Imperial attitudes 1890-1914 (SECTION 2)

Question 1

Why did people support Imperialism?

Answer 1

1) Imperialism was widely accepted, as shown by the Tories win in the Khaki Election in 1900.
2) It was seen as a moral responsibility to bring stability, order, civilisation, welfare and the rule of law to the world.
3) Both the liberal and Labour party supported freedom through empire rather than freedom from empire.
4) Most imperialists argued for the economic benefits of empire.
5) Some sought ‘colonial development’ beyond the white colonies and India and favoured the policy of imperial preference.

Question 2

What did ‘High Imperialists’ want?

Answer 2

1) They wanted a strong empire ruled by the white people. Non white people were subjects and not citizens.

Question 3

What did Joseph Chamberlain believe about the Empire?

Answer 3

1) The Empire could solve the national crisis of the industrial and military advances of other powers.
2) Believed that a reorganised empire would enable industrial recovery, provide employment, generate wealth to fund social reforms and strengthen the British people’s moral fiber.

Question 4

What did Lord Salisbury believe about the Empire?

Answer 4

1) Lord Salisbury believed European rule was important for advancement of the ‘backwards races’. He imposed rule by force shown in Sudan 1896-99. His foreign policy was dictated by the defence and expansion of the Empire.

Question 5

What did Curzon believe about the Empire?

Answer 5

1) Curzon believed that the Empire was ‘so great an instrument for the good of humanity’.

Question 6

What did Alfred Milner think about the Empire?

Answer 6

1) Milner believed a British man should feel equally at home anywhere in the empire.

Question 7

What were many imperial activists part of? Give 2 examples

Answer 7

1) They were members of societies like the Royal Colonial Institute, founded in 1870 to provide a meeting place for those interested in Indian affairs.
2) The Victoria League (1901) was a non political organisation founded by women to promote a closer union between different parts of the Empire.

Question 8

What did John A Hobson think about the Empire?

Answer 8

1) John A Hobson: His views were catalysed from the Boer war. He believed that the empire benefitted the rich capitalists who made profit through investment, he believed that this small and powerful elite were who shaped imperial policy.
2) Thought of the Empire as a ‘capitalist plot’.

Question 9

Who was Emily Hobhouse and what did she do?

Answer 9

1) She wrote reports which led to a government enquiry into the conditions in British concentration camps.
2) This helped to tarnish the allure of imperialism and its supposed civilising mission.

Question 10

What did Wilfred Blunt believe about the Empire?

Answer 10

1) Imitated the pro imperialist poet Kipling and penned the line ‘the white’s man burden, lord in the burden of his cash.’

Question 11

Who was Herbert Spencer and what did he do?

Answer 11

1) An influential philosopher who criticised Victorian enthusiasm for colonial acquisition of colonies.

Question 12

Who was Frederic Harrison and what did he believe?

Answer 12

1) A radical left wing lawyer and historian who believed imperialism to be unethical.

Question 13

Who was William Digby? What did he do?

Answer 13

1) A writer and propagandist who had served in India and set up the Indian political and General Agency in London in order to raise awareness about Indian grievances in the British Parliament and press in 1888.

Question 14

Who was Walter Crane and what did he do”

Answer 14

1) An arts and craft designer, children’s book writer and socialist who used his design skills to produce anti war illustrations in order to encourage those on the left to embrace anti-imperialism.

Question 15

What impact did Kipling have on literature and music?

Answer 15

1) Rudyard Kipling shaped British attitudes before 1914 who had a religious belief in Empire and filled his work with reference to Britain’s higher goals eg: The White Mans Burden.

Question 16

What became bestsellers in terms of books?

Answer 16

1) The tales of military campaigns by Samuel Baker and GA Henty.

Question 17

What did Mary Gaunt’s novels focus on?

Answer 17

1) Focused on committed colonists such as missionaries, civil servants and scientists

Question 18

How else were nationalist and imperialist themes put into society? Give an example.

Answer 18

1) They were also present in music. ‘Imperial’ ballads, patriotic hymns, stirring choral works and military marches were often performed.
2) Imperial Composer Edward Elgar sought to stimulate ideas which captured the nobility of the Empire in his pieces such as Imperial March, The Crown of India

Question 19

When was the Scout Movement setup and who set it up?

Answer 19

1) Robert Baden Powell setup the Boy Scouts Movement in 1908, followed by the girl guides in 1912. Most successful attempt to mobilise young people behind imperial themes.

Question 20

How were children able to see imperial messages?

Answer 20

1) Through books, organisations, and in school.

Question 21

What affect did increased literacy rates have on imperialism?

Answer 21

1) Produced new markets for books and comics which had stories of adventures with imperial themes and celebrated military and missionary activities eg: Brett’s Boys of the Empire

Question 22

How did Advertisements promote imperialism?

Answer 22

1) Images and motifs helped to spread awareness of the empire.
2) They frequently used Imperial themes and connotations to sell their goods-suggesting that the British public felt favourably disposed towards the empire.

Question 23

How did Edwin Lutyens Architecture promote imperialism?

Answer 23

1) Edwin Lutyens designed both in Britain and in the empire. He was responsible for the Johannesburg Art Gallery from 1911 and the British Pavilion at the international exhibition in Rome the same year.
2) In1912, he and Herbert Barker designed New Delhi as a home for the government of India.

Question 24

What festivals and exhibitions promoted imperialism?

Answer 24

1) Queen Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee in 1897 celebrated the military power of Britain.
2) Empire day.
3) Souvenir books and postcards, and media reports helped to convey the value of Empire to the general public.
4) King George V’s coronation was celebrated with a festival of empire at the Crystal Palace in 1911.

Question 25

What was the popular press and what benefits did it bring?

Answer 25

1) The ‘golden age’ of newspaper publication technical advances in printing, the emergence of professional journalism with political agenda.
2) Responded to the demands of the mass audience.

Question 26

What did Alfred Harmsworth do?

Answer 26

1) Created the Daily Mail in 1896, aimed at the lower middle classes.
2) During the Boer war it sold over a million copies a day, filling its pages with the war, damning the Boer and praising British soldiers.
3) Also established the Daily Mirror in 1903. The Daily Mail held the world record for daily circulation until his death.
4) He helped to create tabloid journalism.

Question 27

What was national efficiency and why was it a concern?

Answer 27

1) Became a real concern after the end of the Boer war where 30,000 Boers had held out against British forces for 3 years.
2) During the war, it had become difficult to recruit soldiers since many of them were not fit to fight.
3) Living conditions and diet in Britain were not good and men from the Empire tended to be healthier. The industrial north-west was probably the worst area.
4) Industrial production was declining.
5) There was concern that the nation needed to be better educated and healthier.

Question 28

What measures were taken to improve national efficiency?

Answer 28

1) 1902 Education Act raised standards and the extent of education, leading to an extra 1000 secondary schools opening over the following decade.
2) Conservatives initiated a new phase of battleship development to compete with the Germans. HMS Dreadnaught was launched in 1906/
3) Imperial college was opened in London, concentrating on scientific and technological courses.
4) Social reforms followed including free school meals in 1906, school medical inspections in 1907, old age pensions in 1908 and National Insurance in 1911.

Question 29

Who were the most important people in fixing national efficiency?

Answer 29

1) David Lloyd George and Winston Churchill were the most important people working on the reforms.