>>384213
Slaves and precious stones.

Also, colonization was impractical in those areas. Your "colonies" were mostly just fortified port-areas. White settlement would not venture inland until the 20th century.

>>384213
BIG

>>384231
>>384250
Don't forget naval and later coaling stations.

File: Power at sea.jpg (17 KB, 241x346) Image search: [Google]

17 KB, 241x346

>>384213

A lot of it was colonized primarily to secure coaling stations.

Your really valuable colonies were India, Australia, South Africa, and a few of the Guyanas. Problem was, you needed a fleet to defend them. In the age of sail, that's all well and good, but by the 19th century, ironclads demonstrated they could kick the shit out of any sailing ship, and that means you need to have them, because the French or the Italians or whomever might build them first.

Problem is, while an ironclad is way tougher than a wooden hull, they have absolutely shit cruising range, dictated by how much coal you can keep on board. You want a chain of ports under your control that you can have your fleet stop off and top up your bins at, one that stretches between the UK and India especially.

Pic related is a good book on the matter (and others, like the buildup to ww1)

>>384231
>slaves
by the time the west coast was properly colonized, slavery was abolished.

>>384278
The 1880s?

>>384289
Yes.

>>384289
>>384298
Actually, the slave trade properly ended in the early 1870s, although slavery itself continued in brazil until the 1880s. Still before colonization.

>>384262
Why were India and Australia so valuable colonies?

>>384313
>India
Cotton, Tea, Handicrafts, feudally accumulated gold and silver, Opium, Spices. Captive market for cloth (by destroying the internal cloth handicraft market).

>Australia
Wool. Later Beef, Mutton, Lamb, Wheat, Sugar, Coal, Iron Ore. Excess capital sink in a white majority country (ie: no risk of default or revolt). High labour cost internal reproduction: safe levels of return on investment.

>>384325
Thank you anon. Any good sites where I can inform myself better about it?

>>384348
>Any good sites
Sites aren't adequate in history.

Read Wallenstein for a background on the relations that compose the world system. Then perhaps try Noel Butlin on Australia. Or before Noel perhaps Connell & Irving: Class Structure in Australian History.

India, no fucken idea. Someone from LSE or SOAS?

>>384360
Thank you


Thanks to all

>>384307
>>384298
Even still, Britain had outlawed slavery completely by 1840.

DUDE FREE SHIT LMAO