by Gomez Gomez

Created on: February 10, 2010   Last Updated: April 10, 2012

   Although beneficial to the world in some aspects, the overall legacy of the British Empire was damaging. The empire tended to benefit its dominons, where the large British settler populations encouraged responsible government. It also resulted in the construction of some useful infrastructure and some beneficial political, legal and cultural developments in the dependent colonies. However, the majority of infrastructure projects were implemented with British interests in mind, and many undesirable cultural alterations resulted from the Empire. Furthermore, British rule dramatically worsened its subjects' economies, while the arbitrary partition of Africa and other British policies generated some of the contemporary world's most bitter conflicts.

              The British Empire was ultimately beneficial to its dominions, where it established prosperous, liberal, parliamentary democracies. Australia, Canada, New Zealand and the United States are all theoretically among the most successful countries in the world, in terms of GDPs, GNPs, standards of living, food availability and leisure time. [1] This was because contemporary notions of European superiority meant their large settler populations behoved compassionate, ‘responsible government’, in contrast to the rampant exploitation of the predominately non-white colonies. Consequently, less exploitative tariffs were imposed, infrastructure was generally constructed for internal rather than British benefit, and virtual self government was commonly implemented by the 1850s. [2] British imperialism consequently had a beneficial legacy in its settler colonies, disregarding the extermination, intentional and otherwise, and other mistreatment of their native populations.

              British rule also influenced the development of its 'dependent' colonies by modernising aspects of their infrastructure and introducing new technologies. These were occasionally brought to colonies for benevolent reasons, but were generally aimed at facilitating their exploitation. In order to perform their imperial function as suppliers of raw material and customers for British exports, the colonies needed adequate infrastructure. They lacked the deep-sea harbour and port facilities necessary to cater for the increasingly large cargo ships of the steamboat era, necessitating the

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