UNIT 49

DEVELOPMENT AND ADMINISTRATION OF THE

BRITISH COLONIAL EMPIRE
IN THE EIGHTEENTH AND NINETEENTH CENTURIES.
JOSEPH CONRAD AND RUDYARD KIPLING.
OUTLINE
1.

INTRODUCTION.
1.1. Aims of the unit.
1.2. Notes on bibliography.

2.

HISTORICAL
BACKGROUND
FOR
THE
DEVELOPMENT
AND
ADMINISTRATION OF THE BRITISH COLONIAL EMPIRE IN THE EIGHTEENTH
AND NINETEENTH CENTURIES.
2.1. The policy of colonial expansion.
2.1.1. Imperialism vs. colonialism.
2.1.2. The two British empires.
2.2. The seventeenth and eighteenth centuries: the first British empire.
2.2.1. Political background in Great Britain.
2.2.2. The Industrial Revolution: main consequences.
2.2.2.1. The sixteenth century: main sources.
2.2.2.2. The seventeenth century: great developments.
2.2.2.3. The eighteenth century: main consequences.
2.2.3. The main British colonies.
2.2.3.1. In America: the first British colonies.
2.2.3.2. In the rest of the world.
2.3. The nineteenth century: the second British empire.
2.3.1. Political background in Great Britain.
2.3.2. Social and economic background in Great Britain.
2.3.3. The nineteenth-century British colonies.
2.4. The twentieth century: the dismantling of the British empire.

3.

A LITERARY BACKGROUND: JOSEPH CONRAD AND RUDYARD KIPLING.

3.1. The Victorian literary background.
3.1.1. Drama.
3.1.2. Poetry.
3.1.3. Prose.
3.2. Joseph Conrad (1857-1924).
3.2.1. Life.
3.2.2. Style.
3.2.3. Main works.
3.3. Rudyard Kipling (1865-1936).
3.2.4. Life.
3.2.5. Style.
3.2.6. Main works.

4.
5.
6.

EDUCATIONAL IMPLICATIONS IN LANGUAGE TEACHING.

CONCLUSION.
BIBLIOGRAPHY.

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1. INTRODUCTION.
1.1. Aims of the unit.
The present unit, Unit 49, aims to provide a useful introduction to the development and
administration of the British colonial empire, namely in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries
since it is considered to be a turning point in the history of Great Britain. We shall also deal with
how this situation was reflected in the literature of the time through the writing of relevant
figures such as Joseph Conrad and Rudyard Kipling. In general, the literature of the time was
both shaped by and reflected the prevailing ideologies of the day which, following Speck
(1998), means that this is an account of literary activity in which social, economic, cultural and
political allegiances are placed very much to the fore.
This is reflected in the organization of the unit, which is divided into two chapters which
correspond to the two main tenets of this unit: (1) a historical background of the development
and administration of the British colonial empire in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, and
(2) the literary background of the time, namely focused on the works of J. Conrad and R.
Kipling. Therefore, we shall present our study in five main chapters.
Chapter 2 namely provides a historical background for the development and administration of
the British colonial empire in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. In doing so, it is
convenient to analyse first some conceptions related to the imperial expansion and also, the
situation in Great Britain before and during the eighteenth and nineteenth century so as to better
understand the deep changes which gave way to this colonial expansion, and analyse the reasons
why Great Britain was determined to take control of great areas far from the Continent.
Therefore, we shall provide a general overview of (1) the policy of the colonial expansion in
general terms, where we shall analyse first the difference between the concepts (a) imperialism
vs. colonialism and second, what historians call (b) the two British empires. Then, we shall trace
back in time to analyse (2) the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries and therefore, review the
main reasons for the establishment of the first British empire regarding (a) the political
background in Great Britain at that time; (b) the Industrial Revolutio n and its consequences on
the imperial expansion in (i) the sixteenth century in terms of main sources, (ii) the seventeeth
century in terms of great developments, and (iii) in the eighteenth century in terms of main
consequences; and (c) the main British colonies by then, thus the British expansion (i) in
America with the establishment of the first American colonies, (ii) in the rest of the world
(India, Africa, Australia, etc). Next, we shall analyse how imperial expansion developed (3) in

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the nineteenth century regarding the development of the second British empire in terms of (a)
political, (b) social and economic background, and an account of the main (c) nineteenthcentury British colonies; and finally, we shall reach (4) the twentieth century by examining the
dismantling of the British empire.
Chapter 3 shall provide a literary background for the Victorian Literature and, in particular, to
the Post-colonial or imperalist literature, namely reflected through the figures of the Victorian
novelists Joseph Conrad and Rudyard Kipling. In this chapter, we shall namely deal with the
nineteenth-century literature in the Victorian period, that is, from 1837 to 1901 so as to frame
Conrad and Kiplings literary works in an appropriate social and political context to make him
coincide with the late consequences of the British imperialism. So, we shall start by reviewing
the (1) Victorian literary background regarding the main literary forms (a) drama, (b) poetry,
and (c) prose, so as to approach the novel and non-fiction works. Then, we shall provide the
reader with the biographies of (2) Joseph Conrad and (3) Rudyard Kipling in terms of (i) life,
(ii) style and (iii) main works.
Chapter 4 will be devoted to the main educational implications in language teaching regarding
the introduction of this issue in the classroom setting. Chapter 5 will offer a conclusion to
broadly overview our present study, and Chapter 6 will include all the bibliographical
references used to develop this account of the Industrial Revolution.

1.2. Notes on bibliography.

An influential introduction to the historical background of the Victorian period, Imperialism and
the Industrial Revolution is based on Thoorens, Panorama de las literaturas Daimon:
Inglaterra y Amrica del Norte. Gran Breta a y Estados Unidos de Amrica (1969); Escudero,
La Revolucin Industrial (1988); Overton, Agricultural Revolution in England: The
Transformation of the Agrarian Economy 1500-1850 (1996); and Alexander, A History of
English Literature (2000).
The literary background includes the works of Karl, A Reader's Guide to Joseph Conrad (1960);
Magnusson & Goring, Cambridge Biographical Dictionary (1990); Sullivan, Narratives of
empire: the fictions of Rudyard Kipling (1993); Azim, The colonial rise of the novel (1993);
and Sanders, The Short Oxford History of English Literature (1996); Speck, Literature and
Society in Eighteenth-Century England: Ideology Politics and Culture (1998).

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Other general sources are taken from the Encyclopedia Encarta (1997) and The Columbia
Electronic Encyclopedia (2003); and two outstanding webpages www.bbc.com and
www.wwnorton.com. The background for educational implications is based on the theory of
communicative competence and communicative approaches to language teaching are provided
by the most complete record of current publications within the educational framework is
provided by the guidelines in B.O.E. (2004) for both E.S.O. and Bachillerato; and the Council
of Europe, Modern Languages: Learning, Teaching, Assessment. A Common European
Framework of reference (1998).

2. A

HISTORICAL

BACKGROUND

FOR

THE

DEVELOPMENT

AND

ADMINISTRATION OF THE BRITISH COLONIAL EMPIRE IN THE EIGHTEENTH

AND NINETEENTH CENTURIES.
Chapter 2 namely provides a historical background for the development and administration of
the British colonial empire in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. In doing so, it is
convenient to analyse first some conceptions related to the imperial expansion and also, the
situation in Great Britain before and during the eighteenth and nineteenth century so as to better
understand the deep changes which gave way to this colonial expansion, and analyse the reasons
why Great Britain was determined to take control of great areas far from the Continent.
Actually, our research traces back to the fifteenth century when, in general, the policy of
colonial expansion was popular among the most popular empires of the time, and for our
purposes, to the seventeenth century under the domain of the Stuart Age up to the eighteenth
century where the main causes that led to the imperial expansion are to be found in the
establishment of the first British colonies in North America and the emergence of the Industrial
Revolution. The nineteenth century witnessed the highest peak of imperialism and the twentieth
century its final consequences and the decline of its powerful expansion.
Therefore, we shall provide a general overview of (1) the policy of the colonial expansion in
general terms, where we shall analyse first the difference between the concepts (a) imperialism
vs. colonialism and second, what historians call (b) the two British empires. Then, we shall trace
back in time to analyse (2) the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries and therefore, review the
main reasons for the establishment of the first British empire regarding (a) the political
background in Great Britain at that time; (b) the Industrial Revolution and its consequences on
the imperial expansion in (i) the sixteenth century in terms of main sources, (ii) the seventeeth

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century in terms of great developments, and (iii) in the eighteenth century in terms of main
consequences; and (c) the main British colonies by then, thus the British expansion (i) in
Americ a with the establishment of the first American colonies, (ii) in the rest of the world
(India, Africa, Australia, etc).
Next, we shall analyse how imperial expansion developed (3) in the nineteenth century
regarding the development of the second British empire in terms of (a) political, (b) social and
economic background, and an account of the main (c) nineteenth-century British colonies; and
finally, we shall reach (4) the twentieth century by examining the dismantling of the British
empire.

2.1. The policy of colonial expansion.

There is no doubt that the political, social and economic background of the seventeenth-century
Great Britain established the main basis for the policy of colonial expansion in the following
centuries, thus the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Yet, previous events, which trace back to
the fifteenth century and take place within the field of exploration, mark the beginning of this
colonial adventure on the part of the most powerful empires at that time, thus Scandinavia,
Spain, Portugal, France and Great Britain.
Before British colonists reached the Atlantic Coast of North America, other non-British colonies
did it much earlier. For instance, the Viking Leif Eriksson discovered North America
accidentally on October 9, 1000; then nearly five hundred years later, Portugal, which was a
leading country in the European exploration of the world, began charting the far shores of the
Atlantic Ocean before Spain began.
Yet, in 1492, Cristobal Columbus brought this land to Europes attention on behalf of Spain , the
main colonial power of the day, which focused its efforts on the exploitation of the gold-rich
empires of southern Mexico (the Aztec) and of the Andes (the Inca). Portuguese explorers
(Pedro Alvares Cabral) landed in American coasts (Porto Seguro, Brazil) on April 22, 1500,
eight years later than Spain did.
Yet, after them no serious colonization efforts were made for decades, until England, France,
and Spain began to claim and expand their territory in the New World. In fact, the first French
attempt at colonization was in 1598 on Sable Island (southeast of present Nova Scotia ). Next,

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during the 17th century, Dutch traders established trade posts and plantations throughout the
Americas. However, Dutch settling in North America was not as common as other European
nations settlements. Many of the Dutch settlements had been abandoned or lost by the end of
the century, with the exception of the Netherlands Antilles and Aruba , which remain Dutch
territory until this day, and Suriname, which became independent in 1975.
Also, Denmark started a colony on St Thomas in 1671, and St John in 1718, and founded
colonies in Greenland in 1721, which is now a self-governing part of the Kingdom of Denmark.
During the 18th century, the Virgin Islands in the Caribbean Sea were divided into two
territorial units, one English and the other Danish, which were also used as a base for pirates.
Finally, other countries followed such as Russia, whose explorers discovered Alaska in 1732.
2.1.1. Imperialism vs. Colonialism.
Within this section, it is quite relevant to differenciate between the concepts imperialism and
colonialism so as to better understand the imperial expansion of the Great Britain. Although
they may look similar, they establish different concepts. For instance, whereas the term
imperialism refers to the principle, spirit, or system of empire, and is driven by ideology, the
term colonialism refers to the principle, spirit, or system of establishing colonies, which is
driven by commerce. Yet, they have no clear cut limits and, often, it is difficult to say where one
ends and the other begins.
2.1.2. The two British empires.

In general terms, within this policy of imperial expansion and the establishment of new colonies
all over the world, historians make a distinction between two British empires which follows a
temporal classification within different centuries. Thus, according to www.wwnorton.com
(2004), the first British empire is to be set up in the seventeenth century, when the European
demand for sugar and tobacco led to the development of plantations on the islands of the
Caribbean and in southeast North America. These colonies, and those settled by religious
dissenters in northeast North America, attracted increasing numbers of British and European
colonists.
Hence, the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries saw the first British Empire
expanding into areas formerly controlled by the Dutch and Spanish Empires (then in decline)
and coming into conflict with French colonial aspirations in Africa, Canada, and India. With the

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Treaty of Paris in 1763, the British effectively took control of Canada and India, but the
American Revolution (1776) brought their first empire to an end.
On the other hand, a further phase of territorial expansion that led to the second British Empire
was initiated by the exploratory voyages of Captain James Cook to Australia and New Zealand
in the 1770s. This reached its widest point during the reign of Queen Victoria (18371901). At
no time in the first half of her reign was empire a central preoccupation of her or her
governments, but this was to change in the wake of the Franco-Prussian War (18701871),
which altered the balance of power in Europe.
During the next decades, the British empire was compared to the Roman empire because of its
extension, but the nineteenth and twentieth centuries were just about to see the development in
the dismantling of the British Empire with the declaration of independence of the British
colonies in India (1947) and Hong Kong (1997). So, one by one, the subject peoples of the
British Empire have entered a postcolonial era, in which they must reassess their national
identity, their history and literature, and their relationship with the land and language of their
former masters (www.wwnorton.com).

2.2. The seventeenth and eighteenth centurie s: the first British empire.
2.2.1.

The political background in Great Britain.

The seventeenth century has its starting point in the death of Elizabeth I (1603) and the
accession of James I to the crown. This period, known as the Stuart Age (1603-1713) and also
called the Jacobean Era, the age of Cromwell and the Restoration, is characterized by crisis,
civil wars, the Commonwealth and the Restoration, and establishes the immediate background
to the Industrial Revolution and the establishment of the first Americ an colonies.
Therefore, the political background is to be framed upon the Stuart succession line, thus under
the rule of James I (1603-1625). Under his rule, he achieved the unification of the crowns of
England and Scotland, and brought the long war with Spain to an end. Although this greatly
helped the English treasury and also Jamess reputation (as rex pacificus), the policy was, in
part, unpopular because peace meant that both the English and the Dutch had to acknowledge
the Spanish claim to a monopoly of trade between their own South American colonies and the
rest of the world.

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His son, Charles I (1625-1642), ruled until civil war broke out in 1642. He became King of
Great Britain and Ireland on his fathers death from 1625 to 1642, but soon friction between the
throne and Parliament began almost at once. For eleven years, Charles ruled without parliament,
a period described as the Eleven Years Tyranny, which led to civil war and his eventual
judicial execution in 1649 (called a regicide). This is the reason why we may note that in the
succession line, there is an eighteen-year interval between reigns (1642-1660), called
Interregnum, when first Parliament and Oliver Cromwell established themselves as rulers of
England.
Next, Cromwell (1642-1660) controlled the political affairs until monarchy was restored by
Charles II (1660-1685); this was followed by his brother, James II (1685-1689) who, in 1668,
fled before his invading son-in-law, the Dutchman William of Orange became William III. Then
William and Mary II (1689-1707) were succeeded by Marys sister, Queen Anne (1702-1713).
Each of their contributions were crucial for the development and administration of the British
empire all over the world.
These events contributed to the most influential change of the seventeenth and early eighteenth
century, that of population. Whereas for the first half of the century the population continued to
grow and, as a result, there was pressure on food resources, land and jobs, and increased price
inflation, the late seventeenth century saw the easing, if not the disappearance of these
problems. Family-planning habits started to change and new methods of farming increased
dramatically. From the 1670s, England became an exporter as opposed to a net importer of
grain. The seventeenth century is also probably the first in English history in which more people
emigrated than immigrated, hence the period of American colonization.
Once in the early eighteenth-century, its political background is to be framed upon the Georgian
succession line, thus under the rule of Queen Anne (1701-1714); her German cousin, which
became George I (1714-1727); George II (1727-1760), and George III (1760-1820), king of
Great Britain and Ireland (followed by his son, George IV (1820-1830), who was succeeded by
his brother, William IV). This century witnessed the starting point of the British colonial
empire, reaching the highest point in the following century.
As stated before, the Georgian period was one of change since the very infrastructure of Britain
was changing and Britain became the worlds first modern society, not only in agricultural
developments which were followed by industrial innovation, but also in urbanisation and the
need for better communications. In fact, the main changes are to be noticed in agriculture,
industry and commerce.

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Following the Encyclopedia Encarta (1997), the social, economic and political situation in
Great Britain was just about to change with the death of Queen Anne in 1714. Since she had no
children, she was succeeded by her German cousin George, and the monarchy moved from the
House of Stuart to the House of Hannover. When George came to England in 1714, the
Jacobites attempted to replace him with James IIs son James Edward Stuart, or The Great
Pretender, but were unsuccessful. Politically, George favored Whigs arguing that Tories were
loyal to the Stuart cause. His head for foreign affairs led to the formation of the Triple
Alliance.
Eventually, George I was succeeded by his son George II. George IIs interest concerned
Hannover rather than Great Britain and during the war of the Austrian Succession, he
subordinated the interests of England to those of Germany. With the advice of his wife and
ministers, Britain was able to progress materially. The final years of his reign were considerably
marked by the suppression of the last major Jacobite rebellion, and his prosecution of the Seven
Years War between England and France (Encarta, 1997). This opposition between the two
countries continued and was to be present in the fight for imperial expansion all over the world.
The political field had a great effect on the policy of colonial expansion, in particular, in various
regions, namely in connections between industrialization, labor unions, and movements for
political and social reform in England, Western Europe, and the United States. The following
factors combined dictated the making of British history in the eighteenth century. Thus,

Each passing of the crown introduced new ideals concerning such issues as the Church,
Parliament, and foreign policy. Each monarch also had their own personality that
determined how the British Common would interact with their monarch. Following
George IIIs accession in 1760, there was a subtle change in policy and, in 1762, peace
negotiations were opened in secret. On the continent, although the Seven Years War
(1756-1763) was extremely costly in terms of lives and finance, Britain was seen as a
world power. Yet, across the ocean the only real problem by 1770 was America and the
revolution that started to take place since the British government attempted to cover its
losses by several acts.

As a result, colonial tensions increased and in 1776 an independent state came into
existence since American colonies declared their independence as the United States of
America. War began in 1775 and was prolonged in 1783, at the Kings insistence, to
prevent copycat protests elsewhere. Nearly one century later, many labourers were
wanted there after the abolition of sla very somewhat after 1833.

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The French revolution in 1789, opened an era of liberal revolution, which slowly
established the right of every citizen to move whenever and wherever he liked. As a
result, religious tolerance grew. The idea of one nationality in one country started to
develop and caused nationalism. Because of this and other ideologies a new group of
political refugees grew and hence, government policy had a large influence on people in
Europe now.

Next, for much of the late eighteenth century and early 1800s, the British fleet was
involved in actions against the French and Spanish in the Mediterranean, Atlantic and
Caribbean under the guidance of Horatio Nelson, who secured British naval dominance
in the imperial expansion.

2.2.2.

The Industrial Revolution: main consequences.

The Industrial Revolution is often located in the period between 1750 and 1850, which
coincides to a great extent with the Augustean Age (1714-1790); with the Georgian Age or the
age of the Romantics (1790-1837), and reaching the end of the century (1901) with the
Victorian Age (1837-1900) or Realism movement. Together with this political background, the
emergence of the Industrial revolution, and therefore, its consequences on society, brought
about important economic, social, technological and cultural changes which framed the two
phases of development of the British imperial expansion.
Generally speaking, the industrial revolution is said to have been the trigger for the imperial
expansion since the new industrial economy in its earliest stages was acquired to serve a
mercantile system. For a long time, the colonial market was small and unimportant, but soon,
the British government desired to take the American continent and islands as a whole to serve as
a market for their manufacturers and a source for products which could not be found at home.
So, let us examine the effects of the industrial revolution in the sixteenth, seventeenth and
eighteenth centuries in terms of main sources, development and main consequences on the
imperial expansion.

2.2.2.1. The sixteenth century: main sources.

The source of this important revolution has its roots in the sixteenth century, and in particular, in
the British agrarian system where the workers were the members of the same family, and the
working tools were simple tools and animals. Actually, from the 16th century onwards, an

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essentially organic agriculture was gradually replaced by a farming system that depended on
energy-intensive inputs. According to Overton (1996), the impact of this agraria n revolution
was to be felt in the agricultures demand for more land and therefore, the pressure on Britains
depleted woodlands.
Moreover, the rising price of wood as an industrial fuel made coal was an increasingly attractive
option, with which Britain was plentifully supplied. When its use was extended into industry,
however, England necessitated the containment of harmful fumes that contaminated the raw
materials. Hence, the salt, sugar and soap industries found their technical solutions quickly, and
in the early 17th century glass makers, and non-ferrous metal refiners modified their equipment
to burn coal, but iron makers suffered repeated disappointment.

2.2.2.2. The seventeenth century: great developments.

In the seventeenth century great developments took place namely in the technological field, for
instance, the invention of the steam engine which was prompted by the expanding mining sector
and the development of new forms of transport, which were to mark the beginning of the
industrial revolution and its development in the eighteenth century.
Also, scientific discoveries helped this development since Charles II was a patron of the arts and
science. Actually, the Royal Society was founded under his royal patronage by a group of
Oxford men, among whom Robert Boyle (1627-1691) demonstrated that the volume of gases
varied in precisely inverse proportion to the pressure upon them. Other scientists of this century
included Isaac Newton (1642-1727), who made many discoveries (including the law of gravity)
and laid the foundations of physics as a modern discipline, and Edmund Halley, the Astronomer
Royal, (1656-1742), hence the foundation of the Royal Observatory of Greenwich in 1675.
Yet, undoubtely, the most important step which favoured the imperial expans ion was made in
the economic field: the foundation of the Bank of England in 1694. As mentioned above, the
continental wars of James II (1685-1689) and William of Orange, known as William III (16891707), were really expensive, and as a result, England was forced to raise a considerable
national debt. In 1694, the Scotsman William Paterson founded the Bank of England to assist
the crown by managing the public debt, and eventually it became the national reserve for the
British Isles. Yet, in 1697, any further joint-stock banks were forbidden just to secure its
position of prominence in England.

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It was this debt that forced the British government to use the colonies as a source of economic
income. In fact, the Secretary of state for the South was established in London so as to deal
with colonial business. Other government departments, such as the treasury, the customs, the
admiralty, and the war office also had representatives in the colonies, where the chief
representative of the Imperial government was the governor, appointed by the king or by the
proprietors with his approval.
The general desire in this century was for the American continent and islands serve as a source
for products and as a market for their manufacturers. Till the end of this century the pressure of
France expansion on almost all sides of the American colonies, except the sea, was a constant
remainder to them of their ultimate dependence on Englands military support and their main
aim was to develop a naval supremacy over France.
As seen above, the industrial revolution meant an increasing demand of industrial goods (textile,
iron, machines, trains, ships, chemicals, houses, furniture, food, drinks, paper, etc) which
needed, in turn, people to work in industries, money to build factories and produce goods, and
raw materials to work with. The development of industrialisation was seen as a wide-ranging
phenomenon which involved every aspect of society, both in and out of the European continent.

2.2.2.3. The eighteenth century: main consequences.

The eighteenth century was to witness the most important consequences of the industrial
revolution within the British colonial expansion, both in America and overseas in combination
with the political events mentioned above. In fact, the Victorian period (1837-1901) is
characterized by the sense of dizzying change, in which perhaps the most important event was
the shift away from a way of life based on ownership of land to a modern urban economy based
on trade and manufacturing, that is, the Industrial Revolution. This shift created profound
economic and social changes, including a mass migration of workers to industrial towns, where
they lived in new urban centres.
However, the changes arising out of the eighteenth-century Industrial Revolution were just one
subset of the radical changes taking place in mid- and late-nineteenth-century Britain, among
which we may mention the democratization resulting from extension of the franchise;
challenges to religious faith, in part based on the advances of scientific knowledge, particularly
of evolution; and changes in the role of women.

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In fact, the essence of the industrial Revolution is said to be the substitution of competition for
the medieval regulations which had previously controlled the production and distribution of
wealth to the new industrial economy which favoured a mercantile system and brought about
important consequences for the policy of expansion at all levels, resulting then in a wider
distribution of wealth.

First of all, in economic terms, the sudden acceleration of technical and economic
development that begun in Britain in the second half of the eighteenth century changed
the lives of a large proportion of the population by the nineteenth century. Machinery
and manufacturing made possible by deep innovations in technology, such as the steam
engine came to dominate the traditional agrarian economy.

In social terms, we can talk about a demographic revolution in this period as well as
migratory movements from the homeland Britain to colonial settlements. These fast
changes made people move from living and working on farms to working in factories
and living in cities, which had both positive and negative effects on people. The growth
of population was due to the improvement of food supplies, better hygiene conditions
and a reduction in the mortality rate of epidemics. People did not migrate to earn some
extra money, but to make their living. They needed money to buy a piece of land, to pay
their taxes and their debts.

The eighteenth-century technological background is namely represented by the

scientific developments that took place under royal patronage of the Georgian
succession line. During the course of the eighteenth century, a variety of inventions
allowed for greater mechanisation to be applied to the industry and this led in turn to the
industrial structure changing to a factory-based system. These inventions were the basis
for the increased productivity of the textile industry throughout Britain and this century
was to witness the beginnings of an industrial revolution in Britain which was to change
the world from 1750 on.
Since new technologies were applied to the production of goods and services, there was
a change from hand-made work to manufactures, which is a prominent fact regarding
the substitution of the factory for the domestic system. As a result, we find changes in
the use of basic materials (iron, steel); the use of new energy sources to produce power
(coal, steam engines, electricity, petroleum, combustion engines); the mechanical
discoveries of the time, which altered the character of the cotton manufacture (i.e. the
spinning-jenny, the waterframe, the mule, the self-acting mule, and the power-loom);
and important developments in transport and communication means (steam locomotive,
steamship, cars, aeroplane, telegraph, radio).

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Therefore, this new production system was extended, in turn, to particular areas in
Britain and hence, to national and international markets. Also, work productivity
increased at a high rate, giving way to a new organization of work known as the factory
system, and hence, world trade and politics became more influential in the every-day
life of the villagers, and as a result, the group of proletarians grew quickly due to
downwards social mobility and the fact that proletarians had more children than
farmers.

Finally, the most relevant event has to do with the period of overseas exploration and
the name of James Cook, who initiated the exploratory voyages in the Pacific to
Australia and New Zealand in the 1770s. It is important to remember that, as stated
above, his voyages were included in the further phase of territorial expansion known as
the second British Empire.

2.2.3.

The main British colonies.

2.2.3.1. In America: the first British colonies.

In North America the establishment of American colonies meant the starting point of British
colonial activity in the Western hemisphere and also, a new place for immigrants to hide from
political and religious crisis in England. The political history of Colonial America will make us
comprehend the preparation of the whole people for the radical change of government they were
so soon to undergo in British colonies, and the strong spirit of democracy which led Britain to
the loss of the American colonies with the Declaration of Independence in 1776.
We distinguish two types of earlier colonies: non-British and British; whereas the first group
namely includes Viking, Portuguese, Spanish, French, Dutch and Danish colonists, the second
group is formed by Anglosaxons. Moreover, non-British colonies, namely French and Dutch,
were founded on aristocratic principles and strove vigorously to gain liberal institutions.
Following Daimon (1969), had their political circumstances been different in Europe, they could
have also gained the control of the continent. Yet, Holland was quite wealthy and had few
immigrants, and France had a great number of immigrants but was not interested in the snow
land. Yet, the struggle for control of this land would continue for more than a hundred years.
The thirteen British colonies of America were formed under a variety of differing conditions.
The settlement of Virginia was the work of a company of London merchants, that of New
England of a body of Puritan refugees from persecution. Most of the other colonies were formed
through the efforts of proprietors, to whom the king had made large grants of territory. None of

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them were of royal or parliamentary establishment and therefore, the government of the mothercountry took no part in the original formation of the government of the colonies, except in the
somewhat flexible requirements of the charters granted to the proprietors.
The colonies were classified into (1) New England colonies, made up by Rhode, Connecticut,
New Hampshire and Massachusetts. Among them, the most famous first colonies were
Plymouth colony (1620) and Massachusetts Bay Colony (1629), which were settled by two
groups of of religious dissenters who escaped religious persecution in England: the Pilgrims and
the Puritans; (2) the rest of British colonies in America followed after Plymouth and
Massachusetts Bay, consisting of Middle colonies, such as New York, Pennsylvania, the three
counites of Delaware, and Maryland, which were namely characterized by a wide diversity, both
religious, political, economic, and ethnic; (3) the southern colonies include Maryland, Virginia,
Georgia and the two Carolinas (north and south). Yet, the most important to mention is Virgina
colony, which is considered to be the first permanent settlement in North America under the
name of the English colony of Jamestown (1607), was the first English colony in America to
survive and become permanent and become la ter the capital of Virginia and the site of the
House of Burgesses.
The settlement was struck by severe droughts in centuries and as a result, only a third of the
colonists furvived the first winter, and even, source documents indicate that some turned to
cannibalism. Yet, the colony survived in large part to the efforts of John Smith, whose moto was
No work, no food. He put the colonists to work, and befriended Pocahontas, daughter of Chief
Powhatan, who supplied the colony with food.
But the main causes of social decentralization were soon to be noticed. As the colony of
Virginia was so heavily influenced by the cultivation of tobacco and the ownership of slaves, in
1619 large numbers of Africans were brought to this colony into the slave trade. Thus,
individual workers on the plantation fields were usually without family and separated from their
nearest neighbors by miles. This meant that little social infrastructure developed for the
commoners of Virigina society, in contrast with the highly developed social infrastructure of
colonial New England.
By this time, the English colonies were thirteen: Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Connecticut,
Rhode Island, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Delaware, Virginia, North
Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia. Although all these Brit ish colonies were strikingly
different, throughout the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries several events took place and
brought relevant changes in the colonies: whereas some of the them sprung from their common

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roots as part of the British Empire, others led up to the American Revolution, and to the final
separation from England.
Although there was general properity in the Middle and Southern colonies, as well as social and
political struggle, they had to face the arrival of loads of immigrants from Europe. Their
economy, based on the production of rice, indigo and naval stores, was booming in contrast to
the hostile attitude of Indians at the frontier. In the upper south, Virginia and Marylands
tobacco prices were falling and crop failures became very usual. Yet, in New England, the
social and political atmosphere was quite calm, but not the economy since the Sugar Act
imposed taxes and new commercial regulations on them. The main causes which led the thirteen
colonies to revolution are stated as follows.

The first event relates to the French and Indian War (1754-1763), which meant the
American extension of the general European conflict known as the Seven Years War.
The war takes its name from the Iroquois confederacy, which had been playing the
British and the French against each other successfully for decades. Eventually, in the
Treaty of Paris (1763) , France surrendered its vast North American empire to Britain.
During the war the thirteen coloniess identity as part of the British Empire was made
truly apparent, as British military and civilian officials took on an increased presence in
the lives of Americans.
The war also increased a sense of American unity in men who might normally have
never left their colonies to travel across the continent, and fighting alongside men from
decidedly different. However, the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom at the time
(William Pitt), decided to wage the war in the colonies with the use of troops from the
colonies and tax funds from Britain itself, which was a successful wartime strategy. Yet,
this dispute was to set off the chain of events that brought about the American
Revolution.

The Royal Proclamation (1763) was a prohibition against settlement west of the
Appalachian Mountains, on land which had been recently captured from France. In
issuing this decree, the government was no doubt influenced by disgruntled taxpayers
who did not wish to bankroll the subjugation of the native people of the area to make
room for colonists. Yet, for most Americans, it seemed unnecessary to accept an
unproductive piece of legislation stated by a far-away government that cared little for
their needs, although Parliament had generally been preoccupied with affairs in Europe,
and let the colonies govern themselves. The policy change would continue to arouse

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opposition in the colonies over the next thirteen years and through a series of measures,
which were to be named as acts.

Thus, the Sugar Act (1764), which increased taxes on sugar, coffee, indigo, and certain
kinds of wine, and it banned importation of rum and French wines; the Stamp Act
(1765-1766), which was carried out by the British Parliament to tax activities in their
American colonies; as a result, the British Parliament passed at least two laws, known
as the Quartering Act. The first one became law on 24 March 1765, and provided that
Britain would house its soldiers in America first in barracks and public houses, and the
second (also called the Intolerable Acts, the Punitive Acts or the Coercive Acts) was one
of the measures that were designed to secure Britains jurisdiction over her American
dominions; the Declaratory Act (1766) was established to secure the dependency of his
Majestys dominions in America upon the crown and parliament of Great Britain. This
act states that American colonies and plantations are subordinated to, and dependent
upon the imperial crown and parliament of Great Britain; and that the King majesty as
full power and authority to make laws and statutes of sufficient force and validity to
bind the colonies and people of America, subjects of the crown of Great Britain.
The Townshend Revenue Act (1767) placed new taxes on glass, lead, paints, paper,
and tea. Therefore, colonial reaction to these taxes was the same as to the Sugar Act and
Stamp Act, and Britain eventually repealed all the taxes except the one on tea. In
response to the sometimes violent protests by the American colonists, Great Britain sent
more troops to the colonies; the Tea Act (1773) gave a monopoly on tea sales to the
East India Company. Since the East Indian Company wasnt doing so well, the British
wanted to give it some more business. The price on this East India tea was lowered so
much that it was way below tea from other suppliers. But the American colonists saw
this law as yet another means of taxation without representation because it meant that
they could not buy tea from anyone else (including other colonial merchants) without
spending a lot more money.
Their response was to refuse to unload the tea from the ships in Boston, a situation that
led to the Boston Tea Party in 1773. Angry and frustrated at a new tax on tea,
American colonists (calling themselves the Sons of Liberty and disguised as Mohawk
Native Americans) boarded three British ships (the Dartmouth , the Eleanor, and the
Beaver) and dumped 342 whole crates of British tea into Boston harbor on December
16, 1773. Similar incidents occurred in Maryland, New York, and New Jersey in the
next few months, and tea was eventually boycotted throughout the colonies. The Boston

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Tea Party was an amusing and symbolic episode in American history, an example of
how far Americans were willing to go to speak out for their freedom.
As a result, this amusing and symbolic episode in the American Colonies of Boston and
Massachusetts was defined as Intolerable Acts (also called the Coercive Acts or
Punitive Acts) by the English. The Coercive Acts were a series of laws passed by the
British Parliament in 1774 in response for the growing unrest of the colonies which
included: the Quartering Act, the Quebec Act, Massachusetts Government Act, the
Administration of Justice Act, and the Boston Port Act.
The punitive effect of these laws generated a reaction in a great and growing sympathy
for the colonists of Massachusetts, encouraging the neighbouring colonies to band to
together which would help lead to the American Revolutionary War. Eventually, in
1775, under George IIIs reign, the British North American colonies revolted in
Massachusetts due to the previous frustration with the British crown practices, and
namely to their opposition to British economic explotiation and also their unwillingness
to pay for a standing army. Anti-monarchist sentiment was strong, as the colonists
wanted to participate in the politics affecting them.

The next year, representatives of thirteen of the British colonies in North America met in
Philadelphia and declared their independence in a remarkable document, the Declaration of
Independence. The committee had intrusted that task to Thomas Jefferson, who, though at that
time only thirty-three years of age, was chosen for two main reasons: first, because he was held
to possess a singular felicity in the expression of popular ideas and, second, because he
represented the province of Virginia, the oldest of the Anglo-American colonies.
Jefferson, having produced the required document, reported it to the House on the 28th of June,
where it was read, and ordered to lie on the table. After the conclusion of the debate on the
resolution of independence on 2nd July, the Declaration was passed under review. During the
remainder of that day and the two next, this remarkable production was very closely considered
and shifted, and several alterations were made in it, namely the omission of those sentences
which refle cted upon the English people, and the striking out of a clause which severely
reprobated the slave-trade.
The debate on the proposed Declaration came to a termination two days later, on the evening of
the 4th of July. The document was then reported by the committee, agreed to by the House, and
signed by every member present, except General Dickinson. The signature of New York was

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not given till several days later, and a New Hampshire member, Matthew Thornton, was
permitted to append his signature on November 4 (four months after the signing). With the help
of their French allies they were eventually able to win the American Revolutionary War against
Great Britain, settled by the Treaty of Paris (1783). So, we can say that the United States of
America was founded in 1776 from British colonies along the Atlantic Coast of North America
and was declared to be independent in 1778.
2.2.3.2. In the rest of the world.
Actually, interests in the wider world expanded through the eighteenth century to such extent
that in the early years of the 18th century the East India Company proves successful regarding
commercial interchanges in India and, in fact, a statutory monopoly of trade was established
between England and India (1708). The number and importance of factories made the English
Company have the control on the area (it had three presidencies at Bombay, Calcutta and
Madras) although Bombay was the only absolute possession in French or English hands.
Despite the fact that it was not a pure trading company, it found no rivalry from other European
states in India since the Portuguese and Dutch, which had established their position in India, left
with few and unimportant possessions or factories.
Overseas, during the earlier half of the century the British empire established more successful
trading companies not only in the West Indies but also in Africa (the Royal African Company)
and in the South Sea (the South Sea Company). On the American Continent, the Caribbean
islands not only provided Britain with sugar and slave trade but also with strategic possessions,
which was a crucial issue in the fight between England and France for colonial possessions. In
fact, as stated above, the British government established the Navigation Act (1773) so as to
monopolize the trade of its products (namely tobacco and sugar) and therefore, establish a close
economic system and guarantee a sheltered market in Britain, not subject to competition from
other colonies, such as those of France, Portugal and Spain.
In the second half of the century, some remaining British colonies were lost temporarily after
the treatise, for instance, the Caribbean islands were controlled by France and Tobago and
Minorca were no longer British. However, the rest of colonies were not economically strong
enough to think of independence even if they had wanted it, as it was the case of South Africa,
which was a military and trading port, a naval station and a port of call. Canada was of greater
economic importance in the sense that its citizens were free to manage their local affairs, so the
demand for self-government did not imply a wish for separation. The colonies were therefore
asking for something like municipal independence.

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In 1768, the first British empire reached the second phase of expansion with the exploratory
voyages of James Cook, who undertook the first of three voyages to the Pacific, surveying New
Zealand, modern Australia, Tahiti and Hawaii. His second voyage (1773) made him the first
Britain to reach Antarctica, and his third voyage (1778-1779) led him to discover and name
island groups in the South Pacific, such as the Sandwich Islands. Unfortunately, Cook was
killed on Hawai on 14 February 1779.
Eventually, the colonisation of the Antipodes, that is, Australia and New Zealand took place as
an attempt to find a place for penal settlement after the loss of the original American colonies.
The first shipload of British convicts landed in this largely unexplored continent in 1788, on the
site of the future city of Sydney. Most convicts were young men who had only committed petty
crimes. In the nineteenth century (1819) new settlers were allowed to set up in New South
Wales and by 1858 transportation of convicts was abolished.

2.3. The nineteenth century: the second British empire.

Following the information given in www.wwnorton.com, During the next decades, two great
statesmen brought the issue of imperialism to the top of the nations political agenda: the
flamboyant Benjamin Disraeli (18041881), who had a romantic vision of empire that the
sterner William Ewart Gladstone (18091898) distrusted and rejected. Disraelis expansionist
vision prevailed and was transmitted by newspapers and novels to a reading public dramatically
expanded by the Education Act of 1870.
Symbolically, the British Empire reached its highest point on June 22, 1897, the occasion of
Queen Victorias Diamond Jubilee, which the British celebrated as a festival of empire. It was a
great moment where the British Empire was compared to the Roman Empire 1 , comparison
which was endlessly invoked in further discussions and literary works, for instance, at the start
of Conrads novel Heart of Darkness (1902) and in Thomas Hardys Poems of Past and Present
(1901).
In 1897 the Empire seemed invincible, but only two years later British confidence was shaken
by the news of defeats at Magersfontein and Spion Kop in the Anglo-Boer War (1899-1902).
1

The Roman Empire, at its height, comprised perhaps 120 million people in an area of 2.5 million
square miles. The British Empire, in 1897, comprised some 372 million people in 11 million square
miles. An interesting aspect of the analogy is that the Roman Empire was long held - by the descendants
of the defeated and oppressed peoples of the British Isles - to be generally a good thing. Children in the
United Kingdom are still taught that the Roman legions brought laws and roads, civilization rather than

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Those and other battles were lost, but eventually the war was won, and it took two world wars to
bring the British Empire to its end. Those wars also were won, with the loyal help of troops
from the overseas empire.

2.3.1. Political background.

The political background is namely represented by the accession of Queen Victoria to the throne
when her uncle, William IV dies in 1837. So Victoria would reign from 1837 to 1901 and would
be the longest reigning British monarch. In general terms, during Victorias reign, the revolution
in industrial practices continued to change British life, bringing about urbanisation, a good
communications network and wealth. In addition, Britain became a champion of Free Trade
across her massive Empire, and industrialisation and trade were glorified in the Great
Exhibitions. Yet, by the turn of the century, Britains empire was being challenged successfully
by other nations such as France and Germany on the continent. We consider worth reviewing
the main political benchmarks under her rule since important changes took place in her colonies.
Thus:

In 1846 the Corn Law Act was passed again (since it was set up in 1815 already as a
measure to protect the economic interests of landowners after the Napoleonic Wars).
Yet, this kept the price of not only corn but also bread artificially high. Although an
Anti-Corn Law League formed to oppose the legislation, it was not until the potato
famine in Ireland that repeal was enacted in a belated attempt to alleviate some of the
suffering. The repeal marked an end to protectionist policies and can be seen as a major
stepping stone in turning Britain into a free trading nation.

From the 1850s, Britain was the leading industrial power in the world. Superseding the
early dominance of textiles, railway, construction, iron- and steel-working soon gave
new impetus to the British economy by expanding territories in Africa (namely
railways).

Yet, the most outstanding event after 1837 was the Great Exhibition in 1851, in which
the British empire was compared to the Roman empire. It was an imperial and industrial
celebration which was held in Hyde Park in London in the specially constructed Crystal
Palace, whose profits allowed for the foundation of public works such as the Albert
Hall, the Science Museum, the National History Museum and the Victoria and Albert
Museum.

oppression, and in the second half of the nineteenth century, that was the precedent invoked to sanction

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Other important events were the Crimean War between 1854 and 1856, which at first
was between Russia and the Ottoman Empire, and later Britain and France were
involved. During this war Britain maintained their colonial possessions.

In 1855, Parliament launched the Limited Liabilities Act, by means of which companies
were allowed to limit the liability of their individual investors to the value of their
shares. As a result of the act the risk is credited with being the basis for the increased
investment in trade and industry, although most of the evidence for this is apocryphal.

Between 1857 and 1858, there was an Indian Mutiny between Indian soldiers (Hindu
and Muslim) who opposed their British commanders following a series of insensitive
military demands which disrespected traditional beliefs. The mutiny led to the end of
East India Company rule in India and its replacement by direct British governmental
rule.

In May 1868, thirty-four union representatives from the north and midlands of England
met in Manchester for the first Trades Union Congress. At their second annual meeting
a year later, also in Manchester, forty representatives attended - speaking for over a
quarter of a million workers.

The Third Reform Act took place in 1884 and extended the 1867 concessions from the
boroughs to the countryside. Another act a year later redistributed constituencies, giving
more representation to urban areas, particularly in London.

In 1893, Keir Hardie founded an Independent Labour Party with the intention of gaining
the election of members of the working class to parliament. The Labour Party replaced
the Liberal Party as the main party of opposition to the Conservatives over the
following decade.

Following the death of Albert (Victorias husband) in 1861, she had increasingly
withdrawn from national affairs and criticism of the Queen lessened and she resumed
her interest in constitutional and imperial affairs (she was created Empress of India in
1877).

Victorias death in January 1901 was an occasion of national mourning.

Finally, to close the century we find the Boer War (1899-1902) which started as Britain
attempted to annex the Transvaal Republic in southern Africa. In December 1880, the
Boers of the Transvaal revolted against British rule, defeated an imperial force and
forced the British government to recognise their independence. Finally, the peace of
Vereeniging in May 1902 annexed the Boer Republics of Transvaal and the Orange
Free State to the British Empire (which, in 1910, became part of the Union of South
Africa).

the Pax Britannica (www.wwnorton.com).

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2.3.2. Social and economic background.

The effect of the industrial revolution was also felt in the nineteenth-century Great Britain at
social and economic level, namely in connections between industrialization, labor unions, and
movements for social reform in England, Western Europe, and the United States. Also, it is
namely noticed in the pace and extent of industrialization in Great Britain and the United States
in the latter half of the 19th century, and the main changes brought about by the Great Reform
bill of 1832. The main economic events (which coincide namely wit h the political ones) are as
follows:

the passage of the Catholic Emancipation Act (1820).

the legalisation of the first Trade Unions (1824), a movement favoured by workers
joined together to protect themselves against powerful capitalist employers and ask for
fair wages and reasonable conditions.

the passage of the first Reform Bill (1832), which was secured by William IV, who
agreed to create new peers to overcome the hostile majority in the House of Lords and
to make Parliament a more democratic body. The Reform Act, also known as the
Representation of the People Act, aimed to extend the voting rights and redistribute
Parliamentary seats, and therefore, more equitable basis in the counties.

Up to 1836, there was a period of greater political confidence which led to an increasing
activity in the trade-unions. It must be borne in mind that the Industrial Revolution was
based on the economic doctrine of Free Trade which means that the government
should not interfere in the natural processes of trade and industry. This uncontrolled
capitalism led to vast social differences.

Actually, up to 1837 the main political consequences on social events are closely connected to
this move from the country to the towns and the division of labour in the industry market. Thus,
the most outstanding consequences are listed as follows:

the emancipation of slaves in British colonies (1833);

the organization of work, commonly known as the division of labour, in the industry
market, brought about several changes: a specialization of work with the aim of
speeding mass production; hence, we find the term working classes, which is divided
in turn depending on the salary the employee obtained (high-paid, regular, casual,
lowest, etc) and the kind of job they carried out. From the negotiation of workerss
salary, trade unions were established to achieve better wages and conditions of work.

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These unions (also called Friendly Societies) make us aware of the wide variety of
organizations created by working-class peoples in England.
Finally, in economic terms, between 1815 and 1914, another industrial revolution took place.
The industries in the cities eventually won the competition with the rural industries. Because of
the industrial revolution that took place, urbanisation started in the 19th century. Cities still
needed many new people every now and again because of bad sanitary conditions and diseases.
We may find several types of cities: cities with textile industry, cities with heavy industry and
administrative or commercial cities. Meanwhile, in terms of industrial development, the iron
industry had been equally revolutionised by the invention of smelting by pit-coal brought into
use between 1740 and 1750, and by the application in 1788 of the steam-engine to blast
furnaces. In the eight years which followed this later date, the amount of iron manufactured
nearly doubled itself.

In addition, the industrial revolution also effected transportation and hence, trade. In the
nineteeth century bicycles, steamships and trains made it easier for people to move further
away. In the twentieth century, the explosion motor further accelerated this process. An evergrowing part of world population became subdued to market economy. A further growth of the
factory system took place independent of machinery, and owed its origin to the expansion of
trade, an expansion which was itself due to the great advance made at this time in the means of
communication, for instance, between 1818 and 1829 more than a thousand additional miles of
turnpike road were constructed; and the next year, 1830, saw the opening of the first railroad.
These improved means of communication caused an extraordinary increase in commerce, and to
secure a sufficient supply of goods it became the interest of the merchants to collect weavers
around them in great numbers, to get looms together in a workshop, and to give out the warp
themselves to the workpeople. To these latter this system meant a change from independence to
dependence; at the beginning of the century the report of a committee asserts the essential role
of commerce and communication in the expansion of the Industrial Revolution all over Europe
and the rest of the world.
In the late 19th century, similar revolutionary transformations occurred in other European
nations, such as France (1790-1800 to 1860-1870), Germany (1830-40 to 1870-80), Belgium
(1820-30 to 1870-80) and the United States (1830-40 to 1870-80). Hence, the fight between
France, Germany and England in the construction of railways through the African continent
with the aim of controlling the largest part of the territory.

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2.3.3.The nineteenth-century British colonies.

Generally speaking, the nineteenth century development and administration of British colonies
was focused on the consolidation of existing colonies and the expansion into new areas,
especially in Africa, India and Canada. Actually, in the early nineteenth century new British
colonies were to be acquired or strengthened because of their strategic value, thus Malaca and
Singapore because of their trading ports of growing importance, and the settlements of Alberta,
Manitobba, and the British Columbia in Canada as potential areas of British migration. The
main causes for other new acquisitions were, among others, the Treaty of Amiens (1802) by
adding Trinidad and Ceylon; the Napoleonic Wars (1803-1815) with the addition of the Cape of
Good Hope; the War with the United States (1812) brought about the Canadian unity; and the
first Treaty of Paris (1814) gained Tobago, Mauritius, St. Lucia and Malta.
Also, between the years 1857 and 1858 Britain acquired in India the cities of Agra, Bengal and
Assam after some local wars against French influence. Perhaps the Napoleonic Wars brought
about more new acquisitions to the British empire in this century than any other war, since the
Crimean War (1854-1856), the pacification programs in Africa, and some conflicts in New
Zealand (against the Maoris) made little or no difference to the British empire. Yet, the most
serious conflict was just about to come towards the end of the century with the War in Sudan
(1884) and the Boer War (1881, 1899-1902). So, as we can see, still in the nineteenth century,
Great Britain maintained her political and imperial sovereignty.
In order to control these colonies, the British government created a sophisticated system for
colonial administration: the Colonial Office and Board of Trade (1895-1900). Already in the
1850s, they were ruled by legislative bodies, since the colonies continuously asked for
independence. They were separate departments with an increasing staff and a continuing policy
of establishing discipline and pressure on the colonial goverments. Hence most colonial
governements were left to themselves.
However, these legislative bodies governing the new settlements were soon to be replaced by an
executive body which took over the financial control. This elected assembly would be
represented by the figure of the governor and would be responsible for the colonial government.
Therefore, these settlements became crown colonies, and were subject to direct rule, as we can
see in the African and Pacific expansion where the crown colony system was established. Let us
examine how this new colonial governing body was applied in the colonies of Australia, Asia
and Africa.

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In the Antipodes, New Zealand and Oceania were systematically colonized in the 1840s
under the pressure of British missionaries. Yet, territorial disputes were brought up
between the new colonists and the homeland tribes, the Maoris. Hence the Maori Wars
(1840s-1860s) which eventually ended with the withdrawal of British troops and a
peaceful agreement of settlement for the newcomers. In the last quarter of the century,
the British empire took the control over other islands in the Pacific, again because of
missionary pressure and international naval rivalry and, eventually, the Fiji Island was
annexed in 1874. Three years later the governement established a British High
Commission for the Western Pacific Islands (1877) as well as a protectorate in Papua
(1884) and in Tonga (1900). These protectorates were soon to be governed by Australia
and New Zealand.

In Asia, India was conquered and therefore, had an expansion policy. As stated
previously, the suppressed Indian mutiny (1857) gave way to the abolishment of the
East India Company (1858) and, therefore, the local executive body was replaced by
that of the crown. Known as the brightest jewel in the British crown (a Disraelis
phrase), India was a strategic settlement for the British empire and her conquest was
justified in terms of benefits and discipline. Further acquisitions (Burma, Punjab,
Baluchistan) provided new crucial settlements in the area in order to set up a new route
in India. Since the opening of the Suez Canal, new territories were under the influence
of Britain within this route: Aden, Somaliland, territories in southern Arabia and the
Persian Gulf. Moreover, further expansion took place with the development of the
Straits settlements and the federated Malay states; Borneo (1880s), Hong Kong (1841);
and adjacent territories in China, Shangai (1860, 1896), which had trading purposes.

Finally, the greatest development of the British Empire took place in Africa in the last
quarter of the century. The reign of Queen Victoria brought about a great enthusiasm
for a similar Roman empire, whose power might extend from the Cape of Good Hope
to El Cairo. This idea fascinated the British citizens who, in Queen Victorias two
jubilees, offered colonial conferences, the search of new areas of opportunity, and the
discoveries and wars for mining wealth in South Africa. In fact, the spread of the British
empire comprised by the nineteenth century nearly a quarter of the land surface and
more than a quarter of the population of the world.
From 1882 onwards Britain controlled Egypt and Alexandria (by force), and a joint
administration half British-half Egyptian was established in the Sudan area in 1899.
Also, on the western coast the Royal Niger Company began the expansion over the area

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of Nigeria. By then there were two main British Companies: the Imperial British East
Africa Company, which operated in nowadays Kenya and Uganda, and the British
South Africa Company in the areas now called Rhodesia, Zambia, and Malawi. Hence
the missionary migrations to Afric a in the eventual transfer of these territories to the
crown.

2.4. The twentieth century: the dismantling of the British empire.

Therefore, by 1897 the Empire seemed invincible, but only two years later British confidence
was shaken by the news of defeats at Magersfontein and Spion Kop in the Anglo-Boer War
(1899-1902). Hence, after the Boer War (1902), the countries of the overseas empire wanted a
greater measure of self-government, and those and other battles were lost. Yet, eventually the
war was won, and it took two world wars to bring the British Empire to its end. Those wars also
were won, with the loyal help of troops from the overseas empire (more than 200,000 of whom
were killed in World War I alone).
After a century of almost unchallenged political security, Britain perceived the aggressive
militarisation of the new German state and Hitlers empire as a threat. Britain and, therefore, her
empire, lost a large part of a generation of young men in the First World War. Yet, after the
First World War the British Empire continued to grow and, in addition to the self-governing
territories of Canada, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa, it annexed large tracts of
Africa, Asia and parts of the Caribbean. Also, following the dissolution of the Ottoman Empire,
Britain included Iraq and Palestine.
Soon nationalist movements were to be strongly felt in India, Egypt and in the Arab mandated
territories. In 1922 Egypt was granted a degree of independence by Britain and full
independence in 1936. Similarly, Iraq gained full independence in 1932. On the other hand,
India achieved its independence in 1947 after the movement of Indian nationalism, boosted by
the 1919 Amritsar Massacre. In 1931, the British Parliament, by means of the Statue of
Westminster, recognized the legislative independence and equal status under the Crown of its
former dominions and the Irish Free State within a British Commonwealth of Nations. The
resultant relationship is sometimes thought to have been a precursor to the post-war British
Commonwealth.
During the Second World War, Britains civilian population found themselves under severe
domestic restrictions, and occasionally bombing. Also, conflict accelerated many social and
political developments and growing nationalist movements impacted both on the British rule of

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Empire and on the individual nations of the British Isles. Hence, most of the remaining imperial
possessions were granted independence, for instance, fifty years after Queen Victorias
Diamond Jubilee, India was cut in two to become the Commonwealth countries of India and
Pakistan.
The most recent development in the dismantling of the British Empire was the restoration to
Chinese rule, under a declaration signed in 1984, of the former British crown colony of Hong
Kong, on the southeastern coast of China, where the Union Jack was finally and symbolically
lowered on July 1, 1997. So, one by one, the subject peoples of the British Empire have entered
a postcolonial era, in which they must reassess their national identity, their history and
literature, and their relationship with the land and language of their former masters.

3. A LITERARY BACKGROUND: JOSEPH CONRAD AND RUDYARD KIPLING.

With this historical background in mind, Chapter 3 shall provide a literary background for the
Victorian Literature and, in particular, to the Post-colonial or imperalist literature, namely
reflected through the figures of the Victorian novelists Joseph Conrad and Rudyard Kipling. In
this chapter, we shall namely deal with the nineteenth-century literature in the Victorian period,
that is, from 1837 to 1901 so as to frame Conrad and Kiplings literary works in an appropriate
social and political context to make him coincide with the late consequences of the British
imperialism. So, we shall start by reviewing the (1) Victorian literary background regarding the
main literary forms (a) drama, (b) poetry, and (c) prose, so as to approach the novel and nonfiction works. Then, we shall provide the reader with the biographies of (2) Joseph Conrad and
(3) Rudyard Kipling in terms of (i) life, (ii) style and (iii) main works.
3.1. The Victorian literary background.
The Victorian Age includes, as stated before, several changes different in nature and, in this
respect, the literary background presents a great variety of aspects. Thus, the literary period is
characterized by its morality, which to a great extent is a natural revolt against the grossness of
the earlier Regency, the influence of the Victorian Court and the enthusiasm for the great British
empire under Victorian rule. In addition, literary productions are affected by all these events,
namely in science, religion, and politics.

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Also, the new education acts of the period made education compulsory, which rapidly produced
an enormous reading public. Actually, the cheapening of printing and paper increased the
demand for books among which the most popular form was the novel. Finally, we also observe
a strong literary interaction between American and European writers (specially in political and
philosopical writings). In Britain, the influence of the great German writers was continuous
(Carlyle, Arnold).
The Victorian literature is characterized by the telling of every detail, as in photography so as to
get a real image of the object or person described. The fact may suggest concepts of clarity,
precision, and certainty. On the contrary, the disadvantages of being close to the object, and of
possessing masses of information about it is the production of copious works. So we notice that
this aspect of clarity is reflected in the main literary productions of the period, which are namely
divided into three groups: political, philosophical and social so as to reflect the events of the
time. But before examining prose in this aspect, let us briefly examine first the other two literary
forms: poetry and drama.
3.1.1. Drama.
Following Albert (1990), from the dramatic point of view the first half of the nineteenth
century was almost completely barren since the professional theatre of the period was in a low
state and the greater part of the dramatists work never saw the stage. The popular pieces of the
day were melodrama, farces and sentimental comedies, which had no literary qualities
whatever, were poor in dialogue and negligible in characterization, and relied for their success
upon sensation, rapid action, and spectacle.
Among the most prominent dramatists of the period we may mention George Bernard Shaw
(1856-1950), whose first works were received with hostility, and the need to create his own
audience led him to publish som of them before they were produced. Some of his works were
Widowers Houses (1892), Pleasant and Unpleasant (1898) and The Philanderer (1893:1905);
John Millington Synge (1871-1909), who was the greatest dramatist in the rebirth of the Irish
Theatre and had a unique style since his plays were written in prose, by had the rhythms and
cadences of poetry. Thus, The Shadow of the Glen (1903) and The Tink ers Wedding (1907);
other lesser dramatist are Henry Arthur Jones (1851-1929), Sir Arthur Wing Pinero (18551934), and John Galsworthy (1867-1933).

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3.1.2. Poetry.

The Victorian Age produced literary works of a high quality, but, except in the novel, the
amount of actual innovation is by no means great since there were many attempts at purely
narrative poetry. Despite the efforts to revive the epic, the impulse was not sufficiently strong.
In the early nineteenth century we may higlight some preeminent poets of the Victorian Age,
such as:

Alfred, Lord Tennyson whose poetry, although romantic in subject matter, was
tempered by personal melancholy; in its mixture of social certitude and religious doubt
it reflected the age.

The poetry of Robert Browning and his wife, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, who was
immensely popular, though Elizabeths was more venerated during their lifetimes.
Browning is best remembered for his superb dramatic monologues.

Rudyard Kipling was the poet of the triumphant empire, who would capture the quality
of the life of the soldiers of British expansion, and would reflect the Indian atmosphere.
He also wrote in prose, among which his most popular work was The Jungle Book
(1984).

In the middle of the 19th century we find the so-called Pre-Raphaelites who, led by the
painter-poet Dante Gabriel Rossetti, sought to revive what they judged to be the
simple, natural values and techniques of medieval life and art.

Other Victorian figures, such as A. E. Housman and Thomas Hardy, who lived on into
the 20th century, shared a pessimistic view in their poetry.

Yet, the great innovator among the late Victorian poets was the Jesuit priest Gerard
Manley Hopkins, whose concentration and originality of imagery had a profound effect
on the twentieth-century poetry.

In the last decade of the century, we find the so-called decadents, who pointed out the
hypocrisies in Victorian values and institutions. among them in both notoriety and
talent. Among them, we find the notorious fig ure of Oscar Wilde.

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3.1.3. Prose: the novel.

There is no doubt that the Victorian era was the great age of the English novel, namely realistic,
thickly plotted, crowded with characters, and long.. By the end of the period, the novel was
considered not only the premier form of entertainment but also a primary means of analyzing
and offering solutions to social and political problems. This king style is presented with a
political, philosophical or social overtone (Thackeray, Dickens, Bront) since was the ideal
form to describe contemporary life and to entertain the middle class.
Another variety of prose is the short story (namely developed in the next century); the essays, in
the treatise-style (Carlyle, Symonds, Pater); the lecture, which became prominent both in
England and in America; historical novel, strongly represented by William Stubbs, Edward A.
Freeman and Samuel R. Gardiner; and finally, we find the scientific treatise so as to account of
the scientific developments of the period (Browne, Burton, Berkeley).

Political writing reflects the political consequences of the industrial revolution in

eighteenth and nineteenth-century Britain. Therefore, writers such as Benjamin Disraeli
(1804-1881), Edward Bulwer-Lytton (1803-1873), Anthony Trollope (1815-1882), who
was famous for sequences of related novels that explore social, ecclesiastical, and
political life in England, and Thomas Carlyle (1795-1881) among others, show,
denunciate and value the moral and political affairs which deeply affected society in
Britain at that period. Thus, some of their works are respectively, Coningsby: or the
New Generation (1844), Sybil: or The Two Nations (1845), dealing with the politics of
his day; Richelieu, or the Conspiracy (1839), A Strange Story (1862) and The Coming
Race (1871); Phineas Finn (1869) and Phineas Redux (1874), where Trollope makes a
satire of the political period; and finally, Carlyles The French Revolution (1837) and
Oliver Cromwells Letters and Speeches (1845), in an attempt to criticize Cromwells
methods.

Philosophical writing is represented by George Eliot (1819-1880), who is actually a

woman writing under a pen-name, George Meredith (1828-1909) and Thomas Henry
Huxley (1825-1895). His main works reflect the most outstanding philosophical and
moral problems of the period, thus respectively: Eliots Adam Bede (1859), an excellent
picture of English country life among the humbler classes, Felix Holt the Radical
(1866), a critical work on the Reform Bill, and Daniel Deronda (1876), which strongly
coloured preoccupation at that period with moral problems and and inexorable realism;
Merediths Vittoria (1867) which revindicates the spirited handling of the Italian
insurrectionary movement and The Egoist (1879), with a moral plot; finally, Huxleys

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Mans Place in Nature (1863), Lay Sermons, Addresses and Reviews (1870), and
American Addresses (1877).

Finally, social writing is represented by:

o

William Makepeace Thackeray (1811-1863), whose works showed a biting

humour and the observation of human weaknesses, thus The Book of Snobs
(1849), The Memoirs of Barry Lyndon (1844), a picaresque novel, and Vanity
Fair (1847-1848), which tells about the fortunes of Becky Sharp to denounce
the mournful vision of the vanities of mankind, and wickedly satirizes
hypocrisy and greed; and The Virginians (1857-1859).

The Bront sisters, Charlotte (1816-1855), Emily (1818-1878) and Anne (18201849) wrote melodramatic, terror and passionate novels addressing the features
of the period in which they lived. Thus, Charlottes Jane Eyre (1847), full of
countryside details, Shirley (1849) and Villette (1853); Emilys unique
Wuthering Heights (1847) in a description of the wild, desolate moors where
the main characters conceive their passions in gigantic proportions, described
with a stark realism; finally, Annes Agnes Grey (1847) and The Tenant of
Wildfell Hall (1848).

Wilkie Collins (1824-1889), who was considered to be the most successful of

the followers of Dickens, specialized in the mystery novel to which he
sometimes added a spice of the supernatural. Thus The Dead Secret (1857),
The Woman in White (1860) and The Moonstone (1868) as one of his earliest
detective stories.

Thomas Hardy (1840-1928), who was strongly criticized by his stark pesimism
in his writing. Among his most famous works, we highlight Tess of the
DUrbevilles (1891), Poems of the past and present (1901), The dynasts (19031908), and Moments of Vision (1917). He is regarded as one of the first
modernists in content, attitude rather than form.

Charles Dickens (1812-1870), who showed in all his novels a great interest in
Social Reform at his time. His novels, full to overflowing with drama, humor,
and an endless variety of vivid characters and plot complications, nonetheless
spare nothing in their portrayal of what urban life was like for all classes.

Finally, among many others not mentioned, we find Joseph Conrad (18571924) and Rudyard Kipling (1865-1936), who were profoundly preoccupied
with the consequences of imperalism and the British empire expansion, namely
in Africa and India, respectively. Let us examine their life, style and main
works in detail.

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3.2. Joseph Conrad (1857-1924).

3.2.1. Life.

Jsef Teodor Konrad Nalez Korzeniowski was born at Berdiczew, in the Ukraine, in a region
that had once been a part of Poland but was then under Russian rule. His father Apollo
Korzeniowski was an aristocrat without lands since the family estates had been sequestrated in
1839 following an anti-Russian rebellion. Also a poet and translator of English and French
literatures, Joseph read Polish and French versions of English novels with his father. When
Apollo Korzeniowski became embroiled in political activities, he was sent to exile with his
family to Volgoda, northern Russia, in 1861.
When he was seven, his mother died of tuberculosis and his father lived in exile until 1869,
when Czarist authorities permitted him to move south. Yet, after that remove, his father also
died when young Conrad was just eleven, He was then adopted by his mothers uncle, the
indulgent Tadeusz Bobrowski. Educated at Cracow, he was intended for the university, but at
the age of seventeen he was determined to go to sea (1874). Actually, he went to Marseilles in
he began a long period of adventure at sea where he joined the French merchant marine. Young
Conrad was implicated in a Carlist conspiracy to place the Duke of Madrid on the Spanish
throne. After a suicide attempt, Conrad joined the British merchant service in 1878 and by 1885
he had his master mariners cerfificate, commanding his own ship, Otago.
In 1886 he was given British citizenship and he changed officially his name to Joseph Conrad.
In the ten years that followed, before ill-health caused him to leave the sea in 1894, he had spent
twenty years roaming the world in said and steam ships. Conrad sailed to many parts of the
world, including Australia, various ports of the Indian Ocean, Borneo, the Malay states, South
America, and the South Pacific Island.
Since Conrad did not find shore-life easy, he travelled to the Belgian Congo in 1890. He sailed
in Africa up the Congo River, and the journey provided much material for his novel Heart of
Darkness. His expedition had left him with malarial gout, which afflicted his wrist so much that
he often found writing painful. However, he felt attracted again by the fabled East Indies which
became the setting of many of his stories. He sailed between Singapore and Borneo, voyages
that gave him an unrivaled background of mysterious creeks and jungle for the tales that he
would write after 1896, when he retired from the sea to settle in Ashford, Kent, with his new
wife, Jessie Chambers. By 1894 Conrads sea life was over. During the long journeys he had
started to write and Conrad decided to devote himself entirely to literature. At the age of 36
Conrad settled down in England.

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Conrad sold the American screen rights to his fiction in 1919 and hence, the most famous
adaptations made by Alfred Hitchcocks The Sabotage (1936), based on The Secret Agent
(1097), Richard Brookss Lord Jim (1964) and Francis Ford Coppolas Apocalypse Now (1979),
based on Heart of Darkness. Yet, he did not like to work for the film business, and did not know
about screenwritings since the studios rejected his scripts. Last years of his life were shadowed
by rheumatism. He refused an offer of knighthood in 1924 as he had earlier declined honorary
degrees from five universities. Conrad died of a heart attack on August 3, 1924 and was buried
in Canterbury.

3.2.2. Style.
Although Conrad is known as a novelist, he tried his hand also as a playwright. His first one-act
play was not success and the audience rejected it. But after finishing the text he learned the
existence of the Censor of the Plays, whic h inspired his satirical essay about the obscure civil
servant. Conrad was an Anglophile who regarded Britain as a land which respected individual
liberties. As a writer he accepted the verdict of a free and independent public, but associated this
official figure of censorship to the atmosphere of the Far East and the mustiness of the Middle
Ages, which shouldnt be part of the twentieth-century England (Magnusson & Goring, 1990).
Following Alfred (1990:444), Conrads prose style is one of the most indiv idual and readily
recognizable in English, not, as might be expected in a Pole, for its eccentricities, but for its full
use of the musical potentialities of the language. His careful attention to grouping and rhythm
and to such technical devices as alliteration enables him, at his best, to achieve a prose that is
akin to poetry. When he writes below his best he can become over-ornamental, self-conscious,
and artificially stylized.
Among other features of this writing style, we may mention his subjects, namely about
adventure in an unusual or exotic setting due to his experiences in the sea and the exploration of
Africa and East Indies; his characters, both men and women, are presented in brief, illuminating
flashes and who are vital individuals. They are rarely commonplace and some of his best are
villains as Kurtz in The Heart of Darkness; his view of life, out of which Conrad had a profound
sense of the tragedy of life and the mans struggle agains hostile forces; finally, he had a
traditional direct narrative method, and the oblique method, by means of which he presents his
material in an easy, conversational manner through the medium of a spectator, and gradually he
builds up a picture of the situation by brief sense impressions (Albert, 1990).

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3.2.3. Main works.

Primarily seen in his own time as a writer of sea stories, Conrad is now highly regarded as a
novelist whose work displays a deep moral consciousness and masterful narrative technique.
Among his early novels, we find that the two first works were based on his experiences of
Malaya, thus Almayers Folly (1895); An Outcast of the Islands (1896), where he presents a
vivid tropical background and a study of a white man whose moral stamina was sapped by the
insidious influence of the tropics; his third early work was The Nigger of the Narcissus (1897),
a moving story oflife on board ship, remarkable for a full of romantic description in a powerful
atmosphere of mystery and brooding.
His next work was Tales of Unrest (1898), which contains five storie s, and was followed by
Lord Jim: a Tale (1900). This is one of the best of Conrads studies of men whose strength fails
them in a moment of crisis, and is again a story of the sea. It is in this work that Conrad
introduces for the first time his technique of oblique narrative, the story being told through the
ironical Marlow, a character who frequently appears in later novels. Then he wrote Youth: A
Narrative; and two other Stories (1902) and Typhoon, and Other Stories (1903), which contain
seven tales whic h include some of Conrads most powerful work. In the former collection it is
remarkable The Heart of Darkness (1899) for an overwhelming sense of evil and corruption and
for its excellent tropical background.
Influenced by Henry James, another Conrads finest work is Nostromo A Tale of the Seaboard
(1904), which shifts the scene to the coastline of Central America. It is a story of revolution and
has many well-drawn portraits. Throughout his fiction Conrad is concerned with moral
dilemmas, the isolation of the individual to be tested by experience, and the psychology of inner
urges in both groups and individuals. This is reflected in his semi-autobiographical The Mirror
of The Sea (1906), which is a series of essays based on his experiences in the oceans of the
world and contains excellent pictures.
This work was followed by the popular detective story The Secret Agent A Simple Tale
(1907), which, though it contains some one or two well-drawn figurs and suggests quite
powerfully the atmosphere of the Underworld, is not one of his best (Albert, 1990:442). The
same may be said of the stories in A Set of Six (1908) and his tale of Russian revolutionaries,
Under Western Eyes (1911), of which the best features are the character of Razumov and the
atmosphere of fear. Next work, Twixt Land and Sea - Tales (1912) which contains three
outstanding short stories: Typhoon and The Shadow-Line that describe the testing of human
character under conditions of extreme danger and difficulty, and Some Reminiscences which
testifies his high artistic aims.

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Conrad uses fiction to analyze the macrocosm (world at large) by presenting objectively and
scientifically a microcosm. His remoteness from the British reading public, and his consequent
his lack of knowledge about what makes a popular novel, makes his stories all the more real.
Conrad often maneuvers to keep the reader at a distance from the characters in order to view
them objectively. For example, in writing The Inn of the Two Witches in the winter of 1912
for the London Pall Mall (1913) and New York Metropolitan (May, 1913) magazines he
resorted to another Chinese box narrative technique, presumably written in the first person.
Then came Chance- A Tale in Two Parts (1914), written in the oblique method of story-telling.
Here Marlow appears again as a narrator, but the story is also told from several other points of
view. After Victory- An Island Tale (1915) and a further collection of four short stories, Within
the Tides Tales (1915), Conrad wrote The Shadow line- A Confession (1917), a short novel in
which the suggestion of the supernatural is present. Other novels followed, such as The Rescue
A Romance of the Shallows (1920), which is long but with moments of high excitement, and
shows and excellent picture of primitive men. The Arrow of Gold A Story between Two Notes
(1919) and The Rover (1923) are both set in a background of European history, and were not
very successful.
In his late years, he wrote Suspense- A Napoleonic Novel (1925), which was unfinished at his
death. Other works were published posthumously, such as Tales of Hearsay (1925), four stories,
and Last Essays (1926). We shall finally mention in this group his autobiographical novels since
they show the real Conrad and his own experiences. Thus, A Personal Record (1912) and Notes
on Life and Letters (1921), relevant for Conrads views on his own art, and of two novels, The
Inheritors- An Extravagant Story (1901) and Romance- A Novel (1903), in which he
collaborated with Ford Maddox Hueffer.

3.3. Rudyard Kipling (1865-1936).

3.3.1. Life.

Rudyard Kipling was born in Bombay, India, on December 30, 1865, and made a significant
contribution to English Literature in various genres including poetry, short story and novel. His
birth took place in an affluent family with his father holding the post of Professor of
Architectural Sculpture at the Bombay School of Art and his mother coming from a family of
accomplished women. He spent his early childhood in India where an aya took care of him
and where under her influence he came in direct contact with the Indian culture and traditions.

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Following Sullivan (1993), his parents decided to send him to England for education and so at
the young age of five he started living in England with Madam Rosa, the landlady of the lodge
he lived in, where for the next six years he lived a life of misery due to the mistreatment since
he faced beatings and general victimization. Due to this sudden change in environment and the
evil treatment he received, he suffered from insomnia for the rest of his life. This played an
important part in his literary imagination (Sandison A.G.). His parents removed him from the
rigidly Calvinistic foster home and placed him in a private school at the age of twelve. The
English schoolboy code of honor and duty deeply affected his views in later life, especially
when it involved loyalty to a group or a team.
Returning to India in 1882 he worked as a newspaper reporter for the Lahore Civil and Military
Gazette and the Allahabad Pioneer (1882-1887), and a part-time writer and this helped him to
gain a rich experience of colonial life which he later presented in his stories and poems. Later
on, in 1907 Kipling won the Nobel prize in literature in consideration of the power of
observation, originality of imagination, virility of ideas and remarkable talent for narration
which characterized his writings. The death of both his children, Josephine and John, deeply
affected his life.
Therefore, both these incidents left a profound impression on his life, which his works published
in the subsequent years after their deaths displays. Between 1919 and 1932 he travelled
intermittently, and continued to publish stories, poems, sketches and historical works though his
output dwindled. As he grew older his works display his preoccupation with physical and
psychological strain, breakdown, and recovery. In 1936, plagued by illness, he passed away into
the world beyond, leaving behind a legacy that will live for centuries to come (Sullivan, 1993).

3.3.2. Style.

Since Kipling wrote during the period known as the Victorian Age, his writings show the main
topics of the English and Western Literature of the time, thus conservatism, optimism and selfassurance both in prose and poetry. Though Kiplings works achieved literary fame during his
early years, as he grew older his works faced enormous amount of literary criticism. His works
dealt with racial and imperialistic topics which attracted a lot of criticss, who condemned the
fact that unlike the popular model of poetry, Kipling works did not have an underlying meaning
to it and that interpreting it required no more than one reading.

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As Kipling grew older his works, his popularity among the masses persisted without change. In
fact due to his ability to relate to the layman as well as the literary elite through his works, he
joined a select group of authors who reached a worldwide audience of considerable diversity.
Kiplings reputation started a revival course after T.S. Eliots essay on his works where Eliot
describes the most salient feature of Kipling style: the great verse that sometimes
unintentionally changes into poetry. In his lifetime Kipling went from the unofficial Poet
Laureate of Great Britan to one of the most denounced poet in English Literary History. In
contrast to the path his reputation took, Rudyard Kipling improved as a poet as his career
matured and by the time of his death Kipling had compiled one of the most diverse collection of
poetry in English Literature.
Since Kipling was an Imperialist, his main themes read about attitudes towards British rule in
India. Kipling believed it was right and proper for Britain to own India and rule its people,
and the possibility that this position might be questionable never seems to have crossed his
mind. At the time he was writing there was a considerable ferment of revolt among Indians
against British rule, and yet, he has shown, at points in Kim (1901) when in Chapter 3 he has an
old soldier comment on the Great Mutiny of 1857, dismissing it as madness.
He was a prolific and versatile writer whose journalistic experience served him to great extent
throughouthis career. His prose works, which include stories of Indian life, of children, and of
animals are told with great vitality. He had an inventive faculty, a romantic taste for the
adventurous and the supernatural, and an apparently careless, very colloquial style, which
ensured for his work a popular reception. He also dealt with the superiority of the white race, of
Britains undoubted mission to extend through her imperial policy the benefits of civilization to
the rest of the world. He believed in the progress and value of the machine, found and echo in
the hearts of many of his readers since they lived the late consequences of the industrial
revolution.
He presented a really good picture of Anglo-Indian and of native life. His portraits of soldiers,
natives and of children were vivid and real, with a soft characterization. His background is
clearly visualized and realistically presented since he had a great ability to create an atmosphere
of mystery. The apparent carelessness of his style was a deliberate and skilfully cultivated
technique.

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3.3.3. Main works.

Kiplings works span over five decades both as poetry and prose. Regarding the former, in 1886
he published his first volume of poetry, Departmental Ditties and other poems followed, such as
Barrack-room Balladas (1892), The Seven Seas (1896), The Five Nations (1903), Inclusive
Verse 1885-1918 (1919) and Poems, 1886-1929 (1930). Over the immediately following years
he published some of his most exquisite works including his most acclaimed poem Recessional.
Regarding prose works, between 1887 and 1889 he published six volumes of short stories set in
and concerned with the India he had come to know and love so well. When he returned to
England he found himself already recognized and acclaimed as a brilliant writer. Earlier prose
works include Plain Tales from the Hills (1888), Soldiers Three (1888), The Phantom Rickshaw
(1888), Wee Willie Winkie (1888), Lifes Handicap (1891), Many Inventions (1893), The Jungle
Book (1894), Captains Courageous (1897), The Dayss Work (1898), and his most famed novel,
Kim (1901). Other works followed, thus Just-so Stories for Little Children (1910), Debits and
Credits (1926), and Limits and Renewals (1932).

4. EDUCATIONAL IMPLICATIONS IN LANGUAGE TEACHING.

Literature, and therefore, literary language is one of the most salient aspect of educational
activity. In classrooms all kinds of literary language (poetry, drama, novel, prose, periodicals
newspapers, pamphlets-), either spoken or written, is going on for most of the time. Yet,
handling literary productions in the past makes relevant the analysis of literature in the
Victorian period and, in particular, the rise of one of the most relevant literary forms for
students: the novel, as well as periodicals, poems, essays, and poetry, as reflected in the two
authors under study. Hence it makes sense to examine the historical background of the Victorian
period so as to provide a particular period of time with an appropriate context (imperialism,
post-colonial literature).
Currently, action research groups attempt to bring about change in classroom learning and
teaching through a focus on literary production under two premises. First, because they believe
learning is an integral aspect of any form of activity and second, because education at all levels
must be conceived in terms of literature and history. The basis for these assumptions is to be
found in an attempt, through the use of historical events, to develop understanding of students
shared but diverse social and physical environment.

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Learning involves a process of transformation of participation itself which has far reaching
implications on the role of the teacher in the teaching-learning relationship. This means that
literary productions are an analytic tool and that teachers need to identify the potential
contributions and potential limitations of them before we can make good use of the historical
events whic h frame the literary period.
So, literature productions may be easily approached by means of the subjects of History,
Language and Literature by establishing a paralelism with the Spanish one (age, literature
forms, events). Since literature may be approached in linguistic terms, regarding form and
function (morphology, lexis, structure, form) and also from a cross-curricular perspective
(Sociology, History, English, French, Spanish Language and Literature), Spanish students are
expected to know about the history of Britain and its influence in the world.
In addition, one of the objectives of teaching the English language is to provide good models of
almost any kind of literary productions for future studies. Following van Ek & Trim (2001), the
learners can perform, within the limits of the resources available to them, those writing (and
oral) tasks which adult citizens in general may wish, or be called upon, to carry out in their
private capacity or as members of the general public when dealing with the ir future regarding
personal and professional life.
Moreover, nowadays new technologies may provide a new direction to language teaching as
they set more appropriate context for students to experience the target culture. Present-day
approaches deal with a communicative competence model in which first, there is an emphasis
on significance over form, and secondly, motivation and involvement are enhanced by means of
new technologies. Hence literary productions and the history of the period may be approched in
terms of films and drama representations in class, among others, and in this case, by means of
books (novels: historical, terror, descriptive), paper (essays), among others.
Actually, Conrads influence upon 20th-century literature was wide since Ernest Hemingway
expressed special admiration for the author, and his impact is seen in among others in the work
of F. Scott Fitzgerald, Arthur Koestler, T.S. Eliot, Marcel Proust, Andr Malraux, LouisFerdiand Cline, Jean-Paul Sartre, and Graham Greene. Moreover, several of Conrads stories
have been filmed. The most famous adaptations are Alfred Hitchcocks The Sabotage (1936),
based on The Secret Agent (1097), Richard Brookss Lord Jim (1964) and Francis Ford
Coppolas Apocalypse Now (1979), based on Heart of Darkness; as well as two of Rudyard
Kiplings works, The Jungle Book (1894) and Kim (1901).

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The success partly lies in the way literary works become real to the users. Some of this
motivational force is brought about by intervening in authentic communicative events.
Otherwise, we have to recreate as much as possible the whole cultural environment in the
classroom by means of documentaries, history books, or their familys stories. This is to be
achieved within the framework of the European Council (1998) and, in particular, the Spanish
Educational System which establishes a common reference framework for the teaching of
foreign languages where students are intended to carry out several communication tasks with
specific communicative goals, for instance, how to locate a literary work within a particular
historical period.

Analytic interpretation of texts in all genres should become part of every literary students basic
competence (B.O.E., 2004). There are hidden influences at work beneath the textual surface:
these may be sociocultural, inter and intratextual. The literary student has to discover these, and
wherever necessary apply them in further examination. The main aims that our currently
educational system focuses on are mostly sociocultural, to facilitate the study of cultural themes,
as our students must be aware of their current social reality within the European framework.

5. CONCLUSION.
Since literature reflects the main concerns of a nation at all levels, it is extremely important for
students to be aware of the close relationship between History and Literature so as to understand
the main plot of a novel, short story, or any other form of literary work. In this unit, we have
particularly approached the period of the Victorian Age and Imperialism as a time of great
changes, colonial expansion and wars. For the better, or for the worse.
The aim of this unit was to provide a useful introduction to the development and administration
of the British colonial empire, namely in the eighteenth and ninete enth centuries since it is
considered to be a turning point in the history of Great Britain because of the consequences that
followed. Our main aim was to set in context the writing of relevant figures such as Joseph
Conrad and Rudyard Kipling so as to show how this situation was reflected in the literature of
the time.
In doing so, it was necessary to revise some conceptions related to the imperial expansion such
as the difference between the concepts imperialism vs. colonialism and also, the situation in
Great Britain before and during the eighteenth and nineteenth century so as to better understand

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the deep changes which gave way to this colonial expansion, and analyse the reasons why Great
Britain was determined to take control of great areas far from the Continent.
Therefore, we have examined the policy of the colonial expansion regarding the two British
empires. Then, we considered quite relevant to trace back in time to analyse the sixteenth,
seventeenth and eighteenth centuries since they have the answer for the establishment of the
first British empire regarding the political background in Great Britain at that time; the
Industrial Revolution and its consequences on the imperial expansion.
Moreover, we have examined the seventeeth-century great developments, their consequences in
the eighteenth century, and the main British colonies in America with the establishment of the
first American colonies and in the rest of the world (India, Africa, Australia, etc). Next, we have
analysed how imperial expansion developed in the nineteenth century regarding the
development of the second British empire at a political, social and economic background, and
we have offered an account of the main nineteenth-century British colonies; finally, on reaching
the twentie th century we have analysed the dismantling of the British empire.

With this background in mind, we were ready to provide a literary background for the Victorian
Literature and, in particular, to the Post-colonial or imperalist literature, namely reflected
through the figures of the Victorian novelists Joseph Conrad and Rudyard Kipling. In this
chapter, we have namely dealt with the nineteenth-century literature in the Victorian period, that
is, from 1837 to 1901 so as to frame Conrad and Kiplings literary works in an appropriate
social and political context to make him coincide with the late consequences of the British
imperialism.
So far, we have attempted to provide the reader in this presentation with a historical background
on the vast amount of literature productions in the Victorian period, and its further
developments up to the nineteenth and twentieth century. This information is relevant for
language learners, even 2nd year Bachillerato students, who do not automatically establish
similiarities between British, Spanish and worldwide literary works. So, learners need to have
these associations brought to their attention in cross-curricular settings. As we have seen,
understanding how literature developed and is reflected in our world today is important to
students, who are expected to be aware of the richness of English literature, not only in Great
Britain but also in other English-speaking countries.

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6. BIBLIOGRAPHY.
Alexander, M. 2000. A History of English Literature. Macmillan Press. London.
Azim, F. 1993. The colonial rise of the novel. London: Routledge.
B.O.E. 2004. Consejera de Educacin y Cultura. Decreto N. 116/2004, de 23 de enero. Currculo de la
Educacin Secundaria Obligatoria en la Comunidad Autnoma de la Regin de Murcia.
B.O.E. 2004. Consejera de Educacin y Cultura. Decreto N. 117/2004, de 23 de enero. Currculo de
Bachillerato en la Comunidad Autnoma de la Regin de Murcia.
Council of Europe (1998) Modern Languages: Learning, Teaching, Assessment. A Common European
Framework of reference.
Escudero, A. 1988. La Revolucin Industrial. Anaya.
Karl, F. 1960. A Reader's Guide to Joseph Conrad . New York: Noonday.
Magnusson, M., and Goring, R. (eds.). 1990. Cambridge Biographical Dictionary. New York: Cambridge
University Press.
Overton, M. 1996. Agricultural Revolution in England: The Transformation of the Agrarian Economy
1500-1850. Cambridge University Press.
Sanders, A. 1996. The Short Oxford History of English Literature. Oxford University Press.
Speck, W.A. 1998. Literature and Society in Eighteenth-Century England: Ideology Politics and Culture
1680-1820. Book Reviews.
Sullivan, Z.T. 1993. Narratives of empire: the fictions of Rudyard Kipling. Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press.
Thoorens, Lon. 1969. Panorama de las literaturas Daimon: Inglaterra y Amrica del Norte. Gran
Bretaa y Estados Unidos de Amrica. Ediciones Daimon.
Other sources include:
Microsoft (R). 1997. Encyclopedia Encarta. Microsoft Corporation.
Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia (The). 2003. 6th ed. Columbia University Press.
www.bbc.com
www.wwnorton.com

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