Synopses & Reviews
Volume III covers the long watershed of the nineteenth century, from the American independence of the 1780s to the eve of world war in 1914. This period saw Britain's greatest expansion as an empire-builder and a dominant world power.
We begin with several thematic chapters--some are on Britain while others consider the empire's periphery--exploring the key dynamics of British expansion that made imperial influence possible and imperial rule prevalent. The volume also studies the economic, cultural, and institutional frameworks that shaped Britain's overseas empire. Focus then shifts to the principal areas of imperial activity overseas, including both white-settler and tropical colonies, and the question of how British interests and imperial rule shaped the political, social, and economic histories of individual regions. The themes include economics, institutions, defense, technology, imperial and colonial cultures, science, and exploration. The volume examines not only the formal empire, stretching from Australasia and the West Indies to India and the African colonies, but also China and Latin America, which were the central components of Britain's "informal" empire.
About the Series:
The Oxford History of the British Empire is a major new assessment of the Empire in the light of recent scholarship and the progressive opening of historical records. It deals with the interaction of British and non-western societies from the Elizabethan era to the late twentieth century, provides a balanced treatment of the ruled as well as the rulers, and takes into account the significance of the Empire for the peoples of the British Isles. All five of the volumes in this series fully explore economic and social as well as political trends.
Review
"Magnificent...Taken together, these books constitute an extraordinary feat of organization and scholarship, and they provide the authoritative history of the British Empire for our generation, and the essential starting point of the re-writing of that history which will take place in the next generation. Opinions differ about the British Empire; there can be no disagreement about this superb history of it." --David Cannadine in The Times Literary Supplement
About the Author
Andrew Porter is Rhodes Professor of Imperial History at the University of London.
Table of Contents
List of Maps, List of Figures, List of Tables, Abbreviations and Location of Manuscript Sources, List of Contributors
Part 1
1. Introduction: Britain and the Empire in the Nineteenth Century, Andrew Porter
2. Economics and Empire: The Metropolitan Context, P. J. Cain
3. Economics and Empire: The Periphery and the Imperial Economy, B. R. Tomlinson
4. British Migration and the Peopling of the Empire, Marjory Harper
5. Migration from Africa, Asia, and the South Pacific, David Northrup
6. British Policy, Trade, and Informal Empire in the Mid-Nineteenth Century, Martin Lynn
7. Britain and Latin America, Alan Knight
8. Britain and China 1842-1914, Jürgen Osterhammel
9. Imperial Institutions and the Government of Empire, Peter Burroughs
10. Trusteeship, Anti-Slavery and Humanitarianism, Andrew Porter
11. Religion, Missionary Enthusiasm, and Empire, Andrew Porter
12. British Expansion, Empire, and Technological Change, Robert V. Kubicek
13. Empire and Metropolitan Cultures, John M. MacKenzie
14. Scientific Exploration and Empire, Robert A. Stafford
15. Defence and Imperial Disunity, Peter Burroughs
16. The Political Economy of Empire, 1880-1914, E. H. H. Green
Part 2
17. British Expansion and Rule in South-East Asia, A. J. Stockwell
18. India 1818-1860: The Two Faces of Colonialism, D. A. Washbrook
19. Imperial India, 1858-1914, Robin J. Moore
20. The Evolution of Colonial Cultures: Nineteenth-Century Asia, Susan Bayly
21. The British West Indies, Gad Heuman
22. Ireland and the Empire, David Fitzpatrick
23. Canada from 1815, Ged Martin
24. Australia and the Western Pacific, Donald Denoon with Marivic Wyndham
25. Southern Islands: New Zealand and Polynesia, Raewyn Dalziel
26. Southern Africa, 1795-1910, Christopher Saunders and Iain R. Smith
27. Great Britain and the Partition of Africa, 1870-1914, Colin Newbury
28. The British Occupation of Egypt from 1882, Afaf al Sayyid-Marsot
29. Cultural Encounters: Britain and Africa in the Nineteenth Century, T. C. McCaskie
30. The British Empire: Costs and Benefits, Prosperity and Security, 1870-1914, Avner Offer
Chronology, Index