To what extent was imperialism popular between 1975 and 1914?

classes and middle class elites, it was also extremely popular with the average Joe blogs. Empire created vast opportunities for foreign expansion, and many rich businessmen capitalised on this opportunity, and invested heavily in Empire, which made them very rich indeed. Yet it wasn’t just for pure greed, many truly believed that Imperialism was a great good, spreading light to the darkness of the African sub continent, bringing with it civilisation and Christianity. Through the media, the lower class blue collar workers were also won over to the idea of jingoistic imperialism. Papers including the Daily Mail and Daily express, read by millions across the country publicised all positive aspects of imperialism, while nearly all advertising for consumer products contained some element of the empire, be it a picture of Navy sailors smoking a certain cigarette, or how certain soap is so good it could even clean up Africa! This theory was highlighted by J.A Hobson, who stated that the working classes were won over by the conservative party and manipulated into being keep on Empire by politicians such as Disraeli, prime minister twice in the late 1860’s early 1870’s. This general popularity is evident in all aspects of British culture at the time, be it in the theatre, school textbooks, novels, poems and word of mouth folk songs. The popular poem by Rudyard Kipling, “The white mans burden” typifies this, explaining to children how white man had a natural duty to enlighten Africa. Throughout the 19th century there were a number of great exhibitions, celebrating all things British and Imperical, including the Empire of India Exhibition in 1895, the Greater Britain Exhibition in 1899 and of course the most famous of them all The Great Exhibition of 1851.It ran from the 1st may 1851 to 15th October, and was held In the original Crystal Palace in Hyde Park, London. Not only was it popular with over 6 million attendees, which accounted for about a third of the British population at the time, but many leading figures of the era attended, including Charles Darwin and most of the Royal family.         However, some, including some more modern “revisionist” historians argue that it was not as popular as people may think, especially among the working classes. They say that the working classes barely directly benefited from Empire, if at all. The phases of working class support were pure “jingoism”, in essence patriotic support for Britain ruling supreme. The one thing that is for sure, is that support for Imperialism started to diminish after the Boer war, which despite stated out with great optimism, and saw millions enlist to patriotically serve their country, marked the decline of empire after casualties soared to 20,000 lives at a cost of over £200million, which in today’s currency is an extortionate amount. After the Boer war people began to question Empire, and under the Government of Lord Salisbury and the like, general lust for overseas gains began to dwindle.         In essence, Imperialism was generally very popular with the masses for the majority of the later half of the 19th century. The elites liked it as it simply fortified their social positions with new wealth and stature, and the working class tended to like it as it was something they could aspire to. Crude patriotism was often enough to justify support for imperialism, just like supporting a football team, people thought it was their duty to support King and country no matter what. However, like most things this support had its time, and after a while the working classes in specific started to grow weary of Empire, realising it bought little for them, only for the rich privately educated army officers and wealthy bankers and investors. By the early 20th century, support for Empire was falling, and by the First World War, empirical expansion had almost stopped all together.