The emergence of the stiff upper lip

Brexiting. A series on being English. # 03

The emergence of the stiff upper lip

It may be hard to imagine when looking back from our 21st-century perspective, but before the 19th century, rationality and restraint were unusual traits with English people. It was the opposite of stiff upper lip which means to take it on the chin, or not letting on, keep calm and endure. To show one's emotions used to be considered interesting and good manners. For instance, like most of Europe, the English had held the French in high esteem as an example to be followed. All over Europe, the upper class spoke French and this was for a reason. The French had shown no restraint whatsoever. Its nobility never took the plight of their subjects into account and saw no bones in exploiting them ruthlessly. No wonder these subjects showed no restraint either when they started to unleash their wrath against the nobles in 1789.

More or less coincidentally, precisely at that moment in time, in English society a

Two fine factors defining English society

Two fine factors defining English society

Brexiting. A series on being English. # 01

English people entertain a superiority complex that goes back at least two thousand years. And they have corroborated it. Especially in the late 19th century when Britain undisputedly was the most powerful nation in the world, having dominion over the largest empire this planet had ever seen, comprising 25% of the landmass and population of Earth. (See map of 1901 below.) In 1810, English shipping tonnage was, at 700,000 metric tonnes, higher than that of Germany, France, Russia and The Netherlands combined. At its peak, just before WW I, almost half of all foreign investments by all nations combined, were British. In the 1890's Britain controlled 44% of all of the investment money in the world.

England used to be, and to a very large extent still is, run by people from Oxford University, politically, and Cambridge, scientifically, and from some lesser known universities like Aberdeen, more businesswise. For instance, all of the British prime ministers until this day (2017) have studied at Oxford. As people outside of England may have noticed, an English person coming from these