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Colonialism changed the roles of Europeans of the early 1900 's or late 1800 's? One of the most famous slogans of the age of global colonization was: "The sun never sets on the British Empire. " As recently as 1940, world maps showed large areas colored pink, representing regions dominated by the British. Much of Africa was pink, along with India, Malaya, Hong Kong, and other scattered territories in Asia and the Americas. The existence of an empire on which the sun never set helped instill in the individual British citizen tremendous pride, and the need to become personally a devoted imperialist. For more than 100 years, the fact that Britain was an empire had changed the British man's life, and had instilled in him the fact that he was superior to most other peoples especially those of other colors and backgrounds. This was also the period when it was felt that it was the "white man's burden" to take care of all those countries whose inhabitants were less worthy than the white Anglo-Saxon.
This way of thinking was called Social Darwinism. This was an ag! e when even though England, in some respects, tried to act "fatherly" towards some of the countries it had seized, it still felt a strong amount of racism towards the people of those countries. In 1849, General Wolsey wrote from the Gold Coast, "The Africans are like monkeys.
They are a good-for-nothing race. " In 1849 Thomas Carlyle pronounced Europeans wiser than Africans and said inferior races must obey the superior. It was an idea that by 1900 most English men and women held, one that fit the paternalism of the governing classes and the prejudice of the lower classes. The Empire had created a nation of imperialists. The commercial spirit has always existed in human society. What was peculiar to the nineteenth century was its "overbalance: " it became the "paramount principle of action in the nation at large. " Capitalism, imperialism, and colonialism were the themes of the day. A generation of university teachers, schoolmasters, clergymen, poets, journalists, and fiction writers concentrated their minds and energies on popularizing the cult of the new imperialism.
The intellectual and social trends were many and complex, ranging from Social Darwinist works like Benjamin Kidd's "The Control of the Topics" to Kipling's poems and the racist songs of the music halls. There was, of course, the persistent call by Christian evangelicals to go forth and convert the pagans. Continuous, too, since the eighteenth century, were humanitarians anxious to end slavery or protect the aborigines. Even the nursery of the Victorian day was not closed to imperialism. "An ABC for Baby Patriots" published in 189! 9 included: C is for Colonies Rightly we boast, That of all the great nations Great Britain has the most. In the middle classes, the passion for wealth was closely connected with the desperate need for respectability. By 1880, a generation had passed into manhood with an outlook which made them ideally suited to govern the empire.
In itself, wealth alone was hardly enough to make a Victorian respectable. When everyone at the time was busy making money and working to better themselves, someone with money who just laid back and enjoyed the pleasures of life was not a winner. It was said that to be a merchant prince was a far finer thing than to be a gentleman. This means that to be a working merchant, making a living, and getting high in the social ladder, was a more respectable thing to be than just a gentleman. Soon, every single person, no matter what age, was trying to advance in society. "Now that a man may make money, and rise in the world, and associate himself, un reproached, with people once far above him... it becomes a veritable shame to him to remain in the state he was b!
orn in, and everybody thinks it is his duty to try to be a 'gentleman. '" See, the whole train of thought for everyone of the time, especially men, since the women were mostly housewives, was to live to better themselves by gaining social status and respect from the higher powers. Except for "God, " the most popular word in the Victorian vocabulary must have been "work. " Capitalism was the main force behind imperialism. Capitalism had created a wealthy and powerful elite of investors, traders, and manufacturers, anxious to make profits. Capitalism had also, by its unequal distribution of wealth, given so little purchasing power to the workers that they could not buy all the goods produced. This under consumption forced the elite to search for markets abroad and so to persuade their government to acquire territories abroad as markets for goods, places for investment, and sources of raw materials. Millions of British citizens had emigrated, populating the dominions ruled by Britain.
They had jobs ruling India, trading in China, preaching in Africa, and making fortunes in Latin America. The border between the middle class and the upper class could now be easily broken. The increasing wealth of the bourgeoisie and the decreasing wealth of the aristocracy mad! e the line that separated the classes very weak, and now anything was possible if you worked for it.
We can see that the middle class started to compete with the upper class, as far as jobs and wealth. The lower class in England also benefited from the colonization and imperialism of the 1800 s. Living conditions for the poor families had improved and the numbers of poverty stricken homes were shrinking. The general mass of working people had acquired some degree of comfort. Wages had risen and prices had fallen, so that there was a double gain which, on an artisan's income, might make a great difference.
Since there was much more trade from abroad, foreign food was now brought in and was cheap and plentiful. Town workers were better fed now than before. Men could buy clothing of a better quality now than before. Rents were relatively low, and overall, it seems that the standard of living for both the poor, working class, and upper middle class had risen many degrees higher.
This improvement in material welfare helped encourage private enterprises for other basic needs of the! community. People wanted better sanitation, light, water, and power. More jobs opened up in the pursuit of these needs. As the century ended, national loyalty reached fever pitch in Britain as it did in France and Germany, and its favorite mode of expression was imperialism. It touched all classes, every religious faith, all political parties.
This aggressive stance was motivated by many things; racism, greed, and the belief that it was up to the white man to rule the world. My essay has tried to prove that the colonization process within Great Britain, during the Victorian age (1815 - 1914), greatly changed the roles of men, as well as everyone else within that country's walls. By changing the way people were educated, how they lived, what their dreams and aspirations were, government policy, and job openings in Britain and abroad, all helped to change the role of the Victorian male.
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