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Richard Francis Burton
Arthur James Balfour was a British colonial administrator and politician who lived in from the mid-19th to the early 20th centuries. A staunch proponent of British colonial authority and apologist for British colonial projects, Balfour is a useful figure in the history presented by Orientalism because he exemplifies the ways in which Orientalist discourse aligned itself with and became a tool of colonial oppression in the second half of the 19th century. Balfour also authored the Balfour Declaration, which announced the British government’s support for the establishment of a Jewish homeland (the modern-day state of Israel) in Palestine, as part of the British government’s plan to divide the land of the former Ottoman Empire.
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Arthur James Balfour Character Timeline in Orientalism
The timeline below shows where the character Arthur James Balfour appears in Orientalism. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Chapter 1, Part 1
Said begins his analysis of Orientalism’s scope by analyzing Arthur James Balfour’s impassioned speech in favor of ongoing British involvement in Egypt in the summer of 1910....
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Other late 19th- and early 20th- century British civil servants echo the logic of Balfour’s Orientalism. This is evidence, Said says, of an effective discourse. Orientalism divides the world into...
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The Orientalism of Balfour and Cromer, which Said classifies as “modern Orientalism” takes older ideas, repackages them in the...
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