Political Rivalries and Cultural Affinities: 1815–1865

Abstract

Britain emerged from its long-drawn-out struggles with France reassured in its view of itself as the world’s leading nation. Fears that the loss of her American colonies presaged the ending of its status as a great power had by 1815 long since evaporated. Unexpected and humiliating though that event had been, its effects were soon offset by the acquisition of a vast new empire in India. The population of the rebellious colonies at the time of the War of Independence had been a mere 4 million, whereas that of India was not much short of 150 million. The United States might be large in a geographical sense but its towns, cities and other human constructs were diminutive by comparison with those of India. Almost everything about the United States had a provisional, impermanent look about it, as if it was either in the process of construction or about to be pulled down. Early nineteenth-century drawings of New York, Philadelphia and other cities show a scattering of dockyards, warehouses, shops, churches and dwellings, built mostly of wood. Beyond the narrow coastal strip of settlement, seldom more than 150 miles wide, stretched thousands of miles of wilderness. America was raw and new, a land of wide-open spaces, its potential yet to be realised. India, by contrast, was an old civilisation, a continent swarming with people, made up of peasant farms, marble temples and busy cities. Nowhere in North America was there anything to compare with the gigantic fortresses of the Mogul Emperors, or, in terms of wealth, with its princely rulers and their retinues.