Problems with Empire

A large portion of British ideology regarding Empire in the late 19th and early 20th centuries can largely be summed up in two basic themes. First, the large focus on racial and cultural differences between Britons and the native peoples that they had conquered. Second, that Britain was the most highly developed civilization in the world, and therefore, ‘better’ than all the people of its conquered areas, whom could only benefit through their exposure to Mother Britain and its culture. However, these two ideologies are challenged by many writers of the era, including Joseph Conrad in his Heart of Darkness and by George Orwell in his Shooting an Elephant. Both of these works stand out as being remarkably intricate, both introduce characters who had at one time espoused the ideology of the Empire, however, in the course of the story find that the reality of imperialism is much different from the ideology of the empire, and both argue that its harmful effects are seen not only in the lives of the oppressed, but in the corrupted souls of the oppressors.