The British Empire

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it built its empire came at a price, and tragically, the price was paid largely by the indigenous peoples-tribes and communities who had lived in Britain's so-called 'new' lands for centuries. The unjust treatment of indigenous peoples ran the course of the British Empire. For example, in North America, local people were taken advantage of by greedy traders, robbed of their land and even faced violence and death at the hands of British settlers. During the Second World War, India suffered some of the worst famines (lack of food) in human history, partly caused by the British government taking vital supplies away from the Indian people to support the war effort elsewhere - causing the death of millions. Indigenous peoples in Africa were affected in their millions. The British took valuable materials like gold, salt and ivory out of Africa and sent it back to Britain, and elsewhere. The British were also heavily involved in the Transatlantic Slave Trade in West Africa Many indigenous peoples, including Indigenous Australians, lost not just their land, food and possessions, but their ditions, too. When British settlers arrived, they forcibly replaced the beliefs, language and traditions of indigenous populations with their own, removing their cultural identities. Governments and settlers drew up new borders and land boundaries that split the local people into new countries and categories that didn't represent them or reflect their heritage, history and customs. In some countries, these changes are still a source of conflict, even now. Today, many indigenous communities are trying to reconnect with the heritage the British tried to erase, by celebrating their cultural identities and protecting them for the future.