British Imperialism

Though Disraeli and Gladstone worked in tandem for domestic reform, they bitterly opposed each other on the issue of British imperialism. Throughout Victoria’s rule, the British Empire had been steadily expanding, starting with the annexation of New Zealand in 1840 and the acquisition of Hong Kong two years later. In 1858, after a rebellion in India by native troops called sepoys, Parliament took administrative control of the colony away from the British East India Company and put the colony under the direct administration of the British government.

Gladstone was a “Little Englander”—one who opposed further expansion; Disraeli, in contrast, saw imperialism as the key to Britain’s prosperity and patriotic destiny. Victoria sided with Disraeli—in part because his flamboyant charm appealed to her, while she loathed the staid, self-righteous Gladstone—and she allowed him to pursue his ambitions. He bought England a large share in Egypt’s newly completed Suez Canal, acquired the Mediterranean island of Cyprus, and annexed the Transvaal, a Dutch settlement in South Africa. Disraeli even persuaded the queen to accept the title “Empress of India.”

Fascinated by the exploits of their explorers, missionaries, and empire builders in Africa and Asia, most British citizens—including certain writers—supported imperialism. Rudyard Kipling,for example, wrote short stories and poems glorifying the expansion of the British Empire. Indeed, it was Kipling who conveyed the idea that it was England’s “burden,” or duty, to bring civilization to the rest of the world.

William Morriscontradicted him, asking, “What is England’s place? To carry civilization through the world? ... [Civilization] cannot be worth much, when it is necessary to kill a man in order to make him accept it.” As the years passed and colonial conflicts increased, British citizens began to agree with Morris, and support for imperialism waned.

A Changing Language: The Birth of Standard English

In Victorian times, as education spread and people entering the middle class tried to speak “proper” English, the English language became more homogeneous. Increased literacy also stabilized English, since the written language tends to change more slowly than the spoken. The period also saw the beginning of an effort to compile a definitive record of the histories, uses, and meanings of English words, resulting in the massive Oxford English Dictionary, the first volume of which was published in 1884. This landmark work, completed in 1928 and revised several times since, traces the changes in meaning of each entry word from its first recorded use to the present.

Jargon and EuphemismsVictorian advances in the natural and social sciences spurred the coinage of new words, such as telephone, photography, psychiatrist, and feminist. The new fields of study developed their own specialized and technical vocabulary, or jargon, which began to infiltrate everyday speech. Euphemisms—mild or vague terms substituted for words considered harsh or offensive—also grew more popular as Victorian propriety made certain words taboo. A chicken breast became “white meat”; the legs, “drumsticks.” Even words such as belly and stallion were prudishly avoided.

SlangAlthough “proper” circles frowned on slang, it was widely used among the lower classes as a means of conversing safely in the presence of outsiders, including the police. The Cockneys of London’s East End developed an elaborate system of rhyming slang in early Victorian times—using, for example, loaf to mean “head” because loaf is the first word in the expression loaf of bread, which rhymes with head. The expression “use your loaf” is still common in the East End today.

Date: 2016-03-03; view: 1034