 Founder Lord Avebury | |
| Predecessor | Imperial Federation League |
|---|---|
| Founded | 1895 |
| Founder | Lord Avebury |
| Dissolved | 1955 |
| Purpose | Unity for the British Empire |
| Headquarters | London, England, U.K. |
The British Empire League existed from 1895 to 1955; its purpose was to secure permanent unity for the British Empire.
The British Empire League was a society founded by Lord Avebury (1834-1913), Lord Roberts (1832-1914) and Lord Strathcona (1820-1914) in London in 1895 with the aim of securing permanent unity for the British Empire. [1] [2] It was successor to the former Imperial Federation League, which had broken up in 1893. [3]
Presidents of the League included: Lord Derby (1841-1908), Lord Sydenham (1848-1933), and the Duke of Devonshire (1833-1908); Vice-Presidents included: Bonar Law (1858-1923), Earl Grey (1851-1917), and Arthur Balfour (1848-1930). [3]
In 1947, the League merged with the Commonwealth Industries Association, retaining its name until 1955. [1]
The League helped to mobilise troops during the Second Boer War and the First World War. At Imperial Conferences between 1897 and 1911, it called, among other things, for the introduction of an imperial penny post; later it called for preferential tariffs, putting forward a strong case at the 1932 British Empire Economic Conference for the protection of the British film industry. [1]
The League was active in the British dominions of Australia and Canada in the early part of the twentieth century. [3] Francis Bertie Boyce (1844-1931) was the first president of the British Empire League in Australia, in 1901 (and also in 1909-11); [4] George T. Denison (1839-1925) was the first president of the League in Canada. [5]
The League's focus on the celebration of the birthday of Queen Victoria - 24 May - as a patriotic holiday [6] was, in Australia, not only an observance of the holiday in schools, but also a wider opportunity to demonstrate loyalty to Britain; Empire Day was officially adopted by the Reid Government in 1905 and observed for more than fifty years. [7] The League sponsored a monthly Australian publication, United Australia, which featured on its cover Britannia and the motto "One people one destiny". [8]
Edward VII was King of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions, and Emperor of India, from 22 January 1901 until his death in 1910.
A Commonwealth realm is a sovereign state in the Commonwealth of Nations whose monarch and head of state is shared among the other realms. Each realm is an independent state, equal with the other realms and nations of the Commonwealth. King Charles III succeeded his mother, Queen Elizabeth II, as monarch of each Commonwealth realm following her death on 8 September 2022. He simultaneously became Head of the Commonwealth.
John Frederick Denison Maurice (1805–1872), known as F. D. Maurice, was an English Anglican theologian, a prolific author, and one of the founders of Christian socialism. Since the Second World War, interest in Maurice has expanded.
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The British Empire Exhibition was a colonial exhibition held at Wembley Park, London England from 23 April to 1 November 1924 and from 9 May to 31 October 1925.
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A coalition of the Conservative and Liberal Unionist parties took power in the United Kingdom shortly before the 1895 general election. Conservative leader Lord Salisbury was appointed Prime Minister and his nephew, Arthur Balfour, became Leader of the House of Commons, but various major posts went to the Liberal Unionists, most notably the Leader of the House of Lords, the Liberal Unionist Duke of Devonshire, who was made Lord President, and his colleague in the Commons, Joseph Chamberlain, who became Colonial Secretary. It was this government which would conduct the Second Boer War from 1899–1902, which helped them to win a landslide victory at the 1900 general election.
The Provinces of India, earlier Presidencies of British India and still earlier, Presidency towns, were the administrative divisions of British governance on the Indian subcontinent. Collectively, they have been called British India. In one form or another, they existed between 1612 and 1947, conventionally divided into three historical periods:
Opposition to the Second Boer War occurred both within and outside of the British Empire. Among the British public, there was initially much support for the war, though it declined considerably as the conflict dragged on. Internationally, condemnation of Britain came from many sources, predominately left-wing and anti-imperialist ones. Inside Britain influential groups, especially based in the opposition Liberal Party formed immediately. They fought ineffectually against the British war policies, which were supported by the Conservative Party of Prime Minister Salisbury.
Robert William Dewar Boyce is a professional historian and was a Senior Lecturer in International History at the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE). His main fields of interest are French external relations in the twentieth century, the role of economics, business and banking in modern international relations, Canadian external relations since 1900, and the modern history of international communications.
Palgrave Macmillan is a British academic and trade publishing company headquartered in the London Borough of Camden. Its programme includes textbooks, journals, monographs, professional and reference works in print and online. It maintains offices in London, New York, Shanghai, Melbourne, Sydney, Hong Kong, Delhi, and Johannesburg.
Albert Denison Denison, 1st Baron Londesborough, KCH, FRS, FSA was a British Whig Party politician and diplomat, known as Lord Albert Conyngham from 1816 to 1849.
Francis Bertie Boyce, commonly referred to as Archdeacon Boyce, was an Australian clergyman and social reformer.
The Panic of 1847 was a major British commercial and banking crisis, possibly triggered by the announcement in early March 1847 of government borrowing to pay for relief to combat the Great Famine in Ireland. It is also associated with the end of the 1840s railway industry boom and the failure of many non-bank lenders. The crisis was composed of two phases, one in April 1847 and one in October 1847, which was more serious and known as 'The Week of Terror'.
The Imperial Federation League was a 19th-century organisation which aimed to promote the reorganisation of the British Empire into an Imperial Federation, similarly to the way the majority of British North America confederated into the Dominion of Canada in the mid-19th century. The League promoted the closer union of the British Empire and advocated the establishment of "representative government" for the UK, Canada and the self-governing colonies of 'Australasia' and Cape Colony within a single state.
Sir George Robert Parkin was a Canadian educator, imperialist, and author.
Jammu and Kashmir, officially known as the Princely State of Kashmir and Jammu, was a princely state during the Company rule from 1846 to 1858 as well as the British Raj in India from 1858 to 1947. The princely state was created after the First Anglo-Sikh War, from the territories that had earlier been in the Sikh Empire. After the British Raj ended and the Partition of India happened in 1947, the state was briefly independent, till roughly a third of the state came under Pakistani control after a Pakistani-supported invasion of Pashtun tribesman. The rest remains disputed under Indian and Chinese control. The India–Pakistan dispute regarding the accession remains unresolved.
Boyce is a surname. Notable people with the surname include: