ABSTRACT
Politically the new colonies were little help to Britain either, and, in fact, in many ways they could be said to be making matters worse. The ignorant saw the size of Britain’s empire in the 1890s as a sign or even a source of strength in the world: politicians and military men were less euphoric. With colonies like Canada and Australia the old colonies of white settlement this was compensated for by the existence within the frontiers of loyal populations willing to help defend them: the two factors more or less cancelled each other out. The vogue philosophy of the time, 'Social Darwinism', saw foreign hostility and rivalry as a biological imperative. So there was an argument from 'national interest' (albeit a short-sighted conception of the national interest) for employing the political powers of the Foreign and Colonial Offices to further British commercial and financial interests in the developing world.
