Viscount Palmerston Henry John Temple was a very significant figure in the history of Great Britain. He was the longest-serving Viscount Palmerston and pushed for various policy formulations geared towards improving the position of Great Britain as a superpower in the world. Although the world had already accepted Britain as a powerful country, Henry thought it was necessary to have more influence by extending their colonial territories (Darwin, 24). Besides, he believed that the solution to Britain achieving more power was ensuring that they controlled as many geographical gateways as possible. There was an urgent need for Great Britain to have more territories under its control. His style of leadership was similar to that of George Canning, with regard to foreign policy strategies (Parry, 146-147). Britain’s foreign policy was motivated by the need to gain meaningful control that would prevent the emergence of any power within the continent. At the time, two members of the European Union that intended to challenge the superiority of Great Britain were France and Russia (Parry, 151). Henry’s plan for dealing with the threat of the two nations was to play them against each other to create enmity and change their focus. To prevent his intentions from being known, John became a strong advocate for social progress through reforms (Parry, 146-147). Henry was a strong believer in liberalism because he was confident that the other countries could compete on the same level as Great Britain, thus its global power would not be compromised (Parry, 196). He knew that disagreements between eastern powers would be beneficial to the British interests in terms of maintaining the sovereignty of Belgium and interrupting the planned Russian expansion into Asia (Darwin, 32). John was a strong believer in good commercial relations between Great Britain and the rest of the nations. His policy on commerce was characterized by a strong desire to acquire more markets for British commodities. He said, “The great objective of the Government in every quarter of the world was to extend the commerce of the country” (Darwin, 36). Reports indicate that John’s era was characterized by constant pressure from the opposition, who claimed that Great Britain had been transformed into an autocracy (Parry, 240). The opposition argued that his prolonged period of leadership allowed him to have unlimited control over the country’s resources. Palmerston had the support of his fellow liberals, especially those that were seeking to earn a faster ticket to political stardom. Most of his support came from leaders who felt he had done enough to contain the pressure coming from France and Russia. In addition, his ability to convince France into forming an alliance during the Italian-Austrian conflict also worked to his advantage because many people applauded his intention of preventing a war from breaking out. He said, ” trade ought not to be enforced by cannonballs, but on the other hand cannot flourish without security, and that security may often be unattainable without the exhibition of physical force” (Porter,21). Benjamin Disraeli Another important figure in the history of Great Britain w