SINCE the time Britain colonised America and took over control of colonies of the other European powers that had occupied the land of America before her, the nations of Britain and America have had a strong brother and sister relationship. To this day, when America goes to war, Britain feels duty bound to follow suit. Although the Americans succeeded in declaring their independence from Britain in 1782, the model of governance that America adopted has always been inspired by Britain.
For instance, during British rule North America was divided into 13 provinces. When the Americans declared their independence, they united these provinces (states).
It is the same states that are represented by the 13 stars that appear on the American flag.
The Americans also used the colours red, blue and white as do many of the nations such as Australia that are historically connected to Britain.
The Americans also chose English as their first and official language which would be used in industries, schools and offices.
The United States is a former British colony notwithstanding the childish and sometimes meaningless changes, for example, in units of measurement and spellings of certain English words.
These cosmetic differences are an attempt by the Americans to feel distant from Britain, their former coloniser.
America and Britain cooperated throughout the period of slavery.
Whatever developments went on in Britain would be exported to its colonies.
In the 18th century, the British and the Americans, were equally involved in the enslavement of Africans.
There was a large number of African slaves in Britain and the British were responsible for two thirds of the estimated 90 000 slaves a year that were shipped to the American slave markets.
It was estimated that as many as 9,3 million Africans were transported and sold to America as slaves in that century alone.
Britain made profits transporting slaves to Europe and America.
In Britain itself, the ports of Southampton and Liverpool were built on slave labour and revenues from the slave trade.
Because of the high demand for slaves, ship building grew to be a big industry in a number of British coastal cities.
Slavery made it possible for capitalism to fester because it created individuals with tremendous wealth and these were found mostly among the slave dealers and slave masters.
Through free slave labour, dealers made a lot of money from agriculture and adopted capitalist behaviour as we know it today.
For instance, the slavery enriched whites began to invest their money in property. They began to worry about what would happen if their property was to be stolen or damaged.
This led to the establishment of insurance companies which guaranteed compensation in the event of loss.
The idea of making people pay a monthly sum of money to secure their investment came at a time when whites accumulated excessive amount of money from slavery.
Banks were also created from the large volumes of money earned from slavery. The slave traders had huge amounts of money and were concerned about its security.
Examples of the first banks that were built off slavery are Lloyds Bank and Barclays Bank.
Barclays Bank still thrives in Britain and former colonies, but few are aware that the bank was founded by two slave traders known as John and Alexander Barclays.
All these new developments in Britain were replicated in the United Sates often without any adjustment.
From colonies like Jamaica, the British would take sugar produced by the slaves to Europe.
More than 50 000 tonnes of sugar were shipped annually to Britain from Jamaica.
Slavery did not only create capitalism, but it also led to the agricultural and industrial revolution that was led by Britain and then adopted by America.
The agricultural revolution came as a result of the rise in agricultural production by slaves and the desire for higher yields by the slave masters and traders.
Because the basic necessity of food had been taken care of, the nation of Britain began investing in ways to improve agriculture.
Germany was leading in agricultural research at that time and the British made use of much of their material.
Britain also began hosting an event called the ‘Industrial Fair’ which saw thousands of foreigners coming into the country with the latest innovations and inventions in the agricultural and industrial fields.
Most of the machinery was to do with the processing of agricultural produce.
For example, weaving and sewing machines were advertised and would be used to process cotton into cloth and clothing.
There were also machines that processed sugarcane into sugar, hemp into cloth and so on.
This industrial fair was the reason for the industrial revolution in Britain.
Even farming machinery which reduced need for human labour significantly became available on the market.
Planters and harvesters in particular cut human labour to a point slave labour became a liability.
It was the industrial revolution in Britain which made the American industrial capacity to grow.
With the growth of industry and the availability of efficient machinery to replace slave labour, some Americans began seeing slavery as a hindrance to practising thorough industrialisation and capitalism.
In America, the north was quicker to industrialise and set up a capitalist economic system as had been done in Britain.
As a consequence, slavery in that part of America became outdated to the extent that even the black people were now employed to operate the farm machines.
In the south, however, the slave masters were unwilling to give up slavery so as to make way for full scale industrialisation.
The southerners were used to farming with slave labour and they had made profits for generations because of their slaves.
When it was proposed to them to replace slavery with industry so as to obtain higher yields with fewer requirements for human labour, the southerners felt like they were being swindled and they resisted vigorously.
The slave masters were used to enjoying free labour from their slaves and though they were open to using new technology, they were not willing to forgo their wealth which was in the form of slaves.
There was also a sense of prestige that the whites got from owning slaves and releasing them would strip away their high standards of living and inhibit the black slaves from basically worshipping them.
For many of the southerners, the idea of industrialisation became a threat to their social and economic order.
This resulted in a war between the North and the South which cost over a million lives.