Just Finished Reading: Empire and the English Character – The Illusion of Authority by Kathryn Tidrick (FP: 1990)

It’s not often that you come across a work of history authored by someone with a PhD in Psychology and, after reading this quite fascinating volume, I have to say more’s the pity. Coming at the history of the British Empire from a very interesting direction the authors asks the question: What was it about the men who went out to administer the vast and growing Empire that made them capable of dominating huge areas of the globe with often significant populations with little or no assistance from home? Where did this authority come from?

The answer, laid out in just under 300 pages of finely argued, well-illustrated and often delightfully funny examples of men on the very edge of Empire wielding power sometimes with nothing more than a ‘swagger stick’ and an unshakable belief in themselves, their country and their race. Often with these attributes and no other they faced down pirates – famously calling in the aid of the Royal Navy without authority of having a jolly good time giving chase and destroying both their ships and their bases without permission or sanction – or leading detachments of native soldiers against their enemies on the understanding that their chief only stays in power on the sufferance of the Empire and that he would be quite capable and more than willing to lead another native army against them if co-operation was not forthcoming. Often they were the power behind the throne whose ‘advice’ to those officially in power was nothing of the sort. They ran principalities, chiefdoms and entire countries sometimes singlehanded for years before relief, death or nervous breakdown pulled them away.

From the very earliest days these men were chosen for the qualities they would need divorced as they would be from civilisation. Two strands stand out clearly – evangelical Christianity and the English Public school system. Both produced men who absolutely believed in their place at the very pinnacle of human civilisation, not only vastly superior to the ‘brown races’ they would be administrating but also to other ‘white races’ who, as they did not have comparable Empires of their own had shown themselves simply to be far from up to the job. It was the role of these paragons of the British race to bring civilisation to the rest of the world and help bring them into the light of Western Enlightenment. Nothing was mentioned, at least to begin with, of native participation in their own government once it was set up to British standards and certainly nothing resembling independence or even parity in a commonwealth of nations was inconceivable for generations but maybe, just maybe one day when they had shown themselves capable of good behaviour…..

Written at a time when Empire studies was anything but politically correct this was a brave attempt to understand the Empire without having to constantly apologise for its existence. The author does not, however, shrink from the many incidents – from the Indian Mutiny, the massacres of native populations in Africa and elsewhere as well as the day in day out racism, discrimination, abuse and patronising attitude of the British and other European settlers – but she aims to explain why this was so without condoning it or seeing it as irredeemably evil. This I think was an important contribution to understanding why the Empire emerged in the first place, how it was maintain for so long and why it ending comparatively bloodlessly. The authority that the British had over the Empire’s subjects was an illusion but for centuries it was a powerful one. Once the illusion slipped the Empire crumbled with it. This is a fascinating work by a very accomplished author. I am looking forward very much to her other work on Arabia. Highly recommended.