The Pro-Boer Representation of War and the Origins of New Liberalism
When the (second) Boer war began in 1899, it was greeted in Britain by the usual bellicose enthusiasm—itself fuelled by the widespread feeling of British superiority. The most striking evidence of popular support can be seen in the landslide victory of the Unionists that became known as the Khaki el...
Saved in:
| Main Author: | |
|---|---|
| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Presses Universitaires de la Méditerranée
2007-12-01
|
| Series: | Cahiers Victoriens et Edouardiens |
| Online Access: | https://journals.openedition.org/cve/10535 |
| Tags: |
Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
|
| Summary: | When the (second) Boer war began in 1899, it was greeted in Britain by the usual bellicose enthusiasm—itself fuelled by the widespread feeling of British superiority. The most striking evidence of popular support can be seen in the landslide victory of the Unionists that became known as the Khaki election. The Liberal party suffered a crushing defeat because it was once again divided over an imperialist issue; while the so-called pro-war rallied the patriotic upsurge, the pro-Boers refused to support a war which went against core liberal principles. They continuously denounced the injustice of the war and its atrocities, thus putting forward an alternative Representation of War that challenged the official one. Moreover, the pro-Boer faction was to develop into one of the most significant trends of Liberal thought in the twentieth century, namely New Liberalism. Thus what appears to be a dissenting Representation of War gave birth to a new political movement that reconciled the pacifist and anti-imperialist liberalism that had been advocated by such great liberal figures as Richard Cobden and which was at the heart of Gladstone’s Midlothian campaign and the new generation of thinkers who were in favour of a greater intervention of the State. |
|---|---|
| ISSN: | 0220-5610 2271-6149 |