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http://www.sarasuati.com
Tema 49:
Imperio colonial
británico: Siglo XVIII
& XIX. Conrad y
Kipling
Madhatter Wylder
06/06/2009
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Tema 49:
Construccción y administración del imperio colonial britá
ánico (siglos 18 y 19) : Conrad y Kipling.
2
Table of contents
1. Tim
meline. ____________________________________
________________________________
____ 2
2. Th
he creation of the coloniaal Empires. __________
________________________________
____ 4
2.11. Causes of the colonialism
m. _____________________
____________________________________
_____ 4
2.1.1. Increasee of the Populatiion. ______________________
_______________________________________
_____ 4
2.1.2. Econom
mic factors. ______________________________
_______________________________________
_____ 4
2.1.3. Politic factors.
fa
_________________________________
_______________________________________
_____ 5
2.1.4. Ideologiical factors. _____________________________
_______________________________________
_____ 5
3. Th
he British collonial Empirre.___________________
________________________________
____ 5
3.11. Chartered companies__________________________
____________________________________
_____ 5
3.22. The first Brritish Empiree (17th & begiinnings 18th C).
C ________________________________
_____ 7
3.2.1. The naviigation Acts.____________________________
_______________________________________
_____ 7
3.2.2. North American
A
Britishh Colonies _________________
_______________________________________
_____ 9
3.2.3. The Wesst Indies _______________________________
_______________________________________
____ 10
3.2.4. The Am
merican Revolutiion. ______________________
_______________________________________
____ 10
3.33. The second
d British Emp
pire (End 18thh & 19th C). ____________
__
________________________
____ 11
3.3.1. Australiaa. ____________________________________
_______________________________________
____ 11
3.3.2. New Zeaaland__________________________________
_______________________________________
____ 13
3.3.3. Canada ______________________________________
_______________________________________
____ 14
_______________________________________
____ 14
3.3.4. British India __________________________________
3.44. The new Im
mperialism __________________________
____________________________________
____ 16
3.4.1. South Africa
A
__________________________________
_______________________________________
____ 17
3.55. Decolonization _______________________________
____________________________________
____ 19
4. Josseph Conradd (1857 – 19924) __________________
________________________________
___ 20
4.11. Conrad’s Style.
S
_______________________________
____________________________________
____ 21
4.22. The Heart of darkness. _______________________
____________________________________
____ 22
4.2.1. The plott. _____________________________________
_______________________________________
____ 22
4.2.2. Setting _____________
_
__________________________
_______________________________________
____ 24
4.3.3. Themes ______________________________________
_______________________________________
____ 25
4.3.4. Point off view. _________________________________
_______________________________________
____ 26
_______________________________________
____ 26
4.3.5. Form annd structure._____________________________
5. Ru
udyard Kiplin
ng (1865 – 1936)
1
_________________
________________________________
___ 27
Biblioography ___________________________________
________________________________
___ 29
Brieff summary. ___________
_
_____________________
________________________________
___ 30
G
Anne
1. Timeline
T
e.
-1600: The ENGLISH EAST INDIA Company was establisshed to facilita
ate trade. (In)
-1642: Abel TASMAN discovered the islands of NEW ZEALAND
E
.
-1651: 1st NAVIGATION
A
ACTT: Goods manufactured in th
he British colo
onies must be transported in
n English vess
sels.
-1652: Small group of Dutc
ch settlers founded CAPE TOWN. (Af)
nd
C : Importing--exporting goo
ods from the British colon
nies must be done in English or
-1660: 2 NAVIGATION ACT
coloniial ships. Forb
bids some articcles to be ship
pped to any co
ountry, exceptt to England.
-1663: ROYALL PROCLAMATIO
ON ACT: UK fo
orbid westward
d emigration & kept the grasssland for the Indians.
-1672: ROYALL AFRICA COMP
PANY was form
med to bring large numbers
s of African sla
aves to the Ca
aribbean.
-1690: King William
W
defeatts the Irish and
d French armies at the Batttle of the Boy
yne in IRELAND
D.
-1702: Death
h of King William III, who iss succeeded by
b QUEEN ANN
NE.
England declares
s war on Fran
nce as part of the
t War of the
e SPANISH SUC
CCESSION.
-1713: The TREATY OF UTR
RECHT is signed
d by Britain an
nd France, finishing the Spa
anish Successsion War.
-1714: Death
h of Queen An
nne. She is su
ucceeded by KING GEORGE I.
A new
w parliamentt is elected w//a strong Whig majority, le
ed by C. Townshend & R. WALPOLE.
-1721: Sir Ro
obert WALPOLE
E returns to government
g
a becomes Britain's firstt Prime Minister.
and
Iván Matellaness’ notes
Af = Africa
Au = Australia
C = Canada
In = India
NZ = New Zealand
USA
A = United
State
es of America
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G IV
William IV
Victoria
3
Iván Matellanes’ notes
Edward VII
Africa colnization
NEW IMPERIALISM
-1727: Death of King George I (in Hanover), who is succeeded by his son as KING GEORGE II.
-1733: Molasses Act: Prohibitive duties were placed on molasses & sugar. (USA)
-1742: WALPOLE resigns as PM.
-1756: The SEVEN YEARS' WAR begins: Britain & Prussia vs. France, Austria & Russia.
British provoked the provincial ruler to attack their settlement in BENGAL. (In)
-1757: BATTLE OF PLASSEY: Robert CLIVE recaptured BENGAL. (In)
-1760: Death of King George II. He is succeeded by his grandson KING GEORGE III.
-1763: PEACE OF PARIS ends the Seven Years' War.
-1765: AMERICAN STAMP ACT: Raises taxes in the colonies to make their defense self-financing. (USA)
-1767: TOWNSHEND ACTS: New duties on glass, tea, and other imported items were created. (USA)
-1770: Captain JAMES COOK explored the eastern coast of New Holland. (Au)
-1773: BOSTON TEA PARTY: American colonists protest at the East India Company's monopoly over tea.
-1774: Parliament passes the COERCIVE ACTS in retaliation for the BOSTON TEA PARTY. (USA)
-1775: AMERICAN WAR OF INDEPENDENCE begins when colonists fight British troops at Lexington.
-1776: On 4th July, the American Congress passes their DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE from Britain.
-1783: Britain recognizes American independence at the Peace of Versailles. (USA)
British exercised a decisive political influence and become the actual rulers of BENGAL. (In)
-1784: Parliament passes the EAST INDIA ACT. (In)
st
-1788, the 1 ship with 750 convicts arrived at the most AUSTRALIA’s inhospitable area. (Au)
A group of English traders settled on VANCOUVER ISLAND. (C)
-1803: Britain declares war on France (Napoleon).
GENERAL ENCLOSURE ACT: simplification of the process of enclosing common land.
-1813: The monopolies of the East India Company are abolished. (I)
NEW ZEALAND was proclaimed as dependent of NEW SOUTH WALES under British protection.
-1815: The CORN LAWS are passed by Parliament to protect British agriculture from cheap imports.
Britain gained the CAPE OF GOOD HOPE ceded by the Dutch
-1820: Death of the blind King George III. He is succeeded by his son KING GEORGE IV.
-1830: Death of King George IV. He is succeeded by his brother, KING WILLIAM IV.
-1830-32: First major cholera epidemic in Britain
-1832: The 1st REFORM ACT: extends the vote to a 500,000 people & redistributes Parliamentary seats.
-1833: Abolition of Slavery throughout the British Empire.
FACTORY ACT: prohibits children less than 9 from working & reduces the working hours of women.
-1834: POOR LAW ACT: establishment of workhouses for the poor.
-1837: Death of King William IV. He is succeeded by his niece, QUEEN VICTORIA.
-1838: Britain repulsed the Boers and made NATAL a British colony. (Af)
-1840: TREATY OF WAITANGI: Captain William HOBSON negotiated with the MAORI the cessation of New Zealand’s
sovereignty to the Crown. They create a compact between the Crown & MAORI.
-1841: British acquisition of HONG KONG after the OPIUM WARS.
-1847: Lord ELGIN was made Governor of the newly united colony of CANADA. (C)
-1848: Parliament passes the PUBLIC HEALTH ACT.
-1857: SEPOY REBELLION: An army of Bengal attacked British settlers. (In)
Jozef Teodor KONRAD Korzeniowski (Joseph CONRAD) is born.
-1858: India ceased to be administered by the EAST INDIA COMPANY but by the British government.
-1865: Rudyard KIPLING is born in Bombay.
-1867: BRITISH NORTH AMERICA ACT: United Ontario, Quebec, New Brunswick and Nova Scotia in the
confederation of Canada with its capital at Ottawa.
-1869: The Suez Canal is opened.
-1871: Trade Unions are legalized.
-1874: Benjamin DISRAELI became Prime Minister.
-1880: Paul KRUGER proclaimed BOER REPUBLIC independent of Britain's Cape Colony. (Af)
-1882: Britain occupies Egypt in order to preserve control of the Suez Canal. (Af)
-1884: Parliament passes the 3RD REFORM ACT which further extends the franchise.
-1890: J. CONRAD traveled to the Congo.
-1891: John MACKENZIE became Minister of Lands and Immigration (NZ)
-1894: British acquisition of UGANDA. (Af)
KIPLING published his JUNGLE BOOK.
-1896: The British conquest of the SUDAN begins. (Af)
-1898: British rule over SUDAN fully established. (Af)
Publishing of HEART OF DARKNESS, by Conrad.
-1899: British disasters in SOUTH AFRICA. (Af)
-1899-1902: BOER WAR between the British and the descendants of the Dutch settlers (Boers). (Af)
-1900: Parliament passes the COMMONWEALTH OF AUSTRALIA ACT. (Au)
-1900: British to take control of the BOER capital: Pretoria. (Af)
-1901: Death of Queen Victoria. She is succeeded by her son KING EDWARD VII.
KIPLING published KIM.
-1902: TREATY OF VEREENIGING: End the Transvaal and the Orange Free State as Boer republics.
-1907: KIPLING is granted the Nobel Prize in Literature
USA
INDEPENDENCE
George III
George II
Tema 49:
Construcción y administración del imperio colonial británico (siglos 18 y 19) : Conrad y Kipling.
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Tema 49:
Construcción y administración del imperio colonial británico (siglos 18 y 19) : Conrad y Kipling.
4
2. The creation of the colonial Empires.
At the second half of the 19th C, the European countries rush into a
competition to occupy other continent in search of raw materials for
their industries. The main objective of this competition was not to pay for
these materials taxes. The need for rise, wheat, silk or wool forced the
European countries to form a communication web in order to trade them
among the different colonies. This period, typically btw 1870 & 1914, was
labeled as IMPERIALISM ERA.
2.1. Causes of the colonialism.
There are different causes of the imperialism in Europe.
2.1.1. Increase of the Population.
The increase of the population in many countries triggers a strong
demographic pressure, which have no other solution than the resettlement
of lots of families in other continents to begin a new life. 40,000,000
Europeans left their homes during the 19th C up to 1930. These have been the
most important migrations ever known.
AMERICA becomes a reachable dream, a place where quick fortunes
grow from the air. This migratory flow is also stimulated by the colonies, whose
identities were very similar to that of the immigrants’ homelands (in language
and political organization).
2.1.2. Economic factors.
The
economic
factors
have
been
overrated,
but
they
cannot
underestimate. England, France, Germany, Holland & Belgium found in
other countries investment for their private companies: Build a new
railway net, modernize the harbor’s installations, give loans to the governments
which lack money to modernize their infrastructures.
The economic crisis of 1873 triggers the governments towards a
protectionist policy, which causes the need to find new unprotected taxless
markets.
Iván Matellanes’ notes
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Tema 49:
Construcción y administración del imperio colonial británico (siglos 18 y 19) : Conrad y Kipling.
5
2.1.3. Politic factors.
One nation’s Prestige was a clear factor for imperialism, for
instance France, whose colonialism was mainly inspired by the wish of
forgetting the 1870’s defeat 1 . At the moment it was believed that the
prestigious a country was, the more colonies it should posses. In fact,
this idea comes from the historic Spanish empire (at its decline in the 19th
C), which was one of the most important empires all over the world when it
control almost the whole American country.
2.1.4. Ideological factors.
Ideological reasons are usually used as an excuse for expansion:
Great Britain wants to “civilize” other societies, Italy remembers nostalgically
the Roman Empire, Spain still cries for its golden century. Catholic and
Protestant missionaries feel the urgent need to evangelize the new
uncivilized countries.
3. The British colonial Empire.
3.1. Chartered companies
British colonialism in the 17th century had obeyed a desire to expand
British commerce. Nevertheless, the British government did not apply a
direct control on their colonies. The
CHARTERED COMPANIES
(especially the
East India, Levant and Hudson’s Bay) were the ones to carry about the
whole process of export-import, working mainly in the so called
TRIANGLE:
A
COMMERCIAL
England-Africa-West Indies.
CHARTERED COMPANY
is a trading corporation enjoying certain
rights and privileges, and bound by certain obligations under a special
charter granted to it by the sovereign authority of the state (first the
King, after the Glorious revolution the House of the commons). In UK the first
trading charters were granted, not to UK companies, which were then nonexistent, but to branches of the HANSEATIC LEAGUE2, & it was not till 1597 that
England was finally relieved from the presence of a foreign chartered company.
1
2
Franco Prussian War
Organization founded by North German towns to protect their mutual trading interests.
Iván Matellanes’ notes
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Tema 49:
Construcción y administración del imperio colonial británico (siglos 18 y 19) : Conrad y Kipling.
6
It was in the age of Elizabeth and the early Stuarts that the
CHARTERED COMPANY
had its rise. The discovery of the New World, and the
opening out of fresh trading routes to the Indies, gave an
extraordinary
impulse
to
shipping,
commerce
and
industrial
enterprise throughout Western Europe. The chartered companies which
were formed during this period for trade with the Indies and the New World
have had a more wide-reaching influence in history. The extraordinary
career of the EAST INDIA COMPANY is dealt with elsewhere.
CHARTERS were given to companies trading to GUINEA, MOROCCO,
GUIANA and
THE
CANARIES, but none of these enjoyed a very long or
prosperous existence, principally because of the foreign competition. It
is when we turn to NORTH AMERICA that the importance of the
COMPANY,
CHARTERED
as a colonizing rather than a trading agency, is seen in its full
development. Most of the 13 British North American colonies were in their
beginning chartered companies.
There are two classes of charters are among the early American colonies:
1. Those granted to trading associations, which were often useful when
the colony was first founded, but which formed a serious obstacle to its
progress when the country had become settled and was looking forward to
commercial expansion; the existence of these charters then often led to
serious conflicts between the grantees of the charter and the colonies.
2. Those granted to the settlers themselves, to protect them against
the oppressions of the crown and the provincial governors. These
were highly prized by the colonists.
If we investigate the economic ideas which encouraged the
granting of charters, we shall find that they were entirely consistent with the
general principles of government at that time: Under the old regime
everything was a matter of monopoly and privilege.
The causes of failure of the old chartered companies are to be
attributed to:
a. Bad administration
b. Bad economic organization
c.
d. Distribution of dividends made prematurely or fictitiously.
Want of capital and credit
Iván Matellanes’ notes
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Tema 49:
Construcción y administración del imperio colonial británico (siglos 18 y 19) : Conrad y Kipling.
7
It must not be forgotten that they contributed to the commercial
progress of their own states. They gave colonies to the mother country,
and an impulse to the development of its fleet. In the case of England, the
companies saved them from suffering from the monopolies of Spain
and Portugal. The wars were paid for by the companies. They offered a
career for the younger sons of good families.
During the last twenty years of the 19th C there was a great revival of
the system of chartered companies. This modern companies are not like
those of the 16th & 17th C. They are not privileged in the sense that those
companies were. They are not monopolies. They have only a limited
sovereignty, always being subject to the control of the home
government. The charters of modern companies differ in two points
strongly from those of the old:
-
They contain clauses prohibiting any monopoly of trade
-
They generally confer some special political rights directly under
the control of the state. The political freedom of the old companies was
much greater. In these charters state control has been made a
distinguishing feature.
3.2. The first British Empire (17th & beginnings 18th C).
3.2.1. The navigation Acts.
Throughout the colonial period, after the middle of the 17th C, the one
great source of irritation between the mother country and her
colonies was found in the NAVIGATION ACTS. The double object of these
acts was to protect English ship delivery, and to secure a profit to the
home country from the colonies. The LONG PARLIAMENT, in 1642, exempted
New England exports and imports from all duties.
In 1651 the first of the famous NAVIGATION ACTS was passed. No
goods manufactured in Asia, Africa, or America should be transported
to England except in English vessels. The law was directed against the
Dutch maritime trade, which was very great at that time. But it was not
strictly imposed, and in New England scarcely at all.
Iván Matellanes’ notes
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Tema 49:
Construcción y administración del imperio colonial británico (siglos 18 y 19) : Conrad y Kipling.
8
In 1660 the second of these memorable acts was passed, adding
much to the first. This act forbade the importing into or the exporting
from the British colonies of any goods except in English or colonial
ships and it forbade certain articles (tobacco, sugar, cotton, wool, dyeing
woods … ) to be shipped to any country, except to England or some
English plantation. Such goods were to pay heavy duties when shipped
to England or any other British colony.
In addition to these laws there were two other classes of laws, all
belonging to the same system, which tended to impede the development
of the colonies: THE CORN LAWS and
CORN LAWS
THE LAWS AGAINST MANUFACTURING.
The
practically shut out from England grain raised in the
colonies. This drove NEW ENGLAND and NEW YORK to manufacturing, and
this again led England to forbid manufacturing in the colonies. These laws
were far more effective than the NAVIGATION ACTS.
Probably the most sever of England's laws in the suppression of
colonial trade was the MOLASSES ACT of 1733. By this act prohibitive duties
were placed on molasses and sugar, from the French West Indies to the
colonies. If the MOLASSES ACT had been imposed, the prosperity of New
England would have been at an end.
Despite of all efforts, the NAVIGATION ACTS could scarcely be
enforced at all. It may be said that the whole people became lawbreakers,
and often the customs officials and even the governors conspired at their
practice. Smuggling was universal, since it was estimated that 4000 people
in Great Britain did smuggling for a living (French silks, India tea …).
To sum up, these laws made England the first market of the
colonies. The COMMERCE
AND PLANTATIONS OFFICE
ruled their economic life. A
great amount of colonial goods could only be exported to England or
to other British colonies. Colonials who bought in another British colony had
to satisfy their export tariffs, otherwise they had to sail, for instance, from New
York to London to buy rice from the Carolinas. No European goods could be
imported to the colonies unless it had been previously unloaded and
shipped again in England.
On the whole, the British policy was
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Construcción y administración del imperio colonial británico (siglos 18 y 19) : Conrad y Kipling.
9
unfortunate for British interests; it served to alienate the colonists,
little by little, & prepared them for the final break with the mother land.
3.2.2. North American British Colonies
These colonies were, at first, deeply divided between them (chiefly
for religious disagreements). They were independent from each other, & their
indifference and hostility went so far as to deny help in times of war.
Nevertheless, the colonies had some common interests which would
join them against the British government. Though from a political point of
view they could be classified into three different types of colonies, they were
rather similar:
-
ROYAL COLONIES (owned by the king)
LANDOWNER COLONIES (owned by a single individual as Maryland or Pennsylvania)
CHARTING COLONIES (owned by a group of investors and run through a corporation, as
Connecticut and Rhode Island).
HOW COLONIAL GOVERNORS WERE CHOSEN
ROYAL COLONIES
LANDOWNER COLONIES
(Virginia, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, North
(Pennsylvania,
Carolina, New York, New Jersey, Delaware)
Maryland, Georgia)
King
↓
governor
Proprietor
↓
governor
HOW COLONIAL LEGISLATURES WERE CHOSEN
ROYAL COLONIES
LANDOWNER COLONIES
Proprietor
voters
King/governor Voters
↓
↓
↓
↓
Upper house lower
upper house
lower house
house
(council)
(assembly)
(Council) (assembly)
PROBLEMS: struggle against
In MASSACHUSETTS:
the council and governor
Voters → Lower house → upper house
(chosen by the proprietor)
CHARTING COLONIES
(Connecticut, Rhode
Island)
Voters
↓
Governor
CHARTING COLONIES
Voters
↓ ↓
Upper house Lower
house
(Council)
PROBLEMS: Only
landowners were allowed to
vote.
PROBLEMS: Colonials were against Council, Governor and
even the Monarch. Governor and King had the right to veto a
law and colonials did not accept this control.
These colonies had a representative bourgeois system. They elected
Assemblies, whose duty was to vote their laws. In all those assemblies, the
right to vote was exclusive to wealthy landowners, and it was rather
usual to demand for particular religious conditions.
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Construcción y administración del imperio colonial británico (siglos 18 y 19) : Conrad y Kipling.
10
3.2.3. The West Indies
In 1600, the English East India Company was established to facilitate the
trade. The first British foothold in the West Indies was Saint
CHRISTOPHER in 1623. The English plantations established in the West Indies
were worked initially by white indentured servants from England. The West
Indian tobacco gradually diminished its production and was replaced
by sugar, which required a larger labour force that was provided by slaves
from Africa. This began the transformation of the islands into a
plantation economy based on slavery.
In 1670 England, the sugar economy expanded, and the ROYAL AFRICA
COMPANY was formed in 1672 to bring large numbers of African slaves to the
Caribbean. The plantation owners obtained labour, but at the cost of anxiety
about their own security; by the 1670s slaves had become the largest
proportion of the population in the English islands.
3.2.4. The American Revolution.
For 30 years, Anglo-American relations moved towards shipwreck.
Although the majority politicians were indifferent to American problems, their
minds were quite inflexible on the theoretical relationship btw the mother
county and the colonies. Colonies were predetermined by God to provide
raw materials and to accept manufactured articles in return. To the
majority of population America was the dumping ground for thieves,
bankrupts and prostitutes for which they receive tobacco in return.
In 1763, England had defeated France in the
SEVEN YEAR’S WAR.
The
contest had been extremely expensive. GRENVILLE, the Prime Minister, decide
to limit the costs and make the Americans pay a part. In order to limit
costs, he prevented Indian Wars. GRENVILLE forbid westward emigration &
reserved the grassland for the Indians. The Americans ignored his
Indian policy. Finally, in 1765, a stamp duty was imposed on legal
transaction on America, the money raised was to be used towards the cost
of colonial defence. To the Americans, it was the final act of tyranny.
Iván Matellanes’ notes
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Tema 49:
Construcción y administración del imperio colonial británico (siglos 18 y 19) : Conrad y Kipling.
In
1767,
11
Charles
TOWNSHEND
(British
chancellor
of
exchequer)
the
imposed
a
whole of series of import
duties, making it absolutely
clear that the government
intended to raise income.
All
the
were
that
TOWNSHEND ACTS
withdrawn, except
of
tea,
which
was
maintained for form’s sake.
When
the
COMPANY
EAST
reduced
INDIAN
the
prize of tea so drastically
that that made smuggling
unprofitable, the colonies refused to accept the tea, and, at Boston, they
boarded the ship and throw the cargo into the sea. The port was closed
and the Massachusetts Charter was suspended. Nevertheless, the war of
independence would not start until 1775.
GEORGE III thought that, after a few years of anarchy, the States
would beg to be taken back into the empire. There is no doubt that the
American revolt led to a new attitude towards the empire. A
considerable body of opinion believed that the colonies were lost because
of indifference, as they did not realize that colonies were like children
who grew to maturity.
3.3. The second British Empire (End 18th & 19th C).
3.3.1. Australia.
One result of the separation of the American colonies was that the
British legal system lost one of the places to which convicts could be
transported (Canada's climate was too severe for plantations & thus slave or
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Tema 49:
Construcción y administración del imperio colonial británico (siglos 18 y 19) : Conrad y Kipling.
12
convict labor). After considering Africa, the British government decided that the
lands called BOTANY BAY would be suitable & in 1788, the 1st ship with 750
convicts arrived at the most Australia’s inhospitable area.
Dutch sailors had landed on the northern & western coast of Australia in
1606, but they were driven off by natives. It wasn't until 1770 that Captain
JAMES COOK explored the eastern coast of what was then called New
Holland and took possession of the continent in the name of GEORGE III. The
whole of Australia may have had no more than 250,000 natives at that time.
There was lots of room to accommodate British convicts, further shiploads of
which caused the early settlement to move to an area to be named Sydney, in
NEW SOUTH WALES.
A growing population which had hitherto been regarded as one of the
strengths of the nation now found itself as something of annoying. There
simply were too many people to feed and control. Increasing poverty,
along with really bad harvests, massive unemployment and public debt, needed
drastic remedies. Perhaps emigration was the remedy for overpopulation. Most of the emigrants chosen for government-assisted passages
in these early years were Irish (one way to get rid of those troublesome
Catholics), but also many Scots were attracted by the offers of free land
overseas.
The continent of Australia had more and more begun to appear
as a practical proposition for settlement, since it offered an alternative to
the vast wildernesses of Canada. However, thousands of convicts continued to
arrive each year, and from 1820-60 new colonies were established: SOUTH
AUSTRALIA, VAN DIEMEN'S LAND (later named Tasmania);
THE
SWAN RIVER
COLONY; VICTORIA, transformed by the discovery of gold at Ballarat &
QUEENSLAND. The rapid increase in the number of free settlers led to demands
for some kind of self-government as had been granted to Canada. A
Parliamentary
Committee
condemned
the
convict
system
and
gradually each Australian colony banned their importation. In 1856 all
four colonies were granted constitutions which gave them responsible selfgovernment; Queensland and Western Australia soon followed suit.
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Construcción y administración del imperio colonial británico (siglos 18 y 19) : Conrad y Kipling.
13
3.3.2. New Zealand
In 1642 the Dutch captain Abel TASMAN discovered the islands of
NEW ZEALAND. In 1769, Captain COOK arrived to charter the coasts and
to discover that the country consisted of two main islands. Gradual
penetration by settlers, whalers, convicts and missionaries followed, and in
1813 the islands were proclaimed as dependencies of NEW SOUTH WALES
under British protection. Mainly due to missionary activity anxious to protect
the native Maori population from exploitation, in 1840 Captain William
HOBSON was sent out from London to negotiate with the MAORI chiefs for
the cessation of sovereignty to the Crown.
There were many land disputes between the MAORI and the
WHITE SETTLERS,
but under the leadership of Sir GEORGE GREY, 1845-53,
native lands and possessions received some kind of protection. The
MAORI had grouped together in the face of increasing immigration from
Britain. The TREATY OF WAITANGI (1840) was signed by many MAORI chiefs,
and though some antipathy among the Maori people (12% of the country's
population) it remains an important symbol for the equal partnership between
the races that is the foundation of New Zealand's national identity. The TREATY
OF
WAITANGI is an agreement which forms a compact between the Crown
& MAORI. It recognized the prior occupation by Maori people of New Zealand.
It enabled the peaceful acquisition of land for settlement purposes &
ensured that immigrants could come and live here in peace. It
allowed the Crown to set up a government to establish laws. In return
the Crown were to guarantee and actively protect Maori tribal authority
over
their
lands,
fisheries,
forests,
villages,
treasures
and
culture
and extend to them the status and rights of British citizens.
New Zealand particularly owes a great debt to John MACKENZIE, who
had left Scotland in 1860 to become a farmer in his new country. In Scotland
he had developed a deep antagonism towards the power of the
landlords to deprive small farmers. MACKENZIE entered politics to
prevent it from happening in his adopted land. He was elected to Parliament
in 1881 as a Liberal, becoming Minister of Lands and Immigration in 1891
Iván Matellanes’ notes
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Construcción y administración del imperio colonial británico (siglos 18 y 19) : Conrad y Kipling.
14
under Prime Minister John BALLANCE, equally committed to protecting the
small farmers against violation by the large landowners.
3.3.3. Canada
Captain James COOK had made three exploratory voyages to the
West Coast of Canada (1768-1781). Because the Chinese were very
interested receiving fur in exchange for the tea, silks and porcelain in so
much demand in Europe, the lucrative fur trade beckoned further English
interest. In 1788, a group of English traders settled on Vancouver
Island. Spain still claimed the whole West Coast of America but the Spanish
lack of an effective navy forced them to accept this new settlement.
There were different kinds of settlers. Many thousands of Empire
loyalists left the United States after its independence to settle in
Canada. Perhaps the Canadian province most closely connected with Scotland
is Nova Scotia New Scotland. 7/8 of its people acknowledge British ancestry,
mainly Scottish.
In 1847, Lord ELGIN was made Governor of the newly united
colony of Canada. By the 1860's, the fear of economic and political
subordination to the US stimulated the movement to combine the eastern
Maritime Provinces to the rest of Canada. In 1867 the BRITISH NORTH AMERICA
ACT united Ontario, Quebec, New Brunswick and Nova Scotia in the
Dominion of Canada with its capital at Ottawa, first settled in 1827.
3.3.4. British India
The foundations of the British Empire in India were laid by Robert
CLIVE, known as the conqueror of India. CLIVE first arrived in India in 1743
as a civil servant of the EAST INDIA COMPANY. He later was transferred to
the military service of the Company. Robert CLIVE defeated the pro-
French forces at ARCOT in 1751 thus helping his EAST INDIA COMPANY to
monopolize appointments, finances, land and power. The British
victory led to the withdrawal of the French EAST INDIA COMPANY. He
returned to England in 1753 & tried to win a seat in the House of Commons,
but he failed and was attacked by his creditors & political opponents.
Iván Matellanes’ notes
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15
Meanwhile, In BENGAL the British had provoked the provincial ruler into
attacking their settlement in 1756 and the Company required the
services of an able commander. Clive returned to India eagerly. He arrived
in India this same year and at once secured the British forces in MADRAS.
He then moved to Calcutta and early in 1757 he recaptured Bengal. As
a result of these events, by 1783 the British exercised a decisive political
influence along the south east coast and had become the rulers of BENGAL.
During the first part of the 19th C, India was still under the control
of the EAST INDIA COMPANY, an establishment originally created for issues of
trade but expanded to include governorship. Under the guidance of the
EAST INDIA COMPANY the borders of British control in India expanded
through
a
series
of
wars
and
annexations. These activities were not
always known to England, for news took up
to a month to travel home.
WARREN HASTINGS took over to
strengthen British interests in India
When Clive was recalled to England and he
established
a
basic
pattern
of
government that remained virtually
unchanged for 100 years. HASTINGS was
impeached by Parliament for enriching
himself excessively in India. His trial
was closely studied in 1999 by members of
the US Senate in their own impeachment
proceedings against President CLINTON.
India was regarded as the jewel in the crown of the British Empire;
over 2/3 of the vast sub-continent was ruled by the EAST INDIA
COMPANY. Its finances and its troops were used to protect British interests,
even overthrowing native Indian princes.
Iván Matellanes’ notes
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16
Indian population gradually began
to resent British rule, feeling that
the British had no respect for
native cultures and traditions.
These feelings came to a head in
the SEPOY REBELLION of 1857, in
which
the
army
of
Bengal
attacked British settlers. After
atrocities on both sides, the revolt
was finally crushed by 1858, the
majority
of
Indians,
having
remained loyal. As a result, the
British
gave
up
trying
to
anglicize India and focused on
governing
efficiently
while
working in tandem with traditional
elements of Indian society. After
1858
India
ceased
to
be
administered through the EAST
INDIA COMPANY and was brought
directly
under
British
government.
3.4. The new Imperialism
The government of Benjamin DISRAELI (1874-1880) adopted a more
active British policy overseas. This so-called NEW IMPERIALISM was
characterized by much more aggressive imperial expansion and defence
of British interests overseas. DISRAELI had the idea of expanding the
Empire to not only create trade and bring profit, but also to spread
British ideas of democracy and law, as well as the Christian (and
Protestant) religion.
The SUEZ CANAL (1869) offered a 5,000 mile shortcut from Britain
to India and the east, to Australia and New Zealand. FERDINAND
DE
LESSEPS
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Tema 49:
Construcción y administración del imperio colonial británico (siglos 18 y 19) : Conrad y Kipling.
17
was sole controller of the Canal, but he sold shares to many French
gentry, and the Egypt Khedive also held quite a bit. The sum of these
shares was the SUEZ CANAL COMPANY. Disraeli was interested in buying part
of the Suez for Britain. The biggest opposition would come from the
French, who knew something that “nobody else did”: that the Khedive
needed cash fast and had decided to sell his shares. French took their
time raising the money, as they thought they were the only who knew it.
However, Disraeli also knew it and asked for a loan for ₤4,000,000 to buy
the shares. The other countries realized late and Disraeli had already bought
the shares. He then convinced the Queen and Parliament to pay off his
debt and Britain controlled the Suez Canal for 84 years.
In 1882 British troops occupied Egypt in order to preserve
control of the Suez Canal. After the occupation of Egypt, a race to
establish colonies in Africa arose. Britain, which competed principally
against France and Germany, made a series of claims in West Africa in the
1880s, mainly in the Niger River Valley. Additional colonies were established
in southern Africa.
In East Africa, British explorers were active from the 1850s in the search
for the source of the Nile, and in 1864 Sir Samuel Baker discovered Lake Albert;
the acquisition of UGANDA in 1894 eventually secured Britain’s political
dominance in the region. About the same time, British settlement in
KENYA began.
3.4.1. South Africa
In 1652, a small group of Dutch settlers founded Cape Town. In
1815, Britain gained its long-desired half-way house on the sea route to
India when the Dutch ceded the CAPE OF GOOD HOPE. By 1826, Britain's
Cape Colony had extended its borders to the Orange River. In 1834,
XHOSA
TRIBESMEN
revolted against Dutch invasion on their lands but
were defeated. The seeds of later conflict, however, involving British,
Dutch and native Africans were sown.
Soon after Britain abolished slavery in its Empire in 1833, Dutch
farmers in South Africa began their great Trek north and east of the
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Tema 49:
Construcción y administración del imperio colonial británico (siglos 18 y 19) : Conrad y Kipling.
18
Orange Rivers. In the next two years, some 10,000 Boers (Dutch colonists)
moved to new lands beyond the Vaal River. They were to found NATAL,
TRANSVAAL and the ORANGE FREE STATE. In 1838, Britain repulsed the
Boers and made Natal a British colony in the pretext of protecting the
natives. In 1856, Britain made NATAL a Crown colony; and the Boers
established the South African Republic (TRANSVAAL)
Events became
worst btw Boers and
Brits when diamonds
were discovered in
the ORANGE FREE STATE.
The British ignored Boer
claims to the territory,
annexing it and
TRANSVAAL. The Boers
demanded a
restoration of their
independence & fully
expected it from British
PM GLADSTONE. His
slowness led to the
Boers taking up arms.
In December 1880 a
BOER REPUBLIC
independent of
Britain's Cape Colony
was proclaimed by Paul Kruger. After a British defeat, the TREATY OF
PRETORIA gave them self-government for the Boer Republic.
When gold was discovered in the Transvaal in 1886, the drive to
annex the Boer republics began. Cecil RHODES was dreamed of
extending British rule in Africa, building a railroad from the Cape to
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Tema 49:
Construcción y administración del imperio colonial británico (siglos 18 y 19) : Conrad y Kipling.
19
Cairo but the Boers were in the way, controlling the key areas of the
Transvaal and the Orange Free State. The BOER WAR began in 1899.
The Boers, under the leadership of Paul KRUGER received military
equipment from Germany. They had a series of successes on the borders of
Cape Colony and Natal between October 1899 and January 1900. However,
army reinforcements arrived in South Africa in 1900 enabled the British to
take control of the Boer capital (Pretoria) on 5th June. For the next two
years, Boer commandos attacked isolated British units in South Africa. The
British Chief of Staff in South Africa, reacted to this guerrilla attacks by
destroying Boer farms and moving civilians into concentration camps.
The British action in South Africa was strongly opposed by many leading Liberal
politicians as an example of the worst excesses of imperialism. The Boer
War ended with the signing of the TREATY
OF
VEREENIGING in May 1902. The
peace settlement brought to an end the Transvaal and the Orange Free
State as Boer republics. However, the British granted the Boers £3
million for restocking and repairing farm lands and promised eventual
self-government (granted in 1907).
3.5. Decolonization
The British Empire was in a fragile equilibrium in 1939. Colonial
Development and Welfare Acts were passed in 1940 and 1945. Prime Minister
Winston CHURCHILL joined with USA President F. D. ROOSEVELT signed the
ATLANTIC CHARTER
in
1941,
which
declared
the
right
of
self-
determination for all colonies.
The results of these actions were seen quickly in Asia, where INDIA
and PAKISTAN gained independence in 1947, and Ceylon and Burma in
1948. Only Burma did not remain a member of the Commonwealth. Of Britain’s
Asian possessions, only HONG KONG was still under British control after 1950,
and it was returned to the People’s Republic of CHINA in 1997. In 1948
Britain also gave up its control over PALESTINE. In Africa, Britain
assumed that self-government would be much longer in coming, but it
was wrong. In the 1950s the British government recognized the winds
of change in Africa, and many nations gained independence:
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Tema 49:
Construcción y administración del imperio colonial británico (siglos 18 y 19) : Conrad y Kipling.
SUDAN (1956)
NIGERIA (1960)
SIERRA LEONE (1961)
With
the
TANGANYIKA (1961, LATER TANZANIA)
UGANDA (1962)
ZAMBIA (1964)
KENYA (1963)
MALAWI (1964)
end
of
the
empire,
a
20
THE GAMBIA (1965)
BOTSWANA (1966)
SWAZILAND (1968)
multiracial,
coequal
Commonwealth of Nations evolved, which had modest utility but
generally cooperative feelings. Today there are 54 Commonwealth
nations, and even most of those states that left the Commonwealth for one
reason or another (such as South Africa and Pakistan) have found cause to
return.
4. Joseph Conrad (1857 – 1924)
Joseph Conrad didn't set out to become one of the great English
novelists. He didn't set out to be a novelist at all, but a sailor, and
besides, he wasn't English. English was his third language and he didn't
begin learning it until after he was 20!
He was born Jozef Teodor Konrad Korzeniowski in 1857, in an area of
Poland that was part of Russia. The Poles were fighting for independence
from Russia, and both parents were fiercely engaged in the struggle. Conrad's
father was arrested in 1861 for revolutionary activity, and the family was exiled
to the remote Russian city of VOLOGDA. Her mother died of tuberculosis when
Conrad was only 7. His father's spirit was broken, and so was his health. He
died there after a year, when Conrad was 11.
For the next several years Conrad was raised by his maternal
grandmother. A stern but devoted uncle, Tadeusz Bobrowski, saw to his
education. Bobrowski had a lot to put up with. Conrad wasn't much of a student.
At the age of 14 the boy wanted to become a sailor. In 1874, at the age of 16,
Conrad traveled to Marseilles to learn the seaman's trade.
During his four years in the French merchant marine, Conrad sailed
to the West Indies and possibly along the coast of Venezuela. Since the young
man couldn't serve on another French ship without becoming a French citizen,
he signed on at the age of 20 to an English steamer (1878). For the next
16 years he sailed under the flag of Britain, becoming a British subject in 1886.
Life in the merchant marine took him to ports in Asia and the South Pacific,
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Tema 49:
Construcción y administración del imperio colonial británico (siglos 18 y 19) : Conrad y Kipling.
21
where he gathered material for the novels he still didn't know he was going to
write. His depressive and irritable disposition didn't make sea life any
easier for him. He quarrelled with at least three of his captains, and
he continued to suffer from periods of poor health and paralyzing
depression.
In 1888 Conrad received his first command, as captain of the
OTAGO, a small ship sailing out to Bangkok. It was an exhausting journey and
he decided to resign the command and return to England. Back in England,
Captain Korzeniowski (as he was still known) wasn't able to find another
command, and so through the influence of relatives in Brussels he secured an
appointment as captain of a steamship on the Congo River: he was
fulfilling a lifelong dream –Africa-. But the dream quickly turned into a
nightmare. Though his experiences in Africa were to form the basis of his most
famous tale, Heart of Darkness, he returned to England traumatized.
Though Captain Korzeniowski didn't know it, his sea career was drawing
to a close. In 1889 he had started a novel based on his experiences in
the East. He worked on it in Africa and on his return, and in 1895 it was
published as Almayer's Folly by Joseph Conrad. It was, like most of his books
over the next two decades, a critical but not a popular success.
Conrad died in 1924 at the age of 66. He had attained international
renown, but even then he was popularly regarded mainly as a teller of
colorful adventures and sea stories. But his experiments in style and
technique exerted a major influence on the development of the modern novel.
4.1. Conrad’s Style.
-
Topics are usually connected with his early life: when he was exiled
to the remote Russian city of VOLOGDA, the loneliness he felt when he was
sailing through the seas, the adventures and violence he saw during his
travels. That is probably why many of his characters commit suicide
(he himself attempted suicide after his deception with Spanish carlista war)
and he usually narrates his experiences at sea.
-
His heroes have to experiment their personal torments beyond the
limits of civilization. They are men out of their civilization: If they do not
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Tema 49:
Construcción y administración del imperio colonial británico (siglos 18 y 19) : Conrad y Kipling.
22
go mad, they became slaves to their vices. Eventually, some of them
become heroes, some others become criminals.
-
He
shows
a
lack
of
interest
in
Victorian
and
Edwardian
preoccupations. There are no social abuses or class prejudices. Characters
are not fashionable, clever or sophisticated.
-
He is an admirer of the English. He admires the English sense of duty,
the practicality and the kindness that is found in Englishmen.
-
There is a sense of remoteness in his work: characters are made real to
the reader by their environment.
Conrad also shows a distinctive language style:
ƒ
His late start of English makes his works proliferate in uncertainties of
idiom, though he is considered one of the recognized masters of English.
ƒ
His fears of missing something important to understand the story
makes him overload his pages: He has been criticized that his best
descriptions are spoiled by over-elaboration.
4.2. The Heart of darkness.
4.2.1. The plot.
HEART OF DARKNESS centres around MARLOW, an introspective sailor,
and his journey up the Congo River to meet KURTZ, reputed to be an
idealistic man of great abilities. MARLOW takes a job as a riverboat
captain. As he travels to Africa and then up the Congo, MARLOW encounters
widespread inefficiency and brutality in the Company’s stations. The
native inhabitants of the region have been forced into the Company’s service,
and they suffer terribly from overwork and ill treatment at the hands of the
Company’s agents. The cruelty of imperial enterprise contrasts sharply
with the impassive and majestic jungle that surrounds the white
man’s settlements.
MARLOW arrives at the Central Station, run by the general manager,
an unpleasant character. He finds that his steamship has been sunk and
spends several months waiting for parts to repair it. His interest in Kurtz
grows during this period. The manager and his favorite, the
BRICKMAKER,
seem
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Tema 49:
Construcción y administración del imperio colonial británico (siglos 18 y 19) : Conrad y Kipling.
23
to fear KURTZ as a threat to their position. KURTZ is rumoured to be ill,
making the delays in repairing the ship all the more costly. Marlow eventually
gets the parts he needs to repair his ship, and he and the manager set out with
a few agents and a crew of cannibals on a long, difficult voyage up the river.
Marlow and his crew come across a hut with firewood, together
with a note saying that the wood is for them but that they should
approach cautiously. Shortly after the steamer has taken on the firewood, it
is surrounded by a dense fog. When the fog clears, the ship is attacked
by an unseen band of natives, who fire arrows from the safety of the forest.
The African helmsman is killed before Marlow frightens the natives away
with the ship’s steam whistle. Not long after, MARLOW and his
companions arrive at KURTZ’s Inner Station, expecting to find him dead,
but a half-crazed Russian trader, who meets them as they come, assures them
that everything is fine and informs them that he is the one who left the wood.
The Russian claims that KURTZ has enlarged his mind and cannot be
subjected to the same moral judgments as normal people. Apparently,
KURTZ has established himself as a god with the natives and has gone
on brutal raids in the surrounding territory in search of ivory. The
collection of severed heads adorning the fence posts around the station attests
to his “methods.”
The manager brings KURTZ, who is quite ill, aboard the steamer. A
beautiful native woman, apparently Kurtz’s mistress, appears on the shore and
stares out at the ship. The Russian implies that she is somehow involved
with Kurtz and has caused trouble through her influence over him. The
Russian reveals to Marlow, after swearing him to secrecy, that Kurtz had
ordered the attack on the steamer to make them believe he was dead
in order that they might turn back and leave him to his plans. The
Russian then leaves by canoe, fearing his manager. Kurtz disappears in the
night, and Marlow goes out in search of him. MARLOW stops him and
convinces him to return to the ship. They set off down the river the next
morning, but Kurtz’s health is failing fast.
Iván Matellanes’ notes
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Construcción y administración del imperio colonial británico (siglos 18 y 19) : Conrad y Kipling.
24
Marlow listens to Kurtz talk while he pilots the ship, and Kurtz
entrusts Marlow with a packet of personal documents, including an
eloquent pamphlet on civilizing the savages which ends with a
scrawled message that says, “Exterminate all the brutes!” The steamer
breaks down, and they have to stop for repairs. KURTZ dies, uttering his last
words —“The horror! The horror!”— in the presence of the confused Marlow.
Marlow falls ill soon after and barely survives. Eventually he returns to Europe
and goes to see Kurtz’s intended (his fiancée). She is still in mourning, even
though it has been over a year since Kurtz’s death, and she praises him as a
paragon of virtue and achievement. She asks what his last words were, but
Marlow cannot bring himself to shatter her illusions with the truth. Instead, he
tells her that Kurtz’s last word was her name.
4.2.2. Setting
Although most of the action in Heart of Darkness is set in the jungles of
the African Congo, the tale itself is narrated by a sailor aboard a
pleasure boat at the mouth of the Thames River outside London. Both
the time of day and the spot are significant. It's sunset; as the tale turns
gloomier, images of darkness get more and more pervasive. The
evening grows gradually darker, so that by the time Marlow finishes, late
at night, his listeners have literally been enveloped in darkness. The
setting right outside London would put them next to the great seat of
civilization. A strategic place from which to hear a tale of the wilderness. In fact,
for an English sailor the mouth of the Thames would mark the point
between the light of civilization and the unknown ends of the earth.
But by the end Marlow has made it clear that the darkness he is talking
about has almost as much to do with the city as with the jungle.
Marlow's adventure takes place in the CONGO FREE STATE, an area that at
the time was the personal property of LEOPOLD II, king of the Belgians.
There had been a lot of empty talk about Leopold's philanthropic and civilizing
activities in the Congo, but by 1899, when HEART
OF
DARKNESS 1st appeared,
the severe conditions that actually prevailed there and the inhumane
treatment of the African natives were becoming widely enough known
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to create an international scandal. CONRAD, who served as skipper of a Congo
steamer himself in 1890, knew the true conditions, and much of the
gruesome detail is drawn from observation. But he exaggerated a few
points for literary purposes. Specifically, the Congo was already far more
controlled by Conrad's time than the novel suggests. The river had active
trading stations, and the station that would have been the equivalent of Kurtz's
Inner Station had a number of company agents, not just one. Conrad's
departures from the reality serve to emphasize the isolation of his
characters, and thus to intensify the theme of solitude.
4.3.3. Themes
The
DARKNESS
of the title is the major theme of the book, though the
meaning of that darkness is never clearly defined. On the whole it stands
for the unknown and the unknowable; it represents the opposite of
the progress and enlightenment that dominated the 19th century. Not
many years before, it had been widely believed that science was eventually
going to cure the ills of the world; but by the end of the century a deeper
pessimism had taken hold. Science had turned out to be a deception, at least as
a route to human happiness (the world wasn't getting any better). The heart
of darkness stands for many things: the interior of the jungle, the
Inner Station, Kurtz's own black heart, perhaps the heart of every human
being. CONRAD leaves the meanings of this darkness unclear on purpose.
There are several running subthemes that you should note. Foremost
among these is the notion of work. Whatever the darkness is, the best
way to prevent it, and to stay sane, is by working. Conrad doesn't
pretend that work is enjoyable, but it strengthens your character and
makes you less likely to lose your control in difficult situations. (One
reason most of the white characters in the novel are so unattractive is that they
don't do their work.) Another value he holds in esteem is Self-control. It may
save you from the gloomy consequences of thoughtless action. Conrad
shows us two unsettling examples of individuals who lack restraint. One is the
black helmsman on Marlow's boat; his inability to control himself leads to
Iván Matellanes’ notes
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his death. The other example is Mr. Kurtz, whose lack of control is to a large
degree the subject of the plot.
Another running theme could be called the distrust of high ideals, or
words, which is surprising from a novelist who was so verbose himself. CONRAD
and his alter ego, MARLOW, don't trust words. Actions are what you
have to judge people by: actions can't lie, but words can.
4.3.4. Point of view.
MARLOW is clearly CONRAD's alter ego; his opinions don't differ
significantly from what we know about the author's own. But Marlow
has tremendous importance as a literary device. By using an actual speaking
sailor to tell the story, Conrad goes just about as far away as you can get
from the typical 19th C novel's omniscient narrator (the all-knowing voice
of an impersonal author who told you not only what happened to the characters
but also what went on in their minds.) We're never allowed to know more
than MARLOW himself, and MARLOW knows only what he perceives
through his senses. Thus, we're never directly told what, for instance,
motivated Kurtz. Instead, we get Marlow's speculations on what their
motivations might have been.
The meaning of the novel lies not only in what happened in
Africa, but also in Marlow's conviction that he has to tell others about
these events as a kind of warning. The representative Victorians aboard
the Nellie need to be told about the threat of the darkness, the threat to
progress and enlightenment, because for the most part the Victorian
world hadn't acknowledged that threat.
4.3.5. Form and structure.
HEART
OF
DARKNESS is structured as a journey of discovery, both
externally in the jungle, and internally in Marlow's own mind. The
deeper he penetrates into the heart of the jungle, the deeper he looks
into himself; by the climax, when Kurtz has been revealed for the disgrace he
is, Marlow has also learned something about himself. And he returns to
civilization with this new knowledge.
Iván Matellanes’ notes
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Tema 49:
Construcción y administración del imperio colonial británico (siglos 18 y 19) : Conrad y Kipling.
Formally, HEART
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27
DARKNESS looks forward to many of the
developments of the modern novel: most notably the fracturing of time.
Marlow doesn't tell his tale straight through from beginning to end;
he'll skip from an early event to a late event and back again. Thus, we
get several pages about Kurtz (Marlow's impressions and evaluation of his
behaviour) close to the end of Chapter II, but Kurtz himself doesn't appear on
the scene until some way into Chapter III. Nor would a typical 19th-
century narrator interrupt a buildup of suspense like the depiction of
the boat waiting to be attacked in the fog with a lengthy digression
on cannibalism and self-restraint. But Marlow does. He's describing the
fog and the fright of the white pilgrims on board, which leads him to recall the
reactions of the black Africans on board, and suddenly he's off on a tangent
about cannibalism that brings the development of the action to a complete
halt. In a more traditional novel this passage would have been reserved for a
more appropriate place, for example, when the author first introduced the
cannibals. But Marlow imparts his thoughts as they occur to him.
Conrad was trying to find a form that more closely followed the
contours of human thought (a less artificial form than the traditional novel.)
Later novelists notably James Joyce and William Faulkner, took these
experiments with fractured time and space much further.
5. Rudyard Kipling (1865 – 1936)
Rudyard KIPLING was born in India and, at the age of six, he was sent
to England for his education. For his six years in England, he was
desperately unhappy. His parents had made a disastrous choice of a
Calvinistic foster home where he was treated with considerably cruelty. His
parents finally removed him from the home and sent him to a Private school at
the age of 12, where his experience was much better. His views in later life
were deeply affected by the English school boy code of honour and
duty, especially when it involved loyalty to a group. At 17 he rejoined his
parents in India, where his father was a teacher of Sculpture at the Bombay
School of Art. For seven years he lived in India, as a newspaper reporter and
a part-time writer before returning to England, where his poems and stories
Iván Matellanes’ notes
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Tema 49:
Construcción y administración del imperio colonial británico (siglos 18 y 19) : Conrad y Kipling.
28
had brought him early fame. In 1892, after his marriage to an American woman,
he lived in Vermont (USA) with her. He seems to have been the 1st English
author to own an automobile, which was appropriate because of his interest in
all kind of machinery. He was also the first English author to receive the
novel prize for Literature (1907)
In the final decades of the 19th C, India was the most important
colony of Britain’s empire. British people were consequently curious about
the world of India, a world that KIPLING’s stories and poems showed to
them. During his seven years in India in the 1880s, Kipling gained a rich
experience of colonial life, which he presented in his stories and poems. His first
volume of histories ,Plain tales from the hills (1888), explores some of
the psychological and moral problems of the Anglo-Indians and their
relationship with the people they had colonize. In his two Jungle Books
(1894-95) he ingeniously uses the Indian scene to create a world of
jungle animals. And although Kipling never fully understood the way of
life of the Indians or their religions, he was certainly fascinated by them
and tried to portray them with understanding. This effort is especially
evident in his Kim (1901), in which the contemplative and religious ways
of the Indians is treated with no less sympathy than the way of life of the
Victorian English governing classes. It is usually said that Kipling, one of the
great masters of the
SHORT HISTORY
was not as successful with long narratives,
but Kim disproves this idea.
In his
POEMS,
KIPLING draws on the Indian scene most commonly
as it is viewed through the eyes of private soldiers of the regular army.
KIPLING is usually thought of as the poet of the British imperialism, as
indeed he often was, but in his poems about ordinary British soldiers in
India, there is little flag-waving celebration of the empire’s triumph. The
soldier who speaks in the widow of Windsor is simply confused by the
events in which he has taken part. As one of the soldiers of the Queen, he
has done his duty, but he does not see the course of the empire as a divine
design in which he has been a contributor. In presenting India through the
Iván Matellanes’ notes
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Tema 49:
Construccción y administración del imperio colonial britá
ánico (siglos 18 y 19) : Conrad y Kipling.
29
eyes
s of the soldier,
s
KIPLING
I
usua
ally reflectts racist attitudes
a
, such as those
t
in The
Th ladies, which preesent day readers
r
ma
ay found offensive.
o
This fre
esh perspective of the comm
mon indivvidual, exp
pressed in
n the
Lond
don accen
nt cockneyy, was on
ne of the qualities that gain
ned KIPLING
G an
immediate aud
dience for his Barra
ack-room
m ballads (1890, 18
892). For many
m
yearrs KIPLING was one of
o the mosst popularr poets wh
ho had eve
er lived. What
W
attracted his
s audience was no
ot just the
e freshne
ess of his subjects
s, but
his mastery
m
off swinging verse rhyythms. KIP
PLING liter
rary ance
estry help
ps to
explain his success. In part he
h learnt his
h job as a poet ffrom tradittional
sourrces. He wa
as not unle
earned, as his own fa
amily had connection
c
ns with the
e Pre-
Raph
haelites 3 . However, the speciial influences on his style
e and rhy
ythm
werre not tra
aditional. One was the protestant hy
ymn, beca
ause both of
o his
pare
ents were children of
o Methodisst clergym
men, and hymn
h
singiing, as we
ell as
prea
aching, affe
ected him profoundly. The sec
cond influence ca
ame from
m the
song
gs of the
e music hall. As a teenager
t
in
n London, KIPLING had enjoyed music
m
hall entertainme
e
ents, which were to rea
ach their pe
eak of popularity in the
e 1890s
Bib
bliograp
phy
Fernan
ndez, A Historia
a el Mundo conte
temporáneo. Viceens-vives
Timelin
ne: http://www.britannia.com/history/emptime
e.html; http://w
www.britishempire.co.uk/timelin
ne/19century.httm
Charte
ered companies:: http://34.1911
1encyclopedia.org/C/CH/CHART
TERED_COMPAN
NIES.htm
Naviga
ation Acts: http://www.usahisto
ory.info/coloniall/Navigation-Actts.html
Colonie
es: CEDE apunttes; http://www
w.ucls.uchicago.e
edu/People/facu
ulty/Peggy_Doyle/governmentccolonies.html;
http:///aotearoa.wellin
ngton.net.nz/bacck/project.htm#
#WHAT%20IS%
%20THE%20TRE
EATY%20OF;
http:///www.india-histo
ory.com/british--india/index.htm
ml; http://www.library.cornell.edu/colldev/mide
east/suez.htm;
http:///encarta.msn.co
om/encyclopedia
a_761566125_3
3/British_Empire
e.html;
3
You
ung group of artists in the
e 19th C thatt, disappointed with the artistic
a
climate of their tim
mes,
prete
ended to re-d
discover the purity
p
of Art.. They create
ed an artisticc style completely new which
was inspired in th
he Middle age
es, the Bible,, Nature and
d the classic mythology,
m
ssince they wa
anted
eat Italian arttist before Ra
aphael.
to imitate the worrk of the gre
Iván Matellaness’ notes
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30
Topic 49: Brief summary.
Brief summary Construcción y administración del imperio colonial británico (Siglos 18 y 19) : Conrad y Kipling.
- CREATION OF THE COLONIAL EMPIRE:
- Causes of colonialism:
- Increase of population
♦ The increase of the population
in many countries triggers a
strong demographic pressure.
♦ America becomes a reachable
dream, a place where quick
fortunes grow from the air.
- Economic Factors
♦ England, France, Germany, Holland
& Belgium found in other countries
investment for their private companies:
Railway net, modernize the harbor’s
installations, give loans to the
governments which lack money to
modernize their infrastructures.
- Politic factor
♦ One nation’s Prestige
was a clear factor for
imperialism, idea that
comes from the historic
Spanish empire.
- Ideological Factors
♦ Ideological reasons are
usually used as an excuse for
expansion: Great Britain wants to
“civilize” other societies, Catholic &
Protestant missionaries feel the
urgent need to evangelize the new
uncivilized countries.
- THE BRITISH COLONIAL EMPIRE.
- Chartered companies: the British government did not apply a direct control on their colonies. The CHARTERED COMPANIES (especially
the East India, Levant and Hudson’s Bay) were the ones to carry about the whole process of export-import.
♦ A CHARTERED COMPANY is a trading corporation enjoying certain rights and privileges, and bound by certain obligations under a special
charter granted to it by the sovereign authority of the state.
___ It was in the age of Elizabeth and the early Stuarts that the chartered company had its rise. The discovery of the New World, and the
opening out of fresh trading routes to the Indies, gave an extraordinary impulse to shipping, commerce & industrial enterprise.
♦ CHARTERS were given to companies trading to Guinea, Morocco, Guiana and the Canaries, but none of these enjoyed a very long
existence, principally because of the foreign competition.
___ It is when we turn to USA that the imp of the CHARTERED COMPANY, as a colonizing rather than a trade agency, is seen in its full development.
___ The old chartered companies failed chiefly bc of its bad administration and organization & the premature distribution of dividends.
___ It must not be forgotten that they contributed to the commercial progress of their own states. They gave colonies to the mother
country, & forced the development of its fleet. In the case of England, the companies saved them from suffering from the monopolies
of Spain and Portugal & many wars were paid for by them. They also offered a career for the younger sons of good families.
th
♦ At the end of the 19 C there was a great revival of the system of chartered companies. This modern companies are not like those of the
th
th
16 & 17 C. They are not privileged in the sense that those companies were: (a) They are not monopolies; (b)They have only a limited
sovereignty, always being subject to the control of the home government.
- THE 1ST BRITISH EMPIRE (END 17TH C – 18TH C):
- The navigation Acts:
th
♦ After the middle of the 17 C, the one great source of irritation btw the mother country & her colonies was found in the NAVIGATION ACTS.
♦ The double object of these acts was to protect English ship delivery, and to secure a profit to the home country from the colonies.
___ 1651: No goods manufactured in Asia, Africa, or America should be transported to England except in English vessels.
___ 1660: Forbade the importing into or the exporting from the British Colonies of any goods except in English or colonial ships and it
forbade certain articles (tobacco, sugar, cotton, wool, dyeing woods … ) to be shipped to any country, except to England
♦ Probably the most sever of England's laws in the suppression of colonial trade was the MOLASSES ACT of 1733.
___ By this act prohibitive duties were placed on molasses and sugar.
♦ These laws made England the first market of the colonies. The Commerce & plantations office ruled their economic life. A great amount of
colonial goods could only be exported to England or to other British colonies.
___ No European goods could be imported to the colonies unless it had been previously unloaded and shipped again in England.
- North American Colonies:
♦ These colonies were, at first, deeply divided between them, but bc of British indifference and hostility, common interests appeared
among the colonies which would join them against the British government.
♦ From a political point of view they could be classified into three different types of colonies, they were rather similar:
HOW COLONIAL GOVERNORS WERE CHOSEN
ROYAL COLONIES
LANDOWNER COLONIES
CHARTING COLONIES
(Virginia, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, North
(Pennsylvania, Maryland, Georgia)
(Connecticut, Rhode Island)
Carolina, New York, New Jersey, Delaware)
King
↓
governor
Proprietor
Voters
↓
↓
governor
Governor
HOW COLONIAL LEGISLATURES WERE CHOSEN
ROYAL COLONIES
LANDOWNER COLONIES
CHARTING COLONIES
Proprietor
voters
King/governor Voters
Voters
↓
↓
↓
↓
↓ ↓
upper house
lower house
Upper house lower house
Upper house Lower house
(council)
(assembly)
(Council)
(assembly)
(Council)
In MASSACHUSETTS:
PROBLEMS: struggle against the council
PROBLEMS: Only landowners
and governor (chosen by the proprietor)
were allowed to vote.
Voters → Lower house → upper house
PROBLEMS: Colonials were against Council,
Governor and even the Monarch. Governor and
♦ Colonies were predetermined by God to provide raw materials & to accept
King had the right to veto a law and colonials did
manufactured articles in return. To the majority of Britons, America was the ground
not accept this control.
for thieves, bankrupts & prostitutes for which they receive tobacco in return.
♦ In 1763, England had defeated France in the SEVEN YEAR’S WAR: The contest had been extremely expensive.
___ GRENVILLE, the PM, decide to limit the costs (prevented Indian Wars: forbid westward emigration) & make the Americans pay a part.
___ Americans ignored his Indian policy. Finally, in 1765, a STAMP DUTY was imposed on legal transaction on America.
♦ In 1767, CHARLES TOWNSHEND (British chancellor of the exchequer) imposed a whole of series of import duties, to raise British income.
___ All the TOWNSHEND Acts were withdrawn, except that of tea, which was maintained for form’s sake.
♦ When the EAST INDIAN COMPANY reduced the prize of tea so drastically that that made smuggling unprofitable, the colonies refused to
accept the tea, &, at Boston, they boarded a cargo-tea-ship & throw the cargo into the sea
♦ After the Independence of USA, George III thought that, after a few years of anarchy, the States would beg to be taken back into the
Iván Matellanes’ notes
empire. There is no doubt that the American revolt led to a new attitude towards the empire.
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31
Topic 49: Brief summary.
- The second British Empire
- Australia: One result of the American colonies separation was that the British legal sys lost one place where convicts were transported.
♦ After considering Africa, the British government decided that BOTANY BAY would be suitable.
st
___ In 1788, the 1 ship with 750 convicts arrived at the most Australia’s inhospitable area.
♦ In 1770 CAPTAIN JAMES COOK explored the eastern coast of New Holland & took possession of the continent in the name of GEORGE III.
♦ A growing population which had previously been regarded as one of the strengths of the nation now found itself as something annoying.
___ Increasing poverty, along with really bad harvests, massive unemployment and public debt, needed drastic remedies.
___ Emigration may be the remedy for over-population: Government gave assisted passages to free land overseas (Irish&Scots emigrate).
st
♦ 1 colony: NEW SOUTH WALES (Sydney); 1820-60 new colonies: S. AUSTRALIA, VAN DIEMEN'S LAND (Tasmania); THE SWAN RIVER COLONY;
VICTORIA (Ballarat ) & QUEENSLAND. The rapid increase in the number of free settlers led to demands for some kind of self-government.
___ A Parliamentary Committee condemned the convict system and gradually each Australian colony banned their importation.
___ In the 1850s all colonies were granted constitutions which gave them responsible self-government.
- New Zealand: In 1642 the Dutch captain ABEL TASMAN discovered the islands of NEW ZEALAND
♦ In 1769, CAPTAIN COOK arrived to charter the coasts and to discover that the country consisted of two main islands.
♦ Gradual penetration by settlers, whalers & convicts followed, & in 1813 they were proclaimed as dependencies of NEW SOUTH WALES.
♦ In 1840 Captain WILLIAM HOBSON was sent out to negotiate w/the MAORI chiefs for the cessation of sovereignty to the Crown.
___ The TREATY OF WAITANGI (1840) was signed by many Maori chiefs, and though some antipathy among the Maori people (12% of the
country's population) it remains an important symbol for the equal partnership btw the races.
___ It recognized the prior occupation by Maori people of New Zealand. It enabled the peaceful acquisition of land for settlement
purposes & ensured that immigrants could come and live here in peace. It allowed the Crown to set up a government to create laws.
- British India: The foundations of the British Empire in India were laid by ROBERT CLIVE, known as the conqueror of India.
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♦ CLIVE 1 arrived in India in 1743 as a civil servant of the East India Company. He later was transferred to the Company military service.
___ ROBERT CLIVE defeated the pro-French forces at Arcot in 1751, helping his EAST INDIA COMPANY to monopolize appointments, finances,
land & power. The British victory led to the withdrawal of the FRENCH EAST INDIA COMPANY.
♦ In Bengal the British had provoked the provincial ruler to attck their settlement in 1756 & the Company required an able commander.
CLIVE returned From England eagerly. He secured the British forces in MADRAS & then moved to CALCUTTA. Early in 1757 he recaptured it.
___ In 1783 the British exercised a decisive political influence along the south east coast & had become the actual rulers of BENGAL.
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♦ 1 part of the 19 C, India was still under the control of the EAST INDIA COMPANY, an establishment originally created for issues of trade
“expanded” to include governorship. Under its rule the borders of Brit control expanded through a series of wars & annexations.
♦ Indian population gradually began to resent British rule, feeling that the British had no respect for native cultures and traditions.
___ These feelings appeared in the SEPOY REBELLION of 1857, in which the army of BENGAL attacked British settlers. After atrocities on both
sides, the revolt was finally crushed by 1858. As a result, the British gave up trying to anglicize India and focused on governing
efficiently (in tandem with traditional elements of Indian society.)
___ After 1858 India ceased to be administered through the EAST INDIA COMPANY & was brought directly under British government.
- The New Imperialism: The government of BENJAMIN DISRAELI (1874-1880) adopted a more active British policy overseas. DISRAELI had
the idea of expanding the Empire to not only create trade and bring profit, but also to spread British ideas of democracy and law.
♦ The SUEZ CANAL (1869) offered a 5,000 mile shortcut from Britain to India & the east, to Australia and New Zealand. FERDINAND DE
LESSEPS was sole controller of the Canal, but he sold shares to French gentry, and the EGYPT KHEDIVE → SUEZ CANAL COMPANY.
___ DISRAELI was interested in buying part of the Suez for Britain (French believed that they knew something that “nobody else did”: the
Khedive needed for fast cash, so they took their time raising the money). However, DISRAELI also knew it and was quicker than French.
___ In 1882 British troops occupied Egypt in order to preserve control of the SUEZ CANAL.
♦ SOUTH AFRICA: In 1652, a small group of Dutch settlers founded CAPE TOWN. In 1815, Dutch ceded the CAPE OF GOOD HOPE. By 1826,
Britain's CAPE COLONY had extended its borders to the Orange River. In 1833, 10,000 Boers moved to new lands beyond the Vaal River. They
were to found Natal, Transvaal and the Orange Free State. The Brit colonists kept on repulsing the Boers from their territories until the end of
the BOER WAR (1899).
___ The Boer War ended w/the TREATY OF VEREENIGING (1902), which created the Boer republics of TRANSVAAL & the ORANGE FREE STATE.
The British granted the Boers £3 million for restocking & repairing farm lands and promised eventual self-government (in 1907).
- W/the end of the empire, a multiracial, coequal Commonwealth of Nations evolved, which had cooperative feelings. There are 54
Commonwealth nations, & even most of those that left for one reason or another (such as South Africa and Pakistan) have found cause to return.
- AUTHORS OF THE PERIOD:
- J.
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Conrad didn't set out to be a novelist at all, but a sailor, and besides, he wasn't English, as it was his 3 Lg.
♦ Conrad’s Style: Topics are usually connected with his early life.
___ His heroes have to experiment their personal torments beyond the limits of civilization.
___ He shows a lack of interest in Victorian and Edwardian preoccupations: no social abuses or class prejudices.
___ His fears of missing something important to understand the story makes him overload his pages: He over-elaborates.
♦ Themes in the heart of darkness:
___ The darkness of the title is the major theme of the book. On the whole darkness stands for the unknown and the unknowable; it
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represents the opposite of the progress and enlightenment that dominated the 19 C. Few years before, it had been believed that
science was eventually going to cure the ills of the world; but by the end of the century science had turned out to be a deception.
___ Whatever the darkness is, the best way to prevent it, and to stay sane, is by working. CONRAD doesn't pretend that work is enjoyable,
but it strengthens your character and makes you less likely to lose your control in difficult situations.
___ The distrust of high ideals or words: Marlow don't trust words. Actions can judge people: actions can't lie, but words can.
♦ Marlow is clearly Conrad's alter ego; his opinions don't differ significantly from what we know about the author's own.
♦ We're never allowed to know more than Marlow himself, and Marlow knows only what he perceives through his senses. Thus, we're
never directly told what, for instance, motivated Kurtz. Instead, we get Marlow's speculations on what their motivations might have been.
- Rudyard Kipling: For his 6 years in England, he was desperately unhappy. His parents had made a disastrous choice of a Calvinistic
foster home where he was treated w/cruelty. His views in later life were deeply affected by the English school boy code of honour & duty.
♦ At 17 he rejoined his parent in India, where he lived for seven years as a newspaper reporter and a part-time writer before returning to
England, where his poems & stories had brought him early fame. Kipling’s stories and poems showed to the British about the India.
♦ Kipling never fully understood the way of life of the Indians or their religions, but he was certainly fascinated by them and tried to portray them
with understanding.
___ This effort is especially evident in his Kim (1901), in which the contemplative and religious ways of the Indians is treated with no less
sympathy than the way of life of the Victorian English governing classes.
♦ In his poems, KIPLING draws on the Indian scene most commonly as it is viewed through the eyes of private soldiers of the regular
army. Kipling is usually thought of as the poet of the British imperialism, as indeed he often was, but in his poems about ordinary British
Iván Matellanes’ notes
soldiers in India, there is little flag-waving celebration of the empire’s triumph