How important was the role of key individuals and groups and how were they affected by developments:1857-1890

Question 1

What was the role and influence on attitudes to empire of explorers & missionaries?

Answer 1

Early Victorian explorers and missionaries were vital to influencing the attitudes towards Empire at home in Britain

Question 2

David Livingstone

Answer 2

Explorer:
* Was a missionary doctor in Africa in the 1840s, but, upon his arrival back to Britain in 1856 he held a series of lectures at Cambridge talking about the geography, mineralogy, disease, language and cultures in Africa. He gained government funding for a return in 1858 with the title of Consul for the East Coast of Africa and began exploring the Zambezi river.

• He sent 2000 letters back to Britain which were thrilling the public imagination and his disappearance and subsequent discovery by Henry Stanley in 1871 cemented the public image of him as a martyr who sacrificed his life for Africa and Empire.

Question 3

Mary Selessor

Answer 3

Missionary:

• Victorian mill girl from Dundee who moved to Calabar, Nigeria
• Fought hard to end the local practice of killing twins (and mothers) due to their association with the devil

Question 4

Mary Carpenter

Answer 4

Missionary:

• British Christian mission who travelled to India in 1866, trying to improve female education by encouraging Indian and British colonial administrators to improve schools, hospitals and gaol.
• Won funding to set up a training college for female Indian teachers in 1868

Question 5

What was the role and influence on attitudes to empire of traders?

Answer 5

Traders who were seeking new markets or materials had an important role to play in development of attitudes to empire

Question 6

Cecil Rhodes

Answer 6

Trader:

• One of the prime movers towards British expansion in South Africa as a diamond magnate and Cape Colony politician, owning all of South Africa’s diamond mines (90% of global diamond production) and forming the British South Africa Company in 1889 which went on to control “South Zambesia but changed named to “South Rhodesia”.
• Rhodes framed his imperial beliefs in moral terms, reflecting the confidence and arrogance of the Victorian age “I content that we are the finest race in the world and the more we inhabit, the better it is for the human race.”

Question 7

What was the role and influence of colonial administrators?

Answer 7

British empire was run by ‘men on the spot’ who found themselves in positions of power in colonies sometimes taking decisions to gain more influence and bring more land to the Empire

Question 8

Sir Evelyn Baring

Answer 8

Administrator:

• Sent to help Isma’il Pasha with financial difficulties in Egypt in 1877 and returned in 1882 as Consul-General.
• He approved the Dufferin Report of 1883 which established Egypt as puppet and then ‘veiled protectorate’