An Imperial Nation? Imperial Expansion • 1815-1914: 10m square miles and 400m people added to Empire • 1857: Indian Mutiny leads to shift towards direct rule • Trading dominance also means an effective ‘informal Empire’ (eg Argentina) • International competition encourages ‘scramble for Africa’ late 19th century • 1919 (via territorial gains from Germany in Africa) Empire reaches its greatest extent: ¼ of world population and land mass (‘sun never set’) Sir John Seeley, The Expansion of England (1883) • Seeley described the (imperial) expansion of England as ‘the great fact of modern English history’. • Yet he also observed: 'We seem to have conquered and peopled half the world in a fit of absence of mind'. against popular imperialism • Whatever else it may have been, the British Empire in the early and mid-19th century was not a “people’s” empire. Those who say it was, or that imperialism pervaded British culture and society generally during this period, are simply wrong… There is no direct evidence that the great majority of Britons supported the empire, took an interest in it, or were even aware of it for most of the century; whereas much circumstantial evidence points the other way.’ They were too busy and too poorly educated to care, while the middle class and upper class imperialists were happy to keep the empire to themselves. (Bernard Porter, The Absent-Minded Imperialists) why Empire was absent from minds: Porter’s argument • Class variable: Empire a preoccupation of narrow upperclass elite, or those in upper-middle-class who have economic tie (‘gentlemanly capitalism’), but not the mass of population (though what about eg Lancashire cotton workers or Dundee Jute workers who did have economic tie?) Reinforced by David Cannadine’s picture of Empire reflecting and reinforcing class hierarchy in Ornamentalism • Critical of cultural historians who make too much of ‘shards’ of evidence. • Empiricist research questions extent of imperial reference in popular culture eg only 5 of 80 pre-1880 London statues • Debate partly depends on what one means by imperialist • Porter tends to see other motives/interests as primary • Middle class more motivated by capitalism, liberalism, or Christian evangelicalism • Even when popular imperialism appears to be at its height it is largely a vehicle for something else: opening of new markets, expansion of social services, school holidays … • Genuine imperialists a small elite of middle/upperclass outsiders and zealots – eg Joseph Chamberlain, Alfred Milner but … • But is then a false debate, based on a very exclusive definition of imperialist (‘zealots’), and taking out of play anyone who could have a reason • In fact in his introduction Porter also says that there was no non-imperialist choice: even critics of aspects of imperialism (eg J.A. Hobson) accept that colonies are inevitable. • The new imperial history instead sees the influence of Empire as everywhere. US historiographic and lateimperial context. British post-imperial reevaluation changes in last third of the nineteenth century: politics • Democracy (1867 franchise to urban working-class men): Disraeli 1872 Crystal Palace speech – popular appeal of Empire tied to monarchy (1872 Victoria becomes Empress of India); Liberal Unionists split from Liberals over Irish Home Rule leading to Tory dominance and new aggressive imperialism of men like Joseph Chamberlain and Alfred Milner popular culture • • • • • • Exploration of eg Stanley and Livingstone and popularisation of Empire; formation of geographical societies Pressure group politics: Imperial Federation League, founded 1884 Public outcry at death of General Charles Gordon at Khartoum, Egypt Fiction of writers like Rudyard Kipling (‘white man’s burden’); G.A. Henty (boys’ adventure and masculinity) Mass literacy: 1870 universal elementary education; 1881 free Music Hall (debates about reach, content and meaning) Or does popular imperialism reach its zenith in first decades of new century? • • • • Empire at maximum size 1920 Greater Britain of Empire and Commonwealth: ties of kin 1911-19: about 3m emigrate (surplus of 1m) 18th C 5,000/year; 19th C 20,000/year; pre WWI 300,000/year • Complex back and forth flow: analysis of passengers on ships • Imperial settlements within Britain (Elizabeth Buettner, Empire Families): Surrey Hills, Bayswater; but also British enclaves in Empire • ‘I pledge allegiance to my country, the British Empire’ (winner of school pledge competition South Australia, 1904) The ‘white dominions’ and a Greater Britain • • • • • • • 1867: Dominion of Canada becomes a selfgoverning federation 1901: Commonwealth of Australia established 1909: Union of South Africa given Dominion status 1917: Imperial War Cabinet 1926: Imperial Conference declares Great Britain and the dominions autonomous and equal though freely associated as members of the British Commonwealth of Nations: push or pull? 1931: Statute of Westminster embodies decision of 1926 Imperial Conference: essentially equal members of Commonwealth 4 nation state evolving into multi-nation Empire state with shared Britannic identity? A new sort of imperialism? • • • • • • • • • • • • International competition / ‘decline’ EHH Green, ‘The Crisis of Conservatism Tariff reform and economic importance of Empire trading Greater Britain of white dominions Imperialism and motherhood Racial thinking? Youth movements: Boy Scouts (1908); militarism and uniforms or era Emergence of popular national press: Daily Mail (1896); Daily Express (1900) Jingoism of ‘Khaki’ Election of 1900: J.A. Hobson ‘The Psychology of Jingoism’ (Ends WWI?): http://archive.org/stream/psychologyofjing00hobsuoft#page/n11/mode/2up Politicisation and state support: Empire Marketing Board Weakness of anti-imperialism? Welfare vision of imperial development eg Men of Africa (Colonial Empire Marketing Board, 1940): http://www.colonialfilm.org.uk/node/5730 Economics of Empire • • • • • • • Britain loses advantage as first industrial nation: new imperialism a sign of economic weakness rather than strength? Increasing importance of invisible trade of financial sector, and role in stabilising world economy (weakens after WWI; but trade with Empire increasingly important) Debate over going further via bonds of Empire, imperial preference (tariff reform) eg Joseph Chamberlain (also potential social benefits: tax and social reform) 1913 Britain sends 22% exports to Empire; 1938 sends 47% 1920-24 takes 27% imports from Empire; rising to 37.9% in 1938 By 1938, Empire receives 99% of British overseas investment 1933 Sterling Area created (context of world economic depression) Intersection with everyday lifestyles • Helps lower prices • Tropical fruit no longer a luxury • Chocolate overtakes boiled sweets (milk chocolate bars 1920s) • Banal nationalism: presence on coins, stamps, adverts … • But what does this mean in relation to the question of whether there was a popular imperialism: mindless? new institutions, invented traditions, the role of the state • British Empire Exhibition at Wembley – 17 million visitors • Empire Day • Monarchy, radio, and Empire • School text books and exams (David Cannadine memoir of growing up after the Second World War • Are such phenomena reflections of the view from above, rather than below? Cinema and popular imperialism (1935) • • • • • Popular entertainment driven by the market a better indication of feelings? Or eg Sanders of the River propaganda: Sanders saving Africans from self-destruction Radical Paul Robeson furious with result. Film dedicated to dedicated to "the handful of white men whose everyday work is an unsung saga of courage and efficiency". John Mackenzie: ‘an extraordinary indian summer in the popular culture of Empire … reflected assumptions of racial and cultural superiority’ Sanders of the River (1935): http://archive.org/details/Sandersoft heRiver Historians growing up • John Mackenzie: uncles and aunts emigrate to Canada and Australia; father (stonemason) goes to Africa for work on and off from 1920s to 1960s; JM spends some of childhood in Zambia; returns to Scotland for education and finds ‘Empire to be all around me’ • David Cannadine (‘an imperial childhood’ in Ornamentalism): b, 1950; significance of coronation fostering idea of greater Britain; enforced by reading, education, triumphs of civil engineering. But a superficial childhood vision, which clashes with increasing public anti-imperial and ‘de-imperializing’ episodes; but ‘part of me found it all very sad – for me, not for them’. But ultimately not ‘drenched’ in empire. Problems with popular imperialism • Meaning of popular culture: escapism; top down or bottom up; irony; convention rather than conscious embrace • Move away from seeing working class as passive, duped, irrational • Comparative perspective • Lack of movements in support • The left and anti-imperialism • Lack of resistance or upheaval in response to withdrawal • 1947/8 Colonial Office survey exposes public ignorance • Implications of the popular imperialism debate for the understanding of impact of End of Empire on nation Further reading, links to sources and reviews • IHR Empire in Focus: http://www.history.ac.uk/ihr/Focus/Empire/#r evwar • Sander of the River (1935): http://archive.org/details/SandersoftheRiver