5 ‘My vast Empire & all its many peoples’
-
Barbara Caine
Abstract
This chapter explores the nature and scope of Queen Victoria’s own interest in and engagement with her Empire. It begins with the observation that in the vast scholarship and popular literature on Queen Victoria there is remarkably little on the "question of empire," including the monarch’s own ideas about and relations with her imperial "subjects". This chapter challenges the conventional view that Victoria has little interest in empire and its colonies, and when she did her attention was only fleeting and intermittent. This chapter complicates that simplistic and superficial view by considering evidence in Victoria’s diaries along with the records of indigenous people with whom she had close relationships, including Pomare (Maori) and Cetshwayo (Africa). Victoria expressed both enthusiasm for imperial expansion, and a measure of sympathy for the victims of that expansion.
Abstract
This chapter explores the nature and scope of Queen Victoria’s own interest in and engagement with her Empire. It begins with the observation that in the vast scholarship and popular literature on Queen Victoria there is remarkably little on the "question of empire," including the monarch’s own ideas about and relations with her imperial "subjects". This chapter challenges the conventional view that Victoria has little interest in empire and its colonies, and when she did her attention was only fleeting and intermittent. This chapter complicates that simplistic and superficial view by considering evidence in Victoria’s diaries along with the records of indigenous people with whom she had close relationships, including Pomare (Maori) and Cetshwayo (Africa). Victoria expressed both enthusiasm for imperial expansion, and a measure of sympathy for the victims of that expansion.
Chapters in this book
- Front matter i
- Contents v
- List of maps and figures vii
- List of contributors ix
- Acknowledgements xii
- Maps xiii
- Introduction 1
-
Part I Monarch, metaphor, memory
- 1 ‘We have seen the son of Heaven/We have seen the Son of Our Queen’ 25
- 2 ‘We rejoice to honour the Queen, for she is a good woman, who cares for the Māori race’ 54
- 3 ‘The faithful children of the Great Mother are starving’ 78
- 4 The politics of memory and the memory of politics 100
- 5 ‘My vast Empire & all its many peoples’ 125
- 6 Māori encounters with ‘Wikitoria’ in 1863 and Albert Victor Pomare, her Māori godchild 144
- 7 Southern African royalty and delegates visit Queen Victoria, 1882–95 166
-
Part III Sovereign subjects?
- 8 Sovereignty performances, sovereignty testings 187
- 9 Bracelets, blankets and badges of distinction 210
- 10 Chiefly women 228
- Select bibliography 246
- Index 249
Chapters in this book
- Front matter i
- Contents v
- List of maps and figures vii
- List of contributors ix
- Acknowledgements xii
- Maps xiii
- Introduction 1
-
Part I Monarch, metaphor, memory
- 1 ‘We have seen the son of Heaven/We have seen the Son of Our Queen’ 25
- 2 ‘We rejoice to honour the Queen, for she is a good woman, who cares for the Māori race’ 54
- 3 ‘The faithful children of the Great Mother are starving’ 78
- 4 The politics of memory and the memory of politics 100
- 5 ‘My vast Empire & all its many peoples’ 125
- 6 Māori encounters with ‘Wikitoria’ in 1863 and Albert Victor Pomare, her Māori godchild 144
- 7 Southern African royalty and delegates visit Queen Victoria, 1882–95 166
-
Part III Sovereign subjects?
- 8 Sovereignty performances, sovereignty testings 187
- 9 Bracelets, blankets and badges of distinction 210
- 10 Chiefly women 228
- Select bibliography 246
- Index 249
