QUEEN VICTORIA DOCUMENTARY MORAL CRUSADE

- The documentary features some major personalities of the Victorian Age:

1. Queen Victoria (1819-1901)
2. Prince Albert (1819-1861)
3. David Livingstone (1813-1873)
4. Benjamin Disraeli (1804-1881)
5. William Ewart Gladstone (1809-1898)
6. Charles George Gordon (1833-1885)
7. Cecil Rhodes (1853-1902)

- For the first part of her reign the queen was inspired by Prince Alberts vision
of Camelot according to which the strong should serve the weak, good must
triumph over evil, might should be in the service of right. These principles were
the guiding light for Victoria and the British people, but after Prince Alberts
death these ideals took another path.
- To bring trade, education, progress, better standards of living to people were
Alberts major creeds. She thought that England should be dominant, that it
should rule as much of the world as possible. Her Empire came up more by
accident than desire.
- By the mid-19th century the British had become the richest and the most
powerful power in the world through their pioneering in most industrial fields.
However, the cities were pits of poverty and depravation. There were not
enough houses, cities were overcrowded, but both the rich and the poor
shared the belief that God had chosen them for a special mission to export not
just their industry, but their government and morality. That made England into
the agent of civilisation. They also believed they would bring peace and
stability in the world. Groups of missionaries, supported sometimes by
churches, went to Africa to civilize the continent.

Doctor David The most famous explorer was a Scotsman.

Livingstone He worked in a cotton mill from the age of 10
and paid his own way to the medical
school.
Beginnings He joined the missionaries because he
thought he could relieve pain through
medicine.
He reached Cape Town, a major staging post
on the route to India.
Geography of The officials were not interested in the interior land
Africa since they thought it was scrubland. consisting
of scrubs
(arbusti)
Adventures The scenery changed from desert to
grassland with exotic wildlife. He
documented all the flora and fauna in minute
detail. He was working on an irrigation ditch,
when he was alerted that some lions were
approaching the camp. He squeezed off
one shot, the wounded animal pounds.

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 Livingstone was badly mauled and his arm
was broken and crushed.
Public reaction The readers felt they were joining the
missionaries in an historic crusade.
The missionaries see themselves as explorers;
pathfinders of civilization. They are the link deschizator
between the empire and the ordinary people. i de drum
Livingstons During his first 3 years of his travel he
misadventures suffered several bouts of fever.
Livingstones Livingstone had little success in christening
goals the Africans. He was driven by his Christian
ideal and an almost Messianic self-belief.
Livingstones a. After 15 years of exploration he made his slavery=
discovery most spectacular discovery, the largest the open
curtain of water. He named the sight in sore of the
honour of his queen The Victoria Falls. world.
b. He then continued northwards and came
across a spectacle that changed his entire
mission: chained men were driven to the
coast, to slave markets. Slavery had been
abolished throughout the British Empire in
1833, but the slave trade continued
unchallenged in East Africa. He was
convinced that Britain must rid of what he
called the open sore of the world. He
believed that Africa must be civilized not by
force, but by trade.

- The ideas cultivated by Prince Albert: good government, law, Christian

religion. For the Robing Room from Parliament the Prince, who thought
Parliament as the temple to civilized values, had commissioned paintings
with King Arthur and his men. These heroic figures were to be the role-
models for soldiers, scientists, explorers and missionaries who would spread
the British values across the globe.
- The two people who supported diametrical opposed views in Parliament were
Benjamin Disraeli & William Gladstone. They debated this issue fiercely.

Disraeli
- He was a Conservative, a
passionate advocate of the
imperial power and glory.
- He and Gladstone alternated in
power for 15 years.
- He believed in the expansion of
the British Empire. He liked to
claim that his ancestors were rich
Venetians. He viewed the empire
as an extraordinary asset.
- He rekindled the Queens interest
in public affairs.
Gladstone
- He was a Whig, a Liberal who
championed the moral vision of
Prince Albert and D. Livingstone.
He was driven by guilt because
his own family had made their
fortune from slave labour. He
pleaded to spread the liberal
values through commerce. He
believed imperialism is a creed
that could contaminate the British
people. He believed in a world of
universal peace. For him,

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Queens Victorias opinion at the
beginning
The Queens change of opinion
Gladstone
Queens Victorias opinion at the
beginning
The Queens change of opinion
Gladstones (private) undertakings
Gladstones opinion about the
Queen
Gladstones views put to test
imperialism means that might
triumphs over right.
Disraeli
She thought he was an upstart, an
opportunist, what the British call a
chancer.
Disraeli set to win her through letters
which were full of protestations and
affectations, of love and loyalty,
unusual for a PMs letters. He
bewitched her with his visions of the
British Empire, which would have
horrified Prince Albert. In the future
they formed a powerful alliance for the
imperial cause, but it would be
sometime before their partnership
would bear fruit.
She began by liking him. For her she
was an upright man, who was
ambitious but extremely smart. Prince
Albert would have warmly approved of
him.
Her opinion changed when Gladstone
embarked in a worldwide wind of
liberal reforms that revived
conservative instincts that had been
dormant while Albert was alive. She
found him dangerous and thought he
was an unsatisfactory premier. For
instance, she was not amused when
he proposed that sailors might be
permitted to grow beards and was
horrified by his moves towards female
equality.
He would take prostitutes to his
rooms, give them Bibles and money
and asked them to tread the narrow
ways (= to become honest).
He was appalled by the imperialist
views she had picked from Disraeli.
He sent Livingstone on an official
mission to combine commerce,
civilisation and Christian religion.
Livingstone believed that the Zambezi
River could become a great highway
for the British industrial good, but he
failed in his mission and was recalled
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 to England and had to face scathing
attacks from the press.

Disraelis support of the Empire Gladstones reactions

The issue of the That was the lifeline to India, her colony. The canal had
Suez Canal been carved 5 years before through the desert. He feared
that a new imperial power would cut this artery. He took
advantage of the ruler of Egypts debts to British and
French banks and made an arrangement with Baron
Rothschild to buy the Califs shares.
Gladstones He was strongly opposed to this deal, and he was right
reaction because the Suez Canal would drag Britain deeper and
deeper into the murky politics of the Middle East. The
overlords were the Turks who resorted to manslaughter
when the subjected people were rising against them.
Russia backed the rebels.
Disraelis attitude He feared that once Turkey collapsed, the Russians
towards the Turks would advance to the Suez Canal. So, he supported the
Turks, against Gladstones ideas. However, the people
supported Disraeli because the British were
Russophobes. To them Russian was the antithesis of
Britain, a progressive, enlightened nation. Russia was
thought to be ignorant, backward, ruled by a despot.
The Russians agreed to negotiate.
Disraelis gift to Victoria claimed what she considered it had been long
the Queen overdue the title of Empress of India. Disraeli passed a
Bill in Parliament to grant her the title and she made him
an Earl.
Gladstones He thought that was a showy imperialism and began to
attitude towards deliver public speeches and the Queen compared him to
their moves an American stumping orator (= an orator that
mystifies the truth). The public were attracted by his
speeches and voted the Liberals back into power. The
Queen at first refused to accept him as her PM, but she
was a constitutional monarch and submit she must.
Gladstones new -He set to achieve the home rule (right to self-
actions government) for Ireland and pressed for the appointment
of more Indian judges and made sure that the English no
longer refused to appear before them.
-In Africa he could do little to stop the hunger for
adventure nourished by Livingstone. Livingstone had
returned to search for the source of the Nile, hoping that
by his action he would gain the publics recognition, but
he disappeared for years and even an obituary appeared
in the press. He was affected by illness. An American
magazine, New York Herald, sent H. M. Stanley to search
for him. After 7 months he reached the remote post, deep
in the interior. The news was telegraphed to the world.
After his departure Livingstone was left alone and sensing
his approaching death he wrote a letter beseeching the

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 world to abolish the slave trade. He died in 1873; his
servants cut out his heart, which they buried in Africa,
while the rest of the body was buried at Westminster and
his final letter was engraved on this tomb. The Queen
declared a day of national mourning when his body
arrived in England.

Livingstones adventures had an effect he would have never endorsed.

(=supported): The Scramble for Africa (invasion, colonization, division of
the continent by the European powers between 1981-1914 it was a
pressure for land grab).

Two Victorian Personalities who Influenced the British Public

1. General Charles George Gordon and the Sudan war

- A so-called prophet, Mahdi, set in front of a rebellion against the corrupt

leaders.

- The British feared that they will soon reach Egypt and menace the Suez
Canal.

- The Queen asked Gladstone to make a demonstration of strength against the

rebels, but the PM did not place value on her judgment. The press and
public were on the Queens side.

- Gladstone sent the General, who was a relentlessly brave knight and led
Victorian army like a medieval knight. He was also known as Chinese Gordon
for defending British interests in China. In among the eccentric British, Gordon
was a strange fish. His major interest in life was the care of children, mostly
those hungered and sleeping in doorways; he would wash them, send them to
school, give them money and find them jobs. He was the archetype of the
muscular Christian of the Victorian Era. He also he the reputation of a
maverick (= non-conformist, dissident) who frequently disobeyed orders. The
night he left for Khartoum he was late and money was raised for him and also
a ticket was bought by the Foreign Secretary (ministry of international affairs),
Lord Grenville. When he finally left, the Secretary remarked: I wonder if we
hadnt committed the most dreadful folly.

- Gordon was sent to draw up a report about the rebels. When he arrived in
Sudan he was dismayed (=discouraged) to find how men and children were
whipped to the slave markets. Men were castrated and women sent to
harems. He was determined to be the savior of the oppressed. He also tried to
make friends with Mahdi, but failed to do so, and decided to beat him in battle.
The Mahdist cut the single telegraph line to Cairo and settled down to starve
the city into surrender. Gordon needed help and he asked it from the
government, but his request fell on deaf ears. Gordon was trapped in
Khartoum and so was the British government. Both the people and Queen
supported Gordons request to send troops but Gladstone delayed it until it

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 was too late. Gladstone finally cracked, but the people of Khartoum were
butchered by the Mahdist forces and Gordon prepared to meet his fate. The
Queen held Gladstone personally responsible for Gordons death. Gladstone
was voted out of office at the next elections.

2. Cecil John Rhodes and the Diamond Rush

He reached Africa at the age of 17 to work on his brothers cotton farm. He was
the most dangerous man in Queen Victorias Empire. At first he respected the
values of his African workers. He was quick to learn Zulu and also understood
the value the Africans placed on a persons trust. He built up their loyalty.
Soon he was lured away from farming; his arrival coincided with a fateful
discovery 500 miles away of diamonds. He joined the diamond rush. The farm
were the diamonds were discovered soon became the boom town Kimberly.
Rhodes thrived as a diamond digger; he had a mild heart attack and started a
journey in Africa and formed his first ideas of how to reach and take Africa. On his
return he bought what was wrongly thought to be an exhausted mine. The
diamonds of the second layer were more numerous. He was half a visionary,
half a scoundrel and extremely greedy man.
- He planned to build a railroad from Cape Town to Cairo, and for this reason he
became a politician; he gained political power by forming an alliance with the
locals. In one of his speeches he said that the native should be treated as a
child and denied franchise. So, he passed a law through which the right to
vote remained only to a handful of natives. He wanted Black labour force at
his disposal, which drove him to racist policies.
- He decided to expand the British domination northwards and concluded a so-
called treatise with a native king of a powerful warrior tribe, whom, in fact, he
duped. The king signed away his country. Rhodes went to London seeking
a Royal Charter, which would be Britains endorsement of that territory. He
was famous and nicknamed, in the Punch, the top Victorian magazine, The
Rhodes Colossus. The Queen invited him to stay at Windsor Castle and was
charmed by him. He obtained the Charter and with it the right to build his own
police. When the moment came, he decimated the tribe, and King, with a
machine-gun, a top-secret arm at that time.
- Rhodes had to control over a vast territory, which he was to call Rhodesia. He
was elected PM and bought a house with views to both the Atlantic and the
Indian Oceans. He was determined to make the world English.
- In 1886 he discovered Transvaal, a state established by the Boers to escape
the British rule. He thought their revenues from gold mines would become an
obstacle to his plan. He formed an alliance with dismantled miners from
Johannesburg and tried to lead an uprising; he wanted to take Transvaal by
force. The uprising failed to materialize, but he went into Transvaal with his
army. They were beaten by the Boers. His attack was considered an act of
aggression towards another state and was summoned to answer the
Parliament, but the public opinion was anti-Boer.
- After Queen Victorias Jubilee, the British dispatched an army to do what
Rhodes had failed to do. The Boers were well-armed, while the British very
ill-prepared and many threw their arms and ran away. The government
shipped a million troops to South Africa and so the tide turned against the

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 Boers. The British general pursued a war of attrition (razboi de uzura)
against the population. The British press exposed it as barbaric method of
warfare. The imperial ideal would never recover after this war.

Queen Victoria died in 1901, 81 years old. She was dressed in white and flowers
were sprinkled over her body. The face was covered with the veil she had worn at
her wedding with Prince Albert 60 years before. Her death was seen as a
passing of an era.

The sun never sets on the British Empire, some said, and others: it has never
risen on the slums of London.