Adams J.T. Empire on the Seven Seas. The British Empire 1784-1939
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BEGINNING
OF
IMPERIAL
CONFERENCES
any
of
the
triumphs
in
the
days
of
Rome.
It
vividly
impressed
masses
who
saw
or
read
about
it,
with
the
might, pomp
and
majesty
of
Empire.
Every
hamlet in
Great
Britain
shared
in the
thrill in
local
celebrations
and
that
night
bonfires blazed
on hill-
tops
from
the
Shetland
Islands
to
Land's
End,
lit as the
blaze
from
the
initial
one
in
the
Malvern
Hills
was
seen,
from hill
to
hill
throughout
the
whole
of
Britain. A
few
weeks
later,
beside
army
reviews,
there
was a
great
review of
the
naval
forces held at
Spithead,
and,
although
the
number
and
size of
the
vessels seem
small
to us
now,
it
electrified
the
world.
III.
BEGINNING
OF
IMPERIAL
CONFERENCES
Among
those
who had
come
to
give
homage
to
the
Queen
were
representatives
from
all
the
self-governing
colonies,
and
the
op-
portunity
afforded
for
consultation
was taken
advantage
of and
resulted in the
first "Colonial
Conference." It was to
prove
of
tremendous
import
for
the future that
the
responsible
heads
of the
colonies
should
meet
with
the
British
Prime
Minister not as
subor-
dinates
or
as
mere colonial
agents
but
on
terms
of
equality.
The
spectacle
in
itself
gave
to
both the British
and colonial
peoples
a
new
sense
of
what
the
Empire
was
and
meant.
Nothing
concrete
of
great importance
was
accomplished
but
that
infinitely
important
thing
in British
history
and
government
a
precedent
had been
set,
and
that alone
would have
made
the
Conference
a milestone
in
our
imperial
story.
The
agenda
had
been
prepared
in
advance
with
great
care
and
tact,
and
a
wise
understanding
of what
at
this
stage
could
and
could
not be
discussed to
advantage.
Imperial
Federation
was
not
to
be mentioned. The
meeting
was held
under
the shadow
of
the fear on the
part
of the
colonies
of
the
more
aggressive
ambi-
tions
of
other
European
powers
in
the
rush
for
overseas
posses-
sions,
and
as
Lord
Salisbury
told the
members
the
object
was
not
to
form
a Union or
a
Zollverein
but
a
Kriegsverein,
a
combination
for
imperial
defense.
The
only
definite
result
at the
time
was
the
agreement
of
the
colonies
in Australia
to
provide
in
part
for
the
additional
ships
which
were
to be
stationed
in Australian
waters.
2-57
EMPIRE
ON THE
SEVEN
SEAS
Salisbury's
further
statement was
not
only
to
prove
true
but was
typically
English
in its
approach
to
possibly
great
political
changes.
Speaking
of federation
and
possible
developments
in the
Empire
he
said
they
were
"grand
aspirations,"
"matters
for
the
future
rather
than the
present/'
and that
although
they
were
"doubtlessly
hazy, they
are the
nebulous
matter
that
in
the
course of
ages
in
much less than
ages
will
cool
down and
condense
into material
from which
many
practical
and
businesslike
resolutions
may
very
likely
come."
Unlike the
neat
plans
for
federation,
this
slow mov-
ing
forward
step by
step
and
finding
the
solution for a
multitude
of
immediate
problems
as
they
might
successively present
themselves
was
to
transform
the
imperial
structure
as
the
same
method
through
the
ages
has
transformed
the
political
one of
England
herself.
At
the moment
it was
enough
that
a new
organ
of
imperial
government
had been
found
in
the
idea,
now
first
put
in
practice,
of
the
Imperial
Conference.
Another
step
was
taken
seven
years
later
when a
Conference
between
the
self-governing
colonies was held
in
Ottawa,
the
capital
of
the
greatest
of
them,
the
Dominion of
Canada,
with
merely
an
imperial
representative present
from
London
to
show
the
sym-
pathy
of
the mother
country
and
provide
information.
It was
largely
trade
matters
which were
discussed,
including
tariffs
and
possible
imperial preference.
Naturally
there
were
differences
of
interest
between
England
as an old
manufacturing
country
and
the
colonies
desiring
to
establish domestic manufactures
of their
own,
but
the most
important aspect
of
this second
Conference
was
the
spirit
prevailing.
The
mother
country
now
acknowledged
that
her
children
had
come of
age
and could
discuss their
own
affairs,
whereas
they,
on
the
other
hand,
showed
a
just
sense of the dif-
ficulties and
point
of view
of
England.
Colonial
statesmen who
as
colonials wanted
protection
admitted that
if
they
were
in Britain
they
would
want
free
trade.
The Conference
of
1887
had
shown
home-keeping
statesmen
who had
no
first-hand
knowledge
of the
Empire,
that
in
its
far-
flung
states there
were men
who
were their
own
equals.
Tact,
dis-
cretion,
and
personal
intercourse
were
making
rapidly
for
an
in-
258
RACE
FOR
EMPIRE
crease in
mutual
respect,
a
sense of
mutual
dependence,
and
a
broader
viewpoint
on
the
part
of
Britain and an
increasing
loyalty
on
the
part
of
the
colonies,
which
were to be
put
to most
desperate
test
in
a
few
years
in
the
Boer
War
and
later
in
the
World
War.
Mutual
dependence
may
count
for
much,
but
it
must
also be
rec-
ognized
that,
although
affection
may
be
only
an emotion and the
flag
and
the
Crown
only
symbols,
they
were
to
prove
of
far
more
binding
force
than
trade
advantages
or a
written
imperial
con-
stitution.
IV.
RACE
FOR
EMPIRE
We
have
already
spoken
of the
strong
feeling
on
the
part
of
Gladstone
and
his
Liberals
not
to
embark
on
new adventures
and
indeed
to draw in
the
boundaries of
empire.
In this
they
had
not
been
in
sympathy
with the
changing
temper
of
the
people
and it
was left to the
Conservative
Lord
Salisbury
to
align
national
policy
with
the
new
spirit
and
to
add
enormously
to
Britain's
imperial
possessions.
We
have
mentioned the
parallel
between
the
imperial-
ism
of
these
years
and
those
of the
days
of
Queen
Elizabeth.
It is
rather
odd that
Victoria,
in
the time
of
England's
second
great
ex-
pansion,
was
being
served
as
Prime
Minister
by
a descendant
of the
two
Cecils,
including
the
first Earl
of
Salisbury,
who had
served
Elizabeth}
and
also that
there was
a
wholly
unconscious revival
of
the use
of chartered mercantile
companies
which
were
now
to
do
much the same
work
in
imperial
expansion
which their
predecessors
had done
nearly
three
centuries before
in Tudor times.
Among
the
more
important
were
the
East
Africa
Company,
already
men-
tioned,
the
Royal
Niger
Company
and
the South
Africa
Company.
Of
the
particular
work of
Rhodes
we shall
speak
later,
but
may
here
glance
briefly
at the
general
partition
of
Africa
among
the
great
powers.
It
was
perhaps
Salisbury's greatest
triumph
that
he
secured
it
peacefully.
The
rush
for
territory
had
begun
in the
1870*8.
Before the
end
of
the
90'$
practically
all
of
the
African
continent,
with the
chief
exceptions
of
Abyssinia
and
Morocco,
was
in
the
possession
of
one
or another
of the
leading
European
powers.
The
earliest
attempt
259
EMPIRE
ON
THE SEVEN
SEAS
at
a settlement
of
conflicting
claims
had occurred
under
Gladstone,
when
Dilke,
Under-Secretary
for
Foreign
Affairs,
drew
up
a
con-
vention
with
Portugal,
which
the
government
approved.
Portugal
had
the
largest
if also
the least
substantial
of
the
claims.
Naturally
France,
Germany,
and
Belgium
objected
to a
determination of
the
fate of the
vast
Congo
region
without
being
consulted,
and the
Gladstone
government,
which
at
the moment
was
courting
Ger-
many
on
account
of
the
Egyptian
situation,
had
somewhat
ignomin-
iously
to
cancel the
Portuguese agreement,
in
June,
1884.
I*
1 the
autumn of that
year
a conference
of
fifteen
nations,
presided
over
by
Bismarck,
met
in
Berlin,
and
the most
pressing
questions
as to
the
Congo
were
settled,
but the
greatest
scramble
was in
the
five
years
following during
which
Salisbury
and
Bismarck,
until
the
latter's
fall,
were the
leading
figures
among
the
statesmen
and
did
most
to avoid
war.
Although,
in the heat
of the
race,
that was a
great accomplish-
ment,
the
various
agreements
signed
in
1890
contained
the seeds
of
future
trouble,
due in
large part
to
the
short-sightedness
of
Bis-
marck
with
regard
to the value
of African
colonies.
Britain had
done the
major
part
of
the
exploration
and
opening up
commer-
cially
of
the
Dark
Continent,
but
France had
been
the
first of the
great powers
to
realize
the
future.
In
the
settlement she
obtained
the
largest
share,
including
the
great
island
o
Madagascar,
to
which the British had
far
the more
valid
claim.
Indeed,
the
French
had
none,
but
for
some
years
during
the
Gladstone
Ministry
had
been
ousting
the
British
traders
and
had
established
a
protectorate
by
force.
The
Gladstone
Ministry
had
let
France
have her
way
partly
because
of
the
Liberals' lack
of
interest
in
expansion
and
partly
because
of not
wishing
to
antag-
onize
the French too far
while involved in the
Egyptian imbroglio,
which colors
much
of
the international
policy
of
the
period.
Al-
though
a
large part
of the
Congo
had
already
gone
to
Belgium,
France
also
secured
in
that
section
a
rich
territory
larger
than
all
Germany's
African
colonies
put
together.
The
grandiose
historical
claims
of
Portugal
were
finally
settled
by
ultimatum.
She
was
given
a
somewhat
larger strip
on
the
coast
260
RACE FOR EMPIRE
than
claimed,
but
her
shadowy
titles to Mashonaland and
Nyasa-
land
were
yielded
to
the
British,
who
in
the
general
1890
settle-
ments
also
acquired
Zanzibar,
Kenya,
and
Uganda,
the
boundaries
of the
latter
two
being
so
drawn
as
to
block the
German
push
to-
ward
the
Upper
Nile.
In
this
Egypt
was
again
a
determining
factor,
as
it
had
been
in the
change
of
attitude
in
allowing
the
Bismarck
government
to
develop
its
East
African
claims.
In
the
west,
Germany
got
little
but
a
strip
of the
Cameroons
and
a small
extension of
its
Southwest
African
colony,
which would
connect
it with the
Zambesi
River,
whereas
Britain
secured
title to
the
ex-
traordinarily
rich
trading region
of
Nigeria,
though
there was
to
be trouble later
with
France
over
boundaries.
If
Germany
was
far
outdistanced
in
the African scramble it
must
be
remembered that it was
chiefly
due to
her own
policy.
England
had not
put
impediments
in
her
way,
but,
as we have
said,
Bismarck was
less
interested
in
colonies than in
consolidating
the
position
of
the new
empire
he
had
erected
in
Europe.
Britain had
something
which the
military
leaders of
Germany,
even after
Bis-
marck's
dismissal,
considered
important enough
to
trade
for vast
possessions
in Africa.
To
compare
the
tiny
and
almost
uninhabited
island
of
Heligoland
in
the
North
Sea,
which
England
had
owned
since
1
807,
with the
vast
territories
changing
hands
in
Africa
seems
at
first
sight
absurd, but,
fortified,
it not
only
commanded
the
mouths
of
the rivers Elbe and
Weser,
but also
the
western end
of
the
Kiel
Canal,
which
Germany
had been
building. Germany
con-
sidered it the
key
to
her
future
position
as a naval
power.
England,
without
foreseeing
its eventual
importance, agreed
to cede it to
Germany
as
part
of
the
African
negotiations.
The
transaction
gave
that nation
a
grievance
for
the
future
in
the
claim
that she
had not
had her
just
share
in
the
partition
of a
continent and a
"place
in
the
sun,"
and
also
immensely
strengthened
her
military
position
for both defense
and
offense.
In the African
settlement
Austria-Hungary
did
not
participate
at
all,
and
Italy
was
in
part
balked
of
what she
thought
was
her
prey.
She
had,
with
British
support,
secured her
colony
of Eritrea
and
proclaimed
a
protectorate
over
a
large
part
of
Somaliland,
the
261
EMPIRE
ON
THE SEVEN
SEAS
first
bordering
on
the
Red
Sea and
the
latter
jutting
into the Gulf
of
Aden,
and so
both
abutting
on Britain's
shortest route
to
India.
Between
and back
of these
was
Abyssinia,
the
only
native Christian
and
partially
civilized
state
in
Africa. After
some
years
of
fighting,
Italy
had
made a
treaty
with
the
Emperor
which
she
construed as
giving
her a
protectorate
over
his
country,
but
subsequently
the
Emperor
denounced
the
treaty,
and
in renewed
fighting
the
Italian
forces
were
so
heavily
defeated
at
Adowa in
1896
that
Italy
gave
up
her
effort
at
conquest.
Later
both
Italy
and Britain were
to
guarantee
the
independence
of
Abyssinia,
but
the
earlier
episode
is
of interest
not
only
as
leading
up
to
Mussolini's
conquest,
but
because
in
the
partition
of
Africa the
Abyssinians
were the
only
race
that
proved
able to beat
off the
spoilers. Conquest
awaited
the
day
of
aeroplanes
and
poison
gas,
which
were
among
the fruits of
European
culture
in the
next
century.
The
partition
was
not a
mere
staking
out
of
claims.
It was
fol-
lowed
in
each
case
immediately by occupation,
administration,
and
in some
cases
exploitation*
The methods
adopted
by
the
different
nations
varied
greatly.
They
were at their
worst in the
Belgian
Congo,
where
King
Leopold,
who had started
with
high
motives,
yielded
to the desire for
rapid
wealth
and,
by
means
of
forced
labor
and
other
methods,
afforded
perhaps
the
worst
example
in
modern times of
the
control of a
backward
by
an
advanced
race.
The
Belgian
Congo
was
to become
an
international
stench. The
French
have
always
got
on well
with
savages
and
barbarians,
and
their
treatment
of the natives
was far
better than
Leopold's,
although
they
were
to
regard
their
natives
as cannon
fodder for
war.
As
they
also considered their
colonies
as
closed
preserves
for
French
trade
only
and
endeavored
by
high
tariffs
to
close
them to
all
other,
their
development
was slow. The
Germans
never made
their
colonies
pay,
and
with
their
overemphasized
ideas
of
discipline
and
efficiency
were
unduly
harsh in
their
treatment of
the
blacks,
with
the result
that there
were
frequent
insurrections.
On the
whole,
although
the
record
of
the
British
is far
from
being
without
spot
or
blemish,
I
think
it
may fairly
be
said theirs
was the
best and
that
it was
well
for
Africa
that the
greater
part
of
RACE
FOR EMPIRE
it
was
in
British
hands.
They
had
had
by
far the
greatest
experi-
ence of
any
nation
in
the
administration
of
subject
races
under
all
sorts
of
conditions,
and
although
they
draw
the
color
line
in
social
and
marital
relations,
as
the French
do
not,
they
have
developed
a
sense of
trusteeship
with
regard
to
lower
races
which
have
come
under
their
flag
to
an
extent
which
no
other
people
have
except
the
Americans
who
have
followed
them. This
statement
is
far from
meaning
a
record
of
perfection
in
either
case,
and is
only
compara-
tive.
On
the
whole,
the
uncountable
millions
in
Africa
under British
control
have
been
reasonably
content and
have been
allowed
a
greater
degree
of
freedom in
living
their
accustomed
lives than
under
other rule.
In
addition,
the
markets
of British
Africa have
been
freer
to all
the world than those
controlled
by
other
powers.
The
experiment
is still
comparatively
new
but
in
general
the
overrunning
of
Africa
by
Europe may
be
deemed
as
a
blessing
to
the
natives,
who
had
beyond
memory
been sunk
in
the
lowest
and
most
cruel
and
degraded
barbarism. The native wars
and
the slave
trade,
which
formerly
took
their
tolls
by
millions,
have
been
almost
wholly
stopped;
many
horrible customs
have
been
abolishedj
many
tropical
diseases
conquered
by
modern
medicine
j
hospitals,
schools,
and
railways
and steamboats on
the rivers
have
brought
civilization
to the
jungle;
and
the natives have learned that wealth
may
be
earned
by
peaceful
industry
instead of
by
plunder
in bar-
barous
war.
The
picture
is
not
without
its
deep
shadows,
but
if
we
could
look down
on
the
life of the native
African
from
the
Cape
to
Cairo
a
century
ago
and
again
survey
the whole human
scene
today
I
think
that,
aside from
any
profit
to
European
exploiters,
there
would
be
seen an
immense
human
profit
to the natives
them-
selves.
As
in
the
earlier
great
period
of
exploration
and
exploitation
in
the
sixteenth and
seventeenth
centuries,
the
fever which had
got
into
the
blood
of
Europe
at
the
end
of
the
nineteenth led
men
to
all
parts
of
the world.
Africa,
with its
enormous
extent,
riches,
and
a
population
estimated
(1920)
at
180,000,000,
naturally occupies
the center of
the scene
in
the
division of the world
a
little
more
than
a
generation ago.
But the
Far
East and
the
islands of
the
263
EMPIRE
ON
THE
SEVEN SEAS
Pacific were
also
goals
in the
international
race. Britain
obtained
a
protectorate
over
the
Malay
Peninsula,
annexed the
whole
north-
east coast
of
Borneo,
and over
a hundred
islands in
the
Pacific,
many
of which
were
given
over
to
the
administration
of
New
Zealand,
which
thus
became
an extensive
island
empire.
We shall
speak
of New
Guinea
later
in
connection
with Australia.
Other
nations
were also
busy, including
the United
States,
which
at
the
time of the
Spanish
War in
1
898
had
a
brief
spasm
of
imperialism,
though
the
Americans
as
a
people
have
never
cared
for
overseas
possessions
or
responsibilities.
At
the
end of the
race the
world,
as well
as the
Empire,
had
entered
upon
a
wholly
new
phase.
In the
Empire
the fervor
of
imperialism
had almost
entirely
conquered
the hesitation
of
the
Gladstonian Liberals to
undertake
responsibilities
or
expense
for
the
sake
of
expansion.
Britain,
which had been used to a dominant
world
position
and which had
as
yet scarcely
realized,
outside of
certain
high
circles,
that she was
steadily
falling
behind in com-
parative
figures
for
world
trade,
was
still
successfully
competing
in
the race for new
territory.
The
potentiality
of
Japanese
power
was
not
understood,
and
China was
considered
negligible.
What
counted were
the
great
European
powers
and
the United
States,
Of
the
great powers,
as
then
established,
five
only
owned
half the
earth
by
1899.
The British
Empire
was
well in
the
lead
with some
12,000,000
square
miles;
next
came,
in
succession,
Russia
with
8,-
500,000;
the
United
States with the
third
largest
population
but
on
ly
3>5OO,ooo
square
miles
;
France
with
4,500,000;
and
Germany
with
only
1,250,000
but a
virile
and
drilled
population
of
70,-
000,000
and
developing
intense
resentment
because
in
a
now
prac-
tically
closed world
she had
not
earlier staked
out
her
claims.
Heligoland,
for
which
imperial possessions
had
been
sacrificed,
now
looked
insignificant
for
the moment
as a
symbol
of
either
power
or
prestige.
V.
CHANGED
EUROPEAN
ALIGNMENTS
Meanwhile
a
new and
important
alignment
of
the
European
powers
among
themselves
was
under
way.
In
trying
to write
a
264
CHANGED
EUROPEAN ALIGNMENTS
brief
running
narrative
of
the
Empire
we
are
limited
much
as
is
a
biographer
who
in
telling
the
story
of
one
life
cannot write
a
history
of the
times,
and
although foreign policy
and
the
policies
of for-
eign
countries
naturally
were
important
for
the
development
of
the
Empire
they
can
be
touched
upon
only
lightly.
Without
going
into
details,
therefore,
we
must
content
ourselves with
pointing
out
that
so
long
as
he
remained in
power
Bismarck was the center
around
which
the
intricate,
frequently
secret and
often
immoral
system
of
treaties
and
alliances
revolved.
As a result of
Egypt
and
the
consequent
hostility
of
France,
Britain,
as we
have
seen,
was
led
to
court
and
back
the German
Chancellor.
His
intriguing
and secret treaties had
built
up
the
Triple
Alliance of
Germany,
Austria-Hungary
and
Italy,
with
Russia
uncertainly
involved
by
other
secret treaties.
Troubles
in
the
Balkans,
with a
remaking
of
the
map
in that
quarter,
enlight-
ened the
Czar
as to
the fact
that,
in
any
conflict
of
interests,
Ger-
many
would
be
on the
side of the
Austrian
Emperor
and not on
his.
In the
pressure
toward the
Black Sea
and
the
Dardanelles
Austrian
and Russian interests
were
in
direct
conflict,
and
Britain,
trailing along
with the
Triple
Alliance,
feared
Russian
designs
on
India.
The situation
made
France and
Russia
obvious
allies,
an
alliance
made
all
the more
necessary
after Bismarck's
fall in
1890
by
the
policy
of
Kaiser
William II.
Bismarck in
1887
had
sug-
gested
to
Salisbury
in
a
personal
letter,
in
words that sound
strange
today,
that
Germany,
Austria-Hungary
and Britain
were
now
all
contented and
wholly
satisfied
powers
while
France
and
Russia
would
be
the
aggressors.
Two
years
later he
asked
for
an
Anglo-
German
alliance
but
against
France
only,
it
being
his
belief that
Germany
could
not risk
a
war
on both
fronts at once
and there-
fore he must
keep
on
good
terms
with
Russia,
though
the
treaty
he
had
made
with
that
country,
and which
ran
counter
to that
establishing
the
Triple
Alliance,
was unknown at the time. As
Russia
and not
France
was considered the
greatest potential enemy
of
Britain,
Bismarck
had
really
nothing
to
offer
and
Salisbury
declined
joining
the
Triple
Alliance
as
a
fourth
power,
though
there
was
for
some
years
a
defensive
treaty
between Britain and
Italy.
EMPIRE
ON
THE
SEVEN SEAS
Although
it
is
not
easy
to
follow
the mental
windings
of Bis-
marck's
diplomacy
it
may
be that
he was
sincere
in
describing
Ger-
many
as satisfied.
In
a
generation
a
great
nation had been
welded
together,
and
he himself
was
supreme
in
the
diplomacy
of
all
Europe.
As we
have
said,
he
was
more
interested
in
seeing
the
Germany
of
his
creation
the
most
powerful
state on
the
Continent
than
in
world
expansion,
and
he
had
little
or
no
jealousy
of Brit-
tain's world
empire.
Nor
did
he
dream
of the
young
Emperor
William's
ambition
as
expressed
in
his statement
in
1896
that
"Germany's
future
lies on
the water."
In
the
close
connection
which
he
had
cemented
between
Berlin
and
Vienna
the seeds
pf
Pan-
Germanism,
which
were
to
blossom into the
poison
flower
of
Hitler's
"pure
race" in
our
day,
had
been
planted,
but
if
Salisbury
did
not
understand what
Bismarck
was
doing
neither
did
Bismarck
himself
understand
where
the forces
he
had called
"from
the
vasty
deep"
were to
lead
his
own
country
under
the
untutored
and
inexperienced
lead of the
young Emperor.
But
yet
in
what
we
have
so
briefly
described,
we of
today
can
see
the
"shape
of
things
to
come"
already taking
form.
Not
only
was
the world
divided
up
so that
great
empty spaces
and
unpre-empted
riches
could no
longer
afford a
safety
valve
for the
ambitions
of new
nations,
but
the
"concert
of
Europe"
had
given place
to the
two
armed
camps
of the
Triple
and
Dual Alli-
ances
with
the modern
instruments of
war and
great
conscript
armies.
This
was a new
world
situation,
fraught
with dire
peril.
There
is an
American
slang
phrase:
"all
dressed
up
and
nowhere
to
go,"
which more or less
accurately
describes
the
Europe
of
1894-1914.
The
Old World
had been
saved
from
destruction
in
the earlier
colonizing
period
by
the
empty
spaces
on
the
globe,
as,
more
locally,
in
America,
the
West
had
served
as a
safety
valve
for
the
discontented
and
rebellious
elements
in
the
settled
East
so
long
as
there
was
empty
and
free
land.
Now the
world
was
all
parcelled
out and
in
Europe
there
were
two
jealous
alliances of
the five
great powers,
fully
armed
but
with
nowhere
to
go
unless
they
conquered
one
another,
their
European
satellites
or
their
overseas
possessions.
If
there
were
to
266