What Role Did the “Civilizing Mission” Play in the Expansion of Britain’s Empire in the 19th Century?
What role did the “civilizing mission” play in the expansion of Britain’s empire in the 19th century?
At the close of the 19th century Rudyard Kipling preserved the prevailing attitude of Britain’s intellectual elite in a poem - “The White Man’s Burden”. In his work Kipling confirms the hubris of a generation of Britons who were entirely convinced that they were culturally, rationally, and morally superior to the “new-caught…Half-devil and half-child” natives of the British colonies. This belief in the superiority of western values manifested in the flight of thousands of philanthropically minded Victorians across the British Empire. These emigrants consisted of a section of society driven to do their duty and fulfil the “national mission”. (Chamberlain 1897:VI) That was, to bring the “savages” out of their infant “barbaric” stage of development and into the light of civilization.
This essay will argue that the “civilizing mission” was not merely an accompanying ideological motive for expansion but that it played an essential practical role in consolidating colonial rule in the 19th century. Through the imposition of western education, religion, and law the “civilizing mission” aided British expansion by creating greater stability in crown colonies. With these conditions in place it was possible for Britain to reap the political and economic benefits of occupation.
In a study of the mourning regulations imposed upon Indian women in the mid-19th century Parita Mukta shows how the spreading of western tradition by colonial powers was used to prevent social uprising and therefore “enabled the consolidation of colonial rule” (Mukta 1999: 25). Colonial powers declared the “loud weeping” and “breast-beating” of women at funerals (which took place in public locations) to be a primitive and backward expression of grief. However, apart from allowing women an emotional outlet for their sorrow “Laments provided the space for the voicing of harsh social truths” (Mukta 1999:
At the close of the 19th century Rudyard Kipling preserved the prevailing attitude of Britain’s intellectual elite in a poem - “The White Man’s Burden”. In his work Kipling confirms the hubris of a generation of Britons who were entirely convinced that they were culturally, rationally, and morally superior to the “new-caught…Half-devil and half-child” natives of the British colonies. This belief in the superiority of western values manifested in the flight of thousands of philanthropically minded Victorians across the British Empire. These emigrants consisted of a section of society driven to do their duty and fulfil the “national mission”. (Chamberlain 1897:VI) That was, to bring the “savages” out of their infant “barbaric” stage of development and into the light of civilization.
This essay will argue that the “civilizing mission” was not merely an accompanying ideological motive for expansion but that it played an essential practical role in consolidating colonial rule in the 19th century. Through the imposition of western education, religion, and law the “civilizing mission” aided British expansion by creating greater stability in crown colonies. With these conditions in place it was possible for Britain to reap the political and economic benefits of occupation.
In a study of the mourning regulations imposed upon Indian women in the mid-19th century Parita Mukta shows how the spreading of western tradition by colonial powers was used to prevent social uprising and therefore “enabled the consolidation of colonial rule” (Mukta 1999: 25). Colonial powers declared the “loud weeping” and “breast-beating” of women at funerals (which took place in public locations) to be a primitive and backward expression of grief. However, apart from allowing women an emotional outlet for their sorrow “Laments provided the space for the voicing of harsh social truths” (Mukta 1999:
Bibliography: Cain, P. J. and Hopkins, A. G. (1987) ‘Gentlemanly Capitalism and British Expansion Overseas II: New Imperialism, 1850-1945’ The Economic History Review 40/1: 1-26 Chaberlain, Joseph (1897) ‘The True Conception of Empire’ www.wwnorton.com/college/english/nael/victorian/topic_4/chamberlain.htm, date accessed 05/11/2011 Fremont-Barnes, Gregory (2007) The Indian Mutiny 1857-58 Oxford: Osprey Publishing Hoffman, Stefan-Ludvig (2010) Human Rights in the Twentieth Century, New York: Cambridge University Press Kipling, Rudyard (1899) ‘The White Man’s Burden’ www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/kipling.asp, date accessed 05/11/2011 Mukta, Parita (1999) ‘‘The 'Civilizing Mission ': The Regulation and Control of Mourning in Colonial India’ Feminist Review, 63/Negotiations and Resistances: 25-47 Patterson Smith, James (1995), ‘Empire and Social Reform: British Liberals and the "Civilizing Mission" in the Sugar Colonies, 1868-1874’ Albion: A Quarterly Journal Concerned with British Studies, 27/2: 253-277 The Third Reform Act (1884) www.citizenshipfoundation.org.uk/main/page.php?82, date accessed 05/11/2011