Herbert George Wells The War Of The Worlds

Herbert George Wells’ The War of the Worlds (1898) novel is considered one of the best and most influential science-fiction books of the English history. It was written at the end of the nineteenth century where natural sciences were taking an important role in human minds. In this way, Wells took use of the developed science to overview a clear and harsh critic of the costumes of the late Victorian period and colonialism of British Empire. Throughout this essay, we will focus on the critic of colonialism in The War of the Worlds. Wells sharply express the attitude of British Empire over other nations in the novel.
At the end of the nineteenth century, many critics suggested the existence of another type of beings different from people in another
planet. Wells influenced by this idea proposed the existence a strange beings named Martians arguing in The War of the Worlds that “During the opposition of 1894 a great light was seen on the illuminated part of the disk, first at the Lick Observatory, then by Perrotin of Nice, and then by other observers. English readers heard of it first in the issue of Nature dated August 2.” Martians were considered aliens technologically superior to other beings and as a consequence, more intellectuals than any other.
Wells introduced these beings invading England to his novel to satire the colonialism of the British Empire over other colonies as African, Asia and America.
The colonialism is basically recognized for the cruelty of the British invasions. This savagery practice was a real fact at the end of the nineteenth century. British Empire imposed all their characteristics (language, literature, educational system and other traditions) on its colonial subjects with the view to make England as powerful as possible. (Paul A. Cantor) In this way, many critics suggest The War of the Worlds is more a political manifesto than a science-fiction novel because of the ideals and assumptions of the story. Wells uses the science-fiction genre to criticise the practice of colonialism to exhibit the late-Victorian readers the actions British was taken. The British Empire dominions were seen as atrocities human actions so Wells exposes in the novel. It is not believed he exceeds the actions because the oppression of British Empire in colonialism was clear and harsh. They just thought of themselves and the possibility to become the most powerful nation in all times. It was required the domination of other colonies because they were incapable of self-government. Thus, native people needed to be ruled by an educated and self-sufficient Empire to become civilized. In this way, The War of the Worlds anticipated many atrocities of The First World War that started at the beginning of the following century. The war would burst against Germany and colonies suffered more oppression as a consequence of
that.
Although the narrator of the novel criticizes imperialism, he continues to support the idea of humanity united under one empire. The novel exemplifies the complex relationship between Wells’ argument against the barbarities of one nation or world conquering another one and the solution to this world in a galactic empire. (Craig Renfroe 43)
The Industrial Revolution took an important role in the belief to expand Britain to other places. Financially, workers of the Industrial Revolution needed to export new products to other places to take profit of it. Also, industrial revolution led to an extensive technological advantage over other places thanks to the development of the railway and steamship. In this way, British Empire was more powerful than any other nation. Also, the emergence of new powers, which appeared to rival Britain’s economy and imperial supremacy, challenged both its financial and strategic interests (…) such challenges from other developing nations were one of the peripheral factors that, by threatening British interests, forced increasing colonial involvement and the official control. For example, the participation of Britain in the scramble for African colonies by European states was partially motivated by this competition. (Barton)

The setting of the novel is framed in England at the end of the nineteenth century as is shown in the periodical news announcing the existence of life in Mars. England was the most powerful empire in 1898 so there is no a coincidence that the story was developed in that place. Wells also adopted real streets and cities of England to emphasise the critic of the colonialism of the late nineteenth century. The power of British Empire explains the setting of the novel because Wells wanted to demonstrate the feelings of a colonised human being by another nation or kind of being and the oppression they suffered from foreign beings. In this way, Wells reversed the