British attitudes to empire in the 19 th century
Alex Scott-Malden
One of the most popular books on this year’s bestseller’s list is Niall Ferguson’s Empire which reflects a tendency to present British colonial history in primarily economic terms. In many ways this is a useful approach as the Empire from its conception had always been an economic enterprise; however, in the 19 th century new social and cultural trends also had a profound impact on the development of the Empire. Two main changes occurred in the way the Empire was viewed; firstly, amongst the working, and even middle, classes of Britain new migration patterns began to emerge as large scale emigration to areas outside Europe began for the first time. Secondly, amongst the higher classes and intelligentsia, a new movement began to apply morality to imperialism. The abolition of the slave trade and missionary movement are direct examples; however, indirectly a new form of imperialist began to emerge, one who sort to profit from the colonies but also to ‘improve’ (meaning Anglicize) the colonial subjects. New ideas about Imperialism, seen in the rule of Rajah James Brooke of Sarawak, were able to thrive because of the lack of governmental control particularly during expansion. The result of these changes was an Empire which by 1900 was vast but disparate, much of it was outside government control, and conflicted about the application of morality in the cases of slavery and Christianity to economic enterprise. Determining the attitudes of the lower classes to Empire is difficult; there were few opinion polls at this time and none on the specific question of Empire. However, there is secondary evidence in the emigration figures from the years 1930-70 which showed 8 million people leaving British ports, three quarters of those for areas outside Europe 119 . This sudden exodus from Britain cannot be
attributed to advances in technology; the age of sail was still firmly in place despite the first iron hulled ship crossing the Atlantic in 1847. The other possible cause of this mass migration is economic, the Irish potato famine accounted for around 1 million migrants, a substantial number of the total. However, it doesn’t explain what Darwin describes as ‘the first great rush in the 1830’s’ 120 or the subsequent waves of migration in the 1860’s and 1870’s when 2.7 million 121 people left. Whether or not the migration is down to poverty or famine is in some ways irrelevant, the fact that these people chose to emigrate outside Europe rather than moving within their own country, and that they moved at all, is significant in itself. It showed that had become a global nation in a way it had not before and that there was a real belief that a better life could be found in the Empire. Moreover, this level of migration shows that there had been a removal of the stigma associated with life in the colonies, which had previously been associated with convicts, and that living in the Empire became morally legitimate in way it had not before. In the Victorian era the British Empire also began take on a new moral dimension. The Slave Trade’s abolition in 1807 marked a turning point in the governance of the Empire as it was the first time legislators had intervened in the free market’s expansion. It is undeniable that the Slave Trade was hugely important for Britain’s economy and especially its trans-Atlantic trade, as it sustained not just the vast quantities of sugar demanded by European powers but also British textiles and goods sent out on empty slave ships. There is an argument to suggest that attacking the salve trade by blockading sea lanes with the royal navy would harm Napoleon’s economic
120 Darwin, John The Empire Project 2009 p. 58 121 Darwin, John The Empire Project 2009 p. 58
119 Darwin, John The Empire Project 2009 p. 58
67
Made with FlippingBook - Online Brochure Maker