The Language of Imperialism in British Electoral Politics, 1880–1910

This article asks us to reconsider the impact of the issue of imperialism in electoral politics in late Victorian and Edwardian Britain. Using a corpus of around five million words of digitised campaign speeches from the years 1880–1910, it examines the language of the nine General Elections held in this period through computerised text-mining. This ‘big data’ analysis produces three conclusions, which in some cases nuance existing interpretations and in others directly challenge them. The first questions the prevailing consensus that elections in the high age of empire featured imperialism as a consistently central issue. The article argues that this interpretation relies too heavily on evidence from a minority of elections—especially the famous ‘khaki’ struggle of 1900—and that in the majority of campaigns in this period, imperialism was relatively unimportant as an election issue, including in the Unionist landslide of 1895. The second argument questions historians’ preoccupation with the ‘contested’ nature of discourses of imperialism and patriotism at elections, and contends that—insofar as the empire was an important campaign issue at all—the Conservatives were considerably more likely to champion it and connect it to politically charged and emotive appeals than were their Liberal opponents. Finally, the article maintains that the languages of imperialism and patriotism have often been unhelpfully conflated by historians, and argues that they could become politically synonymous only in the very specific circumstance of a ‘khaki’ election. In other contests, they could diverge, as is demonstrated by a case study of the campaign of 1906 when patriotism was reclaimed by the Liberals from a domestic, rather than imperial platform.     

British Imperialism and Cyprus 1878–1914: The Inconsequential Possession

In recent decades historians have devoted considerable attention to the historical treatment of indigenous title in Anglophone settler colonies. These scholarly accounts have tended to emphasise the role metropolitan legal and intellectual discourses played in the dispossession of indigenous peoples. In this article I present a critical analysis of an influential example of such work in respect to the British denial of Aboriginal rights in land in the colony of New South Wales before providing an alternative account of the manner in which Aboriginal title was treated, which focuses on the nature of the relations on the ground between sojourners, settlers and Aboriginal people, the ways in which these encounters were represented by the British and the local practices regarding the transfer of land.     

Journeys to Empire: Enlightenment,Imperialism, and the British Encounter with Tibet, 1774–1904

The English by Geoffrey Elton. Oxford: Blackwell, 1992. Pp. xiii + 248, 37 plates, 8 figures. £19.99 (hardback). ISBN 0–631–17681–0.

Britons: Forging the Nation 1707–1837 by Linda Colley. New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1992. Pp. x + 429, illustrations. £19.95 (hardback). ISBN 0–300–05737–7.

Myths of the English edited by Roy Porter. Oxford: Polity Press, 1992. Pp. xii + 276. £39.50 (hardback). ISBN 0–7456–08442.

The Tudor Navy: An Administrative, Political and Military History by David Loades. (Studies in Naval History) Aldershot: Scolar Press, 1992. Pp. x + 317, maps. £35.00 (hardback). ISBN 0–85967–922–5.

The Armada of Flanders: Spanish Maritime Policy and European War, 1568–1668 by R.A. Stradling. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1992. Pp. xx + 276, maps. £35.00 (hardback). ISBN 0–521–40534–3.

Parameters of British Naval Power 1650–1850 edited by Michael Duffy. Exeter Maritime Studies, Number Seven. Exeter: University of Exeter Press, 1992. Pp. vi + 144. £11.95 (paperback). ISBN 0–85989–385–5.

The Portuguese Empire in Asia, 1500–1700: A Political and Economic History by Sanjay Subrahmanyam. London and New York: Longman, 1992. Pp. xiii + 320, maps, tables. £14.99 (paperback). ISBN 0–582–05068–5.

Portuguese Trade in Asia under the Habsburgs, 1580–1640 by James C. Boyajian. Baltimore and London: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1993. Pp. xvii + 356, maps, tables. £40.50 (hardback). ISBN 0–8018–4405–3.

A World on the Move: The Portuguese in Africa, Asia, and America, 1415–1808 by A.J.R. Russell‐Wood. Manchester: Carcanet, 1992. Pp. xiv + 230, maps, tables, illustrations. £30.00 (hardback). ISBN 0–85635–994–7.

The Spanish Frontier in North America by David J. Weber. New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1992. Pp. xx + 579, maps and illustrations. $40.00; £20. ISBN 0–300–05198–0.

The Intellectual Construction of America: Exceptionalism and Identity from 1492 to 1800 by Jack P. Greene. Chapel Hill and London: University of North Carolina Press, 1993. Pp.xiv + 216, illustrations. $32.95. ISBN 0–8078–2097–0.

Sojourners in the Sun: Scottish Migrants in Jamaica and the Chesapeake, 1740–1800 by Alan L. Karras. Ithaca and London: Cornell University Press, 1992. Pp. xv + 231. $37.95. ISBN 0–8014–2691‐X.

Islanders in the Stream: A History of the Bahamian People, Volume 1, From Aboriginal Times to the End of Slavery by Michael Craton and Gail Saunders. Athens and London: University of Georgia Press, 1992. Pp. xxiii + 455, maps, illustrations. $60.00. ISBN 0–8203–1382–3.

Making the Empire Work: London and American Interest Groups 1690 to 1790 by Alison Gilbert Olson. Cambridge, Massachusetts and London: Harvard University Press, 1992. Pp. xiv + 261. £31.95. ISBN 0–674–54318–1.

The Apotheosis of Captain Cook: European Mythmaking in the Pacific by Gananath Obeyesekere. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1992. Pp. xvii + 251. ISBN 0–691–05680–3.

Women Against Slavery: The British Campaigns, 1780–1870 by Clare Midgley. London and New York: Routledge, 1992. Pp. xii + 281, illustrations. £37.50. ISBN 0–415–06669–7.

Religion and Society in Post‐Emancipation Jamaica by Robert J. Stewart. Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press, 1992. Pp. xxi + 254, maps and illustrations. $42.50 (hardback); $19.95 (paperback). ISBN 0–87049–749–9.

Poverty Abounding Charity Aplenty: The Charity Network in Colonial Victoria by R.A. Cage. Sydney: Hale &; Iremonger, 1992. Pp. 190. $A35 (hardback); $A17.95 (paperback). ISBN 0–86806–437–8; 0–86806–438–6.

Muslims and Missionaries in Pre‐Mutiny India by Avril Ann Powell. London: Curzon Press, 1993. pp. ix + 339, maps. £30. ISBN 0–7007–021–5.

The Light of Nature and the Law of God: Antislavery in Ontario 1833–1877 by Allen P. Stouffer. Montreal and Kingston: McGill‐Queen's University Press, 1992. Pp. xvi + 273. $34.95 (hardback). ISBN 0–7735–0918–6.

Science and the Canadian Arctic: A Century of Exploration 1818–1918 by Trevor H. Levere. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1993. Pp. xiv + 438, map, illustrations and photographs. £40.00 (hardback). ISBN 0–521–41933–6.

The Voyages of the Discovery: The Illustrated History of Scott's Ship by Ann Savours. London: Virgin, 1992. Pp. xvi + 384, maps, illustrations. £25.00 (hardback). ISBN 1–852227–117–5.

People and Empires in African History; Essays in Memory of Michael Crowder edited by J.F. Ade Ajayi and J.D.Y. Peel. London: Longman, 1992. Pp. xxv + 254, maps. £36.00. ISBN 0–582–08997–2.

Frontiers: The Epic of South Africa's Creation and the Tragedy of the Xhosa People by Noël Mostert. London: Jonathan Cape, 1992. Pp. xxix + 1,355, maps. £25 (hardback). ISBN 0–224–03325–5.

Occasional Papers on the Irish in South Africa by Donald H. Akenson. Grahams‐town: Institute of Social and Economic Research, Rhodes University, Occasional Papers Series, 1991. Pp. 95, figures and tables. R22. ISBN 0–86810–202–5.

The Irish in Southern Africa 1795–1910 edited by Donal P. McCracken. Durban: University of Durban‐Westville, 1992. Pp. 290, maps, tables and illustrations.

Threads of Solidarity: Women in South African Industry, 1900–1980 by Iris Berger. Bloomington and Indianapolis: Indiana University Press; London: James Currey, 1992. Pp. xiv + 369. £35 (hardback); £11.95 (paperback). ISBN 0–8525–5078–2; 0–8525–5077–4.

The Scattering Time: Turkana Responses to Colonial Rule by John Lamphear. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1992. Pp. xxiii + 308, maps. £ 40.00. ISBN 019–820226–1.

Strike Across the Empire: The Seamen's Strike of 1925 in Britain, South African and Australasia by Baruch Hirson and Lorraine Vivian. London: Clio Publications, 1992. Pp. v + 117. £5.0 (paperback). ISBN 1–897640–00–5.

National Crisis and National Government: British Politics, the Economy and Empire, 1926–1932 by Philip Williamson. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1992. Pp. xvii + 569. £60. ISBN 0–521–36137–0.

Trade, Tariffs and Empire: Lancashire and British Policy in India 1919–1939 by Basudev Chatterji. Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1992. Pp. xiv + 521. Rs. 610; £25.00. ISBN 0–19–562815–2.

The Mystic Life of Alfred Deakin by Al Gabay. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1992. Pp. 208. £30.00 (hardback). ISBN 0–521–41494–6.

Woman Suffrage in Australia: A Gift or a Struggle? by Audrey Oldfield. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1993. Pp. xiv + 263. £35.00 (hardback); £12.95 (paperback). ISBN 0–521–40380–4; 0–521–4361–7.

Robert Menzies’ Forgotten People by Judith Brett. London: Macmillan, 1993. Pp. xi + 318. £14.99. ISBN 333–592–859.

L'Afrique noire française: l'heure des Indépendances edited by Charles‐Robert Ageron and Marc Michel. Paris: CNRS Editions, 1992. Pp. 728.

The Internationalization of Colonialism: Britain, France, and Black Africa, 1939–1956 by John Kent. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1992. Pp. viii + 365. £45. ISBN 0–19–820302–0.

The Political Inheritance of Pakistan edited by D.A. Low. London: Macmillan, 1992. Pp. vii + 292. £45 (hardback). ISBN 0–333–524373.

Broken Waves: A History of the Fiji Islands in the Twentieth Century by Brij V. Lai. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1992. Pp. xxii + 404, maps, tables, illustrations. $38.00. ISBN 0–8248–1418–5.     

Corrupted Infrastructure: Imperialism and Environmental Sovereignty in Shanghai, 1873–1911

The introduction of Western science in order to change physical and operational aspects of Shanghai’s Huangpu River had been debated by Qing and Western officials since almost the beginning of its history as a Treaty Port. At stake in those debates was the perception of the river’s proper use: as a natural barrier for military defense, or as a conduit for global trade. After the Western powers unified to militarily suppress the Boxer Uprising in 1900, they attained their long-awaited goal of the right to transform the river for global trade as part of Article 11 of the Boxer Protocol: the Junpuju (or Huangpu Conservancy Board) was created and authorized by the central government to make the Huangpu River navigable for shipping vessels. Although the Junpuju continued the ethos of earlier extra-bureaucratic organizations established during the Self-Strengthening Movement, after 1901 the organization bore the authority of the central government. During the era of the New Policies, Qing officials were intent on revising the original terms of river conservancy so that they would be more favorable to Chinese sovereignty. At the same time, imperialist rivalries among the Western powers ruptured the apparent unity of the earlier alliance during the suppression of the Boxer Uprising. Before long, Western corruption in the Huangpu River dredging was brought to the attention of Qing officials, who deftly used it to recover Qing control over certain parts of the body of the river.     

Liberal Imperialism in Australian Political Thought, 1902–14

British politics immediately following the Boer War featured a group of politicians and intellectuals known as the Liberal Imperialists and this account explores the political thought of their Australian counterparts. Australian liberal intellectuals of particular relevance for this study were located in Melbourne, which was at that time the federal capital, and they were loosely clustered around the key political figure of the period, Alfred Deakin. The extended circle of Alfred Deakin provides scholars with a useful group of active intellectuals from whom it is possible to derive an idea of the Australian inflection given to Liberal Imperialist thought, concentrating on the intersection of notions of imperial unity and progressive social reform agendas which flourished in both Australia and Britain during the Edwardian era. The group of politicians and public intellectuals, comprising an overlapping membership including the Imperial Federation League, friends and associates of Alfred Deakin and the Boobooks Club, would subsequently evolve into the main Australian branch of the Round Table organisation. This article is concerned with discovering the outlines of the Australian version of Liberal Imperialist thought and especially the nature of the Australian inflection superimposed on this British set of ideas, as found in a variety of contemporary pamphlets, printed books and Boobooks minutes. The Australians were less pessimistic than Richard Jebb about the possibilities of a supranational imperial organisation but also insisted that such an organisation must respect the sovereignty of dominions. They differed from most of their British counterparts in supporting the widespread use of tariffs to nurture industry and they also supported the restrictive immigration position enshrined in the infamous White Australia policy, yet they were much in favour of the notion of a strong British navy.     

The Universe will be televised: space,science, satellites and British television production, 1946–1969

This essay uses material from the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) archives to show how space-related technoscientific activities played a key role in the development of BBC television. The essay focuses on a crucial period when this influential cultural institution transitioned away from radio as their primary broadcast medium in the 1930s and 1940s to reluctantly embrace television in the 1950s and 1960s. Space-related activities, including astronomy, cosmology, rocketry, aerospace engineering, astrophysics and interplanetary research, played a key role in the modernization of BBC television broadcasting in two intersecting ways. Space-related material provided informative, yet popular, programmatic material that helped BBC television compete in an increasingly commercialized media market, and, later, space projects supplied technologies that impacted on the mechanics of broadcast production and transmission. The profile and prestige of space as a topic, in particular, its visuality, the drama of exploration it presented, and its association with celebrity scientists like Bernard Lovell and Fred Hoyle, meant that such programming became a crucial business asset for the BBC and a professional asset for ambitious producers who saw its commercial potential. Following the launch of Sputnik in 1957, space technology became further intertwined with the development of British broadcasting as the fields of satellite communications and broadcasting transmissions infrastructure converged. In particular, BBC producers promoted the potential development of communication satellites within their television programming by portraying such satellites as plausible and necessary for the advancement of civilization, and most crucially, as a prospective British Space Race achievement.     

Race,Masculinity and Imperialism: The British Officer and the Egyptian Army (1882–1899)

In recent years, there has been increased historical interest in the way in which Western militaries have understood, interacted with and represented Oriental native peoples. However, the influence which the Western perception of the Orient had on the British officers seconded to reform and lead the Egyptian Army between 1882 and 1899 has been overlooked. This oversight is particularly surprising since the reformation the Egyptian Army and its use in the re-conquest of the Sudan between 1896 and 1899 constituted one of the main British military commitments to the Middle East at the height of Empire. Consequently, an examination of the reformation of this force offers the opportunity to examine not only the construction of British racial ideas and their influence on imperialism, but also how they directly affected British actions in Egypt and Sudan. In order to fill this gap in the historiography, this article examines how Western ideas on race, masculinity and imperialism affected the British reformation and leadership of the Egyptian Army as well as how the Europeans attached to the force represented the region in their writing. It argues that the notion of Oriental inferiority quickly became institutionalised amongst the British officers seconded to the force and this not only had a major influence on how the Egyptian Army was both reconstituted and led, but also on how those Europeans attached to the force wrote about their experiences.     

Gender,Imperialism and Domesticity: British women repatriated from India, 1940‐47

In this article, the author draws on women's personal accounts to explore the repatriation processes of white, British, middle-class wives of army officers and civil servants who returned to Britain from India between 1940 and 1947. Conventional images overwhelmingly constructed departure from the subcontinent and arrival in Britain as a time for celebration. However, women's personal sources suggest that both their expectations and experiences of repatriation were often, at best, equivocal. Feelings of uncertainty and unease about their return were coupled with a more positive anticipation connected to the idea that Britain was home. Once in Britain, women were shocked by the unfamiliarity of life there—at both national and household scales—and they struggled to construct a sense of belonging or self. Considering memoirs and oral histories, the author focuses on imperial domesticity and explores the influences of gender on expectations and experiences of repatriation. In so doing, she reflects on the ambiguous position that repatriates can occupy between forced and voluntary movement and highlights the problems in attempting to define either a beginning or an ending to journeys home.