How Did British Dominate Britain In The Late 19th Century

History makes one want to speculate. One could speculate what would have been, had Germany, the United States and France not challenged Britain in the late-nineteenth century. Maybe Britain would have remained the dominant power in the world, and just maybe more of the world would be speaking English as their first language. However, during the course of the nineteenth century Britain was challenged by rival states. Therefore, this paper will focus on events and ideas that I considered most important, and which dominated Britain in the late-nineteenth century. After 1815, because the British faced no real competition to their status as the dominant world power, they felt far less pressure to further their empire overseas. Though the empire did continue to expand in the early and mid-nineteenth century, it was done in a sporadic way that was driven more by pressures on colonial frontiers than by policies at home. (p.4, Dane Kennedy). In the mid-nineteenth century, the predominant attitude towards the empire was disinterest, while an active hostility to empire, rooted in the liberal belief that it encouraged authoritarian,

As a result of political embarrassment caused by setbacks abroad and the loss of British lives by natives in Africa, the rejection of Disraeli’s forward foreign strategy underlines the growing unpopularity of foreign polices framed around naked self-interests of the state. The Conservative government was replaced with a Liberal one with William Gladstone as Prime minister. As Gladstone took office, he did so with the aspiration to reassert Britain as the moral force in the world. (p.10). However, because of the constant change in both the domestic and international climate after 1880, Gladstone found himself pressed to go against his liberal