Between these dates Gladstone was the leader of the Liberal party. He was anti empire and wasn’t in favour of expanding the Empire. In 1882 he took over Egypt by mistake and John Bright, a British radical and critic of British Foreign Policy left parliament because he was so angry that Britain had expanded ever further.
Many imperialistic views were taken up by the media, which was a good way of sending out imperialistic propaganda to the country; it could reach everyone ranging from upper class to working class. An education act was passed in 1880 stating that primary school was compulsory for everyone. This increased the literacy rate of the country so more people were able to read the newspapers and books written by men on the spot for example. G.A Henty (another strong supporter of imperialism) wrote books for children about the adventures of a plucky boy who always saved the day for Britain and the books made the empire itself seem fantastic from the way it was described. The newspaper industry was in the hands of Lord Harmsworth, the owner of The Daily Mail and The Daily Mirror. He was a massive imperialist and was in cahoots with the British Tory government so he put a lot of information about the Empire in the daily tabloids. This increased the support for imperialism in Britain because the public could see what was going on in the different countries and colonies and felt much more part of the process. After reading about the different countries and parts of the empire in books they could also picture what type of places were under their control and felt proud to have such a great and grand empire.
However, the media could also be very damaging to imperialistic attitudes of the general public. Between 1899 and 1902 the Boer war took place. There was a fight over the Transvaal which was entirely Britain’s fault. This war became famous very fast, not only was the media coverage much improved but so many mistakes were made by the British as well. The British general, Redvers Buller was useless causing Britain to start losing the war. This excited the general public who read all about it in the newspapers and made them doubt the power of the empire. In the second stage of the war, Britain sent in Kitchner and Roberts to replace Buller with an army of 23’000. The Mafeking was relieved by Baden Powell which resulted in parties and celebrations in Britain for the public and some of the imperial attitude returned. When the khaki election took place and Lord Salisbury returned to government over the Liberal party, again the imperialistic attitude is promoted more strongly. After battling hard the Boers still didn’t give up and Britain started to use different methods of warfare to beat them. The generals used concentration camps for the women and children and burnt down farmhouses and villages. This was all portrayed through the media and Emily Hobhouse (a journalist) reported to parliament the wrong doings of the army. Campbell-Bannerman was disgusted by this behaviour and said ‘When is war not a war? When it is conducted by methods of barbarianism in South Africa’. So, because of the power of the media, at this point in time the imperial bubble was burst and the public see that Britain is not as strong and civilised as they thought because they only just manage to scrape a win over the Boers. The support for imperialism decreases rapidly.
In Britain there was common thought that bringing about imperialism was supporting other countries and making them more superior and better than they were before. Social Darwinism, the study that said Britain was much more superior than other countries and that these inferior countries needed help to become like Britain. The only country that Britain thought were equal to themselves, was Germany. Empire was expanding trading opportunities and bringing civilisation, Christianity and commerce to others. Livingstone, a British missionary, believed that he needed to civilise the rest of the world, and by doing this could take over their countries at the same time and trade with them. Amongst the general public, this increased the support for imperialism because it was believed that expanding the empire was also for the good of others and not just a selfish thing to do (yet, expansion would make Britain very strong and rich anyway).
In my opinion, throughout this period, the support for imperialism decreases because of the Boer war. The conservative Politicians were very pro empire and I believe that Disraeli helped to promote it in Britain. However after 1902, many of the general public still backed imperialism, (especially the middle classes because the working classes had much more to worry about). The media helped imperialism really take hold in Britain but back fired during the Boer war because all were able to see what disgusting things were really happening in the empire.
Quick questions: The bit highlighted in green I was a bit confused on because I’m not clear who was PM at the beginning of 1880…! Looked through my notes, but they contradict some things I have read elsewhere!
How long do we get for writing each essay and how many marks are each worth?
Thankss!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
by
rosielorien (student)
