If you're seeing this message, it means we're having trouble loading external resources on our website. Show If you're behind a web filter, please make sure that the domains *.kastatic.org and *.kasandbox.org are unblocked. The history of British imperialism during the nineteenth century describes a process of expansion and consolidation, its success all the more remarkable for its unpromising beginnings. The idea of empire had lost much of its attraction at the latter end of the eighteenth century, following revolution and war in North America and the loss of the thirteen American colonies. Maintaining an empire was no longer seen as a prerequisite for developing and protecting Britain’s international trade, and the influential economist Adam Smith argued in 1776 that ‘Great Britain derives nothing but loss from the dominion which she assumes over her colonies’.1 Even as he wrote, however, new forms of colonial domination were emerging at different locations around the world. From across the British Isles, large numbers of settlers travelled to the main “white colonies” (Canada, Australia and New Zealand), establishing institutions and forms of government that mirrored those of Britain. In India and Africa, a relatively small cohort of colonial administrators and armed forces imposed British rule in territories where British influence had previously been weak or non-existent. Canada
Australia and New Zealand The islands of what became New Zealand were initially destination for freed convicts and others migrating from Australia. They were annexed in 1840, and opened to direct settlement from Britain thereafter, a move which led to conflict with the Maori inhabitants. Like their counterparts in Australia, these were displaced from much of the land as settler populations expanded. New Zealand, Australia and Canada each attained a high degree of political autonomy over the course of the nineteenth century, as locally-elected bodies assumed responsibility for their own internal government. India By the mid-nineteenth century, the East India Company’s long-standing practice of managing states through “protective” agreements had been replaced by a drive to impose direct rule. Under the “doctrine of lapse”, the British administration took over control of kingdoms where a ruler had died without a recognised male heir; other territories, including the rich and historically powerful kingdom of Oudh, were annexed on the grounds that they had been mis-governed. The disaffection thus produced among the elite classes contributed to the 1857-8 insurrection against British rule traditionally, if controversially, known as the “Indian Mutiny”. Although the rebels held their ground for a time, and inflicted substantial losses on their opponents, the rising failed in its objective of dislodging the British. The Company’s government was replaced by direct rule from Britain, and Queen Victoria assumed the title of Empress of India in 1876. Unlike the white settler colonies of North America and Australasia, the Indian sub-continent never became a destination for large numbers of British emigrants. Most of those who made the journey travelled as employees of the East India Company, and returned once their employment was at an end. Nevertheless, the presence of British people, and the imposition of British rule, had substantial effects on the indigenous societies of India. Bengal suffered economic decline and famine in its first years under Company government. Across India, changes in the relationships between landholders, farmers and the state tended to disadvantage the old aristocratic classes, as well as leading indirectly to the growth of a strong middle class, especially in Bengal. Africa Other European countries maintained similarly limited holdings on the African continent. Outwith these areas, however, the social and economic fabric of indigenous societies had for a long time been affected by interactions with Europe, not least through the slave trade. As explorers and missionaries – some, like David Livingstone, celebrities whose exploits were widely followed in their home countries – moved inwards from the coastal settlements in the mid-nineteenth century, Africa became the focus of European interests, both commercial and humanitarian. From the 1880s onwards, amid a global economic recession, British imperialism acquired a new impetus: Japan, Russia, the USA, and other European countries such as Belgium and Germany were beginning to develop the means to compete as imperial powers, building modern navies and targeting the “unclaimed” areas of Africa. The “scramble for Africa” in the 1880s and 1890s saw the continent partitioned into European colonies: Egypt, the ‘Central African Federation’ (Northern and Southern Rhodesia, and Nyasaland), Nigeria and British East Africa were all among the territories that became part of the British empire. In the new British possessions, the practice of “indirect rule”, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa, emphasised the role of indigenous rulers and traditional institutions, but these were incorporated within a larger colonial administration under British control. African institutions and practices, though they retained their outward form, acquired new meanings and functions within the apparatus of imperial government. Imperial Britain As the British sphere of influence expanded, the idea of an imperial mission became a potent force in domestic British culture. The ‘Great Exhibition of Works of Industry of all Nations’ (1851), intended to showcase Britain’s industrial strength, brought the empire to London and reinforced its British audience’s perception of their own national identity as an imperial power. In the following decades, works such as Charles Dilke’s Greater Britain (1869) and J.R. Seeley’s The Expansion of England (1883) identified empire with Britishness, or more specifically with Englishness, and argued for the value to Britain of its overseas possessions as well as the special fitness of the English to rule over other people. John Ruskin spoke of the destiny of England in his inaugural lecture at Oxford University in 1870. He declared that England ‘must found colonies as fast and as far as she is able, formed of her most energetic and worthiest men; – seizing every piece of fruitful waste ground she can set her foot on, and there teaching these her colonists that their chief virtue is to be fidelity to their country, and that their first aim is to be to advance the power of England by land and sea’.2 Some of those men and women who travelled overseas – from Scotland, Wales and Ireland as well as England – may have done so in pursuit of this ideal; others were motivated by the prospect of a better life, and assisted (or in some cases compelled) by local authorities, landlords and charitable associations who saw emigration as relieving Britain of unproductive members of its own communities. A similar mix of idealism and pragmatism characterises the work of the various Christian denominations whose adherents made a large contribution, both intellectually and materially, to the project of Empire during the nineteenth century. The anti-slavery movement, active since the 1780s, had a strong Christian element, and succeeded in influencing public and political opinion in favour of the abolitionist cause. The slave trade was abolished within the British Empire in 1807, and slave-owning made illegal in 1833, although indentured labourers from India were later brought to the West Indies to replace freed slaves. Throughout the century, Christian missionary societies of various denominations, both Protestant and Catholic, sent men and women all over the world. These missionaries avoided involvement with trade or colonial administration, and their activities were sometimes discouraged by local authorities, as when the East India Company forbade missionary activity within its territories until 1813.3 In Africa they converted many to Christianity, but they met with little success on the Indian sub-continent, despite maintaining an active and well-funded presence there. Whether they succeeded or failed in their primary aim of making converts, missionaries across the Empire disseminated Western education and the English language, as well as encouraging the adoption of British-style clothing and the use of British manufactured goods.4 Their activities played an important part in shaping colonized people’s cultural and material experience of the Empire. The end of the nineteenth century saw Britain’s involvement in the second Boer War (1899-1902), the culmination of a long period of conflict in southern Africa. Volunteers from across the Empire fought on the British side, and the war ended with the annexation of two Boer republics. It was a victory achieved at a high financial cost, and the British “scorched earth” tactics and use of concentration camps caused great loss of life among the Boer population, both military and civilian. Initial enthusiasm for the war among the British public and the wider Empire quickly gave way to disaffection. There was no immediate threat to the Empire, which was to undergo yet further expansion in the decades following, but in a conflict that has been described as ‘the first of the twentieth century’s anti-colonial guerrilla wars’5, we can see early indications of the political, military and cultural forces that would eventually bring about its demise. ENDNOTES 1 Adam Smith, The Wealth of Nations 3rd edn (London, 1784), vol. 2, p.443. 2 John Ruskin, ‘Inaugural.’ Lectures on Art (London: George Allen, 1904), p.37. 3 Andrew Porter, ‘Religion and Empire’, in The Oxford History of the British Empire: The Nineteenth Century (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999), pp.229-31. 4 Jane Samson, ‘Reform and Empire’, in The British Empire, ed. Jane Samson (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001), p.121. 5 Christopher Saunders and Iain R. Smith, ‘Southern Africa’, in The Oxford History of the British Empire: The Nineteenth Century, ed. Porter. (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999), p.618. BIBLIOGRAPHY Dilke, Charles Wentworth. Greater Britain: A Record of Travel in English-Speaking Countries during 1866 and 1867. 7th edn. London: Macmillan, 1880. Marshall, P.J. ‘1783-1870: An Expanding Empire’, in P.J. Marshall (ed.) The Cambridge Illustrated History of the British Empire. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996. Ní Fhlathúin, Máire. ‘The British Empire’, in John McLeod (ed.) The Routledge Companion to Postcolonial Studies. London: Routledge, 2008. Porter, Andrew, ed. The Oxford History of the British Empire: The Nineteenth Century. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999. Ruskin, John. ‘Inaugural.’ Lectures on Art. London: George Allen, 1904. Samson, Jane, ed. The British Empire. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001. Seeley, J.R. The Expansion of England. London: Macmillan, 1883. CITATION: ní Fhlathúin, Máire: "The British Empire in the Nineteenth Century." 19th Century UK Periodicals. Detroit: Gale, 2008. DISCLAIMERAny views and opinions expressed in these essays are those of the author in question, and any views or opinions from the original source material are those of the publication in question. Gale, a Cengage Company, provides facsimile reproductions of original sources and do not endorse or dispute the content contained in them. Author affiliation and information within them are correct as of the original publication date. These essays, unless otherwise stated, are © Gale, a Cengage Company. Further reproduction of this content is prohibited. What were the factors that drove imperialism in the late 19th century?This New Imperialist Age gained its impetus from economic, military, political, humanitar- ian, and religious reasons, as well as from the development and acceptance of a new theory—Social Darwinism— and advances in technology.
What are the 3 major factors that drove European imperialism?In the late 1800's, economic, political and religious motives prompted European nations to expand their rule over other regions with the goal to make the empire bigger.
What are the 4 reasons for European countries to expand their empires?Strong among them are the satisfaction of curiosity, the pursuit of trade, the spread of religion, and the desire for security and political power.
What caused the expansion of Europe?The hemispheric dissemination of goods and knowledge not only sparked the Renaissance but fueled long-term European expansion. Asian goods flooded European markets, creating a demand for new commodities. This trade created vast new wealth, and Europeans battled one another for trade supremacy.
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