MORNING SERIAL

Wales: England’s Colony?

The Conquest, Assimilation and Re-creation of Wales

A SENSE of being a nation was still there, not least because of the Welsh language and a sense of history, but it was dormant and few saw it as having any political relevance.

That was until the publication in 1847 of the ‘Blue books’, the report into education which maintained the Welsh language shut the Welsh off from civilisation, education and social and economic progress.

The report is much misunderstood.

As the previous section argued, its derogatory comments on the Welsh language were not the focus of controversy in Wales.

It tends to be now forgotten how the report also showed an appreciation that Welsh was used in Sunday schools to impart spiritual and biblical knowledge.

The Welsh are not dismissed as an inferior race in the way British colonialists looked down on those who were not white. Instead, Wales’ problems are treated as cultural.

One passage concluded: ‘If the Welsh people were well educated, and received the same attention and care which have been bestowed on others, they would in all probability assume a high rank among civilised communities’.

The level of detail in the three lengthy volumes that made up the report implies a vigorous interest in Wales by the British state, but more representative is what happened after their publication in England, which was, at least in government circles, not a lot.

London journals, however, dwelt upon some brief passages that made wild and salacious assumptions about the promiscuity of the Welsh, and particularly Welsh women.

These sections, and the general English sense of difference and superiority that runs through the reports, have led them to be described as some form of cultural imperialism.

> Wales: England’s Colony? by Martin Johnes is published by Parthian in the Modern Wales series www.parthianbooks.com