Foreign policy of William Ewart Gladstone
[1] Paul Hayes says it "provides one of the most intriguing and perplexing tales of muddle and incompetence in foreign affairs, unsurpassed in modern political history until the days of Grey and, later, Neville Chamberlain.
Gladstone refused to borrow the money needed to rectify this deficit and instead increased income tax by half, from sevenpence to tenpence-halfpenny in the pound (from 2.92% to 4.38%).
[9] This budget "marked the final adoption of the Free Trade principle, that taxation should be levied for Revenue purposes alone, and that every protective, differential, or discriminating duty ... should be dislodged".
Palmerston was annoyed that Gladstone was so successful in using enthusiasm, passion, sympathy and simplicity and building public support, especially when he was out of office.
Gladstone was the little Englander who believed in international conciliation and peace, and build his base upon the middle-class businessmen who demanded low taxes and economy in government expenditures.
[13] The two men disagreed fundamentally about morality applied to foreign affairs, and defence spending , as well as religious issues and democratic reform.
He opposed expansion in the South Pacific and the Malay Peninsula, although there was attention to the Fiji Islands and an increase in British influence in Malaya.
Britain had small coastal holdings in both the East and West, and a successful war against the Ashanti led to the acquisition of lands in the Gold Coast.
Bismarck ridiculed Gladstone's liberal trust in a concert of Europe, as well as his efforts to promote democracy in Britain and end power-politics abroad.
They provided the foundation for the late Victorian Army: short service, a reserve, and a comprehensive regimental system based on the local depot.
However the measure was defeated, whereupon the government bypassed Parliament and announced that all purchases were abolished by Royal Order in Council, thereby destroying the value of all of those commissions.
The defeat of Gladstone's government in 1874 put Cardwell out of office, but his reforms stayed in place despite attempts from the Regular Army to abolish them and return to the comfortable and familiar old post-1815 situation.
The main obstacle had been objections by the defunct British East India Company and its executors, who wished to maintain their own military establishment, and by the "die-hards", senior officers who opposed almost any reform on principle.
They point out that the Duke of Cambridge blocked many other reforms, such as the adoption of a general staff system as pioneered by the successful Prussian army.
In 1879 in the Midlothian Campaign he attacked Disraeli's leadership, emphasizing the simple moral principle with his typical religious approach: Lord Granville served twice as Foreign Secretary (1870–1874 and 1880–1885).
It brought better relations with the United States, and it was innovative in supporting Gladstone's wish to settlement British-American fisheries and Civil War disputes over the Confederate cruisers built in Britain, like the Alabama, through international arbitration in 1872.
[43] The Franco-Prussian War of 1870 broke out within a few days after Granville in the House of Lords quoted the opinion of the permanent under-secretary (Edmund Hammond) that "he had never known so great a lull in foreign affairs."
Russia took advantage of the situation to denounce the Black Sea clauses of the Treaty of Paris, and Lord Granville's protest was ineffectual.
He returned to the Foreign Office in 1880, only to find an anti-British spirit developing in German policy which the temporising methods of the Liberal leaders were generally powerless to deal with.
The unsuccessful attempts after September 1868 to find a successor to Queen Isabella who would satisfy the French, Germans, Portuguese, Austrians, Italians, and Spanish kept British diplomats busy with peacemaking moves in many capitals.
[48][49][50] As the 19th century progressed the Ottoman Empire grew weaker and Britain increasingly became its chief ally and protector, even fighting the Crimean War in the 1850s to protect it against Russian encroachment, albeit at heavy cost in British lives.
Gladstone stood alone in advocating concerted instead of individual action regarding the internal administration of Egypt, the reform of the Ottoman empire, and the opening-up of Africa.
In what the British called "The Great Game" London feared Russia would invade Afghanistan and threaten India from the north.
[55][56] The decisive event emerged from the Anglo-Egyptian War, which resulted in the British occupation of Egypt for seven decades, even though the Ottoman Empire retained nominal ownership until 1914.
A complete takeover of Egypt, turning it into a British colony like India was much too dangerous for it would be the signal for the powers to rush in for the spoils of the tottering Ottoman Empire, with a major war a likely result.
"[61] Taylor emphasizes the long-term impact: Gladstone and his Liberal Party had a reputation for strong opposition to imperialism, so historians have long debated the explanation for this sudden reversal of policy.
[63] The most influential was study by John Robinson and Ronald Gallagher, Africa and the Victorians (1961), which focused on The Imperialism of Free Trade and was promoted by the Cambridge School of historiography.
They argue there was no long-term Liberal plan in support of imperialism, but the urgent necessity to act to protect the Suez Canal was decisive in the face of what appeared to be a radical collapse of law and order, and a nationalist revolt focused on expelling the Europeans, regardless of the damage it would do to international trade and the British Empire.
Critics such as Cain and Hopkins have stressed the need to protect large sums invested by British financiers and Egyptian bonds, while downplaying the risk to the viability of the Suez Canal.
[67] Gladstone opposed increasing public expenditure on the naval estimates, in the tradition of free trade liberalism of his earlier political career as Chancellor.
