History 364-0-01: Gender and Sexuality in Victorian Britain; Northwestern University, Fall 2014

The British Empire

• Expansion
  • The territory started small, but spreaded to modern-day Canada, Australia, India, and parts of Africa in 1886
  • This is a global empire – the expansion is all across the world and spread out (this is where the phrase “the sun never sets on the British Empire” phrase comes from)
  • Athena represents Britannia and represents British power
  • Empires are a place where goods can be sold – it provides a market; they also provide raw goods for manufacturing, which can be purchased from the empire and brought back elsewhere
  • The United Kingdom is about the size of Michigan, but the Empire was able to provide Britain’s power due to its expansion
• India
  • The Empire starts to expand past the presidency towns in 1756-1805
  • By 1805, Britain still isn’t the paramount power and isn’t the dominant force
  • In 1805-1858, the expansion furthers such that there are no longer any regional powers challenging British authority
  • The British Raj (1858-1947) expands past India
  • The mutiny is a traumatic event for British authority because they assumed they had a natural ability to rule India, through liberal imperialism
    • They believed that by spreading their beliefs (i.e. about religion and culture), the inhabitants would become just as civilized as they were
    • This caused a shift where religion and culture were not imposed on the Indian people
  • India is considered the jewel in the crown of the British empire
  • After Queen Victoria was named Empress of India, she was seen less as a powerful person from a foreign area, and more seen as someone who was accepting and involved in the new culture
• “Victorians Uncovered,” India
  • In Indian culture, things happened in public that would only be permitted behind closed doors in Britain
  • The Victorians tried to bring their culture to India and try to spread it to the Indians
  • Women were told they should run their household as the British run the empire
  • Sensuality was a trait that high Victorians thoroughly disapproved
  • Women who committed adultery would lose their status and would be enough for divorce; the idea of introducing an illegitimate child into the family to receive inheritances was unforgivable
  • Women were held at higher standards; adultery was enough for divorce, while men had to commit both adultery as well as abuse
  • It was rare to see someone embrace interracial marriage; to encourage this, gold coins were provided for those who had interracial babies
  • Wellesley refused to accept interracial relationships
  • Interracial relationships of sexual nature had to be kept behind closed doors; although the rules had changed, the desires remained the same
  • The Mutiny occurred when Indians felt their beliefs were being violated by being forced to have beef and pork fat touch their mouths
  • There was a siege that lasted for months, the most notable of which lasted two months and 2,000 people died; news of this reached Britain and the press overplayed the magnitude of the siege by claiming much more people had died
  • It was agreed to let the British surrender and escape through a river, but instead, the men were killed as they tried to leave, and the women and children were captured and slaughtered
  • The Victorian woman was iconized as a violated angel
  • A proposal was brought up that said Indian judges should be equals to their English co-workers; if passed, it would allow Indian judges to try British people
  • The British wrote to the press and tried to prove that the Indians were not capable because they were not delicate and overall did not possess the appropriate traits
  • James Hume, the government prosecutor, caught his wife committing adultery with an Indian man, and nearly beat her to death; he was advised to place the blame on the Indian man
  • The media framed this as an Indian servant attempting to rape an English woman, and the case was blown out of proportion
  • The British claimed that the Indian demons were preying on the innocent angels
  • The judge and jury saw the Indian man as guilty because the victim lied and did not talk of their affair; this case was used as evidence by people stating that Indian judges (and Indian people in general) were incapable
  • The truth was revealed only two years later by a letter written by a cousin, but it was not revealed until they were dead and the letter was discovered in their private documents