The Victorian view of Non-Europeans - Professor Richard J Evans, Gresham College

TL;DR

Victorian Britain held a sense of superiority towards other European countries and non-European cultures, believing that they could improve through their own efforts or with British help.

Transcript

well if these are the attitudes of the early and mid victorians to the rest of the European continent and it would be possible to quote similar comparable uh verdicts on the Spanish the Russians Italians and so on sense of superiority they betrayed became if anything even more marked when they came to contemplate the state of the rest of the world ... Read More

Key Insights

• 🏤 Victorian Britain held a sense of superiority towards both other European countries and non-European cultures.
• 🏤 They believed that other European countries would improve and modernize, but non-European cultures required British help.
• 🏤 The belief in progress and improvement did not justify the mistreatment or extinction of non-European cultures.
• ▶️ Christian religion played a significant role in Victorian efforts to bring non-European cultures forward in progress.
• 🖕 Early and mid-Victorian school textbooks compared primitive British inhabitants to non-European cultures to emphasize the potential for improvement.
• 🤞 Victorian Britain congratulated itself for emerging from the Dark Ages, giving hope for Africa's future development.
• 🫵 The view of non-European cultures as inferior had both moral and religious implications.

Questions & Answers

Q: How did Victorian Britain view other European countries?

Victorian Britain held a sense of superiority towards other European countries, considering them as backward and inferior. However, they believed that these countries would improve and modernize through their own efforts.

Q: How did Victorian Britain view non-European cultures?

Non-European cultures, such as Africans and Indians, were seen as unable to improve themselves without the help of the British. They were viewed as primitive and in need of British guidance to be brought into the modern world.

Q: Did Victorian Britain believe in progress and improvement?

Yes, Victorian Britain believed in progress and improvement. They hoped that other European countries would become more like Britain, both politically and industrially, through their own efforts.

Q: How did Victorian Britain justify their treatment of non-European cultures?

While they believed that non-European cultures were primitive and in need of improvement, Victorian Britain condemned the brutal actions of settler colonists. They viewed the exploitation and killing of these cultures as morally wrong.

Summary & Key Takeaways

• The early and mid-Victorians held a sense of superiority towards other European countries and believed that they would improve and modernize.

• Victorian Britain aimed to avoid conflicts in Europe but viewed Continentals as backward and inferior.

• The belief in improvement and progress did not extend to Africans or Indians, who were seen as needing British help to bring them into the modern world.