Attitudes to Empire

Question 1

Wembley Exhibition

Answer 1

1924-25

Question 2

Amount promised to fund Wembley Exhibition

Answer 2

1921, £2.2 million

Half of which came from the British government

Question 3

Aims of the Wembley exhibition

Answer 3

1. Find new sources of imperial wealth
2. Foster inter-imperial trade
3. Strengthen links between Empire races
4. Show the British people the potential of their colonies and dominions

Question 4

West Africa students’ response to the Wembley exhibition

Answer 4

Complained about the stereotypical racist portrayal of Africans
Suggests that they believed the exhibition had an impact on popular attitudes

Question 5

Number of people who attended the Wembley exhibition in 1924

Answer 5

17 million

Question 6

Number of people who attended the Wembley exhibition in 1925

Answer 6

9 million

Question 7

Reasons why the Wembley Exhibition was not so important

Answer 7

1. Heavily satirised at the time
2. Many implied that it was nothing more than a vast entertainment
3. Wembley was chosen specifically - suggests that working class support was limited as they were actively trying to galvanise it

Question 8

Glasgow Exhibition

Answer 8

1938

Question 9

Glasgow Exhibition - number of visitors

Answer 9

12 million

Question 10

Anti-imperial exhibition run at the same time as the Glasgow Exhibition

Answer 10

Run by the Glasgow Independent Labour Party

Question 11

Empire Marketing Board

Answer 11

1926-33

Question 12

Aims of EMB

Answer 12

1. Support scientific research
2. Promote economic analysis
3. Gain publicity for Empire trade

Question 13

Amount spent by EMB

Answer 13

£2 million on research and market services

£1 million on publicity

Question 14

Empire shopping weeks (organised by EMB)

Answer 14

1930, 200 British Empire shopping weeks in 65 different towns

Question 15

Peeps at the Colonial Empire

Answer 15

EMB exhibition held in Charing Cross station in 1936

Question 16

Colonies Exhibition

Answer 16

1944

Sponsored by the Colonial Office and Ministry of Information

Question 17

% of the workforce unemployed in 1933

Answer 17

22% - purchases = dictated by price rather than pride in Empire (undermines influence of EMB)

Question 18

Mackenzie on EMB

Answer 18

‘Few people were untouched’

Question 19

Imperial Institute first established

Answer 19

1887

Question 20

Donations saved the Imperial Institute from being closed

Answer 20

1923

Question 21

EMB funded a cinema for the Imperial Institute

Answer 21

1924

Question 22

Number of visitors - Imperial Institute - in 1930s

Answer 22

1 million visitors annually

Modern exhibitions and strong advertising

Question 23

British Broadcasting Company

Answer 23

1923

Founded by Sir John Reith (strong imperialist)

Question 24

British Broadcasting Company became British Broadcasting Corporation

Answer 24

1927

Gained a royal charter

Question 25

George V delivered the first Christmas Day broadcast

Answer 25

1932 - created a sense of collective identity and connection across the Empire Millions listened every year

Question 26

Number of wireless licences in 1939

Answer 26

9 million | BBC had unprecedented reach so its imperial ethos would have been absorbed by many

Question 27

Radio Times sold X copies by Y

Answer 27

Radio Times sold nearly 3 million copies by the 1940s

Question 28

Empire Exchanges

Answer 28

Broadcasts from across the Empire

Question 29

Empire Service created

Answer 29

1932 | BBC now broadcast to the whole Empire

Question 30

Relays from the Palestinian mandate were so popular that...

Answer 30

An individual Palestine Broadcasting Service was set up in 1936

Question 31

Gold Coast Ghana

Answer 31

1930 | Sponsored by Cadbury

Question 32

Men of Africa

Answer 32

1939 | Sponsored by the Colonial Office

Question 33

Ministry of Information’s films

Answer 33

49th Parallel and West Indies Calling Beginning of WWII Stressed the need to understand different cultures and races

Question 34

Board of Education in 1918

Answer 34

Asserted that the ‘establishment of our position among nations’ was a necessary element of schooling

Question 35

Board of Education in 1926

Answer 35

Stated that most schools taught syllabuses ‘too exclusively concerned with the story of Britain and the British Empire’

Question 36

School of Oriental and African Studies established at UCL

Answer 36

1917

Question 37

All elementary school education was free from

Answer 37

1918 - every British child would have been attending school until at least the age of 14

Question 38

Bernard Porter on education and the empire

Answer 38

Argued that school curriculums actually focussed mainly on the Classics

Question 39

G. A. Henty’s books remained popular

Answer 39

In 1950s, sold 25 million copies

Question 40

New comics by D.C. Thomson

Answer 40

Each of his papers sold 600,000 copies to 1.5 million readers

Question 41

Empire Annuals

Answer 41

New Empire Annual The Empire Annual for Girls Major feature of interwar publishing Imperial adventures and factual accounts of settler life

Question 42

Youth organisations unrelated to Empire failed

Answer 42

Kibbo Kift | Woodland Folk

Question 43

Lord Beaverbrook

Answer 43

Continued to promote the empire through his Daily Express in 1920s and 1930s

Question 44

Imperialist groups (2)

Answer 44

Royal Empire Society (RES) | British Empire Union (BEU)

Question 45

More pro-imperial films (2)

Answer 45

Sanders of the River (1935) | The Four Feathers (1939)

Question 46

‘Mad Dogs and Englishmen’

Answer 46

1931 Noël Coward song Gently self-mocking

Question 47

Elgar died

Answer 47

1934

Question 48

Elgar conducted mass choirs, singing Land of Hope and Glory

Answer 48

1924 Empire Exhibition

Question 49

Co-operative Wholesale Society

Answer 49

Large trader within the Empire Used images of Empire in their marketing Tea packets contained collectible cards depicting places across the Empire

Question 50

Empire Day celebration in 1925

Answer 50

90,000 people attended an event in Wembley