The Country of the Blind

Wells chose to set “The Country of the Blind” in Ecuador, a South American country that was colonized by the Spanish Empire from the 16th century until 1820. Although most of Latin America had declared independence from their European colonizers by the time Wells published the story, colonialism was still a widespread phenomenon at the start of the 20th century. While the history of imperialism and decolonization is vast, its specific impact during Wells’s time informs “The Country of the Blind.”  

During the 19th and early 20th centuries, Wells’s native British Empire grew into the world’s largest imperial power. Part of its spoils during the Napoleonic Wars included colonial territories that were previously held by France, Spain, the Netherlands, and Denmark. The British Empire continued its expansion into Africa and Asia, consolidating its sovereignty over territories that included India, Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaya, South Africa, and Egypt. The British Empire’s reach stretched as far as New Zealand, which it declared sovereignty over in 1840. The Empire’s power during this time granted it enough power to compensate for some of its losses in the previous century, most notably the Thirteen Colonies in North America.

The impact of the American Revolution in the 18th century galvanized independence movements in many colonized territories during the two centuries that followed. This included Spanish America, which waged the wars against the Spanish Empire to seek economic reforms among the colonies. Although independence was not the stated goal of the Spanish American revolutionary movements, key victories driven by pro-independence leader Simón Bolivar helped to loosen Spain’s grasp on the region. By the 1830s, the Spanish Empire failed to reclaim their colonial territories in America, ultimately forcing them to relinquish the continent. 

With the dawn of the 20th century, however, a new wave of colonialism emerged. The United States, despite its origins as a former colony of the British, became a new colonial power in its own right when it waged war against Spain in 1898. This enabled it to acquire sovereign control over Spain’s colonial territories of Puerto Rico, Guam, Cuba, and the Philippines. Not long after, the outbreak of World War I signaled another major shift in the balance of colonial powers, especially as it brought an end to the Ottoman, Austo-Hungarian, and German Empires. While the British Empire annexed German and Ottoman colonies, political unrest in their other territories, including Ireland, India, and the Caribbean, called urgently for independence. Simultaneously, the Russian Revolution, which brought an end to the Russian Empire, inspired further independence movements.

The time in which Wells lived, from 1846-1946, roughly coincided with Britain’s “imperial century,” allowing him to glimpse the Empire’s colonialist impact on his countrymen’s cultural and social attitudes firsthand. Wells was a well-known socialist throughout his life, and “The Country of the Blind” reflects a vision that subverts the social hierarchy and cultural assumptions experienced by people with disabilities. With the story, Wells draws comparisons between the marginalization of people with disabilities and the social hierarchy of colonialism while also commenting on the cultural entrenchment of social attitudes.