Chapter 5 of "Empire: The Rise and Demise of the British World Order" by Niall Ferguson begins by talking about the "hubris" of the British Empire during the last years of the reign of Queen Victoria. Do all Empires get this "hubris" when they are at the hight of their power? Do all Empires feel like they are invincible? Thus leading to their over expansion and thus disconnect from their people?
The British Empire extended across the globe, there was no way that they could have a connection with every culture of people that they had brought under their wing, the only thing that mattered to the empire was the continued conquest. As Ferguson states, "there simply seemed no limit to what could be achieved by British firepower and finance."(Pg. 185) The British believed that they could achieve whatever they wanted because of the fact that they could overpower anyone that they came into contact with. While this would have allowed for this in many cases, it did not allow for them to connect with their people.
It seems that all empires reach a point in which they feel they can accomplish anything solely because they have superior firepower and money, Nazi Germany invaded Russia, Napoleon invaded Russia, Roman expansion into Germania, these are just three examples of empires that "got hubris". All three of these empires believed that they had superior firepower and finance to the people they were invading, and all three of these invasions resulted in the empire overextending themselves to the point of never achieving that goal because it turned out superior firepower was not enough if you cannot relate to the people you are conquering. All empires appear to get this state of hubris where they think they are better than everyone else, the British empire was no different in this aspect.
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