Second Salisbury Unionist ministry
| Second Salisbury Unionist ministry | |
|---|---|
| 1895–1902 | |
Salisbury (1897)
|
|
| Date formed | 25 June 1895 |
| Date dissolved | 11 July 1902 |
| People and organisations | |
| Head of state |
|
| Head of government | Lord Salisbury |
| Member parties | |
| Status in legislature | Majority (coalition) |
| Opposition party | Liberal Party |
| Opposition leaders |
|
| History | |
| Election(s) | |
| Legislature term(s) | |
| Predecessor | Rosebery ministry |
| Successor | Balfour ministry |
| Balfour ministry | |
|---|---|
| 1902–1905 | |
 |
|
| Date formed | 11 July 1902 |
| Date dissolved | 5 December 1905 |
| People and organisations | |
| Head of state | Edward VII |
| Head of government | Arthur Balfour |
| Member parties | |
| Status in legislature | Majority (coalition) |
| Opposition party | Liberal Party |
| Opposition leaders |
|
| History | |
| Legislature term(s) | 27th UK Parliament |
| Predecessor | Salisbury Unionist ministry |
| Successor | Campbell-Bannerman ministry |
A coalition of the Conservative and Liberal Unionist parties took power in the United Kingdom following the general election of 1895. The Conservative leader, Lord Salisbury, took office as prime minister, and his nephew, Arthur Balfour, was leader of the Commons, but various major posts went to the Liberal Unionist leaders, most notably the Liberal Unionist leader in the Lords, the Duke of Devonshire, who was made Lord President, and his colleague in the Commons, Joseph Chamberlain, who became Colonial Secretary. It was this government which would conduct the Boer War from 1899 to 1902, which was exploited by the government to help win a landslide victory in the general election of 1900.
The unionist government consisted of two ministries: the second Salisbury Unionist ministry (from 1895 to 1902) and then the Balfour ministry (from 1902 onwards).
Balfour succeeded Salisbury as prime minister in 1902, and the government would eventually falter after Chamberlain proposed his scheme for tariff reform, whose partial embrace by Balfour led to the resignation of the more orthodox free traders in the Cabinet.
After the conclusion of the Boer War the British government sought to rebuild South Africa's economy which had been devastated by the war. An important part of the rebuilding effort was to get the gold mines of the Witwatersrand, the richest in history and a major cause of the war, back in production as soon as possible. Because the government decreed that white labour was too expensive and black labourers were reluctant to return to the mines, the Union government decided to import 63,000 contracted workers from China.
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