Joseph Chamberlain | Birmingham, Imperialism, & Boer War

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[{"p":1,"t":104930},{"p":2,"t":80013},{"p":1,"t":674997},{"p":2,"t":555806},{"p":1,"t":495422},{"p":1,"t":447525},{"p":1,"t":627776},{"p":1,"t":270116},{"p":2,"t":133481},{"p":28,"t":126237}], "sequence": 1, "topics": {} }); </script> <article class="article-content container-lg qa-content px-0 pt-0 pb-40 py-lg-20 content " data-topic-id="104930"> <div class="grid gx-0"> <div class="col-auto"> <div class="topic-left-rail md-article-drawer position-relative d-flex border-right-sm border-left-sm open"> <div class="drawer d-flex flex-column open"> <div class="left-rail-section-content"> <div class="topic-left-rail-header text-truncate bg-gray-50 position-relative text-right d-flex align-items-center"> <div class="tlr-title px-20 py-15 text-left"> <em class="material-icons text-gray-400 d-lg-none" data-icon="toc"></em> <a class="font-serif font-weight-bold text-black link-blue" href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Joseph-Chamberlain">Joseph Chamberlain</a> </div> <button aria-label="Close" class="js-sections-close-button btn-link btn-sm btn d-lg-none position-absolute top-0 p-10 right-0" > <em class="material-icons font-26" data-icon="close"></em> </button> </div> <div class="section-content pl-10 pr-20 pl-sm-50 pr-sm-60 pl-lg-5 pr-lg-10 pt-10 pt-lg-0 bg-gray-50 clear-catfish-ad"> <div class="toc mb-20"> <div class="font-serif font-14 font-weight-bold mx-15 mb-15 mt-20"> Table of Contents </div> <span class="toc-extra-link selected link-gray-900 mt-15"> Introduction </span> <a class="toc-extra-link link-gray-900" href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Joseph-Chamberlain/additional-info">References & Edit History</a> <a class="toc-extra-link link-gray-900" href="/facts/Joseph-Chamberlain">Quick Facts & Related Topics</a> </div> <div class="tlr-media-slider pb-10 mb-30"> <a class="section-header link-gray-900 font-serif font-14 font-weight-bold mb-10 mx-10" href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Joseph-Chamberlain/images-videos">Images</a> <div class="slider js-slider position-relative d-inline-flex align-items-center mw-100 "> <div class="slider-container js-slider-container overflow-hidden d-flex overflow-hidden text-nowrap ml-15"> <a href="https://cdn.britannica.com/88/7288-050-6A3A5BDD/Joseph-Chamberlain-detail-oil-painting-Frank-Holl-1886.jpg" data-href="/media/1/104930/9288" class="media-overlay-link d-inline-block mr-5"> <img loading="lazy" src="https://cdn.britannica.com/88/7288-004-9917DE28/Joseph-Chamberlain-detail-oil-painting-Frank-Holl-1886.jpg" alt="Frank Holl: Joseph Chamberlain" height="50" /> </a> <a href="https://cdn.britannica.com/40/146840-050-0B46320A/Joseph-Chamberlain-1881.jpg" data-href="/media/1/104930/154920" class="media-overlay-link d-inline-block mr-5"> <img loading="lazy" src="https://cdn.britannica.com/40/146840-004-82981F6D/Joseph-Chamberlain-1881.jpg" alt="Joseph Chamberlain" height="50" /> </a> <a href="https://cdn.britannica.com/34/135734-050-AB99F797/Joseph-Chamberlain-monocle-1900.jpg" data-href="/media/1/104930/143751" class="media-overlay-link d-inline-block mr-5"> <img loading="lazy" src="https://cdn.britannica.com/34/135734-004-3333C6DC/Joseph-Chamberlain-monocle-1900.jpg" alt="Joseph Chamberlain" height="50" /> </a> </div> <button disabled class="prev-button js-prev-button position-absolute btn btn-circle shadow btn-blue " aria-label="Previous"> <span class="material-icons md-24" data-icon="keyboard_arrow_left"></span> </button> <button disabled class="next-button js-next-button position-absolute btn btn-circle shadow btn-blue " aria-label="Next"> <span class="material-icons md-24" data-icon="keyboard_arrow_right"></span> </button> </div> </div> <div class="mb-30 tlr-student-links"> <div class="text-gray-900 p-5 font-serif font-14 font-weight-bold mx-10 mb-10"> For Students </div> <div class="imagelink-with-image-on-the-side card card-horizontal tlr-img-with-side-link ml-15 link-gray-900 mb-10" > <div class="position-relative card-media" style="flex: 0;"> <a class="ilf-image position-relative" href="/summary/Joseph-Chamberlain"> <img loading="lazy" src="https://cdn.britannica.com/88/7288-050-6A3A5BDD/Joseph-Chamberlain-detail-oil-painting-Frank-Holl-1886.jpg?w=200&h=200&c=crop" alt="Frank Holl: Joseph Chamberlain" width="200" height="200" /> </a> </div> <div class="card-body ilf-content"> <a class="font-weight-semi-bold d-block mb-5 font-16 ilf-title" href="/summary/Joseph-Chamberlain" >Joseph Chamberlain summary</a> </div> </div> </div> <div class="mb-30 tlr-related-questions"> <div class="text-gray-900 p-5 pb-0 font-serif font-14 font-weight-bold mx-10 mb-15"> Related Questions </div> <ul> <li class="link-gray-900 mb-15"><a class="" href="/question/What-is-imperialism-in-history">What is imperialism in history?</a> </li> <li class="link-gray-900 mb-15"><a class="" href="/question/Does-imperialism-still-exist-today">Does imperialism still exist today?</a> </li> <li class="link-gray-900 mb-15"><a class="" 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They write new content and verify and edit content received from contributors.</div> </a> <div data-popper-arrow></div> </div> <span class="btn btn-link editor-link p-0 qa-byline-link font-12 "> The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica</span></div> <div class="last-updated font-12 font-serif"> <span class="text-gray-700"> Last Updated: <time datetime="2025-02-18T00:00:00CST" >Feb 18, 2025</time> •</span> <a class="byline-edit-history" href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Joseph-Chamberlain/additional-info#history" rel="nofollow">Article History</a> </div></div> </div> <button class="d-flex d-lg-none btn btn-outline-blue border rounded-sm shadow-sm mobile-toc-button gtm-mobile-toc-inline-button d-none d-sm-block js-sections-inline-button module-spacing btn d-lg-none"> <em class="material-icons mr-5 ml-n10 my-n5 md-icon" data-icon="toc"></em> Table of Contents </button> <div class="d-flex d-sm-none flex-row"> <button class="d-flex d-lg-none btn btn-outline-blue border rounded-sm shadow-sm mobile-toc-button gtm-mobile-toc-inline-button js-sections-inline-button module-spacing"> <em class="material-icons mr-5 ml-n10 my-n5 md-icon" data-icon="toc"></em> Table of Contents </button> <button class="ai-ask-button btn btn-sm border-2 btn-outline-red-400 border-red-400 module-spacing js-inline-ai-ask-button p-10 ml-5"> Ask the Chatbot </button> </div> <div class="js-qf-module qf-module px-40 px-sm-20 py-15 mx-auto module-spacing font-14 bg-gray-50 rounded"> <div class="qf-title font-weight-bold font-14 mb-10 text-center"> Quick Facts</div> <div class="facts-list mt-10"> <div class=""> <div class="js-fact mb-10 line-clamp clamp-3"> <dl> <dt>Born: </dt> <dd>July 8, 1836, <a href="/place/London">London</a>, <a href="/place/England">England</a></dd> </dl> <button class="js-more-btn d-none btn btn-unstyled font-12 bg-gray-50" aria-label="Toggle more/less fact data"> <em class="js-content link-blue">(Show more)</em> </button> </div> </div> <div class=""> <div class="js-fact mb-10 line-clamp clamp-3"> <dl> <dt>Died: </dt> <dd>July 2, 1914, <a href="/place/London">London</a> (aged 77)</dd> </dl> <button class="js-more-btn d-none btn btn-unstyled font-12 bg-gray-50" aria-label="Toggle more/less fact data"> <em class="js-content link-blue">(Show more)</em> </button> </div> </div> <div class=""> <div class="js-fact mb-10 line-clamp clamp-3"> <dl> <dt>Title / Office: </dt> <dd><a href="/topic/House-of-Commons-British-government">House of Commons (1876-1914)</a>, <a href="/place/United-Kingdom">United Kingdom</a></dd> </dl> <button class="js-more-btn d-none btn btn-unstyled font-12 bg-gray-50" aria-label="Toggle more/less fact data"> <em class="js-content link-blue">(Show more)</em> </button> </div> </div> <div class=""> <div class="js-fact mb-10 line-clamp clamp-3"> <dl> <dt>Political Affiliation: </dt> <dd><a href="/topic/Conservative-Party-political-party-United-Kingdom">Conservative Party</a></dd> <dd><a href="/topic/Liberal-Party-political-party-United-Kingdom">Liberal Party</a></dd> <dd><a href="/topic/Liberal-Unionism">Liberal Unionism</a></dd> </dl> <button class="js-more-btn d-none btn btn-unstyled font-12 bg-gray-50" aria-label="Toggle more/less fact data"> <em class="js-content link-blue">(Show more)</em> </button> </div> </div> <div class=""> <div class="js-fact mb-10 line-clamp clamp-3"> <dl> <dt>Role In: </dt> <dd><a href="/event/South-African-War">South African War</a></dd> </dl> <button class="js-more-btn d-none btn btn-unstyled font-12 bg-gray-50" aria-label="Toggle more/less fact data"> <em class="js-content link-blue">(Show more)</em> </button> </div> <div class="text-center"> <a class="btn btn-sm btn-link p-0" href="/facts/Joseph-Chamberlain"> See all related content </a> </div> </div> </div> </div><span class="marker before-article"></span><section data-level="1" id="ref1"><span class="marker PREMOD1 mod-inline"></span><p class="topic-paragraph"><strong><span id="ref2962"></span>Joseph Chamberlain</strong> (born July 8, 1836, London, England—died July 2, 1914, London) was a British businessman, social reformer, radical politician, and <a class="md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw" data-term="ardent" href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/ardent" data-type="MW">ardent</a> imperialist. At the local, national, or imperial level, he was a constructive radical, caring more for practical success than party loyalty or ideological commitment. The ideas with which he is most closely associated—tariff reform and imperial unity—were in advance of his time and pointed the direction that British policy would take in the 20th century.</p><span class="marker MOD1 mod-inline"></span><span class="marker PREMOD2 mod-inline"></span><p class="topic-paragraph">Chamberlain, the son of a prosperous shoe manufacturer in <a href="https://www.britannica.com/place/London" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">London</a>, was reared in an atmosphere of political Liberalism and Nonconformist religion and, <a class="md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw" data-term="eschewing" href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/eschewing" data-type="MW">eschewing</a> a university career, entered the family business at age 16. Two years later he moved to <a href="https://www.britannica.com/place/Birmingham-England" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Birmingham</a> to join his cousin’s screw-making concern, and there his tycoon characteristics came to the fore. His relentless energy and organizational genius drove out his competitors, and in 1874, at age 38, he was able to retire with a substantial fortune.</p><span class="marker MOD2 mod-inline"></span><span class="marker PREMOD3 mod-inline"></span><p class="topic-paragraph">Meanwhile, he had become involved in civic affairs and had been elected mayor of Birmingham in 1873. His pioneer efforts in educational reform, slum clearance, improved housing, and municipalization of public utilities vaulted him into national prominence. At the age of 40, the “gas-and-water Socialist,” widely <a class="md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw" data-term="caricatured" href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/caricatured" data-type="MW">caricatured</a> for his spare frame, incisive features, and ribboned monocle, was one of the most successful men in <a href="https://www.britannica.com/place/England" class="md-crosslink autoxref " data-show-preview="true">England</a>.</p><div class="module-spacing"> </div><span class="marker MOD3 mod-inline"></span><span class="marker PREMOD4 mod-inline"></span><div class="assemblies"><div class="w-100"><figure class="md-assembly m-0 mb-md-0 card card-borderless print-false" data-assembly-id="154920" data-asm-type="image"><div class="md-assembly-wrapper card-media" data-type="image"><a href="https://cdn.britannica.com/40/146840-050-0B46320A/Joseph-Chamberlain-1881.jpg" class="gtm-assembly-link position-relative d-flex align-items-center justify-content-center media-overlay-link card-media" data-href="/media/1/104930/154920"><picture><source media="(min-width: 680px)" srcset="https://cdn.britannica.com/40/146840-050-0B46320A/Joseph-Chamberlain-1881.jpg?w=300"><img src="https://cdn.britannica.com/40/146840-050-0B46320A/Joseph-Chamberlain-1881.jpg?w=300" alt="Joseph Chamberlain" data-width="1279" data-height="1600" loading="eager"></picture><button class="magnifying-glass btn btn-circle position-absolute shadow btn-white top-10 right-10" aria-label="Zoom in"><em class="material-icons link-blue" data-icon="zoom_in"></em></button></a></div><figcaption class="card-body"><div class="md-assembly-caption text-muted font-14 font-serif line-clamp"><span><a class="gtm-assembly-link md-assembly-title font-weight-bold d-inline font-sans-serif mr-5 media-overlay-link" href="https://cdn.britannica.com/40/146840-050-0B46320A/Joseph-Chamberlain-1881.jpg" data-href="/media/1/104930/154920">Joseph Chamberlain</a><span>British politician Joseph Chamberlain, 1881.</span><button class="js-more-btn d-none btn btn-unstyled font-12 bg-white js-content" aria-label="Toggle more/less fact data"><span class="link-blue">(more)</span></button></span></div></figcaption></figure></div></div><p class="topic-paragraph">Wasting no time, in 1876 he was elected to Parliament, where he was distrusted as a Dissenter and an upstart, and his genuinely radical speeches, delivered with a haughty confidence, frightened the <a class="md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw" data-term="Conservatives" href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/Conservatives" data-type="MW">Conservatives</a>. Yet his industrial middle-class <a class="md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw" data-term="constituency" href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/constituency" data-type="MW">constituency</a> in Birmingham adored him, and his efficient party organization there (the “caucus”) turned out big Liberal votes in the Midlands. Known as a wire puller, he became Prime Minister <span id="ref2963"></span><a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/William-Ewart-Gladstone" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">William Ewart Gladstone</a>’s lieutenant in the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/House-of-Commons-British-government" class="md-crosslink autoxref " data-show-preview="true">House of Commons</a> and in 1882 was appointed president of the Board of Trade in Gladstone’s second ministry (1880–85). Chamberlain, along with his fellow radical <span id="ref2964"></span><a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Sir-Charles-Wentworth-Dilke-2nd-Baronet" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Sir Charles Wentworth Dilke</a>, led the left wing of the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Liberal-Party-political-party-United-Kingdom" class="md-crosslink autoxref " data-show-preview="true">Liberal Party</a>, and in 1885 they stumped the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/nation-state" class="md-crosslink autoxref " data-show-preview="true">country</a> in support of their “unauthorized programme,” calling for a graduated <a href="https://www.britannica.com/money/income-tax" class="md-crosslink autoxref " data-show-preview="true">income tax</a>, free education, improved housing for the poor, local government reform, and “three acres and a cow” for agricultural laborers.</p><span class="marker MOD4 mod-inline"></span><span class="marker PREMOD5 mod-inline"></span><p class="topic-paragraph">During the 1880s, when Irish demands for <a href="https://www.britannica.com/money/land-reform" class="md-crosslink autoxref " data-show-preview="true">land reform</a> and an <a class="md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw" data-term="autonomous" href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/autonomous" data-type="MW">autonomous</a> parliament (<span id="ref2965"></span><a href="https://www.britannica.com/event/Home-Rule-Great-Britain-and-Ireland" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Home Rule</a>) increasingly bedeviled British politics and caused a deep rift in the Liberal Party, Chamberlain favored Irish reform, especially at the local level, and stood with Gladstone in opposition to the use of repressive force in quashing Irish agitation. Chamberlain’s instincts, however, were already on the side of imperial unity, and he could not go along with Gladstone in 1885, when the latter committed the party to Home Rule for Ireland. In 1886, when the Home Rule issue came to a vote in Commons, Chamberlain joined with other dissident Liberals (Liberal Unionists) to defeat the government.</p><span class="marker MOD5 mod-inline"></span><span class="marker PREMOD6 mod-inline"></span><p class="topic-paragraph">The split in the Liberal Party proved permanent; the Conservatives, supported by the Liberal Unionists, dominated British politics for most of the period from 1886 until 1906. Chamberlain used his control of the Liberal Unionists to pressure the Conservatives into adopting a more progressive social policy; before 1892 he had the satisfaction of seeing the Conservatives pass various measures of social reform.</p><span class="marker MOD6 mod-inline"></span><span class="marker PREMOD7 mod-inline"></span><p class="topic-paragraph">The <a class="md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw" data-term="Conservative" href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/Conservative" data-type="MW">Conservative</a> <a class="md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw" data-term="hegemony" href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/hegemony" data-type="MW">hegemony</a> reflected a growing disenchantment with social reform in the country and marked a new emphasis upon empire and foreign affairs. Chamberlain, too, began to abandon his radicalism and turned increasingly to imperialist <a class="md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw" data-term="rhetoric" href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/rhetoric" data-type="MW">rhetoric</a>, popular with the increasingly jingoistic industrial masses. In 1895 he joined the Conservative Cabinet of <span id="ref2966"></span><a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Robert-Arthur-Talbot-Gascoyne-Cecil-3rd-marquess-of-Salisbury" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Robert Cecil, 3rd marquess of Salisbury</a>, asking to be made secretary of state for the colonies.</p><div class="module-spacing"> <DIV class="marketing-INLINE_SUBSCRIPTION marketing-content" data-marketing-id="INLINE_SUBSCRIPTION"><style> .student-promo-banner-wrapper { container-type: inline-size; margin-bottom: 15px; } @container (min-width: 475px) { .student-promo-banner { flex-direction: row; } .student-promo-banner-img-wrapper { margin-bottom: 0; margin-right: 10px; justify-content: flex-start; } .student-promo-banner-text-wrapper { text-align: left; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 10px; } .student-promo-banner-button-wrapper { margin-right: 0; } }</style> <div class="student-promo-banner-wrapper"> <div class="student-promo-banner d-flex flex-column align-items-center bg-blue rounded p-20"> <div class="student-promo-banner-img-wrapper mb-20 mr-0 d-flex justify-content-center"> <img class="rounded" style="max-width: 100px; min-width: 80px" src="https://cdn.britannica.com/marketing/BlueThistle.webp" /> </div> <div class="student-promo-banner-text-wrapper ml-0 mb-10 text-center text-white"> <div class="h2 mb-10">Get Unlimited Access</div> <div class="h4 font-weight-semi-bold">Try Britannica Premium for free and discover more.</div> </div> <div class="student-promo-banner-button-wrapper d-flex justify-content-center align-items-center ml-auto mr-auto"> <a class="btn btn-m btn-orange" href="https://premium.britannica.com/premium-membership/?utm_source=premium&utm_medium=inline-cta&utm_campaign=august-2024">Subscribe</a> </div> </div> </div> </DIV></div><span class="marker MOD7 mod-inline"></span><span class="marker PREMOD8 mod-inline"></span><p class="topic-paragraph">In that office Chamberlain quickly became involved in South African affairs and was accused of complicity in the <span id="ref2967"></span><a href="https://www.britannica.com/event/Jameson-Raid" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Jameson Raid</a>, an abortive invasion of the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Boer-people" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Boer</a> republic of <a href="https://www.britannica.com/place/South-African-Republic" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Transvaal</a> by British settlers from the neighboring <a href="https://www.britannica.com/place/Cape-Colony" class="md-crosslink autoxref " data-show-preview="true">Cape Colony</a> (December 1895). Though he was later cleared by a Commons investigation, his anti-Boer stance was evident. When worsening Anglo-Boer relations erupted in the <span id="ref2968"></span><a href="https://www.britannica.com/event/South-African-War" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">South African War</a> (1899–1902; also known as the Boer War), Chamberlain supported it enthusiastically.</p><span class="marker MOD8 mod-inline"></span><span class="marker PREMOD9 mod-inline"></span><div class="assemblies"><div class="w-100"><figure class="md-assembly m-0 mb-md-0 card card-borderless print-false" data-assembly-id="143751" data-asm-type="image"><div class="md-assembly-wrapper card-media" data-type="image"><a href="https://cdn.britannica.com/34/135734-050-AB99F797/Joseph-Chamberlain-monocle-1900.jpg" class="gtm-assembly-link position-relative d-flex align-items-center justify-content-center media-overlay-link card-media" data-href="/media/1/104930/143751"><picture><source media="(min-width: 680px)" srcset="https://cdn.britannica.com/34/135734-050-AB99F797/Joseph-Chamberlain-monocle-1900.jpg?w=300"><img src="https://cdn.britannica.com/34/135734-050-AB99F797/Joseph-Chamberlain-monocle-1900.jpg?w=300" alt="Joseph Chamberlain" data-width="1185" data-height="1600" loading="eager"></picture><button class="magnifying-glass btn btn-circle position-absolute shadow btn-white top-10 right-10" aria-label="Zoom in"><em class="material-icons link-blue" data-icon="zoom_in"></em></button></a></div><figcaption class="card-body"><div class="md-assembly-caption text-muted font-14 font-serif line-clamp"><span><a class="gtm-assembly-link md-assembly-title font-weight-bold d-inline font-sans-serif mr-5 media-overlay-link" href="https://cdn.britannica.com/34/135734-050-AB99F797/Joseph-Chamberlain-monocle-1900.jpg" data-href="/media/1/104930/143751">Joseph Chamberlain</a><span>British politician Joseph Chamberlain, wearing his customary monocle, <em>c.</em> 1900. </span><button class="js-more-btn d-none btn btn-unstyled font-12 bg-white js-content" aria-label="Toggle more/less fact data"><span class="link-blue">(more)</span></button></span></div></figcaption></figure></div></div><p class="topic-paragraph">This war, in which Great <a href="https://www.britannica.com/place/United-Kingdom" class="md-crosslink autoxref " data-show-preview="true">Britain</a> was roasted in world opinion as a bully, brought home to Chamberlain the fact that Britain was militarily <a class="md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw" data-term="vulnerable" href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/vulnerable" data-type="MW">vulnerable</a> and diplomatically isolated in Europe. Germany, with which he had always wanted an alliance, had proved particularly hostile. In view of Britain’s isolation, Chamberlain looked to the self-governing colonies, which had given encouraging support to Britain during the war. Returning from his negotiation of the peace settlement in <a href="https://www.britannica.com/place/South-Africa" class="md-crosslink autoxref " data-show-preview="true">South Africa</a> in 1902, Chamberlain announced a new tariff scheme that he hoped would draw Britain and its dependencies together in a kind of common market. Protected by stiff tariffs without and united by preferential tariffs within, the new union would add to Britain’s international security, protect manufactures threatened by new competition from the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/place/United-States" class="md-crosslink autoxref " data-show-preview="true">United States</a> and Germany, and raise <a class="md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off eb" data-term="revenue" href="https://www.britannica.com/dictionary/revenue" data-type="EB">revenue</a> for social projects at home.</p><span class="marker MOD9 mod-inline"></span><span class="marker PREMOD10 mod-inline"></span><p class="topic-paragraph">Characteristically, Chamberlain energetically set out to convert his party to the new scheme. When Conservative leader <span id="ref2969"></span><a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Arthur-James-Balfour-1st-earl-of-Balfour" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Arthur Balfour</a> (later 1st earl of Balfour) refused to commit himself, Chamberlain resigned his cabinet post and from 1903 to 1906 conducted a forceful private campaign, exhorting his listeners to “think imperially.” But protection was a political bombshell. Free trade (which to the English meant cheap imported food) had been the touchstone of Britain’s conventional wisdom for more than a half century. Liberals everywhere raised the cry of cheap bread, and Conservatives split as irrevocably as the Liberals had 20 years earlier over Home Rule. In the general elections of 1906 the Conservatives and Liberal Unionists went down to a resounding defeat, in great part because of Chamberlain’s abandonment of <a href="https://www.britannica.com/money/free-trade" class="md-crosslink autoxref " data-show-preview="true">free trade</a>. Chamberlain, however, was reelected in his native Birmingham by an astonishing majority.</p><div class="one-good-fact-module"> </div><span class="marker MOD10 mod-inline"></span><span class="marker PREMOD11 mod-inline"></span><p class="topic-paragraph">It was his last political victory, for shortly after, in July 1906, he suffered a paralytic stroke that left him a helpless <a class="md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off eb" data-term="invalid" href="https://www.britannica.com/dictionary/invalid" data-type="EB">invalid</a> for the rest of his life.</p><span class="marker MOD11 mod-inline"></span></section> <span class="md-signature font-12"><a href="/editor/Gary-William-Poole/2346">Gary William Poole</a></span><span class="marker end-of-content"></span><span class="marker after-article"></span></div> <div id="chatbot-simplify-root"></div> <div id="chatbot-root"></div> </div> </div> </div> <div class="ai-dialog-placeholder"></div> </div> </div> <aside class="col-md-da-320"></aside> </div> </div> </div> </div> </article> </div> </div> </div> </div> </main> <div id="md-footer"></div> <noscript><iframe src="//www.googletagmanager.com/ns.html?id=GTM-5W6NC8" height="0" width="0" style="display:none;visibility:hidden"></iframe></noscript>  <script> window.ap3c = window.ap3c || {}; var ap3c = window.ap3c; ap3c.cmd = ap3c.cmd || []; ap3c.cmd.push(function() { ap3c.init('ZO4siT4cLwnykPnzZWJtd3Byb2Q', 'https://engage.email.britannica.com/'); ap3c.track({v: 0}); }); ap3c.activity = function(act) { ap3c.act = (ap3c.act || []); ap3c.act.push(act); }; var s, t; s = document.createElement('script'); s.type = 'text/javascript'; s.src = "https://engage.email.britannica.com/app.js"; t = document.getElementsByTagName('script')[0]; t.parentNode.insertBefore(s, t); </script> <script class="marketing-page-info" type="application/json"> {"pageType":"Topic","templateName":"DESKTOP","pageNumber":1,"pagesTotal":1,"pageId":104930,"pageLength":981,"initialLoad":true,"lastPageOfScroll":false} </script> <script class="marketing-content-info" type="application/json"> [] </script> <script src="https://cdn.britannica.com/mendel-resources/3-133/js/libs/jquery-3.5.0.min.js?v=3.133.36"></script> <script type="text/javascript" data-type="Init Mendel Code Splitting"> (function() { $.ajax({ dataType: 'script', cache: true, url: 'https://cdn.britannica.com/mendel-resources/3-133/dist/topic-page.js?v=3.133.36' }); })(); </script> <script class="analytics-metadata" type="application/json"> {"leg":"D","adLeg":"C","userType":"ANONYMOUS","pageType":"Topic","pageSubtype":null,"articleTemplateType":"BIO_MEDIUM","gisted":false,"pageNumber":1,"hasSummarizeButton":false,"hasAskButton":true} </script> <script type="text/javascript"> EBStat={accountId:-1,hostnameOverride:'webstats.eb.com',domain:'www.britannica.com', json:''}; </script> <script type="text/javascript"> ( function() { $.ajax( { dataType: 'script', cache: true, url: '//www.britannica.com/webstats/mendelstats.js?v=1' } ) .done( function() { try {writeStat(null,EBStat);} catch(err){} } ); })(); </script> <div id="bc-fixed-dialogue"></div> </body> </html>

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Joseph Chamberlain | Birmingham, Imperialism, & Boer War | Britannica