British Influence On American Culture

The British Empire at the turn of the 19th Century was a diverse array of culture that many English subjects, both abroad and home in the metropole, consumed. Through such ways as culture and religion, the British were able to grow and maintain the empire by using popular culture to reinforce the idea that the “Western” individual was superior to anyone from the Orient. While many modern historians write about the atrocities the British made on the peoples of the empire, the British were able to successfully hold the empire together through times of adversity by traveling to places, like India and Africa, and make them feel as if these people were contributing to the empire and its citizens. In terms of culture, the British Empire was different …show more content…
For the British, education was seen as the bridge to enlightenment for many individuals living in the Orient. Sir Charles Trevelyan, who was a former member of the Bengal Civil Service, said “ the language of India will be assimilated to the languages of Europe,” and that “English will be established as the language of education.” This shows how the Trevelyan truly believed the British were there to turn the natives into model Englishmen, but also details the importance of education. Similarly, Malay schools used the curriculum and textbooks to “bring together the different races in a sense of national harmony… [by] portraying the British rulers as benefactors [and making] traditional Malay society idyllic, but backward[s].” What this reinforces is that the British influence was important in putting the British up as a force for good while setting themselves apart from those of the Orient, who were …show more content…
By spreading Christianity to parts of Africa where Africans were ruled under a king who was pagan, the conversion of the chief led to problems as the subjects see the chief as useless, thus creating a power vacuum and having the area directly ruled by the British. We can see this most exclusively through John Mackenzie who had “great impact on the political destiny of all Tswana.” It was Mackenzie who blamed the nefarious intentions of the Boers and the lack of a strong British presence to control them, arguing that the area should be “directly by imperial rule from London.” This eventually was seen with distress from London, as Mackenzie took the power all on his own, but eventually the article states that victory was achieved, “as British Bechuanaland was to be annexed to the Cape a decade later.” It is here we see how while the intentions of missionaries started of as culturally sensitive, the result was that the British turned the Africans from a labor system