QUOTE OF THE MONTH

‘Russia and the United States will surpass in power the states now called great as much as the great country-states of the sixteenth century surpassed Florence. Is not this a serious consideration, and is it not especially so for a state like England, which has at the present time the choice in its hands between two courses of action, the one of which may set it in that future age on a level with the greatest of these great states of the future, while the other will reduce it to the level of a purely European Power looking back, as Spain does now, to the great days when she pretended to be a world-state’.

JR Seeley, writing in 1884

It should never be forgotten, that England’s demise as a great power was foreseen more than one hundred years ago when she was in her prime. Those who were determined to see this country remain great, were known as Social Imperialists, and wanted social reform internally coupled with a vigorous defence of the national interest.

In particular, they wanted an end to free trade which was free in only one direction, due to the very substantial tariffs imposed on British goods by virtually every other advanced country (including the USA and Germany). They also wanted to see the British Empire turned into a federal union with a single foreign and defence policy, backed by an imperial army and navy.

Despite a very spirited campaign led by Joseph Chamberlain, the political establishment remained unquestioningly committed to free trade and refused to even try to unify the empire - although Britain did eventually start to build up its navy in response to the threat posed by Germany.

The Social Imperialists lost.

The rest, as they say, is history.