Disraeli: Key Drivers Of British Imperialism

Disraeli is often associated as one of the key drivers of British Imperialism at a time of great expansion, including the Scramble for Africa in the late 19th Century. His speech in 1872 (on the 3rd April in Manchester and on 24th June at Crystal Palace) asserted a need for an active foreign policy, the importance of colonies, and for Britain to continue to play a key role on the world stage. But much of the speech, as with so much of Disraeli’s work, lacked both detail and substance, with much devoted to a critique of Gladstone’s polices rather than shaping a vision for the future.

In 1852 Disraeli had written to his colleague Malmesbury that ‘These wretched colonies will all be independent too,

Yet in reality these wars were largely either the result of inherited expectation or were forced by an aggressive line adopted by the British Imperial presence overseas. In 1878, in Afghanistan, the hard line recommended by Lord Lytton, the Viceroy of India, was taken in order to secure British interests in the East against an increased interest by Russia. Whereas South Africa was a situation mostly inherited by the previous Government, presided over by Lord Carnarvon, to create a federation of British interests in the Cape, rather than any Disraeli driven strategy to expand the Empire.

The famous purchase of the Suez shares from the almost bankrupt Khedive of Egypt was, once again, an opportunist act, not simply to protect the route to the India, as the Jewel in the Crown, but an act expected of a great Imperial power, and in particular, as a political statement to France. For Disraeli, the Empire was a means of spreading the peculiar glories of aristocratic rule and the

Gladstone saw an opportunity to exploit what he saw as a reckless, foreign policy, intent on domination regardless of the cost and irrespective of civil liberties. This, in part, will have contributed to the Liberal victory of 1880. The pre-election campaign focussed on Disraeli’s war-mongering expansion of empire, taking issue with what Gladstone saw as the principles of foreign policy: the preservation of peace and justice (with economy), the avoidance of needless engagements, the acknowledgement of ‘equal rights for all nations’, to maintain the ‘concert of Europe’ rather than taking divisive action, and to encourage the ‘freedom’ of nations and individuals’. Above all, Gladstone accused Disraeli of using these romanticised overseas actions to hide issues of important domestic policy. The acquisition of Cyprus in 1878, following the Congress of Berlin was presented by Disraeli as another success, another example of securing the route to India, whilst Gladstone saw it as an illustration of a flawed policy, stating that this link had no historical or cultural basis, and