In the modern imagination, Queen Victoria's reign is perhaps
most remembered as the great age of the British Empire. Indeed,
British holdings around the globe expanded under Victoria's watch
to the greatest size of any empire in the history of the world.
It is remarkable that Great Britain, a relatively small island
nation, was able to dominate world politics by the end of the nineteenth
century, with its queen governing over an empire over which, as
it was said, the sun never set.
Victoria was a proud imperialist in her politics, which
is one of the reasons she favored Conservative ministers such as
Benjamin Disraeli and Lord Salisbury over the less imperialistic
Liberals such as William Gladstone. While her direct political
power decreased steadily at home in domestic politics, she enjoyed
her role as the figurehead of sprawling international dominions.
This role as figurehead was not inconsequential. It united British
colonists around the globe in a genuine spirit of unity with other
British subjects who sang "God Save the Queen" in the same language
in far distant countries. Victoria, for her part, often felt united
to her people around the globe. In this connection, she has been
credited with genuinely respecting the people from the native populations
under British rule—this in a time when it was not rare for British
men and women to harbor racist opinions.
One of the Queen's proudest possessions was the Indian
subcontinent, which had for over 150 years been under the military
domination of the East India Company. The framework for British
India was completed in 1849, with the annexation of the Punjab
region and the governorship of Lord Dailhouse. A major change occurred in
the manner of governing India after the great mutiny of 1857–1858.
The mutiny was an uprising of the native population, and British
troops were sent in to aid the East India Company's privately-run
armed forces. Both sides inflicted extensive cruelties in the struggle,
butchering of women and children, and sacking cities. The British
forces won, and direct rule over India was placed in the hands
of the British Crown and its Army. Victoria was crowned Empress
of India in 1876; British rule over the country continued well
into the twentieth century.
Like India, Australia was a large imperial possession
far from the British Isles. It was often used as a penal colony,
to deal with criminals cheaply and usefully. Many criminals were
men who owed debts to the government. In 1851, however, gold was
discovered in Australia, and many adventurous British immigrants
in search of their fortunes sailed the toward the South Pacific.
By 1861, there were more than one million British inhabitants in
Australia, peopling four independent, self-governing colonies:
New South Wales, South Australia, and Victoria and Queensland,
which were named in honor of Queen Victoria.
Another great landmass under British control was Canada.
Parliament passed the British North America Act in 1867, which
joined all the Canadian provinces into one giant confederation
known as the Dominion of Canada. While effective self- government
and freedom from the interference of the British Crown or Parliament
was the rule in Canada, most of the people there considered themselves—as
many to this day consider themselves—subjects of the Queen.
Perhaps the most dramatic area of British imperial expansion was
that in the African continent. By the 1870s, the British had a firm
footing in Africa, and the stage was being set for the great scramble
for Africa in the following decades—the scramble which involved
most of the major European powers' carving up the giant continent
and exploiting to the maximum level possible its rich store of
natural resources. The conquest of Africa became the subject of
famous British literary figures, such as Joseph Conrad, author
of the great novel Heart of Darkness, written
in 1899, as well as Rudyard Kipling, the man who invented the phrase,
the "White Man's Burden." The concept was embraced by British imperialists,
who believed it their duty to Christianize and civilize the darker-skinned
races of men around the globe.
Great Britain's African possessions included Cape Colony
and Natal on the southern tip of Africa—both part of present-day
South Africa. Natal was located nearby the Transvaal, a formerly
Dutch but now British possession effectively in the hands of the
Boers, white Africans descended from Dutch settlers. In 1880, an
army of Boers invaded Natal and defeated a British force at Majuba
Hill. A decade later, this conflict ignited into the Boer War. In
the meantime, a treaty was signed which maintained nominal British
rule over the Transvaal, but guaranteed the region its effective
independence. British adventurer and diamond-hunter Cecil Rhodes entered
the scene, securing for the Crown the area west of the Transvaal
in 1885, and taking over the lands to the north. Rhodes wished
to see a united dominion in South Africa, which included the Transvaal
region. His actions furthered the tensions that led to the Boer
War.
The Boer War broke out in 1899 after the discovery of
gold in the Transvaal region. By this time, the British possessed
Kenya and Uganda, as well. Many at home in Britain opposed the
war, and many foreign powers criticized the British as well for
what seemed to be an unnecessary stretching of imperial muscle.
Initially the British forces suffered heavy defeats at the hands
of the Boers, but victory came in 1902 after Queen Victoria's death,
setting up for the creation of the British dominion of South Africa.
As her empire around the world grew larger and larger,
Queen Victoria's popularity at home increased. The benefits of
empire to the British economy were enormous, with great tracts
of lands from which to harvest natural resources, and also with
ready-made markets around the world for goods manufactured in Britain.
The final decades of the Victoria's reign were, for a number of
British subjects at the top of the economic pyramid, a truly gilded
age.
