New Amazonia A Foretaste of the Future 1889 is a novel by Elizabeth Burgoyne Corbett In June 1889 British novelist and President of the Womens National AntiSuffrage League Mary Augusta Ward published her reactionary essay quotAn Appeal Against Female Suffragequot in The Nineteenth Century In response Corbett penned New Amazonia a feminist utopian novel which depicts the emergence of an advanced society of women in the notsodistant future While little is known about Corbett her surviving novels and stories suggest she was a passionate campaigner for womens suffrage in an era of conservative politics and traditional values quotThis country is New Amazonia A long time ago it was called Erin by some but Ireland was the name it was best known by It used to be the scene of perpetual strife and warfare Our archives tell us that it was subjugated by the warlike English and that it suffered for centuries from want and oppressionquot Having fallen asleep for hundreds of years a Victorian man and woman emerge to a vastly different world Following a devastating war between Britain and Ireland the British repopulated their colony with women deemed to be surplus On New Amazonia these women came to control all aspects of government and culture leading to the eradication of corruption and oppression Scientifically advanced the Amazonians have developed a technique for strengthening the human body and increasing the lifespan of women by hundreds of years Mesmerized by what she finds in...
