In 1897, Great Britain was in a celebratory mood. In June of that year, Queen Victoria celebrated

her diamond Jubilee, commemorating what was an unprecedented 60 years reigning as Britain's

monarch.

No other ruler in the history of England had ever celebrated a diamond Jubilee, and

the Brits could not have been better primed to mark the occasion.

The celebrations began on June 20th on the anniversary of Victoria's coronation, and they

wouldn't stop for months. The summer of 1897 was declared the Jubilee

summer, and it was marked by a steady stream of parades, events, expositions, state visits,

official happenings, and unofficial revelry.

The diamond Jubilee wasn't only an occasion to celebrate Queen Victoria, it also doubled

as a celebration of the British Empire itself.

If I dare use the lingo, the kids were oh so recently using, then in 1897, you could say

that Britain was kind of feeling itself. In that year, Britain was arguably at the peak

of its power, militarily, diplomatically, and culturally. If you want, we could debate

exactly when the British Empire reached its scene if someone argued that the British

Empire peaked right on the eve of the First World War. Others might push the date into

the 1920s, considering that the British Empire reached its largest territorial extent in

1921. But I would argue that by 1914, the cracks were already beginning to show in the

British Empire, and by the 1920s, the independence movement in India, led by Gandhi, really underscored

how untenable Britain's empire had become. But in 1897, we find Britain at her most self-confident.

Sure, she had imperial rivals in the Germans, the French, and the newly assertive Americans.

But in the world of international power politics, Britain was undoubtedly at the top of the

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