IMPERIALISM, 1895-1901 The Last Phase.—The climax of the Victorian age was also the climax of the imperialist movement; and this coincidence was appropriate, for a sturdy optimism had been the keynote of the age, and in imperialism optimism attained its grandest dimen sions. At the beginning of the reign "the colonies" had been little esteemed; they were insignificant, and many expected that with growth they would demand independence. A variety of causes falsified this forecast. The Durham Report indicated lines of development which reconciled local independence with imperial union ; the growth of steam transport both favoured emigration and kept the emigrants in closer touch with the mother country; the decline of European and the growth of colonial markets sug gested the importance of inter-imperial trade ; and the growth of mighty armaments on the continent suggested the value of im perial union and expansion as a source of power. Disraeli saw the movement coming and linked it with the fortunes of the Tory party. His imperial ventures were not auspicious but the fiascos of Gladstone's anti-imperialism helped the movement for ward. And now a political leader for the cause was found in the ex-Liberal Chamberlain who, joining Salisbury's cabinet in 1895, selected for himself the hitherto little-esteemed office of colonial secretary. Another name, however, symbolizes late Victorian imperialism more convincingly than that of any politi cian—the name of Rudyard Kipling. His first volume of Indian tales had been published in the year of the first Jubilee, and he attained the stature of a national spokesman with his Recessional, which celebrated the close of the pomps and splendours of the second Jubilee (1897), a hymn which, with all its genuine humility, expresses the pride of a "chosen people," privileged above other nations to bear "the white man's burdens." The Jubilees themselves, it need hardly be said, were, and could not help being, immense advertisements of the greatness of the British Empire.
The Sudan and South Africa.—In 1896 the steady growth of Egyptian economic prosperity made possible the announcement of an Anglo-Egyptian expedition to reconquer the Sudan. Gordon would be avenged and an immense new tropical province opened to the benefits of British administration; and after 15 years of Mandism the province was certainly in need of it. Sir Herbert Kitchener took command and astonished the world by the effi ciency and economy of his achievement. The battle of the Atbara was fought in April 1898 and the crowning victory of Omdurman (the Khalifa's capital, hard by the ruins of Khartoum) in July. In this battle II,000 Dervishes were killed at the cost of 48 lives to the victorious army, and the total expenses of the campaign would have paid for about eight hours of the British effort in the later stages of the Great War. Yet these events had a rather ugly sequel. Within a week of the occupation of Omdurman it was announced that a French explorer, Major Marchand, had hoisted his flag at Fashoda, Soo miles further up the Nile. The French flag was lowered, but not without a severe straining of diplomatic relations between London and Paris. Britain had been, it appeared, "on the verge of war." The "splendid Isola tion" of late Victorian Britain was less secure than in retrospect one is apt to imagine. A brief history like the present has omitted all the abortive war-alarms of the last 20 years of the century, but they would make a considerable list. The enemy was always France or Russia; Germany had not yet crossed Britain's path.
On New Year's Day 1896 an astonished public read that a force of mounted police under Dr. Jameson had raided the Trans vaal Republic. Its failure was immediate, but "the Raid" was a symptom of the growing tension created by the antagonistic poli cies of Cecil Rhodes, prime minister of the Cape, Rand gold magnate, and creator of Rhodesia, and Paul Kruger, President of the Dutch Republic of the Transvaal. About ten years earlier, one of the greatest gold fields of the world had been opened up in the very middle of the Transvaal. The gold-mining population (Uitlanders) had many just grievances against the treatment they received; in particular they were excluded from any share in the government of the Republic. Most of them were British, and in March 1899 they addressed a petition to Queen Victoria. Chamberlain took up their cause. Milner, the British High Com missioner of South Africa, failed to extract any concessions from Kruger, and the upshot was war (Oct. 1899). The early stages of the war proved that the Boers were better prepared than the British, and the three defeats of "Black Week" (Dec. 5899) ushered in a winter less terrible but quite as humiliating as the Crimean winter 44 years before. Three British forces were be sieged on British territory in Kimberley, Ladysmith, and Mafe king. With the coming of spring, numbers began to tell, and the clouds lifted; the beleaguered garrisons were successively relieved, and in June Lord Roberts entered Pretoria. It seemed that the war would end before the century. It did not do so, however, and guerilla tactics prolonged an irritating game of military hide-and seek well on into 1902. The end of the century was to be marked not by the end of the war but by the death of the Queen. Victoria died, after a brief illness, on Jan. 22, in her eighty-second year. (See SOUTH AFRICA, UNION OF; SOUTH AFRICAN WAR; TRAN SVAAL. ) The Queen.—This is not the place to attempt an estimate in detail of Victoria's character. The best way of measuring her achievement is to study the position occupied in public esteem by her immediate predecessors. The Crown as it came to her was associated with political ineptitude and moral degradation. She wore it for over 6o years and left it the unique symbol of national honour. Her political opinions were often shrewdly formed and always strongly held, but it is easy to exaggerate the queen's intellectual gifts and to attribute to her a, far-seeing statesman ship to which she has no claim. Queen Victoria's achievement was her character. If rigid devotion to duty and unflagging in dustry are to be respected, then Victoria is entitled to respect. She was worthy to preside over a great nation in one of the greatest epochs of its history. In some ways her plainness of speech and of thought, her simple piety, her regal and maternal dignity make her more typical of her age than any of the brilliant men whom we call "eminent Victorians," and homage is paid both to the queen and to her subjects in the suggestion that Victoria was, of all her generation, the most Victorian. (See also VICTORIA, and the various biographical articles.) (D. C. So.) Across British history since 5901 the World War draws a heavy line ; it is impossible to see the period otherwise than in the three divisions—before the war, the war-period and after the war. Dur ing the years 1901-14 certain forces, the result of a long period of peace and prosperity, which had already broken the crust of exclusive social traditions and of literary and artistic convention, began to affect national affairs and political life. The period is marked by a restless, uneasy re-alignment of class and party, so searching and at times so violent, that in the last years before the war the very frame of representative government, as the 19th cen tury had known it, seemed on the verge of breaking to pieces under the strain. The war, with its concentration of the national mind, restored balance and stability to the nation, though the world was shaking. After the war, many as the difficulties were, at least there was no appearance of the strange plunge towards an incal culable gulf, which was gravely affecting men's minds during 1909-14.