The long and progressive reign of Queen Victoria came to a climax at a time of peace and plenty when the British Empire seemed to be at the summit of its power and security. Of the discord that soon followed we shall here note only two factors which had large influence on contemporary English literature.
The first disturbing factor was imperialism, the reawakening of a dominating spirit which had seemingly been put to sleep by the proclamation of an Imperial Federation. (46)Its coming was heralded by the Boer War in South Africa, through which Britain blundered to what was hoped to be an era of peace and good will. Other nations promptly made such hope a vain whistling in the wind. Japanese War Lords began a career of conquest which aimed to make Japan of Asia and East Indies. Pacific islands that had for ages slept peacefully were turned into frowning naval stations. (47)Even the United States, aroused by an easy triumph in the Spanish War, started on an imperialistic adventure by taking control of the Philippines, thus an implacable enemy of Japan.
Only a nation that enters on a erous course with eyes wide open has any chance of a safe way out, and the imperialistic nations were all alike blind. (48)An inevitable result was the First War and the great horror of a Second World War, the two disasters being different acts of the same tragedy of imperialism, separated only by a breathing spell.
Another factor that influenced literature for the worse was a widespread demand for social reform of every kind; not slow and orderly reform, which is progress, but immediate and uncontrolled reform, which breeds a spirit of rebellion and despair. Before the Victorian age had come to an end, English literature appeared to have lost touch with healthy English life. Many writers echoed the sorrowful cry of James Thomson in his City of Dreadful Night, or babbled of "art for art’s sake" with Oscar Wilde. (49)Groom, in his survey of the period, notes that writers had mostly a critical attitude toward morals and religion, Church and State, as relies from "the dead hand of traditional beliefs." (50)Small wonder that German and Japanese war-advocates regarded Englishmen as a decadent race when the same or a worse opinion was daily read in the novels of Samuel Butler and nightly heard in the plays of Bernard Shaw.

Small wonder that German and Japanese war-advocates regarded Englishmen as a decadent race when the same or a worse opinion was daily read in the novels of Samuel Butler and nightly heard in the plays of Bernard Shaw.

The long and progressive reign of Queen Victoria came to a climax at a time of peace and plenty when the British Empire seemed to be at the summit of its power and security. Of the discord that soon followed we shall here note only two factors which had large influence on contemporary English literature.
The first disturbing factor was imperialism, the reawakening of a dominating spirit which had seemingly been put to sleep by the proclamation of an Imperial Federation. (46)Its coming was heralded by the Boer War in South Africa, through which Britain blundered to what was hoped to be an era of peace and good will. Other nations promptly made such hope a vain whistling in the wind. Japanese War Lords began a career of conquest which aimed to make Japan of Asia and East Indies. Pacific islands that had for ages slept peacefully were turned into frowning naval stations. (47)Even the United States, aroused by an easy triumph in the Spanish War, started on an imperialistic adventure by taking control of the Philippines, thus an implacable enemy of Japan.
Only a nation that enters on a erous course with eyes wide open has any chance of a safe way out, and the imperialistic nations were all alike blind. (48)An inevitable result was the First War and the great horror of a Second World War, the two disasters being different acts of the same tragedy of imperialism, separated only by a breathing spell.
Another factor that influenced literature for the worse was a widespread demand for social reform of every kind; not slow and orderly reform, which is progress, but immediate and uncontrolled reform, which breeds a spirit of rebellion and despair. Before the Victorian age had come to an end, English literature appeared to have lost touch with healthy English life. Many writers echoed the sorrowful cry of James Thomson in his City of Dreadful Night, or babbled of "art for art’s sake" with Oscar Wilde. (49)Groom, in his survey of the period, notes that writers had mostly a critical attitude toward morals and religion, Church and State, as relies from "the dead hand of traditional beliefs." (50)Small wonder that German and Japanese war-advocates regarded Englishmen as a decadent race when the same or a worse opinion was daily read in the novels of Samuel Butler and nightly heard in the plays of Bernard Shaw.