Semantron 2014

British may have been Âabsent minded imperialistsÊ.

life. However, the so called ÂEmpire DayÊ that caught on tremendously in Canada and Australia was resisted (at least initially), in Britain itself. This suggests that the majority of the working classes neither felt associated with the empire nor patriotic. Moreover it is highly unlikely that the British would have considered themselves imperialists during the question of the American Colonies when in actual fact, many cities within Britain werenÊt represented either and in some cases, were taxed twenty six times as much. The reality is that a high proportion of society was largely unaware of the empireÊs existence and influence. In Noel CowardÊs play ÂThe Happy BreedÊ, a father who brings his children to the Wembley Exhibition remarks that ÂIÊve brought you here to see the wonders of Empire, and all you want to do is go see the dodgems.Ê Even if visitors to exhibitions viewed imperial displays, one cannot know the extent to which they knew any of the intricate details about colonial governance or particular territories. John MacKenzie acknowledges that Âthe British public never came to grips with the principles or practice of imperial rule.Ê Rather Âthan any sophisticated concept of Empire,Ê they had a Âgeneralized imperial vision.Ê It is difficult to discern exactly what visitors took from the exhibitions. H.G Wells remarked that nineteen out of twenty Englishmen knew as much about the Italian Renaissance as they did about their own empire. Moreover this was seemingly affirmed by the 1948 and 1951 Colonial Office surveys which found that fifty nine percent of interviewees were unable to name a single British colony, with one even suggesting Lincolnshire, Moreover, three percent believed that the US formed part of the empire and no one could distinguish the difference between a dominion and a colony. Much of the lower and middle classes were kept in the dark about the many negative aspects of imperialism and consequently the European revolutionary period was really marked by political stability and loyalty to the Hanoverian dynasty within Britain.

Just as this has shown how the British people developed the empire, the empire equally had an enormous impact within peopleÊs lives and it cannot be denied that the impacts of the empire permeated through all echelons of society. Indeed most people came into indirect contact with the Empire on a day-to-day basis and in many occupations imperial connections were completely unavoidable for example dock workers, and those who worked for the great colonial shipping companies in London, Glasgow and Liverpool. Indeed this was connection was demonstrated by building names such as ÂIndia BuildingsÊ and ÂAfrica HouseÊ. Yet just as Bernard Porter argued, the extent to which they were aware of it can be questioned. Workers for instance were unlikely to have known whether goods they produced were bound for domestic or international markets. However as Catherine Hall argued, the empire did even have a material impact upon the lives of the majority of society, through the consumption of tea, coffee and sugar sourced from the Colonies, or the sporting of Chinese silks, Egyptian cotton and Australian wool. Yet even despite these connections appearing so clear and obvious in hindsight, the likelihood is that the majority of British society would have been unaware of these connections. This was due to the fact that many colonial imports were ÂanglicizedÊ, imported materials reached consumers in the form of conventional British clothes, having passed through the hands of British tailors and dressmakers first and even Demerara sugar and Indian Pale Ale registered simply as brand names to many people rather than evidence of the empire. Moreover if the British public were conscious of their actions upon developing the empire (for example the role of boarding schools, boy scout groups, Christianity etc.), it could be expected that they would have been proud and felt a part of the empire and that the jingoism that was present in sporting clashes permeated through all daily

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