ABSTRACT
This conclusion presents some closing thoughts discussed in the preceding chapters of this book. Imperial politics cannot be confined within a 'gentlemanly capitalist' framework because imperialism appealed to a much wider range of interests, aspirations and enthusiasms than those succoured by the City or the service sector. The imperial issues which engaged the attentions and excited the imaginations of British politicians were to a surprising degree dominated by the ambition of welding together the English-speaking empire into a great consolidated unit. Imperialism provided a powerful impetus to political mobilisation in Britain. The energies and enthusiasms of later-Victorian and Edwardian imperialists were channelled into the creation of a new and modern extra-parliamentary movement. This movement had a kind of 'Heineken effect': it was able to strike deep roots into society and to embrace areas of the nation's political life which the conventional party caucuses struggled to reach.
