Please enable JavaScript.
Coggle requires JavaScript to display documents.
Attitudes towards imperialism in Britain - Coggle Diagram
Attitudes towards imperialism in Britain
Gladstone
Involvement in Egypt- result of public pressure- though he desired a safe passage to India
Withdrew from the First Anglo-Boer War following British defeat at Majuba Hill in 1881
Urged the withdrawal of Anglo Egyptian troops during the Mahdist Rebellion in 1884
Berlin Conference 1884-5 saw Bechuanaland and Somalia converted into British protectorates- though he left local rulers in charge of British Bechuanaland
Disraeli
Royal Titles Act (1877) bestowing title of 'Empress on India' on Queen Victoria
Conservatives- 'party of Empire'
Launched war on the Zulu nation in hope of establishing a British confederation over Southern Africa
bought £4 million's worth of shares in the Suez Canal Company in 1875
British public
Tales of British heroism meant British public fuelled political decisions e.g the public praised British troops during the Indian Rebellion
The Education Act (1870) had increased national literacy- growth in popular press
Literature helped reinforce the Victorian idea of British benevolence and superiority
Imperial Exhibitions
International Exhibition 1862- featured 28,000 exhibitors from 36 countries
1877- Nubian Village was put on display at London's Alexandra Palace- featured both animals and people from the Sudan
Exhibitions now referred to as 'human zoos'
Colonial peoples paraded in Europe for entertainment and self-congratulation
1870s shift in attitude
Strategic rivalry with European powers- Britain faced greater economic competition
Empire was bound with a sense of national prestige
Social Darwinism
Pseudoscientific ideas were used to support the belief of European racial superiority e.g phrenology which claimed measured skulls formed a hierarchy of races
Charles Darwin's theory of Evolution- 'survival of the fittest' meant the strongest societies were likely to survive and reproduce- used as justification for the civilisation of colonies