Victoria's International Policy
After the loss of the American colonies in 1783, nobody could imagine that the idea of enlarging the British Empire could be popular at the end of the 19th century. However, Queen Victoria and her government managed to persuade the British nation that acquiring new colonies was an important political and economical step. On the other hand, it was a matter of competition between the European countries.
Britain was afraid of Russia's influence in Asia. This fear led to a disastrous war in Afghanistan in 1839-1842. Then Britain fought wars in Pakistan and India.
When Russia came to war against Ottoman Turkey in 1854, Britain joined the Turks, because it feared that Russia would win and change the balance of power in Europe.
British interest in Africa led to a division of African lands into areas of interest between great European countries. The government explained their interest in Africa by bringing Christianity to the "uncivilized" African peoples.
The British expansion to the south of Africa resulted in the war with the Dutch settlers, called the Boers. It was not easy for the British to win this war. They had done it with great difficulty. This war showed all the weaknesses of the British army.
In 1882 Britain invaded Egypt, explaining it by the wish to protect international trade in the Suez Canal. The British were forced to leave Egypt only in 1954.
In 1884 Britain invaded the Sudan.
One of the reasons of the British expansion was the growth of Britain's population. People began to immigrate to Canada, Australia and New Zealand. Unfortunately, the earlier inhabitants of these countries were either pushed to the worst territories or killed.
Wales as the Celtic Kingdom
By the eighth century most of the Celts had been driven into the Welsh peninsula. They were kept out of England by Offa's Dyke, the huge earth, wall built in ad 779. These Celts, called Welsh by the Anglo-Saxons, called themselves cymry, "fellow countrymen".
Because Wales is a mountainous country, the cymry could only live in the crowded valleys. The rest of the land was rocky and too poor for anything except keeping animals. For this reason the population remained small. It only grew to over half a million in the eighteenth century. Life was hard and so was the behaviour of the people. Slavery was common, as it had been all through Celtic Britain.
Society was based on family groupings, each of which owned one or more village or farm settlement. One by one in each group a strong leader made himself king. These men must have been tribal chiefs to begin with, who later managed to become overlords over neighbouring family groups. Each of these kings tried to conquer the others, and the idea of a high, or senior, king developed. The early kings travelled around their kingdoms to remind the people of their control. They travelled with their hungry followers and soldiers. The ordinary people ran away into the hills and woods when the king's men approached their village.
Life was dangerous, treacherous and bloody. In 1043 the king of Glamorgan died of old age. It was an unusual event, because between 949 and 1066 no less than thirty-five Welsh rulers died violently, usually killed by a cymry, a fellow countryman.
In 1039 Gruffydd ap (son of) Llewelyn was the first Welsh high king strong enough to rule over all Wales. He was also the last, and in order to remain in control he spent almost the whole of his reign fighting his enemies. Like many other Welsh rulers, Gruffydd was killed by a cymry while defending' Wales against the Saxons. Welsh kings after him were able to rule only after they had promised loyalty to Edward the Confessor, king of England. The story of an independent and united Wales was over almost as soon as it had begun.
Wales in Revolt
Edward I had conquered Wales in the 1280s, and colonised it. He brought English people to enlarge small towns. Pembrokeshire, in the far southwest, even became known as "the little England beyond Wales". Edward's officers drove many of the Welsh into the hills, and gave their land to English farmers. Many Welsh were forced to join the English army, not because they wanted to serve the English but because they had lost their land and needed to live. They fought in Scotland and in France, and taught the English their skill with the longbow.
A century later the Welsh found a man who was ready to rebel against the English king, and whom they were willing to follow. Owain Glyndwr was the first and only Welsh prince to have wide and popular support in every part of Wales. In fact it was he who created the idea of a Welsh nation. He was descended from two royal families which had ruled in different parts of Wales before the Normans came.
Owain Glyndwr's rebellion did not start as a national revolt. At first he joined the revolt of Norman—Welsh border lords who had always tried to be free of royal control. But after ten years of war Owain Glyndwr's border rebellion had developed into a national war, and in 1400 he was proclaimed Prince of Wales by his supporters. This was far more popular with the Welsh people than Edward I's trick with his newborn son at Caernarfon in 1284- However, Glyndwr was not strong enough to defeat the English armies sent against him. He continued to fight a successful guerrilla war which made the control of Wales an extremely expensive problem for the English. But after 1410 Glyndwr lost almost all his support as Welsh people realised that however hard they fought they would never be free of the English. Owain Glyndwr was never captured. He did for Wales what William Wallace had done for Scotland a century earlier. He created a feeling of national identity.