Why did Britain start colonising the world?

During the 16^th century CE, the need for woollen clothes in Europe steeply rose. Multiple laws facilitated British landowners to barricade their farmland. They fenced great tracts of land as pastures for sheep.

Manufacturers wove wool into garments. These clothes were sold in European countries. Landowners and those in the apparel industry grew wealthier. Many of them craved to grow even richer. Investing in colonies was a lucrative means to do so.

The unequal distribution of wealth created a socio-economic divide. Some hardly had any money to invest. Humble farmers who down the generations had grazed their flocks on tiny land plots they had rented from rich landowners, lost their livelihood when fenced territories were created to raise sheep.

Poor families were compelled to leave the countryside to look for employment opportunities in urban locales. Finding a job wasn’t easy. Many took to begging and crimes to survive. Relocating to the new colonies of England appeared as a solution to absorb the rising count of the underprivileged people displaced from their villages.  

https://pixabay.com/photos/lamb-farm-sheep-livestock-2216160/: Picture courtesy: Image by Catherine Stockinger from Pixabay 

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