Lord Curzon Essays

Lord Curzon Essays Lord Curzon Essay Lord Curzon Essay George Nathaniel Curzon, 1st Marquess Curzon of Kedleston,  KG,  GCSI,  GCIE,  PC  (11 January 1859 – 20 March 1925), known as  The Lord Curzon of Kedleston  between 1898 and 1911 and as  The Earl Curzon of Kedleston  between 1911 and 1921, was a  British  Conservative  statesman who wasViceroy of India  and  Foreign Secretary. The  Curzon Line  was named after him. - Early life Curzon was the eldest son and second of 11 children of Alfred Curzon, the 4th  Baron Scarsdale  (1831–1916),  Rector  of  Kedleston  in  Derbyshire, and his wife Blanche (1837–1875), daughter of Joseph Pocklington Senhouse of Netherhall in Cumberland. He was born at  Kedleston Hall, built on the site where his family, who were of  Norman  ancestry, had lived since the 12th century. His mother, worn out by childbirth, died when George was 16; her husband survived her by 41 years. Neither parent exerted a major influence on Curzons life. The Baron was an austere and unindulgent father who believed in the long-held family tradition that landowners should stay on their land and not go roaming about all over the world. He thus had little sympathy for those travels across Asia between 1887 and 1895 which made his son one of the most traveled men who ever sat in a British cabinet. A more decisive presence in Curzons childhood was that of his brutal governess, Ellen Mary Paraman, whose tyranny in the nursery stimulated his combative qualities and encouraged the obsessional side of his nature. Paraman periodically forced him to parade through the village wearing a conical hat bearing the words  liar,sneak, and  coward. Curzon later noted, No children well born and well-placed ever cried so much and so justly. [1] He was educated at  Eton College[2]  and  Balliol College, Oxford. At Eton he was a favorite of  Oscar Browning, an over-intimate relationship that led to his tutors dismissal. [3][4]  While at Eton, he was a controversial figure who was liked and disliked with equal intensity by large numbers of masters and other boys. This strange talent for both attraction and repulsion stayed with him all his life: few people ever felt neutral about him. At  Oxford  he was President of the  Union  and Secretary of the  Oxford Canning Club. Although he failed to achieve a  first class degree  in  Greats, he won the Lothian and  Arnold Prizes, the latter for an essay on  Sir Thomas More  (about whom he confessed to having known almost nothing before commencing study, literally delivered as the clocks were chiming midnight on the day of the deadline). He was elected a prize fellow of  All Souls College  in 1883. A teenage  spinal injury, incurred while riding, left Curzon in lifelong pain, often resulting in insomnia, and required him to wear a metal corset, contributing to an unfortunate impression of stiffness and arrogance. While at Oxford, Curzon was the inspiration for the following  Balliol rhyme, a piece of doggerel which stuck with him in later life: My name is George Nathaniel Curzon, I am a most superior person. My cheeks are pink, my hair is sleek, I dine at  Blenheim  twice a week. - - Early career and Parliament Curzon became Assistant Private Secretary to  Lord Salisbury  in 1885, and in 1886 entered  Parliament  as Member for  Southport  in south-west  Lancashire. His  maiden speech, which was chiefly an attack on  home rule  and  Irish nationalism, was regarded in much the same way as his oratory at the  Oxford Union: brilliant and eloquent but also presumptuous and rather too self-assured. Subsequent performances in the Commons, often dealing with Ireland or reform of the House of Lords (which he supported), received similar verdicts. He was  Under-Secretary of State for India  in 1891-1892 and  Under-Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs  in 1895–1898. [citation needed] In the meantime he had travelled around the world:  Russia  and  Central Asia  (1888-9), a long tour of  Persia  (1889–90),  Siam,  French Indochina  and  Korea(1892), and a daring foray into  Afghanistan  and the  Pamirs  (1894), and published several books describing central and eastern Asia and related policy issues. A bold and compulsive traveller,  fascinated by oriental life  and geography, he was warded the gold medal of the  Royal Geographical Society  for his exploration of the source of the  Amu Darya  (Oxus). Yet the main purpose of his journeys was political: they formed part of a vast and comprehensive project to study the problems of Asia and their implications for  British India. At the same time they reinforced his pride in his nation and her imperial mission. Viceroy of India (1898–1905) Lord Curzon-Procession to  Sanchi  Tope, 28 Nov 1899 In January 1899 he was appointed  Viceroy of India. He was created a  Peer of Ireland  as  Baron Curzon of Kedleston, in the County of Derby,[6]  on his appointment. This peerage was created in the Peerage of Ireland (the last so created) so that he would be free, until his fathers death, to re-enter theHouse of Commons  on his return to Britain. Reaching India shortly after the suppression of the frontier risings of 1897–1898, he paid special attention to the independent tribes of the north-west frontier, inaugurated a new province called the  North West Frontier Province, and pursued a policy of forceful control mingled with conciliation. The only major armed outbreak on this frontier during the period of his administration was the  Mahsud-Waziri  campaign of 1901. In the context of the  Great Game  between the British and  Russian Empires  for control of  Central Asia, he held deep mistrust of Russian intentions. This led him to encourage British trade in  Persia, and he paid a visit to the  Persian Gulf  in 1903. At the end of that year, he sent a  British expedition to Tibetunder  Francis Younghusband, ostensibly to forestall a Russian advance. After bloody conflicts with  Tibets poorly-armed defenders, the mission penetrated to  Lhasa, where a treaty was signed in September 1904. No Russian presence was found in Lhasa. Lord Curzon and  Lady Curzonarriving at the  Delhi Durbar, 1903. Within India, Curzon appointed a number of commissions to inquire into education, irrigation, police and other branches of administration, on whose reports legislation was based during his second term of office as viceroy. Reappointed Governor-General in August 1904, he presided over the  1905 partition of Bengal, which roused such bitter opposition among the people of the province that it was later revoked (1911). He also took an active interest in military matters. In 1901, he founded the  Imperial Cadet Corps, or ICC. The ICC was a corps delite, designed to give Indian princes and aristocrats military training, after which a few would be given officer commissions in the Indian Army. But these commissions were special commissions which did not empower their holders to command any troops. Predictably, this was a major stumbling block to the ICCs success, as it caused much resentment among former cadets. Though the ICC closed in 1914, it was a crucial stage in the drive to Indianise the Indian Armys officer Corps, which was haltingly begun in 1917. Military organisation proved to be the final issue faced by Curzon in India. A difference of opinion with the British military Commander-in-Chief in India,  Lord Kitchener, regarding the status of the military member of the council in India, led to a controversy in which Curzon failed to obtain the support of the home government. He resigned in August 1905 and returned to England. During his tenure, Curzon undertook the restoration of the  Taj Mahal, and expressed satisfaction that he had done so. Lord and Lady Curzon on the elephant Lakshman Prasad, 29 December 1902