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Issue of Home Rule in British Politics The Irish and Imperial Questions in La

The Irish and Imperial Questions in Late Victorian Politics

In the 1880s, two distinct but related issues thrust themselves to the fore as concerns in British politics. One was Home Rule for Ireland; the other was the status and character of the British Empire as a whole. In some respects they were quite separate. Ireland was an integral part of the United Kingdom, scarcely a day's journey by train and ferry from London. The Empire was spread across the world, and important parts of it were already semi-autonomous Dominions. Yet they were bound together by the reality of alien rule, and evoked parallel responses from the eminent statesmen of the day. The following essay will explore this complex relationship of policies and ideals.

I. Empire and Imperialism in Victorian Opinion

The British Empire, it has been said, was acquired in a fit of inadvertence. This is perhaps a generous (and exculpatory) overstatement, since it is not as though the British looked around one day and found to their astonishment that they ruled a quarter of the world. Nevertheless, it is true that it was assembled under circumstances as varied as the lands it ruled, and without any grand master plan. The British Empire was a product of British empiricism, and only very late in the game did it formally become an Empire at all.

The empire's colonies and territories can be divided into three broad classes, corresponding to the circumstances under which they were acquired, the characteristics (real or perceived) of their populations, and the types of governing institutions which had developed in them. These three classes were the "white Dominions," such as Canada and Australia; India, and similar regions in which Britain ruled over native peoples; and finally a class of composite colonies, especially in Africa, which had large native populations, but also significant numbers of English settlers intent on making these places their homes. I...

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Issue of Home Rule in British Politics The Irish and Imperial Questions in La. (1969, December 31). In LotsofEssays.com. Retrieved 22:05, March 28, 2024, from https://www.lotsofessays.com/viewpaper/1702954.html