为什么英国殖民过的国家要比法西葡等国殖民过的国家表现的更好？ [美国媒体]

Why are former British colonies doing so well compared to Spanish/Portuguese/French colonies (there are exceptions, but the general trend is obvious)?

为什么英国殖民过的国家要比法西葡等国殖民过的国家表现的更好？


Good question.
For different reasons.
Spanish and Portuguese colonies were more orless abandoned by their colonizing nations which wealth and organisation wenton the decline and were no longer capable of upholding a proper running ofthese operations. Running a colony is complex and extremely costly... And mostnations who colonized others had to endebt themselves considerably to achievetheir means and maybe see a return. It was more like a literal "hit andrun". Not all these colonies were as good business as they were expectedto be.
Before developping on this complex subject Iwould like to point to the fact that I have no idea what former Brittish colonyis doing so well and according to what standard, that is if you take India andits “economic growth” out of the picture. No former Brittish colony is doing anythingoutstanding to my knowledge even in comparison to the former French colonies.
​
很好的问题。
这是出于不同的原因。
西班牙和葡萄牙的殖民地或多或少地被它们的殖民者所抛弃，因为这些殖民者的财富和组织都在走下坡路，不再能够继续维持殖民行动的正常运行。管理一个殖民地是复杂的，而且代价非常高昂的……而且大多数殖民者都不得不大量举债以达到他们的目的，或许能看到回报。但更像是字面意义上的“打一枪就跑”。并不是所有的殖民地都能和预期的一样有很好的收益。
在讨论这个复杂的问题之前，我想指出一个事实，我不知道前英国殖民地，[size=13.3333px]根据什么标准，哪里做的很好。如果你把印度的“经济增长”拿掉，根据我的理解，没有一个英国殖民地能比前法国殖民地做的更出色。

This being mentioned, French colonies were runon a constant policy of divide and conquer. Most former French colonies startedto become increasingly unstable, difficult and costly to run, France gave themindependance. In a matter of a couple of decades they were all independent. ButFrance′s political strategy in theseregions was to make sure its presence remained relevant by playing ethnicgroups and different tribes within the nation against each other, install apuppet dictator and keep doing business...
This stern looking gentleman is the late JacquesFoccart ( 1913–1997) also eerily rememberedas L′Homme De L′Ombre (theShadow Man).

有人提到，法国的殖民地是通过不断分化和征服的政策来运行的。大多数前法国殖民地后来变得越来越不稳定、维持困难和昂贵，法国于是给予了他们独立。在过去的几十年里，他们都是独立的。但是法国的政治策略是要确保法国的在这些地区仍有存在感以及要“关系密切”，通过在其民族和国家内的不同部落,安装一个傀儡独裁者来保持与其做生意……



这位看起来严肃的绅士是已故的贾克·佛卡尔(1913-1997)，他也以影子人(the Shadow Man)而被人铭记。

One of the most shady characters of French latecolonial and post-colonial government history. A lot of skelletons in this man′s closet. A certain generation of Africans (my parents′generation) still feel a chill running down their spine when theyhear the name “Foccart” andsome of these folks still do not utter his name louder than in a whisper,almost as if he was somewhere right behind them listening… It is quite unsettling but says quite a bit about the man. Theghost of the Shadow Man is till looming all over the former French colonies. DeGaulle′s right arm since the times of the Resistence,Foccart became the co-founder and mastermind behind the infamous SAC (Service D′Action Civique) a special branch of military intelligence endowedwith covert operations in Africa. Monsieur Foccart′sjob was to ensure that French economic and corporate interests would stayintact after the de-colonization.

法国晚期殖民和后殖民政府历史上最阴暗的特征之一，就是佛卡尔这个人密室里有很多骷髅。某一代的非洲人(父母那代)当他们听到这个名字“佛卡尔”，仍然会寒意顺着脊椎流过，其中的一些人仍然不敢大声说出他的名字,仿佛他就在身后某处听…只要提及这个男的一点点事情，就会感到不安。影子人的幽灵一直笼罩着前法国殖民地。从法国抵抗运动开始起（译者加，二战期间针对纳粹政府和维希政权的法国抵抗运动），他就是戴高乐的左膀右臂，他是臭名昭着的SAC的联合创始人和幕后主使，这是一种特殊的军事情报部门，被赋予了在非洲的秘密行动。佛卡尔先生的工作是确保法国的经济和企业利益在去殖民化运动后仍保持不变。

In international broad daylight Foccart “negociated” cooperation dealswith the newly appointed puppets of independent African nations and under thecover of French foreign policy bodies, Mr Foccart assumed his role as TheShadow Man. With help of the secret services and military, The Shadow Manorganized and financed countless rebellions, coup-d′état,assassinations, supported some notorious dictatures and toppled them at willand performed many other black ops to maintain the old colonies under the yokeof French tutelage. Sacking any revolution or loud mouthed Panafricanists inthe egg. He laid the blueprint for the DGSE on how to keep doing these thingsevery now and then. A game of corruption, divide and conquer, psychologicalwarfare that only his cunning brain could foster and for which he was still aprecious adviser long after his retirement from the political scene. His shadowis still lurking over many of the current political problems of the formerFrench colonies - which he largely contributed to create- even long after hisdeath.

在国际公开论坛上，他与非洲独立国家的新任命傀儡进行合作，并在法国外交机构的掩护下，他扮演了影子人的角色。为军事秘密服务,资金支持无数叛乱组织,政变，暗杀,支持一些臭名昭着的独裁政府,随意推翻现有政府。还有[size=13.3333px]为了使得其它老殖民地依然在法国的控制之下，展开了很多的其它黑色行动，。他们会在里面掺入许多革命或大声的泛非洲主义者。他为法国对外安全总局制定了一份蓝图，关于如何不断地做这些事情。一场腐败、分化和征服的游戏，只有他狡猾的头脑才能做到。在他从政治舞台上退休很久以后，他仍然是一位宝贵的顾问。他的影子仍然潜伏在法国前殖民地的许多政治问题上——他在很大程度上促成了这些问题的产生——甚至在他死了很久以后也是。

But this is only a mere detail of the easyanswer. The answer you will never hear as to what is the true reality of theproblem comes now:
The fragile and fractured political landscapesand unstable nature of the former French colonies are obviously due mainly tothe inextricable complexities of their ethnic ecosystems and their abberrant,ontologic incompatibility to Western style democracy and social organization.The anthropological dynamics of these regions are extremely intricated, most ofwhich probably even predate any semblance of early civilization anywhere elsein the world.

但这只是简单答案的一个细节。你永远也不会知道问题的真相是什么:
前法国殖民地脆弱的、支离破碎的政治环境，以及其不稳定的性质，主要是因为其种族系统的错综复杂，以及他们对西方风格的民主和社会组织的不相容。这个地区的要[size=13.3333px]比世界上其他地方的任何早期文明都要早，也使得这里的人类学极其复杂。

The mainstream perspective of the Africancontinent, especially in the West is generally extremely narrow. The poorconditions these countries find themselves in exist for reasons ofincompatibility to the systems modernism forces them to try to mimic.
Simple as that.
Western style state organization - let alone “democracy”- do not work wellin these countries for the reason that the gap between the local cultures andthe cultural nature of these political and structural models is too big anddifficult to bypass in their respective cultural contexts.

非洲大陆的主流观点，尤其是在非洲西部，通常是极其狭隘的。这些国家发现自己的存在是不兼容的，现代主义迫使他们去模仿。
就这么简单。
西方风格的国家组织——更不用说“民主”的形式了——在这些国家，由于当地文化与这些政治结构模式的文化本质之间差距太大，都难以绕过各自的文化背景，使得这些做法在这些国家是行不通的。

To take one simple exemple, look at a formerBelgian colony like Burundi for that matter. This country is tiny, 27 834 sqkmand 10 Million habitants. It has one official language, French and one mainlocal language Kirundi. The demographics are composed mainly of three ethnicgroups, Hutu (84%), Tutsi (14%), Twa (1%). Since Dawn Of Ages, this has been akingdom under the rule of one clan called the Ganwa. The royals. Tutsis weremainly nobles, warriors and pastors while Hutus were peasants, laborors andcraftsmen. This well defined caste system allowed the kingdom to live in peacecenturies a row. Colonisation came about and Belgians decided they were goingto install Western style civilization by chosing the Tutsis as the newadministrators of the Ruanda-Urundi (later on separated as Rwanda and Burundi).Tutsis became the elite, state workers, government officials, army officers,intellectuals, academicians. The 84% strong Hutu were mainly relegated to thelower class of society and petty jobs.

举一个简单的例子，看看像布隆迪这样的前比利时殖民地。这个国家很小，有27834平方公里和1000万居民。它有一种官方语言—法语和一种主要的当地语言Kirundi。人口统计主要由三个民族组成，胡图族(84%)、图西人(14%)、Twa(1%)。自古以来，这一直是一个氏族统治下的王国。王族图西人主要是贵族、武士和牧师，而胡图人则是农民、工人和工匠。这个明确的等级制度使得王国在和平年代生活。随着殖民者的到来，比利时人决定，他们要建立一个西方风格的文明，但却依然选择图西人是卢旺达—布隆迪(后来被分离为卢旺达和布隆迪)的管理者。图西族成为精英，国家工人，政府官员，军官，知识分子，学者。84%的胡图族人主要是下层社会人员和零工。

The extent of the catastrophy of fuckinggenocide and cyclical massacres that resulted from that societal change goesbeyond words.
Now, how exactly the fuck do you expect twotribes who hate the guts out of each other and comprise respectively 84% and14% of their population to chose one fucking leader by universal fuckingsuffrage when whoever the fuck has the army can wake up in the morning andorganize the fucking wipe out of the other fucking tribe ?
Answer: it does not work.

这种社会变革所造成的种族灭绝和周期性屠杀的灾难程度难以用语言描述。
现在,到底他妈的你希望这两个相互仇恨的种族，人口分别占84%,14%，要选择了一个他妈的领袖，还是由他妈的普选。谁他妈一旦掌握了军队，早上醒来就会组织军队，去[size=13.3333px]他妈的消灭其他的部落。
答:这没法起作用。

Ok. This is a country with two major ethnicgroups and one common language. A country like Mali is 1 240 192 sqkm, has nottwo but ten ethnic groups who speak- get ready for this one- nineteen languageswith barely any common consonances, have different cultures and do not evenlook like each other as far as physical features…
These are complex human environments wherelanguage relativity alone is source of division.
Nobody at school and even among versed scholarshave ever managed to define culture in a satisfying fashion to me, it neverreached further than “ a set ofcustoms, values and traditions”. Here is how I came todefine culture :
Culture is the way you perceive yourself inrelation to your human group and the way you interpret the world. Culture isthe prism through which you perceive life.
That is what culture is.

好的。这还只是一个有两个主要民族和一种共同语言的国家。像马里这样的国家，有12240平方公里，并不是只有两个，而是有十个少数民族，他们几乎没有任何共同的语言，有着不同的文化，甚至连身体特征也不相似……
这些就是复杂的人类环境，而语言的区别是分裂的源泉。
在我看来，学校里没有人，甚至是那些精通文学的学者，能找到一种令我满意的方式来定义文化，它从未超越过“一套习俗、价值观和传统”的说法。我是这样定义文化的:
文化是你看待自己与人类群体的关系，以及你对世界的理解方式。文化是你感知生活的眼镜。
这就是文化。

Now.
What is language ? Language is not only acommunication tool between humans, language is the vessel that catalyzes aculture. Language is the motherboard of thinking patterns and therefore becomesthe socle of the prism in which one perceives the world. To take an illustrativeexemple out of the African context, the Japanese word giri is found to be onethe most difficult to translate in English, it is an ancient Japanese culturalconcept related to dedication, gratitude and loyalty and which has beenaccepted to be roughly translated as “ gratitude from an old kindness to the duty of revenge”… Say. What. 

现在。
语言是什么?语言是人类之间的交流工具，语言是促进文化的载体，语言是思维模式的主板，因此语言也是人们感知世界的眼镜。离开非洲的背景去举一个例子,日本词giri（义理）在英语语境下很难翻译,它是一个古老的日本文化的概念，和奉献,感恩和忠诚有关，大致可以翻译成“从善良的感恩到复仇的义务”…这是在说什么。（译者加：义理：合乎一定伦理道德的行为准则）

If I, a Soninké from Western Mali, descendent of sedentary horsemen,consolidators of fiefdoms, kingdoms and empires and a touareg from NorthernMali, nomadic camel herder, desert dweller and occasional raider are to sit ina tent trying to figure out a common future; we can eventually come to a truceand agreement but will never be able to trust each other fully underwesternized democratic rules as we both have completely different cultureswhich matrix′ are first and foremost ethno tribal andhave completely different perceptions of the world, resources, territory andagendas for our respective ethnic group and even tribe.

如果我，是来自马里西部的Soninke，是骑士的后代，是领地、王国、帝国统一者的后代，还有来自马里北部的touareg，他们是游牧的骆驼牧民、沙漠居民和偶尔的掠袭者，都是为了寻找一个共同的未来而坐在帐篷里，我们可能最终会达成一个停火协议,但是在西化的民主规则下，我们是永远无法彼此信任的。因为我们都有着基于不同人种部落的的文化信仰，有着对世界完全不同的看法，有着为各自的民族资源,领土和议程，部落的不同追求。

Most Westerners do not get that. The reality ofthese dynamics is far more layered, textured and complex than what even some ofthe most reknown “ analysts” from the Western world seem to fathom. 98% of people in the Westlack that kind of perspective due to poor information and the ethnocentricnature of the media picture. People in the modern world tend to centerthemselves around what they know and where they are from, also that theycompare themselves to other human groups according to what they assume is bestand therefore tend to want others to be more like them... This is what createsthat incredibly widespread view of Africans “not beingable to take care of themselves”, “ lazy”… According to a Western ethnocenricview of the world, conception of societal organization and if technology andpaper based monetary system are the yardsticks of civilization, the answer is:yes. To the clear headed and the observant, Africa in general is ananthropological miracle. The human IQ of African societies is higher thananywhere else in the world. That is to say the complexity of human grouprelations within the continent is beyond comprehensible as to how humans couldhave inhabited that sort environment for so long and create interactionsoptimal for survival. You can spend your entire life trying to figure that out.

大多数西方人不明白这一点。这种动态的现实远比西方世界里最着名的“分析师”们所认为的更有层次、更复杂。在西方，98%的人缺乏这样的视角，因为他们的信息很差，因为他们被媒体带来的种族中心主义影响。现代世界的人们倾向于以自己为中心，根据他们所知道的和他们来自的地方去思考。他们也会根据自己的假设与其他的人类群体进行比较，因此他们倾向于希望别人更像他们。这就是为什么人们普遍认为非洲人“不能照顾自己”，“懒惰”…这是根据西方的种族主义世界观，社会组织的概念。如果用科技和纸为基础的货币体系当做是文明的尺度，答案是:是的。但对于头脑清醒和善于观察的人来说，非洲总体上是一个人类学的奇迹。非洲的人类智商比世界上任何地方都高。也就是说，这里的人类群体内部关系的复杂性是难以理解的，他们是如何能够长期居住在这样的环境中，并创造出最适合生存的互动？你可以花一辈子的时间来了解这个问题。

That is a different form of high human groupintelligence which is extremely underrated and overlooked. Unless this is takeninto consideration it equates the gullibility in unrooting a millenial oaktree, dip its trunk in the sea and expect it to start growing coconuts. That isthe extent of the distortion.
On top of this, it′s gargantuesque in size :

这是一种不同形式的高智力人类群体，但是一直被极度低估和忽视。除非考虑到这一点，否则它就相当于挖出一棵千年橡树，把它的树干浸在海里，并期待它能长出椰子。这就是扭曲的程度。
最重要的是，非洲的尺寸是庞大的:


  
Africa being the most ethnically diverse placein the world. There is no mystery as to why these parts of the worldfunctionate best according to Western civilization standard solely underdictatorship. There is no other way to unify these human groups - whichotherwise did functionate organically according to Age old dynasty- under themodel of a nation state with “democratic” system, universal suffrage andfiduciary currency based economies. 

非洲是世界上种族最多样化的地方。这就是为什么在这些地方是独裁统治，却是按照西方文明的标准来运作的，这没有什么神秘可言的。没有什么其他的方法能统一这些人类群体——除非根据古老的王国形式，按照一个民族国家的模式，以“民主”制度、普选权和基于信用的货币为基础的经济模式来整合这个群体。

To answer this question I will focus on thelands that were truly colonised, using this definition:
Colony : a country or area under the full orpartial political control of another country and occupied by settlers from thatcountry.

为了回答这个问题，我将把重点放在那些真正被殖民的土地上，用这个定义:
殖民地:被另一个国家的完全或部分政治控制下的国家或地区，并且由该国的定居者占领。

The important thing to note here is thatsettlers are required for a nation to be a colony and a substantial amount atthat. For this reason I believe that the question makes sense as many nationsthat have a higher percentage of British descendants there are common positivecharacteristics. Whilst many other answers believe the question makes anincorrect assumption I beg to differ. Many examples of British colonies thatare in bad shape such as Sudan, Pakistan, Zimbabwe and others were not reallycolonised as few Brits actually moved to these locations.

这里需要注意的一点是，移民者如果要让一个国家成为殖民地，就必须要有大量的移民。因此，我认为这个问题的说法是有道理的，因为有较高比例英国后裔的国家都总体上表现的更好。尽管许多其他的答案都认为这个问题的说法是错误的，但我不敢苟同。许多英国殖民地的例子，如苏丹、巴基斯坦、津巴布韦等，都没有真正地被殖民，因为很少有英国人搬到这些地方。

For this reason I think the question focusesmore on the countries of America and Oceania where European descendants make upa large portion of the population and were ( in most cases) settled during thecolonial empires of Europe and not during the age of Imperialism.
In this sense we can clearly note that theBritish colonies of America, such as Canada, the US, the Bahamas and Jamaicaare on average higher than the colonies of other European nations.

因此，我认为这个问题更多地集中在美洲和大洋洲的那些国家，那里的欧洲后裔占人口的很大一部分，而且(在大多数情况下)在欧洲殖民帝国时期都已经定居，而不是在帝国主义时期。
从这个意义上说，我们可以清楚地看到，英国的美洲殖民地，如加拿大、美国、巴哈马和牙买加，平均的水平要比其他欧洲国家的殖民地要高。

The reason behind this is that other Europeannations set up different government systems in their colonies and set updifferent forms of economy. Spain for example ruled over modern day Peru,Guatemala, Colombia and others. What many Hispano American colonies have incommon is high inequality. This is the direct result of the SpanishViceroyalties which meant that to become part of the leaders of these regionsone had to be born in Spain. As the Spanish system divided people into classeswith the ones on top being the peninsulares (from the Iberian Peninsula) ,criollos (White Spaniards born in America, and then the various other mixedgroups. This led to inequality both economically and politically which persiststo this day. In Colombia this is especially clear as White Spanish familiessuch as the Santos hold most of the power and have done so since independence.In Guatemala the civil war fought against the indigenous population also servesas evidence of this inequality. The same holds reasonably true for Brazil andthe Portuguese system. Economically speaking the Spanish government in Madridwanted only one thing from the colonies, resources, and made sure that theViceroys did everything they could to extract the greatest amount of gold,silver, sugar, etc, possible. This meant that there was little investment intoinfrastructure which did not directly relate to the exporting economy andschools and hospitals were very hard to find, especially for the mixed races.

这背后的原因是，其他欧洲国家在其殖民地建立了与英国不同的政府体系和经济形式。例如，西班牙统治了现代的秘鲁、危地马拉、哥伦比亚等国。许多美洲国家的殖民地内部都有着高度的不平等。这是西班牙总督制的直接结果，这意味着成为这些地区的领导人，必须在西班牙出生。由于西班牙的制度把人们分成不同的阶级，其中最上层的是来自伊比利亚半岛的peninsulares(来自伊比利亚半岛)，其次是criollos(在美国出生的西班牙白人，然后是各种各样的混合群体)。这导致了在经济上和政治上的不平等，一直持续到今天。在哥伦比亚，这一点尤其明显，因为像桑托斯这样的西班牙白人家庭拥有大部分的权力，自独立以来一直都是这样。在危地马拉，对土着居民的内战也证明了这种不平等。巴西和葡萄牙的体系同样如此。从经济上讲，在马德里的西班牙政府只需要殖民地做一件事，资源，确保总督尽其所能榨取最大数量的金、银、糖等。这意味着，没有投资与出口经济、学校和医院相关的基础设施，还有就是混合种族的问题。

In France’s case there is one prime example of colonisation which helpsexplain why their colonies have not done so well, Haiti. The French utilised aless divisive and repressive form of government where mixed races were givensome liberties and slaves were occasionally freed. The problem with Frenchcolonies lies in their absolute dependence of Sugar for their economies. InHaiti over 80% of the economy came from Sugar exportation which meant that postindependence their economies were exceedingly agricultural and lackeddiversity. Even to this day the crippled Haitian economies relies onagricultural and mainly focuses on a single crop, rice.

在法国，有一个殖民的典型例子，这有助于解释为什么他们的殖民地在海地没有做得那么好。法国利用了一种较少分化和压制的政府形式，在那里，混合种族获得了一些自由，奴隶也偶尔被释放。法国殖民地的问题在于他们对某种经济的绝对依赖。在海地，超过80%的经济来自于糖出口，这意味着他们的经济是非常农业的，缺乏多样性的。直到今天，海地的经济仍然非常依赖农业，主要集中在单一作物水稻上。

Ultimately, British colonies tended to to betterbecause the British government in London did not play such and intrusive roleand to a certain extent allowed more autonomy to its colonies. There arevarious reason for this but the fact is that people in the US, Canada and evenin poorer nations such as Belize, did not face the same level of discriminationas they did in Spain and the economies were more diversified and less exportfocused that their other counterparts. The British realised that theireconomies lacked the massive deposits of mineral resources seen in SouthAmerica and therefore pursued different policies. For one, there were moreschools and hospitals per person in British colonies as the need to attractBritish colonists was essential. It is important to note that the fact thatBritish colonies tended to be more “white” meant that the government in Londonprobably treated them better that if the population had been majority mixedrace.

最终，英国殖民地做的更好，因为伦敦的英国政府没有扮演其它殖民者那样的角色，并且在一定程度上允许其殖民地获得更多的自治权。这其中有各种各样的原因。事实是,人们在美国,加拿大和甚至在伯利兹等较贫穷的国家,并没有受到与西班牙那样相同级别的歧视，经济更加多样化,更少的出口。因为英国人意识到，他们殖民地的经济缺乏像南美那样的大量矿产资源，因此采取了不同的政策。首先，在英国殖民地，每个人都有更多的学校和医院，因为这可以吸引到英国定居者。值得注意的是，英国的殖民地往往更“白”，这意味，伦敦政府可以相[size=13.3333px]对于是混血的，更好地对待他们。

There are many hypotheses as to what madeBritain (a tiny island with a relatively small population), able to control avery large portion of the world.  First of all, we need to identify whatland Britain actually controlled. 
From the mid 1600s (perhaps slightly earlier,you could say from the beginning of the 1500s, though control was minimal)until the War of Independence in 1776, Britain had dominion over severalAmerican colonies.  Until the 19th Century, Britain had dominion overAustralia, Canada and New Zealand.  Until the 20th Century Britain was incontrol of Zimbabwe , Sri Lanka, India (including modern-day Pakistan), Egypt(partial control of the Suez Canal), Sudan, Palestine (until the Zionistmovement peaked after WWII), South Africa, Malaysia, Singapore and Hong Kong.

关于英国(一个人口相对较少的小岛)是如何控制世界上很大一部分地区的，有许多假设。首先，我们需要确定英国到底控制了哪些土地。
从17世纪中期(也许稍早一点，你可以说从16世纪初开始，尽管控制很小)直到1776年独立战争，英国统治了几个美洲殖民地。直到19世纪，英国一直统治着澳大利亚、加拿大和新西兰。直到20世纪，英国还控制着津巴布韦、斯里兰卡、印度(包括现在的巴基斯坦)、埃及(苏伊士运河的部分控制权)、苏丹、巴勒斯坦(直到二战后犹太复国运动达到顶峰)、南非、马来西亚、新加坡和香港。

The policies which the British government usedin order to gain control over these states were strategic.  Interestingly,many of the colonies were originally founded by private companies/personalitieswith Royal Charter (approval).  It is well known India was established bythe East India Company, searching for resources in the Far East.  SouthAfrica was arguably the product of aggressive expansion by Cecil Rhodes . It has often been argued that the gift of freedom is what providedspirited individuals with the incentive to nation-build.  It is a wellknown fact that beaurocracy breeds inefficiency.  Free from suchrestraints, the promise of wealth and fortune lured potential colonizers fromBritain to the New World.

英国政府为了控制这些国家而使用的政策是战略性的。有趣的是，许多殖民地最初是由私人公司和皇家特许状(批准)建立的。众所周知，印度是东印度公司建立的，为了在远东地区寻找资源。南非可以说是塞西尔·罗德斯(Cecil Rhodes)积极扩张的产物。人们经常争论说，自由是为了向有活力的个人提供建设国家的动力。众所周知，官僚制导致效率低下。可以从这些限制中解脱出来，财富和未来的承诺吸引了潜在的殖民者从英国来到新大陆。

Trade is another factor which founded theBritish Empire.  Indeed, Hong Kong was given to the British by China,after their defeat in the Opium War in 1898.  The Opium War was a warfought over trade.  The British were fed up with China's unwillingness tohouse foreigners in their nation - restricting them to reside in PortugeseMacau - and negotiated opening of port cities, such as Shanghai and Hong Kong.
The power of admiralty cannot be understated asa factor which caused the British empire to expand, and consequently to becomemore powerful.  The British navy was very strong, ahead of all itscompetitors.  The British controlled the High Seas and were able tomonopolize trade routes between Europe and the Far East.  Additionally, asa small island surrounded by water, Britain was vulnerable to attack by thesea, by protecting its boarders, Britain was able to maintain a stronggovernment at home.

贸易是建立大英帝国的另一个因素。事实上，在中国1898年鸦片战争失败后，香港被中国给了英国。鸦片战争是一场贸易战争。英国人受够了中国不愿意让外国人进入他们的国家——限制他们只能居住在葡萄牙的澳门——于是谈判开放港口城市，比如上海和香港。
海军的力量是不能被低估的，因为它使大英帝国扩张，从而变得更加强大。英国海军实力很强，领先于其它所有竞争者。英国控制着公海，并能够垄断欧洲和远东之间的贸易航线。此外，作为一个被水包围的小岛，英国很容易受到海上的攻击，海军能保护其边境，所以英国能够在国内维持一个强大的政府。

Unity, was another factor which held the BritishEmpire together.  Unity however, must not be mistaken for homogeneity -the Empire was incredibly racially and religiously diverse.  However,throughout the New World Britain managed to introduce some very positivechanges into the standard of living of millions of people.  Britainintroduced their Westminster style of government, their common law (arguablythe greatest gift of all) and numerous other seemingly inconsequential things(like the sport cricket for example).  These unifying traditions helped tobind the Empire together. In the other hand the british empire showed the worldthe ugliness of imperialism where natives would be oppressed in order to avoidany revolts. Also not all British officers respected the laws such as when theBritish forces in Palestine refused to aid the Palestinian civilians back whenZionist gangs attacked which led to a massacre. 

联合统治，是另一个使大英帝国团结在一起的因素。然而，联合统治不能被误解为同质——毕竟帝国的种族和宗教的多样性令人难以置信。然而，在整个新世界中，英国设法为数百万人的生活引入一些非常积极的变化。英国引进了他们的威斯敏斯特风格的政府，他们的习惯法(可以说是最伟大的礼物)和许多其他看似无关紧要的东西(比如体育板球)。这些传统有助于把帝国联系统一在一起。另一方面，大英帝国向世界展示了帝国主义的丑陋，在那里，为了避免叛乱，土着人会受到压迫。而且不是所有的英国军官都尊重法律，比如当犹太复国主义团伙袭击导致一场屠杀时，英国军队在巴勒斯坦拒绝援助巴勒斯坦平民。

The final reason behind the strength of theBritish Empire was pride.  Pride in the Empire, pride in nation building,pride in the dissemination of Anglo-Saxon values.  It is plain from thedisintegration of the Empire, that British peoples loss of faith in Britain asan Empire was critical to its demise.  After WW2, the ideology behindEmpire building seemed flawed; having watched Europe almost become unbound bythe plans of an evil dictator bent on controlling the Continent, Britain's ownimperialist forays were challenged.  With little support left from theBritish population to 'hold on'.  Britain gave up India (the jewel of theEmpire) in 1947, just two years after the conclusion of WW2.

大英帝国强大的最终原因是骄傲。骄傲在帝国，骄傲在国家建设，骄傲在传播盎格鲁撒克逊价值观。从帝国的瓦解中可以看出，英国人民失去了对大英帝国的信仰，这对它的灭亡至关重要。二战后，帝国大厦背后的意识形态似乎是存在缺陷的;在目睹欧洲几乎被一个决意控制欧洲大陆的邪恶独裁者束缚后，英国自己的帝国主义的堡垒也遭到了挑战。由于英国民众几乎不支持“坚持”下去，1947年，英国放弃了印度(帝国的宝石)，就仅仅在二战结束后两年。