Date of Award
Fall 2013
Document Type
Dissertation
Degree Name
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
Department
History
First Advisor
McMahon, Timothy
Second Advisor
Hay, Carla
Third Advisor
Ruff, Julius R.
Abstract
The Victorian era was marked by the incremental expansion of the British Empire. Such developments were not only of enormous importance for government officials and the contributors of that expansion, but for the broader general public as well, as evidenced by the coverage and discussion of such developments in the Cape to Cairo corridor in the national and provincial presses between 1870 and 1900. Transcending the discussions surrounding the politics of interventionism, the public’s interest in imperial activities— such as the annexation of the Transvaal, the First Anglo-Boer War, the Zulu War, Gordon’s mission into the Sudan, the Jameson raid and the Second Anglo-Boer War— also led to debates about the status of military institutions and the necessity for military reform. Lastly, although these debates reflected on public understandings of British national identity, they also demonstrated specific provincial sympathies, suggesting that national identity was constituted differently in England and Scotland.