Lord Cromer: Practitioner and Philosopher of Imperialism

Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
For many Englishmen Lord Cromer was the embodiment of the British imperial tradition. As one who had spent the greater part of his lifetime in the East representing British power and had crowned his career by being virtual ruler of occupied Egypt from 1883 to 1907, he had come increasingly to symbolize the proconsular tradition in British imperialism. His retirement from his post as Consul-General of Egypt had seemed to many the end of an era. Or as the editors of the Living Age had put it:Lord Cromer's was a masterful personality, but the real field of its ascendancy came to lie as the years of his tenure of power lengthened out, rather in England than in Egypt. He became the center of a legend, the typical figure of modern imperialism, which dominated our foreign policy.Thus, to the supporter of an imperial policy he was “the regenerator of Egypt” and “the empire-builder”; and to the anti-imperialists, heirs of the Gladstonian tradition, the suppressor of Egyptian liberties and the tyrant of the East. In the latter years of his administration of Egypt the mere mention of his name in Parliament was enough to touch off a lively debate on the merits of imperialism.Unfortunately, Cromer's reputation as a typical imperialist has obscured the fact that in the early years of his life he was not known for his imperialistic ideals. Quite the contrary, he was considered by others and considered himself a liberal of Gladstonian persuasion.

This publication has 2 references indexed in Scilit: