Was late Victorian Imperialism purely economic in character?

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Tutor: Dr. A Warren        Exam no.44917

     

Was late Victorian Imperialism purely economic in character?

In 1870 Britain held only a few settlements in Africa, which were little more than trading stations along the path to India; neither Gladstone nor Disraeli envisaged further expansion however by 1890 Africa was firmly established into the British Empire under formal control. Why did Britain sit at the head of a vast African empire over which it had claimed it had no desire?

After 1870 the expansion of empire increased dramatically. Britain raced against the other European powers to acquire vast areas of land through formal annexation. Many historians including Cain and Hoppen agree with the theory of ‘new imperialism’ as opposed to Robinson and Gallagher’s continuity theory of empire. They saw that ‘suddenly and almost simultaneously between 1870 and 1900, the states of Europe began to extend their control over vast areas of the world’ (Wright) this was viewed as an increasing move towards formal annexation over informal control. This new imperialism was accompanied by vast social changes in British society and politics.

As Britain had peaked industrially earlier than the rest of the world, by 1870 industrial growth was beginning to stabilize, this, coupled with the rapid industrialisation of other great powers was seen by people of the time as factors signifying a ‘great depression’ in the British economy and lead to concerns over the balance of power within Europe which had previously favoured Britain, a change in this balanced was looking increasingly likely to be tipped in support of these growing powers. Britain was afraid that her status as ‘workshop of the world’ was declining and that she could no longer demand the economic domination she had done and was falling into decline.

 Politically, the enfranchisement of a middle class created an electorate of largely industrialists with more money and therefore a greater interest in the affect of external trade influencing their investments. As party politics reached its greatest height public opinion became progressively more important, and voters understood the relationship between the Empire and their finances.

Britain had favoured a policy of informal control over countries and an informal empire. Free trade imperialism had risen as a result of Britain’s industrialization where Britain abandoned and persuaded others to abandon protectionist policies this encouraged economic dependency on Britain as the informal colonies could not develop beyond primary producers. ‘This left Britain with economic and political hegemony as the chief centre of industrial wealth’ (Cain) Britain’s formal policy was of non-intervention in the aggressions of Europe in order to preserve this favourable balance of power they enjoyed prior to 1870, and to intervene only where significant threats to this power occurred, had been the current trend of foreign policy however, the world at wide was looking increasingly threatening to Britain. Other power were rapidly industrialising and bringing competition to the markets over which we had previously monopolised. Many Britons were aware of the external pressures on Britain with ‘the loss of the Navy’s maritime monopoly, the poor performance of British industry, the threat from foreign tariffs, and the manifold challenges to imperial security and overseas commerce.’ (Eldridge) the ideas of free trade and low armament expenditure were challenged by foreign protectionist policies, Egyptian and Irish Nationalism, and the Franco Russian fleets. The themes of Weltepolitik in Germany and the French expansionist ideas were clear in their aims at establishing for themselves and Empire as Britain had done, which demonstrates an economic and military threat to the balance of power Britain had enjoyed so much in Europe. Britain for the first time when considering formal control of a province, were aware of the very real problem of a third power. These changes in the world had created this era of ‘New imperialism’ and over the coming decades the world watched as Europe embarked on the scramble for Africa and Empires. The reasons for this are varied and overlapping.

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The changing status of the world has to be largely attributed to the development of global capitalism. This development was a massive economic change and had great implications in the imperial age. Lenin concludes that the rise of Capitalism is the factor that had determined imperialism. In fact that imperialism, was merely a stage in Capitalism. He argued using Marxist ideology, that by the 1870s the rise of Capitalism had caused the scramble for colonies. Internally capitalism had given economic status to an industrialised middle class with interests in investments who attained the vote were now able to influence ...

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