British Imperial History

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Conquest in a Global Perspective: Towards a New Imperial History
Originating as a university subject in the late nineteenth century, British imperial history has been a patriotic mission narrating a tale of indomitable march of the values of Enlightenment and modernity that helped salvage the subject populations in the colonies from centuries of ignorance and backwardness. In other words, it was an ideological defence of British expansion where the histories of the colonies were hardly accounted for. This celebratory tone, however tended to wane in the post-1950s as the process of decolonisation set in.1 Focus now tended to shift away from Britain to the role of indigenous people on the spot in the making and unmaking of the British empire.2 The 1960s and 1970s were predominated by national histories with a strong focus on anti-colonial struggles. In such a context, …show more content…
One of the most prominent examples is the multi-volumed Oxford History of the British Empire. Ranging from the sixteenth to the twentieth centuries, it addresses the rise of the British empire and its demise, and aims at a comprehensive account of imperial politics, ideologies, and economics, and their impact on the people it ruled. An important feature of this series is an understanding of the division between the 'first' British empire, centred on the settlements in America and the West Indies, the slave trade, and the domination of Ireland, and the Anglo-Scottish Union of 1707 on the one hand, and the 'second' British empire comprising British possessions in Asia, Africa, Australia and the Pacific on the other with the end of the Seven Years' War in 1763 as the watershed.4 The series however, falls short in its aim at providing for the non-western populations' perspective of the British empire. The indigenous people have been largely viewed through the prism of imperial power and

american revolution Essay

In the 1760s and 1770s the British imperial rule faced resistance and rebellion from Americans. The British imperial faced the same struggle the French faced against the British protestant, the Whig’s, ideology and belief. The Franco-American alliance forged in 1778 declared the opponents of the Whig and protestant as their enemy. The Briton renounced some Britons who were against the imperial rule while celebrating those who stood by the British imperial in the crisis. The resistance in the long…

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1763 Dbq Analysis

Between 1763 and 1775, there were three ‘Imperial Crises’ which occurred between the British and the American colonists. The conflict that was produced during this period arose through an undefined balance of political and economic power between the two parties. In 1763, Britain had just concluded the French and Indian war and were left with an immense and almost crippling debt of around 140 million pounds sterling (“Turning Point In American History”). In Britain’s eyes, the most effective way to…

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American Revolution Lecture Summary Essay

The American Revolution The British Empire changed in territorial and demographic terms as a result of the loss of the thirteen American colonies through the American Revolution. But this shift was also due to three additional factors: the declining economic importance of the West Indies; Latin American independence; and the substitution of a free trade regime for a mercantilist system. The change meant that the British Empire shifted its geographic focus from America and the Atlantic to Asia and…

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History 304 Essay

Empire Rocked a Nation: Britain's Imperial Past and the Counter-culture of the 1960s Sara Sirianni HST 302 Dr. Blaszak 05 November 2008 In his work, The Lion’s Share, Bernard Porter states that there is no such thing as an imperial culture that had a deep or widespread impact on Great Britain. He thinks that no one in today’s Britain should feel pride or shame for the old empire because it has absolute nothing to do with them. “Culture coloured British imperialism, but was not responsible…

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How Did Ww1 Affect Australia

Australian men joined up to the war with New Zealanders to help the British Empire. The Australian army which included New Zealanders was called Australian Imperial Force (AIF). One of the famous facts is the operation of landing on Gallipoli. Australians still remember it as a legend of the war and celebrate it. Also, there was not any other voluntary army except AIF, so at that time, Australia had unusual war experience that to support British Empire as a volunteer. It has been discussed about why Australian…

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Rethinking Mercantalism Essay

Rethinking Mercantilism: Political Economy, the British Empire, and the Atlantic World in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries Author(s): Steve Pincus Reviewed work(s): Source: The William and Mary Quarterly, Vol. 69, No. 1 (January 2012), pp. 3-34 Published by: Omohundro Institute of Early American History and Culture Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.5309/willmaryquar.69.1.0003 . Accessed: 06/09/2012 12:18 Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms…

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Braddock's War: The French And Indian War

defeat, the Fort William Henry "massacre," the Battle of Quebec — know it as the French and Indian War. Neither name communicates the conflict's immensity and importance. Winston Churchill came closer in The History of the English-Speaking Peoples when he called it "a world war — the first in history," noting that unlike the previous Anglo-French wars, this time…

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Every Woman's Heritage

contribute towards a sense of heritage, tradition, and history? By looking at advertisements in Femina magazine in the early 1970s, a distinct sense of the nationalist narratives present in Indian print culture at the time come through. In a sense, what is presented “ideal Indian woman” clashes with the reality of many (if not most) Indian women’s experiences. Advertisements in…

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bulding a nation Essay

The Victorian Era The Victorian era of Canadian history was Queen Victoria’s reign over Britain from 20 June 1837 until her death, on 22 January 1901. It was a long period of peace, prosperity, refined sensibilities and national selfconfidence for Britain. The Victorian era had many effects on canadian culture. Fashion, architecture style, religious ideas and technology. Victorian fashion comprises the various fashions and trends in British culture that emerged and developed in the …

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Wilderness Essay

‘A discussion of race and heroism within the nineteenth century travel writings of Richard Lander’ Travel writing within the mid nineteenth century was one of the most useful forms of ‘geographical knowledge’ and primary agents of British imperialism. This was due to narrative accounts being embedded with the ideologies of the subsequent western authors and explorers who constructed them (Pratt, 1992; Youngs, 2006). Driver (2000:27) furthermore adds that the “culture of exploration was heterogeneous”…

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