George Curzon, Marquess Curzon of Kedleston
Viceroy of India 1899-1905, British Foreign Secretary 1919-1924 (1859-1925)
Also known as: Curzon, Lord Curzon, George Curzon, George Nathaniel Curzon
George Nathaniel Curzon, 1st Marquess Curzon of Kedleston (1859-1925), was Viceroy of India (1899-1905) and Foreign Secretary (1919-1924). Quigley lists him as a Cecil Bloc protégé of Salisbury, a Fellow of All Souls, and one of the Group's three or four senior Conservative imperialists. He presided over the post-First World War Middle Eastern settlement and famously called the League of Nations 'a good joke' (T&H 300).
Salisbury protégé
Curzon was educated at Eton and Balliol College, Oxford (1878-1882), elected a Fellow of All Souls in 1883, and entered politics under Salisbury's patronage: 'George N. Curzon, (later Lord Curzon) a Fellow of All Souls, ex-secretary and protege of Lord Salisbury, was Under Secretary for Foreign Affairs (1895-1898) and Viceroy of India (1899-1905)' (AAE 16). Quigley lists him in the standard Conservative-imperialist line of succession: 'moderate imperialists like Lord Salisbury were followed by more active imperialists like Joseph Chamberlain, or Lords Curzon, Selborne, and Milner' (T&H 142).
Viceroy of India
Curzon was Viceroy of India from 1899 to 1905 — the defining administrative reign of high-imperial India, marked by the 1905 Partition of Bengal. Quigley summarizes its political consequences: 'agitation over Lord Curzon's efforts to push through an administrative division of the huge province of Bengal (population 78 million) brought matters to a head' (T&H 176). 'Curzon's division of Bengal, which the Muslims had supported (since it gave them East Bengal as a separate area with a Muslim majority) was countermanded in 1911 without any notice to the Muslims' (T&H 177). The reversal alienated the Indian Muslim community from the Raj — for Quigley, a key step in the deterioration of British control.
Foreign Secretary
Curzon was Foreign Secretary 1919-1924, presiding over the post-war Middle Eastern settlement, the Greek-Turkish War, and the Treaty of Lausanne (1923) that replaced the failed Treaty of Sèvres. The Turkish crisis came to a head at Chanak in September 1922: 'the Dominions, in answer to Curzon's telegraphed appeal, refused to support a war with Turkey' (T&H 289) — the first time the Dominions had publicly refused a British military summons, and an event Quigley reads as marking the de facto end of the unified Empire's strategic autonomy. The 'Curzon Line' as the eastern boundary of Poland was laid down by the Supreme Council in December 1919 under his name (T&H 292). Quigley's most-quoted line about him: 'Lord Curzon, who was foreign secretary for four years (1919-1923) called the League of Nations "a good joke"' (T&H 300). He died in 1925 having narrowly missed the Premiership in 1923, when the King chose Baldwin over him.
Cited in
- anglo-american-establishment · p. 15 Quigley
George N. Curzon, (later Lord Curzon) a Fellow of All Souls, ex-secretary and protege of Lord Salisbury, was Under Secretary for Foreign Affairs (1895-1898) and Viceroy of India (1899-1905).
- anglo-american-establishment · p. 21 Quigley
George Nathaniel Curzon (Lord Curzon after 1898, 1859-1925) studied at Eton and Balliol (1872-1882). At the latter he was intimate with the future Lords Midleton, Selborne, and Salisbury.
- tragedy-and-hope · p. 142 Quigley
moderate imperialists like Lord Salisbury were followed by more active imperialists like Joseph Chamberlain, or Lords Curzon, Selborne, and Milner.
- tragedy-and-hope · p. 289 Quigley
the Dominions, in answer to Curzon's telegraphed appeal, refused to support a war with Turkey. The Treaty of Sevres, already in tatters, had to be discarded.
- tragedy-and-hope · p. 300 Quigley
Lord Curzon, who was foreign secretary for four years (1919-1923) called the League of Nations 'a good joke'; Britain rejected every effort of France and Czechoslovakia to strengthen the system of collective security.
- book-reviews · p. 157 Quigley
because the machinery for collective security had been removed from the League of Nations by Conservatives like Curzon, Balfour, Sir A. Chamberlain, and Sir Cecil Hurst.