British Studies Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

British Studies - Essay Example I have particularly concentrated on material I found and consulted in the Maritime London Gallery (level 1 to level 3) Neptune Court) of the National Maritime Museum, where it is described in depth regarding the industrial revolution of the 18th and 19th Centuries as well as the fishing trade and exploration conquests of the British Empire during that period. The Cutty Sark Museum on the other hand is solely devoted to this fabulous clipper which became world famous and brought Britain laurels both in terms of trade as well as a living example of the perfection of the shipbuilding efficiency of the British shipyards in that time. The British Empire or Pax Britanica as it was called after the Waterloo Battle in 1815, was led towards an explosion of trade by the sea. There were many factors that influenced the growth of trade in the British Empire during 18th and 19th Century. The most important was that during that period the British ruled the seas by controlling the majority of the key naval trade navigational routes and thereby enjoying total sea monopoly; which was also the main trade highway of the period. The British Empire’s control was so powerful that it was even able to control China from the outside without any actual administrational or colonial involvement. British merchant ships were trading on a regular basis with North America and West Indies (after the acquisition on Virginia in 1607 and Barbados in 1625) and by the end of the 17th century , a huge number of people (apprx 350,000) managed to emigrate across the Atlantic Ocean with these very ships. These people base helped to propagate and facilitate new markets for trade and commerce from England. In order to cope up, the British Empire became the leading shipyard industry in the world. (National Maritime Museum) This continued to be so till mid 20th century when the Asiatic shipyards took over by producing