Mapping out a Liberal Programme of Imperialism: The Liberal Party on the Eastern Question and British Policy in the Berlin Congress and Beyond

Abstract

From 1876 to 1880 W. E. Gladstone made the Eastern Question the main business of his life. Gladstone's campaign involved his countrymen in a heated debate on that question, and clarified the party line between the Liberals and the Conservatives in regard to foreign policy. The Eastern Question was that which made the Whigs 'liberal' in diplomacy, but it also revealed how difficult it was to distinguish themselves in practice from the Conservatives as far as British foreign policy was concerned. Whether there was a natural connection between Liberalism and a high morality in international politics was a question that defied absolute solution. But it had not been so obvious as it was after the new Liberal government began to execute the Treaty of Berlin in 1880. While it is a truism to say that the Liberals were not so naive and idealistic as to reject the imperial heritage, the question has not been fully explored how and when they came to terms with the necessity of keeping Britain imperial. This study treats of the Liberal views of the Eastern Question before and after the Berlin Congress and the Gladstone government's policy towards Turkey in 1879-1880 to explain the connection between the development of the Eastern Question and the rise of 'liberal imperialism.' It shows that the foreign policy of the Liberal Party around 1880 was actually that of Gladstone, and that that policy took shape in their attacks on Disraelian imperialism and against the background of an intensifying scramble for the Ottoman Empire from 1876. Nevertheless, the Liberals were quick to seek for a ground of action common to both political parties in regard of the fulfilment of the Berlin Treaty. Thus, the Liberal Party had built up a reputation for itself in the power politics of Europe, but by so doing it tragically debased itself as a critic of imperialism.