ABSTRACT
It is crucial to stress, at the outset, that the apparent civilizing mission undertaken by the British government in the mid-nineteenth century did not convince all its citizens of the importance of maintaining colonies abroad, and consequently drew a great deal of antiimperialist sentiment. Not until the Great Depression (1873-1896) did it become clear that the real mission of imperialism was not to “civilize the savages” of India and Africa but to redress the slagging British economy. The period of the Great Depression coincided with the age of this new imperialism, and brought proponents and opponents of
the issue of colonization together. Advocates of colonization became increasingly prominent as they became more convinced that colonization would be the only way out of the economic stagnation resulting from German and American competitors, and other political and social embarrassments of the day (Ausubel 81). As the depression wore on, former opponents of overseas territorial occupation became its supporters. For instance, before he became prime minister, Benjamin Disraeli wrote to Lord Derby: “Leave the Canadians to defend themselves; recall the African squadron; give up the settlements on the west coast of Africa; and we shall make a saving which will, at the same time, enable us to build ships and have a good Budget” (quoted in Ausubel 83). But a few years later in his Crystal Palace address in 1872, Disraeli condemned Liberals for having viewed the colonies solely from an economic standpoint, thus totally ignoring “those moral and political considerations which make nations great, and by the influence of which alone men are distinguished from animals” (Ausubel 84). In fact during his ministry he oversaw the annexation of Fiji, the purchase of shares of the Suez Canal, the proclamation of the Queen Empress of India, British protection of Turkey under Russian expansionism, the acquisition of Cyprus, and the defeat of the Zulus in South Africa. The Great Depression was still under way by the end of Disraeli’s term (18741880), when publicists began to convince the British from all walks of life that the survival of their country depended on colonial expansion. Referring to John Robert Seeley’s The Expansion of England (1883), Herman Ausubel argued that the colonies “offered land for the landless and the prospect of wealth for those in financial distress” (85). Seeley had maintained that England needed the colonies where the “surplus population” could relocate and “continue to be Britons.” Seeley also predicted that in fifty years the United States and Russia would become “super powers,” and surpass countries like Germany and France (Ausubel 85). After the publication of The Expansion of England in 1833, James Anthony Froude, a prominent historian of the Tudors, conceived the idea of a Commonwealth of Oceana that would link the United Kingdom, Canada, South Africa, Australia, and New Zealand. Froude defended his thesis by focusing on the decline of Britain’s economic position:
In the multiplying number of our fellow citizens animated by a common spirit, we should have purchasers for our goods from whom we should fear no rivalry; we should turn in upon them
the tide of our emigrants which now flows away, while the emigrants themselves thrive under their own fig tree, and rear children with stout limbs and colour in their cheeks, and a chance before them of human existence, (quoted in Ausubel 85)
Politicians also displayed interest and hope for the future in the acquisition of colonial space. After serving as prime minister in the Conservative governments of 1885 and 1886-1892, Lord Salisbury declared in the House of Lords in 1895, immediately before his third term, that it was the duty and responsibility of the English government to facilitate access to fertile regions like Uganda: “You must open the path,” he said, “it is for you to enable our people to get there. It is for you to enable capital to be invested and commerce to be extended” (quoted in Ausubel 87). In 1895 Joseph Chamberlain became secretary of state for the colonies primarily because he “desired to see whether there may not be room for still further developing our resources in these new countries and for opening up British markets” (quoted in Ausubel 87). Chamberlain’s desire was to see Britain protect and maintain its colonial territories and to extend those possessions. Consequently during his tenure numerous colonial projects were undertaken: road and railroad building in West Africa, research in tropical medicine and colonial agriculture, access to “development” loans, and the Boer War was fought with assistance from Canada, Australia, and New Zealand, which were already part of the British empire (Ausubel 88). But all this could not have happened, and with efficacy, without the infamous Berlin West African Conference of 1884-1885, which paved the way for further European involvement in Africa.
