Explain Why The Unionists Won The 'Khaki' Election Of 1900

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Explain Why The Unionists Won The ‘Khaki’ Election Of 1900

The Unionist victory in 1900 was basically due to Unionist strength against Liberal incompetence.  In September of 1900, Salisbury decided to dissolve Parliament to hold a general election.  This was a tactical move, as the government had a majority of 120 and two years left on their current term in office.  This is due to the “Septennial Act, which laid down a maximum life of seven years for a Parliament.” (Addison)  This tactical move by Salisbury was cleverly calculated to occur at the same time as Britain seemed to be doing best in the Second Boer War.  As a result, they capitalized on Liberal weakness and apparent Unionist strength to hold office until January 1906.  This suggests that a factor for the Unionist victory was the perfect timing of it, when Britain seemed to be at its strongest.

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The Khaki election of 1900, is so called as it was an election heavily influenced by wartime sentiment.  Britain in September of 1900, appeared to be doing very well in the Boers.  Johannesburg had fallen on the 31st May and it was now “widely mistaken that the war was over.”  As a result Salisbury saw that victory in South Africa was too good an opportunity to miss.  This ‘victory’ would have caused a feel good factor around Britain and overwhelming support for the current government, the Unionists.  This evidence suggests that the Unionists won the 1900 election primarily due to ...

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