Beasley E. Empire as the Triumph of Theory: Imperialism, Information and the Colonial Society of 1868 (British and Foreign and Colonial Policy)

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Empire as the Triumph of Theory

Who were the first people to invent a world-historical mission for the British Empire?

And what were the constituencies behind the development of imperialism in mid-

Victorian England? These questions are vital for understanding where the New

Imperialism of the late nineteenth century came from. Empire as the Triumph of Theory

takes as its sample the more than two hundred earliest members of the first major pro-

imperial pressure group: the Colonial Society (founded in 1868, it is now the Royal

Commonwealth Society).

The book goes on to a careful and well-written tour of the different parts of the

Victorian world, putting the founders of the Colonial Society into their social contexts.

mpire as the Triumph of Theory concludes that imperialism was developed less by

investors and office holders than by people who, whatever their other activities, had

written books or articles about the cultures of the world. Victorian activities around the

globe were multitudinous and varied; and general ideas about England’s imperial mission

were, in fact, constructed by members of the Colonial Society, in order to make sense out

of information flowing in from this teeming world.

This is the first work to explore the social and intellectual origins of the Colonial

Society, brings the mid-Victorians to life, and should become a standard work fo

specialists on imperialism.

dward Beasley

is lecturer in history at San Diego State University, where he also

teaches in the Liberal Studies Program. He studied the nineteenth-century British Empire

under the late John S.Galbraith and nineteenth-century England under Judith Hughes.

British foreign and colonial policy

Series editor: Peter Catterall

ISSN: 1467–5013

This series provides insights into both the background influences on and the course o

policy making towards Britain’s extensive overseas interests during the past 200 years.

Whitehall and the Suez Crisis

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The Liberal Party, 1919–1939

Richard S.Grayson

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Scrutinising the official mind

Frank Heinlein

Harold Wilson and European Integration

Britain’s second application to join the EEC

Edited by Oliver Daddow

Britain, Israel and the United States, 1955

–

1958

Beyond Suez

Orna Almog

The British Political Elite and the Soviet Union, 1937–1939

Louise Grace Shaw

Britain, Nasser and the Balance of Power in the Middle East, 1952–1967

From the Egyptian Revolution to the Six Day War

Robert McNamara

British Foreign Secretaries Since 1974

Edited by Kevin Theakston

The Labour Party, Nationalism and Internationalism, 1939–1951

R.M.Douglas

India’s Partition

The story of imperialism in retreat

D.N.Panigrahi

Empire as the Triumph of Theory

Imperialism, information, and the Colonial Society of 1868

Edward Beasley

Empire as the Triumph of Theory

Imperialism, information, and the Colonial Society of

1868

Edward Beasley

LONDON AND NEW YORK

First published 2005

by Routledge

2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN

Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada

by Routledge

270 Madison Ave, New York, NY 10016

Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group

This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2005.

To purchase your own copy of this or any of Taylor & Francis or Routledge’s collection of

thousands of eBooks please go to www.eBookstore.tandf.co.uk.

reproduced or utilized in any form or by any electronic, mechanical,

or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including

photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or

retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.

The publisher makes no representation, express or implied, with

regard to the accuracy of the information contained in this book and

cannot accept any legal responsibility or liability for any errors or

omissions that may be made.

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data

A catalog record for this book has been requested

ISBN 0-203-31876-5 Master e-book ISBN

ISBN 0-714-65610-0 (Print Edition)

To my parents

Contents

List of illustrations

General editor’s preface

Acknowledgements

xiii

Abbreviations

Introduction

The founding of the Colonial Society

The usual suspects

Businessmen

Travels and ideas

Tocqueville and Lord Bury: the empire of democracy

Adderley discovers the pattern of the world

Conclusion

115

Appendix: Members of the Colonial Society

121

Notes

128

Bibliography

186

Index

201