To the Establishment of the Practice of Royal Visits to the Colonies of Great Britain: Background for the First Official Tour of the Prince of Wales to Canada in 1860

Abstract

The article regards the background of the first official visit of a member of the royal family to the colonial possessions of the British Empire – the tour of the Prince of Wales to Canada in 1860. The purpose of the analysis is to trace how the history of the emergence and development of the idea of traveling the heir to the British throne to Canada reflected the evolution of the views of the British and colonial politicianson of the Empire building and its perspectives. It is proved that the initiative of the royal journey,coming from the Canadian administration and supported by the British government,was aimed at strengthening ties between the mother country and the colony and solving pragmatic problems on both sides.The obtained results allow us to conclude that the project of the first official royal tour to overseas territories of Britain, being a product of the thought of the colonial society, indicated the mutual desire of the administration of Britain and Canada to find a balance of interests between the mother country and the colony in the process of updating forms and methods of colonial interaction and constructing the course of imperial policy.