The Tibetan Question in British Foreign Policy, 1858–1904: Expansion Methods and Funding Sources

Introduction. The article examines the Tibetan question in British foreign policy between 1858 and 1904. In Russian historiography, the issue was never comprehensively approached in the context of parliamentary debates over expansion methods and funding sources in Tibet. Britain’s colonial policy was aimed at expanding its trade with Tibet, providing access to oil fields, and displacing China, Nepal, and Russia. The identified points keep motivating historians to seek for the beginnings of centuries-old contradictions between the nations that have shaped somewhat foreign policy continuities. Goals. The study attempts an analysis into the Tibetan question as part of the British international agenda in the context of expansion techniques and funding aspects. To facilitate this, the paper shall consider the then positions of parliament members and government officials who ― despite the growing international resistance ― tended to use colonial ideologies and methods for a break in the isolation of Tibet. Materials and methods. The work employs the historical genetic and comparative methods to focus on publications of parliamentary debates and British laws, documents of personal origin, periodicals and international treaties. Results and conclusions. The era of Queen Victoria witnessed the shaping of a new course in British foreign policy that would lead to further development of trade with Tibet, displacement of China, Nepal and Russia from the region. The military intelligence activities in Tibet, cynically referred to in Parliament as ‘the Mission’, proved a continuation of Victorian policy in India, Nepal and China. The Mission’s methods included military operations, intelligence duties, the deployment of Britain’s permanent representative, and penetrations into territories adjacent to India, Nepal, and China. The military and scientific expansion was funded by the Parliament following the Victorian Act 1858 ― from revenues collected through India’s colonization. The colonial forces were compiled from Gurkhas, Pathans, Indian surveyors, British surgeons, cartographers and intelligence officers. Minimal costs, violation of Tibet’s isolation, and military actions were justified in the Parliament as a mission supposed to protect the national interests of both India and Great Britain.

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