Royalty and Empire
Although she never travelled outside Europe, Queen Victoria took a personal interest in the expanding British Empire, and the wider world beyond. She was always concerned about the activities of her armies and her representatives overseas. She was fascinated by India, 'the jewel in the Crown' of Empire. Queen Victoria's vision of the world and her belief in Britain's role as a promoter of trade, civilisation and Christian values was shared by many of her subjects.


Imperial Federation World Map, a page from The Graphic magazine, 24 July, 1886

The Orient Writers, artists, travellers and traders encouraged enthusiasm for the Orient from the 1840s. At this time, 'the Orient' encompassed the Middle East, Turkey, Egypt and North Africa, with no real distinctions drawn between regions or styles. For example, carpets sold in London were often described as Persian, regardless of their actual origin.

From the 1870s, the oriental style became particularly popular among architects and interior designers, reflecting a widespread interest in the more colourful and mysterious aspects of the Islamic world.

Examples of textiles, ceramics, glass and metalwork in museum collections began to be properly studied, identified and catalogued, establishing for the first time an appreciation of the quality, history and cultural importance of objects from the oriental world.

India
In the early years of Victoria's reign, the British ruled India through the East India Company, developing trade, raising revenues and undertaking military campaigns to extend its power in the sub-Continent. In May 1857, a widespread Mutiny was provoked by the extension of British ideology. After the suppression of the Mutiny, British rule was taken over by the Crown, represented by a Viceroy, and the Queen promised to respect Indian customs. In 1876 she was proclaimed Empress of India.

Good shipping and telegraph connections, and growing numbers of administrators, merchants, tea planters and manufacturers ensured that many British families experienced life in India. With its British officers and Indian troops, the Indian army became an effective fighting force, widely used in campaigns in Afghanistan and parts of Africa. India became Britain's largest export market, and symbolised the extension of British rule across the world. Indian products, particularly tea, metalwork, woodwork and textiles, became increasingly available in Britain.

Japan Japan was forced to open its ports to foreign powers in the 1850s. In Britain, which signed its first treaty with the country in 1858, there was great enthusiasm for the culture, history and products of this hitherto isolated nation and a craze for all things Japanese developed. At the same time Japan's rulers looked to Britain as a model in their drive to modernise their country along western lines. British engineers worked in Japan helping to build railways, lighthouses and telegraph systems. Japanese students also came to Britain to study science and technology, soon making foreign assistance unnecessary. Japanese products, old and new, were brought into Britain by officials, collectors and traders, many making their way into museums from the 1860s. Familiarity with textiles, metalwork, ceramics, prints, lacquer and woodwork from Japan had a direct influence upon art and design, dress and theatre.

Samurai armour from Japan given to Queen Victoria, 1860s

China
Chinese products had long been appreciated in Britain and remained popular, despite the demise of the Chinese export trade at the end of the 18th century.

During the 19th century, China suffered incursions by foreign powers and internal unrest. Resistance to the western presence, particularly to the British trade in opium, led to war in 1839-42 and 1859-61. Widespread attacks on Western missionaries at the end of the century culminated in the Boxer uprising of 1900. During these hostilities Chinese objects, including imperial possessions, were looted by British soldiers. Merchants, officials and visitors also brought artefacts back to Britain.

The conflicts often had a negative affect on British perceptions of China, but there remained a genuine enthusiasm among scholars and collectors for Chinese culture and history. Chinese objects also provided a source of inspiration for designers and manufacturers.

The Americas
The British public became aware of the indigenous cultures of the North American continent from a variety of sources. Some objects were collected by whalers, others by traders and administrators. Attempts to trace Franklin's ill-fated expedition in search of the North West Passage and the popular success of Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show, which toured extensively in Britain in 1887 and 1891-2, increased awareness of these cultures.

Meanwhile, the United States was emerging as a powerful manufacturing nation, challenging British control of world markets. Its greatest achievement, and the basis for its commercial power, was the development of mass production techniques, applied equally to guns, sewing machines, railway locomotives and ships.

Although never under formal British control, South America represented a major trading market. Britain dominated the meat industry, and most of the country's railways were financed and built by British entrepreneurs. South America was also a favourite destination for explorers and naturalists, contributing to an interest, from the 1840s, in early Inca and Mayan civilisations.

Spear rest in the form of a four-armed monster, wood and mother of pearl eyes, Hawaiian Islands, before 1820.

The Pacific The white population of the Australian colonies was made up of transported convicts (until 1868) and free migrants. After the discovery of gold in Victoria in 1851, migration greatly increased and the economies of all the Pacific colonies grew. British emigrants encroached upon the original inhabitants. In New Zealand, the Maoris protested fiercely against the extension of British rule, and guerrilla warfare erupted periodically from the 1840s to the 1860s. Despite opposition, British rule spread across the Pacific: to Fiji in 1874, Papua in 1884 and the Cook Islands in 1888. At every stage, the British influence was reinforced by administrators, missionaries, and entrepreneurs. They collected local examples of religious and domestic objects, which were then displayed in museums in Britain, but were not regarded as art. Instead, these objects were compared with those from other parts of the world, in order to explain the evolutionary development of different cultures.

Imperial Africa The Victorians called Africa the 'Dark Continent', as large areas were unmapped, and its peoples were considered to be uncivilised. The partition of Africa, and imposition of European rule, was one of the great preoccupations of the 1880s and 1890s. Ultimately the continent was divided up piecemeal, contributing to future instability. In West Africa, for example, the regions under British control - Gambia, Sierra Leone, Gold Coast and Nigeria - were isolated from each other and surrounded by French and German territories. British interests in much of Africa concentrated on ivory, groundnuts, palm oil and later cocoa. British missionaries and administrators also continued in their attempts to eradicate the indigenous slave trade. In Southern Africa, the strategic importance of the Cape Colony was enhanced by the discovery of diamonds in the late 1860s, and vast gold reserves in the Boer republic of the Transvaal in the 1880s.

Head of an Oba, Benin, West Africa, Brass and Iron, early 16th century

Objects made by African peoples, particularly those perceived to be religious or fetishistic, were collected by the British from the 1830s and were later displayed in British museums. Some were received as gifts, some were purchased and others were taken during military expeditions. African objects aroused considerable interest, even though their history, function and cultural significance were rarely understood. They were not generally regarded as art, and they had little direct influence upon British designers. Indeed, such 'barbaric' objects, as they were described at the time, were specifically excluded from the collections of the South Kensington Museum. This attitude began to change in the late 1890s when the first Benin metalwork came into Europe, following military expeditions in West Africa. The sophistication of these objects surprised European collectors who were forced to acknowledge their artistic value.