Late-Victorian economic decline drove Britain toward aggressive imperialism after 1895

Evidence

For the Black peasants and workers in the British West Indies, however, the “new imperialism” that displaced the Caribbean oligarchy was by far the more formidable enemy. … But in the last decades of the nineteenth century, “Britain was and knew herself to be threatened by ‘empires.’” Sandwiched between the diplomatic and mercantile momenta of Germany, France, Russia, and the United States, overdrawn by financial scandal and mismanagement, the weakened British economy and a restive public encouraged and compelled the imperialist faction that, until then, could only pursue its vision with restraint. … By the fateful Conservative victory in 1895, imperialism had come to dominate the public mind. — Cedric J. Robinson, Black Marxism_ The Making of the Black…, 1135

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Nineteenth-century European imperialism often worked through debt rather than direct rule; British ‘constructive imperialism’ strengthened London’s control but ultimately failed. — Lawrence M. Friedman, A History of American Law, 219