Joseph Chamberlain and South Africa
Date
1983-08-04
Authors
Marsh, Peter
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Abstract
The most remarkable feature of Joseph Chamberlains
government of the Empire was his attempt to command assent
at home and abroad. At home he was extraordinarily successful.
His complicity in the Jameson Raid and his responsibility
for the long, expensive and no more than marginally
successful war with the South African republics made that
achievement only the more remarkable. But abroad, particularly
in South Africa, success eluded him. That lack
of success raised questions about the worth of his whole
imperial enterprise, questions to which most people now,
historians and laymen alike, would give the same negative
answer. Conscious of the risk of failure though equally
confident of the possibility of success, Chamberlain concentrated
his final energies on an attempt to harness domestic
and colonial economic self-interest to the chariot
of the Empire, This time success eluded him at home,
though he might have been able to turn the tide there
if fate had allowed him the same vigorous old age that
Gladstone and later Churchill enjoyed. But this part of
Chamberlain's story lies outside my concern in this essay.
What I want to suggest here is the liberal as well as
authoritarian character of his leadership of the Empire
particularly in South Africa during his tenure as Colonial
Secretary.
Description
African Studies Seminar series. Paper presented 4 August 1983
Keywords
Chamberlain, Joseph. 1836-1914, South Africa. History. 1836-1909