The purpose of empire: Popular perceptions of imperialism during and after the Crimean War

Abstract

The following thesis is an exploration of early Victorian Britain and its relationship to the Crimean War of 1854. Beginning with the social and economic malaise of the 1840s, including a succession of military losses or costly colonial campaigns across the Imperial frontier in Afghanistan or Northern India, British society became increasingly concerned with its image as a military superpower amongst other European nations. This anxiety doubled after the birth of the Second French Empire following the 1849 Revolution, and the continued expansion of Russian territory and influence across central Asia under the reign of Tsar Nicholas I. Following a minor dispute over religious jurisdiction in the Holy Land and territories of the Ottoman Empire between the French-backed Roman Catholic and Russian Orthodox Churches, in 1852 Britain pledged its full support of the French government against the authority of Imperial Russia in the Levant. After a year of heated diplomatic exchanges, Russian forces invaded Ottoman territory in late 1853, and the following year France and Britain jointly declared war on the Russian Empire. The initial stages of the Crimean War were a succession of disasters for the British Army, whose antiquated officer corps and inadequate logistics were on full display for both the public and the wider world to see. While the British public initially welcomed the outbreak of war against the Russian Empire, the cost of war and the conduct of the British command staff under Lord Raglan soured public opinion towards the conflict and served as the birth of three major socio-cultural trends in modern British history. They are as follows: the glorification of the common British soldier, the de-glorification of British military leadership, and a comprehensive wave of informal military and foreign policy reform later implemented in the 1870s which allowed for the general success of British colonialism in the latter 19th century. This thesis also explores the Crimean War as social phenomena through examining the dialogue between public perceptions of the war and the realities of the British frontlines, using primary sources such as contemporary newspaper articles as well as journals and letters belonging to British military staff, civilian observers, or war correspondents. This dialogue, made possible by improvements in transportation and communication technologies such as the telegraph and the introduction of wartime photography, was central to the change of cultural attitudes towards the British military. As well, the central role played by tropical diseases, mainly cholera, in the war’s considerable death toll also brought about changes in British medical science and the social status of women in British culture. Thus, while the Crimean War resulted in few practical gains for the British Empire, it proved to be the disaster which allowed for the expansion of British territory across the globe and military successes from the plains of Punjab, to the Canadian Prairies and the jungles of New Zealand.