British Imperialism

Biography - Victoria, Queen of England

Victoria was born in 1819, the only child of the British royal family. Victoria became Queen of England when she was 18 years old.

Victoria had grown up protected from the harsh reality of the Industrial Revolution and the effect it was having on people across England. In fact, she was horrified by her first sights of Industrial England, which she saw on a trip across the country as a teenager. She described what she saw as, “black, engines flaming, coals, in abundance; everywhere, smoking and burning coal heaps, intermingled with wretched huts and carts and little ragged children." Early in her rule, she was dependent on the Prime Minister, Lord Melbourne, who tried to protect Victoria from the harsh realities of British life and even advised her not to read Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens because it dealt with "paupers, criminals and other unpleasant subjects".

In 1839, Victoria met Prince Albert, her cousin from Germany, and immediately fell in love with him. They were married the next year and had nine children together. Albert was very interested in the technology of the Industrial Revolution and convinced Victoria to support British industry. He convinced her to take her first trip by train in 1841 and afterwards she said she was “quite charmed” by the experience. Under his direction, Victoria supported the Great Exhibition in London in 1851. The Great Exhibition was a showcase of industry and art from around the world that demonstrated British power. The Great Exhibition was housed in a greenhouse like building called the Crystal Palace that covered several acres of land. In addition, Albert thought that Victoria should be aware of the hard lifestyle of the Industrial Revolution and should do something about child labor and poverty. Prince Albert’s died in 1861 and his death had a deep impact on Victoria. She remained in mourning for the rest of her life.

Under Queen Victoria’s rule, the British Empire expanded to become the largest empire in the world by adding territory in Asia and Africa. By the end of her rule, Britain controlled an empire that contained 20% of the world’s surface and 25% of its population. Victoria strongly supported British imperialism and believed that British rule actually helped people around the world. The British usually got control of lands through war, such as the Opium Wars in China or the war against the Zulu in southern Africa. They used military power to put down rebellions, such as the Sepoy Mutiny in India. Victoria supported these wars, writing, "If we are to maintain our position as a first-rate Power, we must… be Prepared for attacks and wars, somewhere or other, CONTINUALLY.”

While Victoria never traveled to her overseas empire, she was interested in her colonies and how the people under her rule lived. She was especially interested in India, which she described as the “Jewel of the Crown”, meaning it was the most important of her colonies. She even had the British government give her the new title of “Empress of India” to show her connection to the country. She did symbolic gestures to connect her to India, such as having an Indian secretary who taught her Hindi, having Indian food included at royal dinners and wearing Indian jewelry.

Queen Victoria was the longest-serving monarch in British history. During her reign Britain went through the Industrial Revolution and built a world-wide empire – it was said that, “the sun never set on the British Empire”. The period that she ruled Britain is remembered as a “golden age” that is called the “Victorian Era”.

Source # 1 - Map showing the resources Europeans got from their colonies in Africa and Asia

Source # 2 - Map of British Empire (1886)

Source # 3 - Cartoon of British Empire from 1882

Source # 5 - Video about Livingstone's exploration up the Zambezi River - click here

Source # 6 - Video about Livingstone's last exploration - click here

Biography - Cecil Rhodes

Cecil Rhodes was born in England to a religious family. As a teenager he became sick with a lung illness and left school to live with his brother in South Africa, where his family thought the environment would be better for his condition. He arrived in the British colony South Africa in 1870 with a large amount of money lent to him by a relative. Rhodes invested the money in land that he could use to mine diamonds and, working with a group of business partners, he established a mining company.

In 1872, at age 19, Rhodes had a slight heart attack. As part of his treatment to recover from the heart attack, Rhodes and his brother went on an expedition into the lands north of the British colony in South Africa that were controlled by native African tribes, like the Zulu and the Matabele. Rhodes used the trip to study the opportunities to mine gold in these areas. It was during this journey that Rhodes fell in love with the countryside of southern Africa and began to think of how to get control of these lands.

In 1873, Rhodes left South Africa and returned to England to attend Oxford University. While he did not study long enough to earn a degree, he experience there helped form his idea that the British were superior to other people and that the British Empire was beneficial to the world. After his death, Rhodes' fortune was used to establish the Rhodes Scholarship to pay for people around the world to attend Oxford University.

When Rhodes returned to South Africa, the diamond mining industry was doing badly because of technical problems and flooding. When other miners gave up on the mining, Rhodes bought their land and worked on solving the problem of how to get the diamonds out of the ground. This persistence paid off and diamond mining made Rhodes very wealthy. In 1880, Rhodes and his business partners put their land holdings together to form the De Beers Diamond Mining Company.

Also in 1880, Rhodes became a member of the Parliament of the British colony of South Africa. In 1890, Rhodes became Prime Minister, or leader of the Parliament. Rhodes used this power to pass laws that would benefit miners (and himself!) such as taking away the lands of the African tribes and using them for mining. In 1893, Rhodes used a conflict over cattle between the Matabele and Mashona tribes as an excuse to attack the Matabele tribe and take its land. Rhodes had already negotiated a treaty with Lobengula, the chief of the Matabele, to have mining rights to the Matabele's land. Now, with the support of Queen Victoria, Rhodes broke that treaty and sent a small army with machine guns to take the Matabele land.

Rhodes’ army quickly defeated the much larger Matabele army because they had better weapons. The lands of the Matabele were divided among the soldiers in Rhodes' army and became part of the British Empire. Rhodes died unable to achieve his dream of extending the British Empire all the way, from north to south, across Africa.

Source # 7 - Map, published in 1899, showing Rhodes plan to build a railroad connection from Cairo to Capetown.

Source # 8 - British cartoon , published in 1892, showing Rhodes standing over Africa holding a telegraph cable (right)

Source # 10 - Rhodes takes Matabele land - click here

Source # 11 - Cartoon - German Cartoon How to be a Colonial Power (1904) showing how the British ran their empire.