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The decline of feudalism made the merchants and craftsmen, the forefather of the Bourgeoisie, gradually showed their importance. The shortage of labor resulting from the Black Death and the Peasant Uprising thus served to weaken the feudal bond over the peasants and pave the way for capitalist development. A lot of nobles had lost their heads during theWar of the Roses and many big feudal households had been destroyed. As a result, the position of the Tudor Monarchy was greatly strengthened and the influence of the new-born bourgeoisie increased.

With the development of the profitable clothing industry, more wood was needed and many land owners wanted more lands, so England witnessed the Enclosures. The dispossession of the peasantry caused much suffering to tenants and resulted in peasant uprising in 1549. Though it failed, it slowed down the spread of the hated enclosures. Feeling the impact resulting from the shortage of gold and silver, England started great voyages of discovery. The discovery of new lands and adventurous voyages not only enlarged man’s field of vision and sped up social and economic development, but also enabled the landed gentry and the merchants rapidly accumulate wealth and become the forefather of the English bourgeoisie.

After the great mental emancipation movement Renaissance which raised the main stream of humanism and promoted the development of science, more advanced persons came to doubt and challenge the old dogma of the church, which gave rise to the Henry Ⅷ’s Reformation. The Reformation was actually a reflection of the class struggle waged by the new rising bourgeoisie against the feudal ruling class and its ideology. What’s more, it had criticized those religious doctrines which served feudal relations and deprived the church of its lands and wealth, weakening one of the mainstays of feudal order. During Elizabeth’s tenure, she created a strong united country in which there should be no religious persecution and Protestantism¹¹gradually became the dominant faith. In foreign affairs, she also made an effort to avoid wars and knocked open foreign markets which in turn stimulated Britain’s domestic development of industry and commerce by granting charters to merchants for the establishment of monopoly companies. At last, sea fights between Spanish and English ships ended with the failure of Spanish ships—the Invincible Fleet, which established the position of England as a major sea power. Foreign trade had been expanding and colonial plunder increasing too. Her policies met the need of the rising bourgeoisie and large amounts of wealth flowed into England. The foundation of the empire was already laid then and it was going to take shape soon.

The conflict between the bourgeoisie and the crown escalated in the early years of the 17th century. When James I reigned, the class contradictions became acute and complicated.After Charles I ascended to the throne, the Civil War broke out. Till after the Glorious Revolution, William succeeded his brother Charles II, the constitutional monarchy in English began which brought with it the establishment of the capital system: the feudal nobles had ceded power to the bourgeoisie.

The Industrial Revolution

The Industrial Revolution was a necessary result of social development in Britain. It was an outgrowth of social and institutional changes brought by the end of feudalism after the English Civil War in the 17th century. The Enclosure Movement and the Agricultural Revolution were driving more and more peasants off their lands; as a result, they had to seek new employment to survive. Through colonial expansion of the 17th century with the accompanying development of international trade, the greedy English capitalists accomplished their “primitive accumulation of capital”. All these factors combined to make England the first country to undergo the Industrial Revolution.

The Industrial Revolution in Britain first began in the textile industry because of the short supply of yarn. Lots of inventions were made to improve thread-making techniques and the productivity was increased by 200 times. As the 18th century began, coal came to replace wood in the productive process. The crucial development of the Industrial Revolution was the use of steam for power, and the James Watt’s invention of the steam engine led to the fast development of the iron, steel and coal industries. The expansion of production and trade promote the transportation revolution. Afterwards, the first steam locomotive was built in 1814 by Stephenson. The Industrial Revolution turned Britain into the “workshop of the world”. English products flooded the world market. The English bourgeoisie amassed large amounts of wealth through trade, plunder and colonization. No country was strong enough to match England in the 19th century. The Industrial Revolution simplified the class structure in Britain. Revolution pushed the middle class to the dominant position in the country though the noble class was still prominent in Parliament and bureaucracy. However, as the urban workers were more completely dependent on the will of the employer, relations between capital and labor were aggravated and the contradiction between two classes became the major problem in English society. The gravitational center of the English economy also changed. The agricultural South became less important than areas in central and north England, owing to their raw materials and cheap labor for industry. The industry had replaced agriculture as themain source of national income and wealth. The Industrial Revolution had profound significance on England; it enabled Britain to go far ahead of all the other countries. It became the workshop of the world and London became the financial center of the world trade and the English language was used in many parts of the world. The empire came into being during the Industrial Revolution.

In a sense, foreign plunder, expansion and aggression were both cause and effect of the Industrial Revolution which enabled the British bourgeoisie to establish the largest empire that history has ever seen. English colonial expansion began with the colonization of Newfoundland in 1583. After Elizabeth ascended the throne, she encouraged the foreign colonization and granted charters to merchants for the established companies, such as the East Indian Company, to knock open foreign markets which in turn stimulated Britain’s domestic development of industry and commerce. The destruction of Invincible Fleet Armada not only established the position of England as a major sea power but also paved the way for its foreign expansion. When Victoria reigned over the English empire, aggression reached its peak. Encouraged by Britain’s control of seas, especially by the rising tide of emigration, Britain colonialists stepped up their expansion to Canada, Australia and New Zealand.

Owning to the expansion, large amount of wealth flowed into Britain, leading to economic prosperity and social civilization. Towards the end of 19th century, the world was already partitioned, with old colonial countries such as England and French taking the lion’s share. Britain had built up a big empire, “on which the sun never set”.

When the British Empire was in its prime of life, it occupied 33 million square kilometers, taking up one fifth of the world dry land. The area was about 135 times as large as Great Britain. It ruled over a population of 560 million, which was more than 10 times as large as that of Britain. What’s more, the Britain fleet controlled the main sea routes and the strategic spots along them. The British Empire was on its crest and became the most powerful and important country in the world. That’s “the sun never setting” Great Empire—Britain.