Benjamin Disraeli Quotes


This will change everything; Britain has been humiliated in the eyes of the other European powers; it will sap our influence and bleed our revenue white.


Context

1st Earl of Beaconsfield


Citations

Benjamin Disraeli, 1804-1881, British Prime Minister (Tory), Report to Queen Victoria on the Zulu defeat of the British Army at Isandlwana, February 1879

Sourced by: Eigen's Political and Historical Quotations

Related Quotes

This was very much a minority opinion at the time, and has much historical significance as he was the father of the British Prime Minister, Neville Chamberlain, 1869-1940, whose appeasement of Germany led to Word War II. . See {585941}.


In 1884 Germany had become active in its colonization and outmaneuvered England in taking over Cameroon. Then Germany showed some interest in a part of New Guinea. The English resisted, not for any geopolitical reasons but because the British leaders did not want to be bested by Bismarck.


1st Earl of Beaconsfield. The Dutch and British landed at Capetown, the Southern tip of Africa and gradually expanded North. The Zulus were equally expansionist in Africa. They started from Central Africa and expanded South. Both these expansionist powers seized the land from the indigenous Blacks. It was a race for who could dominate the land first. Eventually, these two powers ran into each other and there were two Zulu-English wars in which the Zulus not only held their own against the dominant white world power, but defeated them in several major battles. Many of the English clergy admired the Zulus, and the major political issues in Europe had to do with what was called the “Scramble or Africa”.


to be an active leader of the EU The Conservative led majority coalition was split over the British participation in the EU. Some wanted to move away from the EU; others wanted to maintain the status quo and a few others wanted Britain to take a leadership rule in the EU. The other EU countries were concerned as illustrated by this quotation.


Benjamin Disraeli
Benjamin Disraeli
  • Born: December 21, 1804
  • Died: April 19, 1881
  • Nationality: British
  • Profession: Statesman, Former UK Prime Minister

Benjamin Disraeli, 1st Earl of Beaconsfield, KG, PC, MP, FRS, was twice Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, serving in 1868 and from 1874 to 1880. He was a member of the British Conservative Party and played a central role in the creation of the modern Party, defining its policies and its broad outreach. Disraeli is remembered for his influential voice in world affairs, his political battles with the Liberal Party leader William Ewart Gladstone, and his one-nation conservatism or "Tory democracy". He made the Conservatives the party most identified with the glory and power of the British Empire. He is the only British prime minister to have been of Jewish birth. He was also a novelist, publishing works of fiction even as prime minister.