英语专业毕业论文-On the Rise and Fall of Great Britain.docx

on the rise and fall of great britain摘要英国，一个由四部分组成欧洲岛国，总面积约24万平方千米。国土资源有限，却能率先打开现代世界的大门，从地理上的边缘变成世界的中心。经过探索，首次进行资产阶级革命，实行君主立宪制；第一个进行工业革命并发明蒸汽机，推动人类历史的发展；并在十九世纪中期成为世界工厂；并被称为 “日不落帝国”。然而，受第二次工业革命及两次世界大战的影响，英国日渐衰落，国际地位下降，由过去的“日不落帝国”到如今的二等发达国家。关键词： 工业革命；世界大战；衰落abstract great britain is a european island consisting of four parts, which takes up 240,000 square kilometers. with the limited territorial resources, she should be the first one to walk into the modern world, and ranged from the geographical edge to the center of the whole world. having experienced many explorations, she was acted as so many precursors: proceeding bourgeois revolution, creating one system of government called constitutional monarchy; inaugurating the industrial revolution and inventing the first steam engine which was an important role in the promoting the civilization development; being known as “the workshop of the world” in 19th century; winning the name of “the sun-never-setting empire”. however, badly influenced by the second industrial revolution and the two world wars, she declined gradually, and lost her upper hand in the international competition. the prosperity of the former has faded away and become the second-classed developed country today.key words: the industrial revolution；world war；fall1. introductiongreat britain is an island off the northwest of the europe continent and on the east coast of atlantic ocean, which is surrounded by sea. with the decline of the feudalism and the increase of the influence of the new-born bourgeoisie, she began her capitalist development. through the closure and foreign plunder, expansion and aggression, she completed the primitive accumulation of capital. after undergoing the industrial revolution, she became the workshop of the world and had the largest colonies. she has a splendid history. during hundreds of years, she has experienced the greatest glory and risen to the first one, but also fall as well as decline. what made her decline were the great losses during the two world wars and the independences of her colonies. because of many other factors, she still cant return to what she was before, and at present, she steadily ranks as one of the second-classed developed country.2. the rise of great britain2.1 the weakening of kings powerin the process of weakening of kings power, the great charter, signed in 1215, played a very pivotal role. it is a most important document in english history, which was expected to limit kings power, but it helped the bourgeoisie enter into politics.in addition, truly feudalism is almost a must during the social tenor. it is a necessary phase of history and also promotes social progress. comparatively speaking, england experienced a shorter period of feudalism than most asian nations. it came into being with the norman conquest and showed clear signs of declining in the fourteenth century. with her decline and many important events, lords or nobles were weakened.the hundred years war between england and france, from 1337 to 1453, deprived the english king of his possessions on the continent. and it not only sped up the decline of feudalism, also pushed the growing bourgeoisie onto a higher rung of the social ladder in england. when it came 1348, the black death spread to england; the biggest victims were serfs and tenant-peasants. because of large amount of deaths, manpower was more important to the lords and the exploitation became more serious, which induced the revolt that put an end to the serf system and paved the way for capitalist development. whats more, the wars of the roses between rival gangs of nobles heavily destroyed the nations economy and life, but paving the way for the development of a centralized administration. after the wars, feudalism was declined. however, meanwhile, the influence of the new-born bourgeoisie increased.2.2 bourgeois revolutionwith the end of the wars of the roses, king henry established the new monarchy called the tudor monarchy which themselves relied on the commercial and landed middle class and so promoted the development of trade and industry, especially clothing industry. it was in the period that the capitalist class came into being and grew rapidly.having seen the colossal profits and large demands of wool, many landowners realized that sheep-farming was far more profitable than growing crops. in this way, the cruel enclosures started and peasants endured heavy exploitation. besides, the discovery of new lands had provided a large market for commodity production and sped up the accumulation of the capital. inwardly, renaissance, an ideological emancipation movement, had big influenced on peoples values, and humanism helped to prepare the conditions for the establishment of the capitalist mode of production in great britain. the britain bourgeoisie was preparing to grab political power and to build their empire.in 1640, the english bourgeois revolution broke out. on the one hand, the bourgeoisie had grabbed political power and had strong economic foundation to fight against the king. on the other hand, charles didnt obey the great charter and hadnt got the parliaments approval of increasing revenue. in the civil war, cromwell became an important role and finally beheaded charles . this revolution had promoted britains development pace. 2.3 the industrial revolution the british industrial revolution was a necessary result of social development in britain. in political aspect, the feudal ruling class lost its dominant position and bourgeoisie gapped political power in parliament which also settled a helpful class foundation. in economy aspect, they had accumulated abundant primitive capital. in ideology, influenced by renaissance and humanism, they were more open than others. besides, britain was gaining the upper hand in the contest to reign supreme on the sea, which expanded foreign market. all the factors combined together made the britain to be the first to undergo the industrial revolution and thus turned britain into the “workshop of the world”. now, lets explore its process and effects. the industrial revolution in britain first began in the textile industry. with the expansion of market, the demand for cloth also increased, which induced many new machines invented. and the most important one was steam engine invented by james watt in 1785, marking the beginning of the fast development of iron, steel and coal industries. following, the first steam locomotive and railway, promoting the transportation services, pushed the industrial revolution to a new stage. and under the help of steam boats, piled rivers, britain became the strongest sea power and had the largest commercial fleet in the world. as for effects, unquestionably, they were profound and significant. firstly, it gave the britain the glorious name “workshop of the world”. english products flooded the world market and the bourgeoisie amassed large amounts of wealth through trade, plunder and colonization, so no other country could match with britain. secondly, it simplified the class structure, pushing the middle class to the dominant position and coming into being the new major problem, which is between capitalists and the proletariat. thirdly, the gravitational center of economy also changed, from prosperous agricultural in the south to industries in the central and north england. lastly, effect on political was that the dissatisfaction of different representatives and the change of leader of parliament. 2.4 foreign plunder, expansion and aggression on the 7th july, 1588, the spanishs armada, the invincible fleet was defeated by english which made a big difference to englands getting sea supremacy as well as paving the way for her expansion. and elizabeth was regarded as the foundation-layer-of the british empire. during her reign, she encouraged her citizens to sail to trade, even plunder as much as they can. if they were accused of the international crime, the queen would deny that she had nothing to do with it, in order to avoid stigma from other nations. but if they succeed to return in triumph like respectable soldiers, she might even grant an interview to these gainers, which was considered as a noble glory. in this way, ordinary people were all inspired to voyage, bringing about the prospect of england: nearly every one became rich and the society simultaneously made big change. with flourishing economy and proficient navigation base, the expansion and aggression enjoyed an unprecedented foundation. if the land was sparsely populated, they just drove away or killed off the natives to make room for britain colonies. in other countries, they first knocked the door open with commerce, often backed by gunboats, and then, on a certain pretext, followed it up with armed occupied about 33million square kilometers, taking one fifth of the worlds total dry land. these areas ever provided raw materials or became her market. among them, the most famous one was east india company. all these factors enabled britain to be the “workshop of the world” and london became the financial center of the world trade. the british empire had climbed to her peak.3. the fall of great britaintowards the end of the 19th century, the british began to go downhill.3.1 the second industrial revolutionduring the second industrial revolution, british finally knew the drawbacks. firstly, the machines and equipment were old; peoples mind became rigid. instead of improving those hardware capacities, they only immersed in the victory and her thriving and invested their capital in abroad. hence many countries began to surpass british in many fields. americans and germans could start with the latest technology available, for example, cotton gin. the germans meanwhile surged ahead in the new industries such as electrical engineering, chemicals and dye stuffs. secondly, the british export trade relied too heavily on a few staple products. in the perspective of natural resources, british products were limited, only those clothing, textile, coal and steel industries.thirdly, too little attention was paid to the importance of science, especially electrical engineering. britains education system was not geared to producing academically trained scientists and engineers. the public schools concentrated on the classics and worked on the assumption that gentlemen did not go in for practical training, which had already been out of the fast industrial development step.as a result, britain economy developed not as quickly as other western countries. her gnp was surpassed by germany in 1955; france in 1964; and japan in 1965. britains weakened economic strengthen inevitably led to the drop of her international standing.3.2 the two world warsunder the two industrial revolutions pushing, more and more countries wanted to pursuit foreign markets and raw materials. therefore, the competition became fiercer, so did the struggle between repartition and anti-repartition. so many factors combined, the first world war broke out in 1914 and had lasted a little more than four years. as we all know, nearly every country had suffered from it except america.although britain was one of the victorious nations and won many new colonies from the germans in africa and the pacific, she could not continue to undertake the great expenses which were used to maintain an empire huge financial expenditure.millions of people died, and many assets were destroyed, and caused mounting debt, capital market turmoil. at the same time, nationalism in the new and old colonies are high, and the empire and the white soldiers fought in the war that felt in strong racial discrimination were much contributed to this kind of nationalism.economically, britain became debtor instead of creditor country and the economy postwar suffered depression, and the most important one was that the international financial center also transferred from british london to new york. on international influence, although britain in paris peace conference kept being a leader, her economic, military strength was retrogressing. eventually, britain could no longer maintain her hegemonic position. the most typical sign was the washington naval conference, limiting britains naval power, which showed that the british had to admit that she was no longer the global hegemony. on the colony, although territory increased, her control became weaker on account of large death and losses. then independence movements of colonies had affected british profoundlyabout ten years later, in 1929, a serious crisis started in america and soon spread to other countries. large unemployment caused endless demonstrations and strikes which shocked the whole capitalist world. hitlers constant thirst for power led europe into the second world war from 1939 to 1945. and the second world war witnessed the disintegration of the british empire.though britain and her allies won the war with germany being invaded and japan being hit by two atomic bombs, britain suffered heavy losses. repeated bombed, her financial position was greatly weakened and had to rely on america. the independence movement of colonies caused the british lose all her colonies except hong kong by the year 1970. as a result, the british empire gave way to the british commonwealth after 1931; her membership in european community was endorsed by a national referendum in 1975; britains defence policy is now based on the north atlantic treaty organization (nato). nowadays, the british empire doesnt exist and is replaced by the strong america, and then britain is a second-class developed country.4. conclusionlooking ba