented herself as a maternal figure and a crusader for peace, justice and honest government – ideals largely inspired by her husband Albert had instilled in her mind the vision of King Arthur’s Camelot, an empire ruled not by tyranny but by justice, where the strong serve the weak, where good triumphs over evil, bringing not oppression and bloodshed, but trade, education and welfare His influence on Victoria was immense and when on 14 December 1861 he died of suspected typhoid fever, the empire veered into an entirely new direction When Albert drew his last breath in the blue room at Windsor Castle the queen was vk.com/bastau 149