Who put this asshole in charge? Kitchener, England, and the tragedy of empire--ONE
In light of my recent posts on a certain tangerine colored car salesman, I think you might be interested, Dear Reader, in learning about the dangers of putting the military in charge--I mean operating relatively independently, without the leavening influence of the people's will, or the politicians.
Now trust me, this guy was a real schmuck.
Who was this? His full name was Field Marshall Horatio Herbert Kitchener, 1st Earl Kitchener. I know, right? What a handle that would have been to live with. But, who was this guy, and why do we care? As usual, you know what I am gonna say: he was a real dickhead.
Born in 1850, of relatively aristocratic English stock, he spent his early childhood in Ireland, where his parents had an estate. However, the Field Marshall always identified himself as an ENGLISHMAN. The family moved to the continent, specifically Switzerland in 1864, where our young Marvel hero-in-training was educated. Eventually, he was sent to the Royal Military Academy in Woolwich, where he learned to be an ideal tin soldier. For some reason, the Field Marshall, as aa very young man, decided he really liked the French, thus during the Franco-Prussian War, he joined an ambulance unit--and trust me, this is where one would see the worst of the battle field.
In 1871, the Field Marshall was granted a commission in the Royal Engineers--odd, since he would later be known for his military exploits in the field. His service in France was to be something of a handicap in his early career, for he was perceived as being 'pro-French.' In the view of some, Kitchener had betrayed the British cause--why? Probably because the British have historically had negative relations with the French. Kitchener was statiopned in the 'Near East'--as it was called then: Palestine, Egypt, and Cypress. He displayed a proficiency in Arabic (an attribute not generally shared by his officers). At first, he made maps of those areas and, by all accounts, he was pretty good.
On that note, he participated in a survey of Western Palestine, that apparently became something of a precursor, to a 'grid pattern' which has been used as the basis of modern maps of this area. Perhaps, Dear Reader, unlike me you may understand this relationship, bur apparently it's an essential component for modern cartographers.
In 1883, the Field Marshall (although he had yet to attain that rank) found himself in Egypt--which at that time was little more than a province of the British Empire, although outwardly it retained the 'status' of a country. The British had a tendency to do this to most countries it 'initiated into its' empire.' Wasn't that nice of the English--to forcefully import its', uh, 'culture'? Ye Gods.
I'm not gonna bore you with Kitchener's swift rise in rank, but clearly he had the stuffing of what the English considered to be a 'good officer' (hack)--now, what did that mean? This was the kind of man, who upheld the ideology that English culture represented the height of human culture--i.e. "anglo-saxon' culture (using the expression coined by Valley Girls in the late 80s: 'gag me with a spoon').
Let me provide you with Rudyard Kipling's infamous example of what I mean:
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Note: now although this piece was written for the US invasion of the Philippines, it provides the innate world view of the English about their right to dominate, well, EVERYONE EVERYWHERE:
Take up the White Man’s burden—
Send forth the best ye breed—
Go send your sons to exile
To serve your captives' need
To wait in heavy harness
On fluttered folk and wild—
Your new-caught, sullen peoples,
Half devil and half child
Take up the White Man’s burden
In patience to abide
To veil the threat of terror
And check the show of pride;
By open speech and simple
An hundred times made plain
To seek another’s profit
And work another’s gain
Take up the White Man’s burden—
And reap his old reward:
The blame of those ye better
The hate of those ye guard—
The cry of hosts ye humour
(Ah slowly) to the light:
"Why brought ye us from bondage,
“Our loved Egyptian night?”
Take up the White Man’s burden-
Have done with childish days-
The lightly proffered laurel,
The easy, ungrudged praise.
Comes now, to search your manhood
Through all the thankless years,
Cold-edged with dear-bought wisdom,
The judgment of your peers!
Source: Rudyard Kipling, “The White Man’s Burden: The United States & The Philippine Islands, 1899.” Rudyard Kipling’s Verse: Definitive Edition (Garden City, New York: Doubleday, 1929).
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In 1888, Kitchener led men to suppress a rebellion in Egypt by "the Mahdi." The who? The what? Let me give you BRIEF definition of this guy (now, I'm gonna be a very bad girl, and use the Encyclopedia Britannica I know; I'm lazy, but I liked this definition:
As you've read, Dear Reader, 'Mahdi' is a ceremonial title, more in keeping with the Judeo-Christian concept of the second-coming. Yet, it was adopted by Muhammad Ahmad bin Abdullah bin Fahal in 1881. He was able to amass followers, and subsequently announced a holy war (Jihad) against the English in the Sudan.
He died of Typhus on June 22 1885, and you'd think that this would've put an end to the rebellion...WRONG. After the death of the original 'Mahdi', his second-in-command Abdullahi ibn Muhammad. In 1899, the British army advanced into Mahdist-held territory, and began its' conquest of the Sudan. By this time, Kitchener had risen to the rank of Major General (due to various and sundry massacres that it would take too much damn time to elaborate). Notable in this interim period, was Kitchener's leading of a mission to rescue General Gordon, who had been trapped by Mahdist forces at Khartoum in 1898. What followed when his men found Gordon's fallen command, became part of the legend (and justification for Anglos) of white colonization.
"In death, Gordon represented to the British the best qualities of an Englishman: His life had been continual service to Queen and Country, promoting the ideals of Christianity and civilization to peoples yet living in darkness. They saw him as the ambassador of the values of the British Empire: Civilization, Christianity, and good government. As a popular music hall song stated, "His life was England's glory, his death was England's pride" https://scholarworks.harding.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1008&context=tenor
Sir Evelyn Baring’s two-volume Modern Egypt (1908) has Bordeini Bey’s account of Gordon’s fiinal moments on the morning of January 26, 1885 (pp. 471-472)
This turned Kitchener's expedition into a punitive one, and he pursued his mission with gusto. He arranged his men in a crescent shape around the enemy stronghold, and had his position supported by gunboats. While his line of soldiers was thin, he clearly had superior firepower, and he used it. The battle was short--rather early in the morning, returning to thei r stronghold at Omdurman. Kitchener immediately laid siege to it. It didn't last very long. His men killed approximately 11,000 enemy soldiers, and reported over 17,000 wounded. These numbers are only estimations.
Gordon quickly became perceived as a martyr by the British people: a man who'd died on the crucible of empire. Paintings proliferated like this one:
Gordon is the lone heroic figure, standing above the native fray (gag), about to be decimated by the advancing horde.
I cannot tell you of the horrors visited on the native peoples of the Sudan and Egypt, in the wake of that battle.
Alright. Next week, we'll travel to South Africa with Kitchener, to see what fun he had with the Boers. Until then...same bat time, same...well you know!
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