ATTITUDES TOWARDS IMPERIALISM
1857-1890:
British Government & Party Political Conflict:
Gladstone – 1868, 1880-1885, 1886, 1892-1894
- Promised to abstain for territorial acquisitions, before 1850 both parties noninterventionist, preferred
free trade through chartered companies
- Wanted to consolidate existing empire with self-government.
- Accused Disraeli of stirring up jingoism
- Had to sort out Conservative interventionism – 1st Boer War provoked by Bartle frere who was
sponsored by Disraeli
- 1884 – Mahdist rebellion, ordered Gordon to evacuate British troops, but got involved in Egypt in 1882
- Berlin Conference 1884-1885 – made Bechuanaland and Somaliland into protectorates, maybe reluctant
as did not get involved when Germany took New Guinea 1884 but Premier of Queensland, Macilwraith
did establish control over Briths New Guinea
- Gladstone resigned in 1885 after 3rd reform act which extended vote to 5.5 million
- Sympathy for Irish nationalists, Home Rule bill introduced but failed in 1886 and 1893 due to Chamerlain
and splits in the loyalist party
Disraeli – 1868, 1874-1880
- 1852 – saw colonies as a burden
- 1870s - accepted conservatives as party of Empire – Crystal Palace speech
- 1875 – Brought £4 million of Suez Canal shares
- 1877 – made Queen Victoria Empress of India
- 1877 – appointed Lytton as Viceroy very pompous
- 1878 – invaded Afghanistan 1878 as feared Russian expansion to India
- 1877 – annexed Transvaal and waged war on Zulus, Conservatives lost election as result in 1880
- Lord Sailsbury took over Conservatives when Disraeli died, told Kitchener to defeat Mahdists in Sudan
1896, defeated French at Fashoda 1898
Public Opinions:
1850’s & 1860s saw growth of interest in Empire – stories and newspapers about heroism, explorations and
national upmanship
Education Act 1870 – higher literacy rates
Reform Acts 1867-1884 – extended vote, made public more aware of politics
1857 – reports from Indian Mutiny, grew imperialism from disgust of stories of massacres and tortures at
Cawnpore against the British, Major-General Henry Havelock turned into a national hero for recapturing
Cawnpore in July and Lucknow in September, when he died in November 1857 the public funded a statue of
him for Trafalgar square
1882 – Daily Telegraph, Evening News, Economist all reported sensationalist stories of Arabi Pasha’s revolt in
Egypt, encourage Gladstone to intervene
Story books such as Haggard’s King Soloman’s Mines had a young Victorian audience
The Boys Own paper appeared in 1879 and featured contributions from Baden Powell (founder of Boys
Scouts)
Boy Brigade founded in 1883
Growing racism – Britons believed they were the superior race, felt it was a duty to bring British civilisation
to ‘heathens’
Publication of Darwin’s origins of Species in 1859 led Quasi-scientists to apply natural selection to human
races
Popular exhibitions:
- 1851 – Great Exhibition
- 1862 – International Exhibition held in South Kensington featured 28,000 exhibitors from 36 countries
, - 1877 – a whole Nubian village with animals and humans from Sudan was put on display at London’s
Alexandra Palace
- 1886 – Colonial and Indian Exhibition with indigenous people brought over
- 1890 – Africa Exhibition showcased Stanely’s travels along with an African hut and two boys from
Bechuanaland
1890-1914:
Imperialism:
Supporters:
Boer War – largely gained support helping the Conservatives win the 1900 Khaki election, justifying British
intervention as a moral duty
Liberals were not expansionist but did encourage education and steps to self-government in colonies,
growing labour party agreed with this freedom through Empire rather than freedom from Empire
Conservatives (Lord Sailsbury) favoured stronger and more unified Empire seen through expansion and
development schemes
Racial duty – Milner, Curzon
High imperialist Chamberlain – saw a reorganised Empire as the solution to industrial and military
development of other countries, favoured tariff reform through Tariff Reform League (1903) to provide
funds to social reform and pensions – but too idealist and did not have w/c support
Victoria League founded in 1901 – non-political women’s organisation to promote closer imperial ties
Round Table Movement 1909 – founded from Milner’s idea of closer ties with self-governing colonies, 1910-
1911 SA, NZ, Aus, and Canada formed their own Round Table Groups
Empire Day – promoted by Lord Meath from 1902, officially recognised by Parliament in 1916
Leo Amery and Lord Beaverbrook helped represent Empire through newspapers
Critics
Hobson – wrote Imperialism in 1902, challenged imperialism as a capitalist plot for a minority of greedy elite,
Boer War was catalysed by a need to secure gold mines in SA
Hobhouse – challenged morality of treatment of Boers in concentration camps, led to government enquiry
Wilfred Blunt – poet who mocked Kipling’s work
National Efficiency:
Britain was humiliated by Boer challenge in war as it went on for longer than planned
Had to rely on Indian, Australian and Canadian troops
40% of British recruits were unfit for service, in Manchester 8000/11,0000 volunteers turned away
From 1902 journalists criticised the government fr allowing Biriths industrial decline by not introducing
health and educational reform
1902 Education Act (Conservative) – 1000 secondaru schools opened in the following decade, rose
educational standards
Modernisation of Royal Navy – introduction of dreadnaughts first launched in 1906
Imperial College founded 1907 – centre for technological, scientific and medical excellence
Liberal social reforms – FSM (1906), school medical inspections (1907), Children’s Welfare Charter (1908),
old age pensions (1908), trade boards act (1909), unemployment and health insurance (1911) – Lloyd-
George, Churchill, Asquith
Popular Culture:
Popular press – golden age, advances in printing, professionalism of journalism, Lord Northcliffe Daily Mail
from 1896 as a cheap, populist newspaper of low cost, during Boer War sold over a million copies a day, Mail
serialised patriotic books e.g., Wood’s The Enemy in our Midst
