How popular was the policy of Imperialism in England

From the period from 1880 to 1902, Britain was beginning its transition into its 'New formal Imperialism', in which Britain left behind its old imperialism policy, in this form of imperialism Britain attained small amounts of territory, and its foreign policies were based mostly on economic interests as Britain tried to maintain an economic based empire in which Britain aimed to have minimal land, as these were seen as financial burdens.

The new aggressive policy incorporated into the British political system was unlike Britain and in which Britain tried to gain territorial control due to great power rivalry which was very unlike British policy . This new policy caused great fluctuation in the support of the British policy of imperialism amongst the British public. British popularity towards the policy of imperialism was very fickle and fluctuated greatly as at time the Britons greatly supported the empire but some events caused great turning points in opinion of Britons and in turn the policy of imperialism.From the same years during the scramble for Africa the popularity of the policy of imperialism too varied, at first when General Gordon was killed by the Mahdi's Islamist uprising, the popularity was very low however, Gordon's death caused a great increase in jingoism and patriotism when Lord Kitchener defeated the Mahdi at the battle of Omdurman on the 2nd September 1989 and British opinion was in favour of avenging the death and taking control over the Sudan, when this was done it created great upsurge in popularity towards imperialism.

This great popularity did not last long and the British public's fickle opinion varied when in 1899 the second war unveiled the ruthless British policy in the Boer republics, when Emily Hobhouse showed the British public the truth behind the concentration camps in the Boer republics.The politicians of the time indeed had different views on imperialism and some politicians like Gladstone supported the old imperialism more and therefore did not support the imperialism of 1880-1902 as he thought it was unlike Britain to be aggressors, Joseph chamberlain on the other hand supported the new imperialism and saw it as the only answer for Britain to beat of competitions from other nations threatening Britain's economic world dominance.The popularity of the empire in the view of the public's was at great variance as most of the time it varied in opinion in dependence of events at a given time. Popularity for the empire varied between politicians and government, some political parties such as the liberal party were divided among the question of empire and some politicians tolerated empire as a commercial and strategic empire, but viewed the new empire as ruthless, for example the Gladstonian wing saw the war on the Zulus as callous.Liberals such as Gladstone also disliked the new imperialism, and his political rallies showed this when the liberals won the Midlothian Campaign in 1880, the fact that the liberals won this election shows that popularity for the new imperialism at 1880 was low.

When Gladstone was blamed for the death of General Gordon in 1885 at Khartoum, events such as these caused a sharp decrease in popularity of empire amongst the public; this led to his nickname being changed by the public into "Gordon's own murderer".Some radical MP's such as David Lloyd George also believed in the old imperialism more, and he was a great critic of the Boer war and encapsulated the public mood against the war. He also accused chamberlain of profiteering from the Boer war and this and the fact that he rallied about how high the cost of war was caused the public mood to turn against empire. However, some liberals like Joseph Chamberlain were very much pro-empire and the empire was very popular among them, as they saw it as the answer to Britain's problems. Moreover, the Jameson Raid of 1896 reduced public support and popularity of empire.

This division among the liberal party shows just how important the empire was to Britons and how its popularity was major in defining British politics. Dissimilarly, the conservative party was very decisive in its view on empire and popularity of imperialism was something that the conservative party stood for greatly, and the fact that they won the 'Khaki election' in 1900 showed just how high popularity was for the empire before the Boer war as the election was based on pro-empire, and the fact that the 1867 reform act gave all men the right to vote, shows the middle class especially was pro-empire.Although conservative politicians were mostly pro-empire, some politicians like Lord Salisbury had reservations about the new imperialism but were very pro-empire; Salisbury believed that slum toryism was beneath the conservatives. Some radical MP's such as David Lloyd George also believed in the old imperialism more, and he was a great critic of the Boer war and encapsulated the public mood against the war.

He also accused chamberlain of profiteering from the Boer war and this and the fact that he rallied about how high the cost of war was caused the public mood to turn against empire. The conservative party saw the great upsurge in popularity of the empire and rebranded themselves as 'party of patriotism', conservatives had periods where popularity of empire was high, such as their Khaki election, but then low popularity during times such as the second Boer War and the failure of the Jameson Raid.The publics opinion towards empire was much more fickle, the media shaped, the public's view greatly for example the right wing press for example 'the daily mail' wholeheartedly backed the empire, and all its readers were partially indoctrinated into believing the empire was the greatest thing for the future of Britain and this caused the British public to support the imperialism. The media saw the British empire as a force for good and writers and editors knew that stories about the empire sold newspapers, which proves just how popular at time, empire was.However, some newspaper like the Manchester guardian opposed the empire due to moral and religious reasons.

Similarly the religious Victorians of the late 1800th century supported empire as they believed it was devised to complete the mission of 'the white man's burden', and also imperial prosperity brought jobs to the British people and this was very much supported by the middle and upper classes.The working class however, was also divided on empire as some supported the empire for economic reasons for example their jobs depended on the empire, the great love of country also meant many people of the working class supported empire and lead to its great popularity until the late 1890s. Despite this some of the working class thought that imperialism was a capitalist plot to distract workers from such problems as low wages. The Christian Church at first supported the empire as imperialism in Africa spread Christianity and civilised the native Africans.However, the Churches support for empire turned around when the regime in the Boer republics was exposed, and the scorched earth policy was found out by the public. Children were also indoctrinated into buying into the idea the empire was great, which caused a great rise in popularity of empire amongst the children, and children's magazines such as ''chums'' glamorised the empire, as children are very impressionable, however, not all children for example the lower classes, supported the empire and its popularity amongst them was low as they did not go to school so did not hear the heroic stories of empire.

In addition, some philosophers and intellectuals, believed Britain's commercial success was built by open competition and feared that the tariff policy adopted by Chamberlain would damage exports as other countries would put tariffs on British good, which was bad news for businessmen, so when the tariff policy was put into action many businessmen lacked popularity for the empire. However, Social Darwinists saw empire as a biological experiment, even comparing it to natural selection, where Britons defeated the weak Africans.Jingoistic songs increased the popularity of the empire as it increased patriotism amongst all classes, for example the song 'by jingo', at a time when there were no cinemas people gathered at music halls to hear their favourite music artists such as Harry Lauder, therefore, such patriotic songs as 'by jingo' were heard by most people and caused an upsurge in extreme patriotism. Despite this great patriotism from many aspects that caused a great increase in popularity of the empire from 1880-1889.

However, the Boer war caused a massive decrease in popularity of empire amongst the people of Britain and some politicians. This was mainly due to the work of Emily Hobhouse, who exposed the ruthless regime that Lord Kitchener had in the Boer republics, for example the concentration camps in which more than 27,000 inmates died. A very religious 1800s British public was extremely shocked by such cold-hearted acts that the British were committing under the 'scorched earth policy'.In addition, the British media stirred up fever against the British army but publishing 'outrages' they had committed, and newspapers that published these stories revealed to the public just how cold the British acts were, and this turned the popularity of empire in the other direction and opinion turned into anti-imperialism around the period of 1900-1902, the low popularity of empire was proved when in 1906 the liberals won the election campaign against the Boer War.

The significance of the Boer war was that it turned almost a whole jingoistic nation, against its government and its imperial regime; this turned most of a country against its empire, as it was seen as being un-Christian and unlike Britain. All in all, the general trend of popularity of the British new imperialism and empire was increasing up until about 1900 where it took a steep fall.However, although the majority of people favoured the empire until 1900, this does not nessacerily mean that all the people of Britain liked it as there were many people in the public who were against it not only in the public but as i have mentioned politicians such as William Gladstone. The public had varying views about the policy imperialism at different times, as some . Little changes in the empire could make the public change their mind very easily, which caused a lot of difficulties to the parties and leaders in deciding on new policies.