UNIT 49
UNIT 49. DEVELOPMENT AND ADMINISTRATION OF THE BRITISH
COLONIAL EMPIRE IN THE XVIII AND XIX C. J. CONRAD & R. KIPLING.
1. INTRODUCTION
1.1. Imperialism vs. Colonialism.
It is quite relevant to differentiate between the concepts ‘imperialism’ and
‘colonialism’ so as to better understand the imperial expansion of the Great
Britain. Although they may look similar, they establish different concepts. For
instance, whereas the term ‘imperialism’ refers to the principle, spirit, or system
of empire, and is driven by ideology, the term ‘colonialism’ refers to the
principle, spirit, or system of establishing colonies, which is driven by
commerce.
2. THE BRITISH EMPIRE.
2.1. The beginning of the British Empire.
During the 16th c. England established some colonies in North America and the
Northern Atlantic, but British Navy was not much concerned in establishing
commercial bases in other countries. They were especially devoted to acts of
piracy against colonial nations.
A special interest in the Atlantic territories of North America raised during the
17th c. Groups of Puritans founded some colonies, which were good commercial
and strategic bases in the proximity of the tropical America. By the end of this
century, some British trade companies settled in India. India manufacture was
controlled by the State.
2.2. The middle-class revolution.
The political results of the Glorious Revolution (1688), which led William of
Orange to obtain the crown, made the Parliament the overall power of State.
1
UNIT 49
Within the Parliament, the House of Commons imposed over the House of Lords,
mainly due to their growing economical power.
As business middle class resulted benefited of the revolution, they promoted
colonial expansion. This expansion was based on a number of factors: control of
raw materials (wood, cotton); promotion of the iron industries inside the country
and naval supremacy in order to protect their own trade routes and take over
Spanish and French trading posts.
The wars against Spain and France (The Succession War (1701-1714) and The
Seven Years War (1756-1763)) resulted in the obtaining of Gibraltar, Menorca
and Hudson Bay, the French territories to the Northeast of the Mississippi river,
Florida, some Antilles isles and the trading post in Senegal.
New colonies were found in India and the East India Company gained control
over most of India. Many people travelled to the East colonies to make their
fortune. However, they were not much interested in the development of the
Indian colonies, as in the development of their own wealth.
The first crisis of colonisation began in the first western colonies: hostile feelings
towards colonisation began to spread out; thirteen colonies became
independent in North America; the Versailles Treaty made Great Britain give
some territories back to France and Spain.
Although some more colonies were established yet: sailors from the colonies in
India conquered Penang in 1786, Sierra Leone, on the African coast, and
Southern New Wales , in the South East of the Australian Continent were
founded in 1788. In 1815 England had a great Empire.
2
UNIT 49
During the 19th c., England saw the raising of an ideological movement:
Liberalism. Liberal ideas led to economic, social and moral changes; interest in
humanitarian matters and the abolition of slavery in 1833.
2.3. The Victorian Age.
The Victorian Era goes from 1830 to 1880. This period is characterised by the
extension of the British Empire, which implied its political and economical
superiority over the rest of the nations, and by the social effects of the industrial
revolution.
New territories were colonised: Gold Coast (1821), Falkland Isles (1833), New
Zealand (1840), Hong Kong (1841), some new territories in India… However,
liberals criticise the maintenance costs of the colonies. The main reasons were
the cost of the American Revolution; economic crisis in the West Indies and lack
of commercial interest in the colonies. It was a period of social agitation:
First, middle class economical growth came together with the rise of population,
and population increase brought about emigration to the new territories of the
Empire.
Secondly, he Industrial Revolution had provoked that the country became more
urban and the population more mobile, mass production and division of labour
were introduced in the economical system, the smoke and debris invaded the
countryside and a non-ideological and with trades manlike qualities middle class
rose.
Finally, the social transition was a peaceful process due to fear of spread of
revolution from the Continent and the Utilitarian ideology, whose main feature
was the tendency to mingle business with moralism.
3
UNIT 49
Utilitarians were philosophical radicals whose main aim was the improvement of
the nation. Their proposal was the defence of property based on stopping
government interfering with trade; leaving capital to find its most lucrative
course and leaving industries and intelligence their natural reward, idleness and
folly their natural punishment.
Late Victorian period was characterised by the debate about the content of
English culture, habits of resistance to the standardising effects of machines,
the second Reform Bill of 1867: enfranchised working classes in the towns, and
the Trade Union Act of 1871: shifts the centre of power.
2.4. Development and organization of the colonies.
Liberals wanted to avoid conflicts in the colonies due to lack of political
organisation. They granted a representative government where it was needed.
For instance: Canada was granted one in 1848, and then Australia and New
Zealand in 1855; the rebellion of the “sepoys” in India resulted in administrative
reforms. These led to the establishment of a civil service that guaranteed some
social services, i.e.: the first railway system in Asia was built.
Moreover, the opening of the Suez Canal in 1869 modified the trade routes all
over the world and consequently a new colonial movement flourished, in spite of
the strong liberal opposition; Imperialism became a solid doctrine and
Imperialist literature spread out (R. Kipling); Great Britain took an active part in
the distribution of Africa; and some new territories were added to the Empire:
Cyprus, Nigeria, Egypt, Kenya and some archipelagos in the Antarctic Ocean.
The cities acquire more and more importance: people moved to the cities in
Britain as in other parts of the Empire and the growth of the industrial city
produced new and hardened social stratification everywhere.
4
UNIT 49
2.5. The administration of the colonies.
Colonial State formation was characterised by the use of force in order to
establish political stability, the importance of economic objectives in order to
increase profitability and the continuity must be secured.
The main features of the administration of the Colonial States were.
1. There was an International political dimension. The State was ruled by an
important International Power: Great Britain.
2. The existence of bureaucratic elitism and authoritarianism: agents of the
British Government occupied posts specially reserved for them, civil servants
were chosen from native population, all the important decisions were taken
in London.
3. Statism. This means that the command over the economy was exerted by
the State – in this case a foreign State.
4. Use of traditional figures. These figures were taken from the tradition of the
colony and rely for political support and legitimacy. This was a two-staged
process: to make allies and to provoke disruptions of the state structure.
5. Use of force. Military force was used in order to initiate colonial war and
control active resistance. Colonial police was characterised by the extensive
use of violence, unequal treatment to colonised people and colonisers an
self-identification in some fields.
6. Technological advantage in some fields such as arms, medicine or railroads.
7. Hegemonic ideology. The main aim was to support the continuation of the
existing political regime. This could be achieved by means of emphasizing on
positive features of colonisation and positive statements about British rulers´
invincibility.
5
UNIT 49
2.6. The final organization of the colonies.
The Indian colonies were called the Indian Empire in 1877. There was a rise of
the nationalist feeling in 1885 and they reached some concessions on
independence in 1935. The Independent States of New Zealand and the
Australian Federation were founded in 1900. The South African Union was
founded in 1910. British rule in India ended in 1947.
The British Empire showed a great solidity during the 1WW but the Westminster
Statute of 1931 let the most developed countries acquire independence
resulting in the beginning of the Commonwealth.
3. J. CONRAD & R. KIPLING.
Joseph Conrad (1857-1924) and Rudyard Kipling (1865-1936), who were
profoundly preoccupied with the consequences of imperialism and the British
empire expansion, namely in Africa and India, respectively. Let us examine their
life, style and main works in detail.
3.1. JOSEPH CONRAD (1857-1924)
Josef Teodor Konrad Korzeniowski was born in Southern Poland. At the age of 17
he sailed to Marseille to become an apprentice in the merchant marine. Sailed
on a variety of British ships to the Orient and many exotic places. At the age of
32 began to write his first novel Almayer´s Folly (1895) being the first of a series
of sea novels based on his experience as a sailor.
Although Conrad is known as a novelist, he tried his hand also as a playwright.
His first one-act play was not success and the audience rejected it. But after
finishing the text he learned the existence of the Censor of the Plays, which
inspired his satirical essay about the obscure civil servant. Conrad was an
Anglophile who regarded Britain as a land which respected individual liberties.
6
UNIT 49
Following Alfred: “Conrad’s prose style is one of the most individual and readily
recognizable in English, not, as might be expected in a Pole, for its
eccentricities, but for its full use of the musical potentialities of the language.
His careful attention to grouping and rhythm and to such technical devices as
alliteration enables him, at his best, to achieve a prose that is akin to poetry.
When he writes below his best he can become over-ornamental, self-conscious,
and artificially stylized”.
Among other features of this writing style, we may mention his subjects, namely
about adventure in an unusual or exotic setting due to his experiences in the
sea and the exploration of Africa and East Indies; his characters, both men and
women, are presented in brief, illuminating flashes and who are vital individuals.
They are rarely commonplace and some of his best are villains as Kurtz in The
Heart of Darkness; his view of life, out of which Conrad had a profound sense of
the tragedy of life and the man’s struggle against hostile forces; finally, he had
a traditional direct narrative method, and the oblique method, by means of
which he presents his material in an easy, conversational manner through the
medium of a spectator, and gradually he builds up a picture of the situation by
brief sense impressions.
Primarily seen in his own time as a writer of sea stories, Conrad is now highly
regarded as a novelist whose work displays a deep moral consciousness and
masterful narrative technique. Among his early novels, we find that the two first
works were based on his experiences of Malaya, thus Almayer’s Folly (1895); An
Outcast of the Islands (1896), where he presents a vivid tropical background
and a study of a white man whose moral stamina was sapped by the insidious
influence of the tropics; his third early work was The Nigger of the ‘Narcissus’
7
UNIT 49
(1897), a moving story of life on board ship, remarkable for a full of romantic
description in a powerful atmosphere of mystery and brooding.
His next work was Tales of Unrest (1898), which contains five stories, and was
followed by Lord Jim: a Tale (1900). This is one of the best of Conrad’s studies of
men whose strength fails them in a moment of crisis, and is again a story of the
sea. It is in this work that Conrad introduces for the first time his technique of
oblique narrative, the story being told through the ironical Marlow, a character
who frequently appears in later novels. Then he wrote Youth: A Narrative; and
two other Stories (1902) and Typhoon, and Other Stories (1903), which contain
seven tales which include some of Conrad’s most powerful work. In the former
collection it is remarkable The Heart of Darkness (1899) for an overwhelming
sense of evil and corruption and for its excellent tropical background.
Influenced by Henry James, another Conrad’s finest work is Nostromo – A Tale of
the Seaboard (1904), which shifts the scene to the coastline of Central America.
It is a story of revolution and has many well-drawn portraits. Throughout his
fiction Conrad is concerned with moral dilemmas, the isolation of the individual
to be tested by experience, and the psychology of inner urges in both groups
and individuals. This is reflected in his semi-autobiographical The Mirror of The
Sea (1906), which is a series of essays based on his experiences in the oceans
of the world and contains excellent pictures.
This work was followed by the popular detective story The Secret Agent – A
Simple Tale (1907), which, though it contains some one or two well-drawn
figures and suggests quite powerfully the atmosphere of the Underworld, is not
one of his best.
8
UNIT 49
Then came Chance- A Tale in Two Parts (1914), written in the oblique method of
story-telling. Here Marlow appears again as a narrator, but the story is also told
from several other points of view. After Victory- An Island Tale (1915) and a
further collection of four short stories, Within the Tides – Tales (1915), Conrad
wrote The Shadow line- A Confession (1917), a short novel in which the
suggestion of the supernatural is present. Other novels followed, such as The
Rescue – A Romance of the Shallows (1920), which is long but with moments of
high excitement, and shows and excellent picture of primitive men. The Arrow
of Gold – A Story between Two Notes (1919) and The Rover (1923) are both set
in a background of European history, and were not very successful.
In his late years, he wrote Suspense- A Napoleonic Novel (1925), which was
unfinished at his death. Other works were published posthumously, such as
Tales of Hearsay (1925), four stories, and Last Essays (1926). We shall finally
mention in this group his autobiographical novels since they show the real
Conrad and his own experiences. Thus, A Personal Record (1912) and Notes on
Life and Letters (1921), relevant for Conrad’s views on his own art, and of two
novels, The Inheritors- An Extravagant Story (1901) and Romance- A Novel
(1903), in which he collaborated with Ford Maddox Hueffer.
3.2. RUDYARD KIPLING (1865-1936)
Born in Bombay, he was sent to England in 1871 to be brought up at the United
Services College –an educational institution for the public officials´ children,
which was a sad and lonely experience for him, as he would reflect in Stalky &
Co. (1899). Then, he returned to Lahore, India, in 1882 and worked as a
journalist for the daily Civil and Military Gazette.
9
UNIT 49
When he got back to England in 1889 he was an acknowledged writer. Travelled
to South Africa as a chronicler to cover the events of the Boers War. Was
granted the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1907. Died in London.
Since Kipling wrote during the period known as the Victorian Age, his writings
show the main topics of the English and Western Literature of the time, thus
conservatism, optimism and self assurance both in prose and poetry. Though
Kipling’s works achieved literary fame during his early years, as he grew older
his works faced enormous amount of literary criticism. His works dealt with
racial and imperialistic topics which attracted a lot of critics, who condemned
the fact that unlike the popular model of poetry, Kipling’ works did not have an
underlying meaning to it and that interpreting it required no more than one
reading.
As Kipling grew older his works, his popularity among the masses persisted
without change. In fact, due to his ability to relate to the layman as well as the
literary elite through his works, he joined a select group of authors who reached
a worldwide audience of considerable diversity. Kipling’s reputation started a
revival course after T.S. Eliot’s essay on his works where Eliot describes the
most salient feature of Kipling style: the “great verse” that sometimes
unintentionally changes into poetry. In his lifetime Kipling went from the
unofficial Poet Laureate of Great Britain to one of the most denounced poet in
English Literary History. In contrast to the path his reputation took, Rudyard
Kipling improved as a poet as his career matured and by the time of his death
Kipling had compiled one of the most diverse collections of poetry in English
Literature.
10
UNIT 49
Since Kipling was an Imperialist, his main themes read about attitudes towards
British rule in India. Kipling believed it was right and proper for Britain to “own”
India and rule its people, and the possibility that this position might be
questionable never seems to have crossed his mind. At the time he was writing
there was a considerable ferment of revolt among Indians against British rule,
and yet, he has shown, at points in Kim (1901) when in Chapter 3 he has an old
soldier comment on the Great Mutiny of 1857, dismissing it as “madness”.
He was a prolific and versatile writer whose journalistic experience served him
to great extent throughout this career. His prose works, which include stories of
Indian life, of children, and of animals are told with great vitality. He had an
inventive faculty, a romantic taste for the adventurous and the supernatural,
and an apparently careless, very colloquial style, which ensured for his work a
popular reception. He also dealt with the superiority of the white race, of
Britain’s undoubted mission to extend through her imperial policy the benefits of
civilization to the rest of the world. He believed in the progress and value of the
machine, found and echo in the hearts of many of his readers since they lived
the late consequences of the industrial revolution.
He presented a really good picture of Anglo-Indian and of native life. His
portraits of soldiers, natives and of children were vivid and real, with a soft
characterization. His background is clearly visualized and realistically presented
since he had a great ability to create an atmosphere of mystery. The apparent
carelessness of his style was a deliberate and skilfully cultivated technique.
Kipling’s works span over five decades both as poetry and prose. Regarding the
former, in 1886 he published his first volume of poetry, Departmental Ditties
and other poems followed, such as Barrack-room Balladas (1892), The Seven
11
UNIT 49
Seas (1896), The Five Nations (1903), Inclusive Verse 1885-1918 (1919) and
Poems, 1886-1929 (1930). Over the immediately following years he published
some of his most exquisite works including his most acclaimed poem
Recessional. Regarding prose works, between 1887 and 1889 he published six
volumes of short stories set in and concerned with the India he had come to
know and love so well. When he returned to England he found himself already
recognized and acclaimed as a brilliant writer. Earlier prose works include Plain
Tales from the Hills (1888), Soldiers Three (1888), The Phantom Rickshaw
(1888), Wee Willie Winkie (1888), Life’s Handicap (1891), Many Inventions
(1893), The Jungle Book (1894), Captains Courageous (1897), The Days’s Work
(1898), and his most famed novel, Kim (1901). Other works followed, thus Just-
so Stories for Little Children (1910), Debits and Credits (1926), and Limits and
Renewals (1932).
4. BIBLIOGRAPHY
Alexander, M. 2000. A History of English Literature. Macmillan Press. London.
12
