Question

In your opinion, how successful were the very early years of British colonization?

Answer 1

There are two main reasons:

1. The British sought wealth, not power. The British Empire was based on trade, not conquest.
2. The British rule was rule of law, not arbitrariness, imperial decrees, whim or ukaz of the regent nor sheer terror.

Throughout its Imperial history, Britain was a constitutional parliamentary monarchy and on its last phases, a democracy. Constitutional regimes mean that rule of law has superceded the rule of man - the law and order is above the regent’s or tyrant’s whims or any religious laws and customs. This rule of law provided excellent basis on founding an organized and just society. “Just” in the sense that every subject had law-written rights and responsibilities and everyone had a defined place in the society.

This also meant that the British laws and societal system were usually more humane and sane than the alternatives. It guaranteed the basic rights - freedom from slavery, freedom from lawlessness, freedom from anarchy, freedom from persecution, freedom from arbitrary imprisonment and extrajudicial punishments; freedom of expression, freedom of trade, freedom of ownership, freedom of religion and other basic rights and freedoms. This allowed the trade to flourish and economy to develop. The intent of taxation was not to milk the subjects dry, fill up the regent’s coffers and ensure nobody would get wealthy and hence threaten the despot’s status, but to provide the state the means of taking care of the essentials of rulership.

The result was that the subjects themselves identified to the Empire and after the Sepoy Mutiny against the East Indian Company, mutinies and rebellions were rare. Everyone benefited to at least some extent.

This is not to say everything had been wine and roses. The British could be pig-headed, incompetent and draconian, but the fact that a) all the former colonies got their independence in a peaceful manner and b) all the former colonies still today form the British Commonwealth - is a testimony that the British indeed did do something right.