Imperial Liberalism or Liberal Imperialism: British Policy in Egypt, 1893-94

Essentially, liberalism contradicts imper ialism; but in Realpolitik liberals rarely stand against imperial enterprise. Such is the case of the British Liberal Party during the late nineteenth century. Focused on Lord Rosebery's policy towards Egypt under Gladstone's last ministry, this thesis argues that, as far as foreign policy was concerned, the Liberals in the early 1890s discarded their ”outdated” beliefs in rationalism and pacifism, and assumed an attitude not different from that of their political opponents - the Conservatives. This change of attitude was highly justifiable and popular as the Liberal decision-makers raised questions about national interests under conditions of increasing competition form the other Powers. This article treats of the political atmosphere in 1892, when Lord Rosebery and Abbas Hilmi II took office as the British Foreign Secretary and the new khedive respectively, and the socalled Abbas' Coup in 1893 and the Frontier Incident in 1894, to show how ”Liberal Imperialism” developed and the British occupation of Egypt became ”permanent”, in spite of strong Liberal idealists' opposition. The author points out that in dealing with the Egyptian question the Liberal Party was losing touch with liberalism and getting more and more ”conservative”, and that while achieving more popularity with the British public in this way, the Liberal Party grievously alienated its fundamentalist supporters, which detracted from its merit and worth as an independent political group.