« In what extent was culture part of the creation or maintenance of the British Empire ? »

Imperial propaganda was extensively broadcast through cultural means. Public interest in the colonies and imperial expansion date back from 1867 onwards . This seems a bit surprising since imperial matters never played any important role in British elections .
The thread examined in the following essay is an attempt to show how culture in its various forms asserted Englishness as an hegemonic identity. This study is divided into three main parts. We will first try to see how the notion of Englishness was created in order to obtain or reinforce a national identity disseminated through various means to society. We will finally focus on the possible interactions both at home and abroad between British culture and that of the colonized.

This notion of ‘Englishness’ is a concept that highlights the dynamism of the English : it led them to make history in acquiring new territories. Furthermore, the British Empire was the most powerful in Europe, and this explains why the English felt they were ‘distinct’ from their European counterparts. This feeling of superiority partly stemmed from the early industrial revolution which brought an economic growth which allowed property to become productive and self-expanding . Britain soon needed more raw materials which were far cheaper in the colonies. Added to this was the need to create strategic new political alliances. Thus, by 1820, Britain ruled 26% of the world total population .

It was important for the imperial propaganda to convince the English of their natural superiority. Writers such as Bishop Percy largely contributed to that with his Reliques of Ancient English Poetry (1764) which is a racial narrative retracing the history of ancient races displaying the superiority of an intra-European racialism . The conservative Edmund Burke also stressed the superiority of the English political system, the importance of