George Canning

Canning, George 

Born Apr. 11, 1770, in London; died Aug. 8, 1827, in Chiswick. British statesman, Tory.

Canning graduated from Oxford University in 1791. He was elected to Parliament in 1793. From 1796 to 1799 he was undersecretary of state for foreign affairs in the cabinet of W. Pitt the Younger. He was foreign secretary from 1807 to 1809. A strong opponent of Napoleonic France, he conducted a policy of actively supporting Spain with financial, diplomatic, and military aid. From 1814 to 1816 he was ambassador to Portugal. He supported the repressive measures of the Liverpool government against the democratic movement in Britain; at the same time he headed the so-called Left Tories, who came out for certain concessions to the industrial bourgeoisie. In 1822 he became an influential member of Liverpool’s cabinet, in which he was foreign secretary. He succeeded in carrying through certain reforms (lowering the duties on grain and raw materials, facilitating the export of industrial goods, easing some criminal laws). In 1823 he condemned the French intervention in Spain and supported the British government’s recognition of the independence of the former Spanish colonies in Latin America. He supported the autonomy of Greece, where in 1821 an uprising had broken out against the Turkish yoke. In April 1827 he became prime minister.

Canning was an energetic and flexible director of British foreign policy. Expressing the aspirations of the English bourgeoisie for the establishment of hegemony in Europe and in world markets, he adopted a policy of opposition to the policies of the continental powers of the Holy Alliance.

WORKS

Speeches, vols. 1–6. London, 1828.

REFERENCES

Tarle, E. V. “Angliiskaia godovshchina: 1827–1902.” Soch., vol. 1. Moscow, 1957.
Petrie, C. George Canning, 2nd ed. London, 1946.