(11) Attitudes towards imperialism in Britain

Question 1

When was Queen Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee?

Answer 1

1897

Question 2

Supporters for Imperialism?

Answer 2

Khaki election - Conservatives won the 1900 election using the victories in the Boer War
High Imperialists =
Made people in colonies ‘subjects’ rather than citizens
Lord Curzon - Empire was ‘an instrument’ for the ‘good of humanity’
Alfred Milner - Round Table movement - promote closer union between Britain and its self governing colonies - All self governing colonies had them by 1911
Joseph Chamberlain - ‘National crisis’ of other powers developing faster than Britain that only the Empire could solve - ‘Imperial preference’
Victoria League 1901 - Womens league designed to bring union between the Empire
Empire Day - 1902 from Lord Meath
Daily Express in 1916 promoted the Day as the ‘imperial family’

Question 3

What were the views of the Empire among the political parties?

Answer 3

Conservatives - Good government and ‘White rule’
Liberals - ‘Education’ and improvement of colonies and their peoples to achieve self rule - however were still reluctant to bring an end to the Empire
Labour and Liberals agreed freedom ‘through’ Empire rather and ‘from’ it

Question 4

Lord Salisbury

Answer 4

Served three times as conservative Prime Minister
(85-86) (86-92) (95-1902)
Imperialist
British rule was better for the advancement of ‘backward’ races
Opposed alliance systems

Question 5

Critics of the Empire

Answer 5

John Hobson - economist who wrote Imperialism in 1902 - Empire only for the rich capitalists - his views catalysed by Boer War - was a ‘capitalist plot’ - aimed to secure gold reserves for rich British entrepreneurs
Emily Hobhouse - Welfare campaigner - led to report in concentration camps - tarnished Imperialisms reputation to civilise the world
Wilfred Blunt - said the real White Man’s burden was the ‘burden of his cash’ in response to Kipling’s poem
William Digby - Raised awareness about Indian grievances in the British Parliament in 1888

Question 6

Why was there need for National efficiency?

Answer 6

• 450,000 British troops served against 30,000 Boers for 2 and a half years
• Led to demand for a better quality army
• Needed ‘home grown’ soldiers not just those from the Empire
• 40% of British recruits from Britain were unfit
• Poor diet and living conditions weakened Britons manpower
• In 1902 newspapers would say that Newspapers said that Britains needed ‘national efficiency’ to stop decline

Question 7

How did Britain improve its ‘national efficiency’?

Answer 7

• 1902 Education Act - raise school standards and open 1000 new secondary schools in the following decade
• Modernisation of the Royal Navy - the Dreadnought - first launched in 1906 - In the wake of German naval expansion
• 1907 ‘Imperial College’ opened - centre for technological, scientific and medical excellence
• Liberal reforms - 1906 free school meals - 1907 School medical inspections - 1908 children’s welfare charter - 1908 old age pensions - trade boards act 1909 - unemployment and health insurance 1911
  New Liberal philosophy headed by David Lloyd-George and Winston Churchill

Question 8

Popular press

Answer 8

• 1890-1914 was the ‘golden age’ for newspaper publication
• Alfred Harmsworth pioneered the Daily Mail in 1896 aimed at the lower-middle class - sold at low price - during Boer war averaged a million copies a day - damming Boers and Kruger - Hobson criticised it for its ‘crude sensationalism’
• Changed to going against Germans leading up to warp

Question 9

Imperial literature

Answer 9

• Rudyard Kiplings - ‘White Man’s Burden’ - almost religious belief in empire - ‘The Jungle Book’ - Nobel Prize for literature in 1907
• G.A Henty’s tales of military campaigns ‘Dash for Khartoum’ - Victorian bestseller
• Gertrude Page - emigrated to Rhodesia in 1900 and produced 20 novels - British India became the most popular setting for her novels

Question 10

Imperialist music

Answer 10

• Edward Elgar - ‘Imperialist’ composer who created mental images with his music of the ‘nobility of the Empire’ - wrote ‘Imperial March’ for the Diamond Jubilee (1897)
• Sir Henry Coward took his Sheffield choir on a musical tour of the Dominions if 1911

Question 11

The Empire and its impact on the youth

Answer 11

• Increased education meant there was a new market for comics and imperial books - exotic tales in E.J Brett’s Boys of the Empire (1888-1900)
• Religious Tract Society produced the Boy’s Own Paper and the Girl’s Own Paper and secured up to a half a million readers from 1890-1914
• Comics read in schools and church halls
• Howard Spicer published a Boys Empire League of books which boasted 7000 members in 1900 - also annual book focusing on colonies and winner would receive £25 and a trip to a colony
• Boy’s brigade 1883 -
• Boy Scout Movement 1908 - trained on the Empire competitively for badges - prompted imperialism and to grow up in its service
• Girls guides 19012
• History and Geography books emphasised the glories of the empire and presented explorers and missionaries as heroes

Question 12

Representations of the Empire

Answer 12

• Through architecture = Lutyens - Johannesburg Art Gallery 1911 and the British Pavilion - invited in 1912 to design New Delhi as the new capital
• Represented through the Queens Diamond Jubilee 1897
• King George V’s coronation was also celebrated with a festival of the Empire at Crystal Palace in London 1911
• Imperial products were favoured
• Intra-Empire sports championship which became known as the British Empire Games (Commonwealth)