BRITAIN'S IMPERIAL CENTURY, 1815-1914

Britain's Imperial Centur~1815-1914

A Study of Empire and Expansion

Ronald Hyam Fellow and Librarian Magdalene College, Cambridge

Foreword by D.A.Low Smuts Professor of the History of the British Commonwealth University of Cambridge

Second Edition

M Barnes & Noble Books

© Ronald Hyam 1976, 1993 Softcover reprint of the hardcover 2nd edition 1991 978-0-333-48946-8

All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of this publication may be made without written pennission.

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Any person who does any unauthorised act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages.

First edition published by B. T. Batsford Ltd 1976 Second edition published in Oreat Britain 1993 by THE MACMILLAN PRESS LTD Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire R021 2XS and London Companies and representatives throughout the world

This book is published in Macmillan's Cambridge Commonwealth Series General Editors: E. T. Stokes (1972-81) and D. A. Low (1983- )

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

ISBN 978-0-333-57758-5 ISBN 978-1-349-22784-6 (eBook) DOI 10.1007/978-1-349-22784-6

Frrst published in the United States of America 1993 by BARNES & NOBLE BOOKS 4720 Boston Way Lanham, MD 20706

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Hyam, Ronald Britain's imperial century, 1815-1914: a study of empire and expansion / Ronald Hyam ; foreword by D. A. Low. - 2nd ed p. em. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-0-389-21003-0 1. Oreat Britain--Colonies-History. I. Title. NI017.H92 1993 32S'.341'09--dc20 92-37000

CIP

Blind, Jooled, and staggering Jrom her throne, I saw her Jall, Clutching at the gaud oj Empire; And wondering, round her, sons and daughter-nations stood -What madness had possessed her; But when they lifted her, the heart was dead, Withered within the body, and all the veins Were choked with yellow dirt.

Edward Carpenter, Towards Democracy Pt IV, 'Empire' [1902]

Wider still and wider, Shall thy bounds be set; God who made thee mighty, Make thee mightier yet.

A.C. Benson, Land oj Hope and Glory (1902)

Contents

List of Maps and Tables IX

Foreword by D.A. Low Xl

Priface XV

The Foundations of Power, 181~70 1

The project of an empire 1 British hegemony and its residual rivals 8 Sea power and gunboat diplomacy 15 Economic enterprise: exports, imports and

free trade 21 The importance of the Indian raj 32 The white colonies and the problems of imperial

organisation 39 Britain and the American challenge 52

2 The Motives and Methods of Expansion, 1815-65 74

Racial attitudes 74 Anti-slavery and the humanitarian impulse 77 Economic and ideological motives for expansion 86 The Protestant missionary movement 91 Palmers ton and the grand design 97 The theory and practice of global influence 105 Informal empire in China 123

3 The Decline of British Pre-eminence, 185~1900 134

The Indian Mutiny-Rebellion 134 A decade of crisis for the grand design, 1855-65 145 The hardening of racial attitudes 155 The Irish protest 166 The occupation of Egypt 174 The response to emergent nationalism in India

and Egypt 183 The growth of pessimism 189 Economic retardation 197

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Vlll Contents

4 The Search for Stability, 1880-1914 203

Partitioning the world 203 The partition of Africa 213 The myth of a 'special relationship' with the

United States 231 The federal panacea 235 The origins of the South African War, 1899 240 Chamberlain, the West Indies and tariff reform 247 Defence and diplomacy 257 The contribution of the Liberal government,

1905-14 266 Schooling and scouting 272

5 The Dynamics of Empire and Expansion 280

Surplus energy and the proconsular phenomenon 280

The engine of expansion: a model 285 Props of empire-building: sex, sport and secret

societies 290 White skins, white masks: techniques of control 301 1914 and the writing on the wall 310

Postscript 315

References 316

Select Bibliography 331

Index 336

List of Maps and Tables

MAPS

Australia and New Zealand South Africa: land settlement North American expansion Non-European labour migration The Chinese empire The Indian empire The Middle East and Indian communications South-East Asia The partition of Africa in 1895 Some African states and societies Main prostitution networks, c. 1914

DIAGRAM

New portfolio British capital investments (1865-1914 )

TABLES

40 46 62 79

125 135 176 206 215 220 293

26

Export of cotton manufactured piece goods (1815-75) 22 Destination of emigrants from Britain (1843-1913) 24 Selected British imports (1821-51) 27 British imports of raw wool (1800-86) 29 Canadian population growth (1841-61) 42 British imports of ivory (1827-1900) 218

IX

Foreword

The Cambridge Commonwealth Series seeks to publish a variety of contributions to the history of what is now the Commonwealth of Nations. Over the years it has included a number of mono­graphs on almost as kaleidoscopic a range of topics as the Commonwealth itself. These scholarly volumes based upon deep original research help to compose the scholarly bedrock for the larger endeavour to understand the history of the remarkable gathering of nations that the Commonwealth now composes. More recently additions to the series have included some further specialised studies, but also some collected volumes of chapters on some important topic on which a number of people have been working, and some studies too of the very recent past. There have been as well two volumes which help to advance the study of the modern Common­wealth itself as an institution of importance in the contem­porary world.

At the same time the series has taken cognisance of the emphasis that is properly placed upon the history of particular countries that have a Commonwealth connection. Professor Davenport's South Africa: A Modern History has become a stan­dard work, and is now in its fourth edition. Its focus upon a country that once played a major part in the Commonwealth and - major reversals apart - can now be thought of as once more a prospective member, has provided one of the highlights of the series. Likewise Professor Sarkar's Modern India 188!r1947 firmly holds the field as the most comprehensive general ac­count of the history of India for the period covered that is now available, and has the great merit of having for the first time brought together in a form usable by students and general readers the greater part of the recent three decades of new research and specialised publication which India's history has seen. Each of these in their own way reflects the current, wholly to be welcomed, concern of so many historians in the Common­wealth with the history of their own country, and serves in a series of this kind to emphasise that the history of the former

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Xll Foreword

British Empire now transformed into the Commonwealth cannot possibly be properly understood from a British per­spective only.

That having been established, it is all the same of immense importance to emphasise that there was indeed a major British dimension to the story as well, and it is here that Dr Hyam's present book makes its singular contribution.

This is not a study of the 'higher' imperialism, the fractious debate in highly ideological terms about when later nine­teenth-century European imperialism had its origins, what precipitated it, what imbued it. It is not much concerned with the historiography of the subject, on which Dr Hyam, with Dr Ged Martin, has published an earlier volume in this series (Reappraisals in British Imperial History) which can be regarded as a companion volume to the present book. Nor is it a study of 'ground-level' imperialism: how the imperialist thrust actually impacted on this or that country. Nor is it a study of 'middle­level' imperialism, which focuses upon 'British policy towards .. .'. Although there are some interesting pages on the role of freemasonry, sport, and the boy scout movement, the main focus of the discussion here is not upon the 'by-ways' of imperi­alism to which Manchester University Press's Studies in Imperial­ism is making such a major contribution - not least in Dr Hyam's own book on Empire and Sexuality. Rather this present volume joins in a highly important way what is now an invaluable succession of volumes for students, the general reader and scholars that traces the 'high road' of British imperialism through the two centuries and more when 'the British Empire' played such a major role in the life of a very large number of countries around the world, beginning with Britain itself.

The present book was originally commissioned by Professor Geoffrey Barraclough and was first published by Batsford in 1976 to the enthusiasm of reviewers who variously acclaimed it as 'a tour de force', 'to date the most powerful synthesis within a new framework', which 'at once will go onto the "basic" reading list of British imperial history'. 'Hyam has achieved', another reviewer wrote, 'the considerable success of establishing not only the fascination still inherent in the history of the empire but of assuring that never again should it be written about in conventional manner', while another wrote likewise: 'the scope, up-to-dateness, clear organisation and liveliness make it

Foreword Xlll

a fulfilment of Ryam's intention to reach those who desire a sense of the "world-wide pattern" of empire'.

The original book has alas been out of print for too long, to the loss of very many of those who have needed as students and scholars to have it readily available. It is a particular pleasure to see it here in print once more, and perhaps, as Dr Ryam himself explains, in rather more convenient form, shorter, once more up-to-date, with some of the original case studies left to the many more specialised accounts of particular countries that have now been published.

In its new form it fills that critical gap in the more general survey volumes of the British Empire as seen from its metro­politan political centre which lies between Professor Bayly's The Imperial Meridian and Dr Porter's The Lion's Share. By beginning in 1815 it helpfully overlaps with the former, and, by ending in 1914, with the latter. Taken as a trio, with many a like volume to choose from for the subsequent period of decolonisation, there now exists a sustained sequence of round-up volumes each of which argues a distinctive and persuasive case, that will stand their ground for many a year to come. It is a great pleasure to welcome Dr Hyam's volume to this series, and commend it to a large readership.

D.A. Low Clare Hall, Cambridge

Preface

Prefaces are such customary things, and so often repeated, that I think good ones cannot always be expected; and I am glad that they are so, for it gives me an opportunity of saying something which I am anxious to say, and at the same time leaves me the hope that I shall be pardoned for saying it so ill.

(John Clare, preface to The Shepherd's Calendar, 1829)

Few of us get second chances in life, and I am particularly grateful to the series editor, Professor Anthony Low, and to Macmillan for allowing me the chance to write this entirely new version of a book first published by Batsford. I have taken the original completely to pieces, and written some fresh material. In putting it together again I have abandoned the regional studies of the old Part Two, and strengthened the chronologi­cal sequence. Reviewers will no longer be able to complain that I have written 'two books in one'. I have some regrets about this, as a number of the jettisoned case-studies were based on my own research, and I hope librarians will not remove the first edition from their shelves. However, I believe that this new edition is a tighter - as it is certainly a shorter - book, which presents more clearly what I want to say. I also hope that it will be more· useful to students. I envisage their main requirement as being for a general introduction to what was going on in metropolitan expansionist thinking and imperial policy-making. For the next stage of their studies I assume that they will proceed to the several good specialist or separate regional accounts which now exist, several of them in this series.

It follows that my revised emphasis is rather less on how the empire was run, and much more on how and why it was put together. A proper understanding of this is important for all who study the British empire, not least for those who seek to understand its dismantling, its decline and fall. 'Empire' is regarded here as the by-product of larger realms of historical action: the history of European global expansion and race relations. There is nothing idiosyncratic about this approach

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XVI Priface

today. On the other hand I have to admit that my campaign to get the academic world to ditch the emotive and contentious and imprecise words 'imperialism', 'colonialism' and 'capital­ism' has got nowhere, and now looks somewhat eccentric. However, I still refuse to use them myself. I find no difficulty with this self-denying ordinance, and trust that at some time in the twenty-first century I shall be vindicated.

Joan Pocock drew the maps which so enhance this volume.* When it comes to making my personal acknowledgements, I confess to embarrassment. In the course of more than thirty years' involvement with this subject as student and teacher I have incurred innumerable debts: to my own mentors, to my pupils, to colleagues, to visiting scholars and correspondents from all over the world, and to those friends who have provided encouragement, hospitality and diversion, both in this country and in Asia and Africa. It seems invidious to single out indi­viduals. I thank them all, most warmly. There is, however, one debt which will not seem invidious if specially acknowledged. It is to Ronald Robinson. I don't think there was ever much doubt after the age of twelve that I would become a historian of some sort, but it was Robbie who at St John's College, Cambridge, in January 1959, first turned me towards this particular branch of history. He and the late Jack Gallagher made the study of empire and expansion a subject sans pareil, and they provided me, as indeed so many others, with the foundations of a lifetime's intellectual interest. I hope this book in its revised form will enable a new generation to begin to share it.

* Except the map on p. 293, which is by the author.

RH Magdalene College