British India 1600 1828

y moment when soldiers and states- "76. men were advancing her flag in the tropics of Asia, the same flag was being torn down and trampled underfoot by the descendants of Englishmen on the other side of the world in the Imperial Civil War. But the western colonies had hardly been lost when the inexhaustible vitality of Britain was shown in the acquisition of fresh territories for the settle- ment of her people in Australia and South Africa; and the nation which was believed to be ruined by the disasters of the American War rose to a greater height than ever during the terrific contest with Napoleon in every quarter of the globe. That contest was waged for the mastery of Europe and the outer world; and it ended, as the previous contest of the Seven Years' War had ended, in the triumph of The Revoiu- Britain as the leading maritime and colonising tionaryAge. power of the earth. The age during which this struggle took place was one in which commerce increased enormously, under the natural stimulus of mechanical inventions and improvements; even the wars produced their effect, as they forced up both prices and production. Science and discovery likewise made notable advances; but the real characteristic which distinguished this period from its predecessors in history was the revolutionary spirit that stamped its mark on every phase of life. Everywhere throughout the West men destroyed and reconstructed their ideas and their political theories with equal z...