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The British Peace : Pax Britannica

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Rise of the New Imperialism

Objective: The Fall of Pax Britannica

As strengthening powers in Europe and North America, including namely Germany and the United States, began to grow in industry, Britain's dominance in trade began to rapidly diminish. While the British Empire long held a monopoly over manufactured goods for a very long time it began to meet its competition in overseas markets from the future powers. Britain's share of world trade fell from a quarter in 1880 to a mere sixth in 1913. Although it took decades to break this great power, many could see it was doomed in those times. Britain was even losing hold of its long, tough dominance in other large markets such as India.

Britain Ruled The Seas (for a while)

The United States emerged as a great industrial, military and political power following its civil war. Shortly after, Germany would emerge as another great power after its unification in 1871. Both expanded their naval fleets in the 1890s. Germany became a great military power after unification, they dropped free trade and adopted a tariff in 1879. All this, and much more, caused the British Empire's collapse.

For Britain It Gets Worse

For the Pax Britannica things begin to collapse, British manufacturers in the Industrial Revolution were now starting to feel the pressure and face heavy competition abroad. The German textile and metal industries had, by the beginning of the Franco-Prussian War, surpassed British quality in the domestic market. The development of new techniques to remove phosphorus from the enormous iron deposits of Lorraine, which left France and Germany with cheap and plentiful sources of iron, helped make this happen. In addition, Britain was beaten in the race for the railroads where they were once dominant. By the 1880s they had less rails running the steam trains than other countries.