British Empire

The British Empire was the worldwide domain controlled by Britain from its origins about 1600 until independence was granted to the dominions of Canada, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa in the 1920s, India and Pakistan in 1947, and the other colonies such as Kenya in the 1960s. It became the Commonwealth of Nations in 1920, which has never been more than a discussion forum. Of the 70 or so empires in world history, the British and Roman have gained the most attention.

The term "British Empire" was used by historians as early as 1708. before that the usual term was "English Empire."

First Empire

The European powers after 1500 had national governments with centralized military and navy power, financial resources, religious impulses and military technology. Some of them--Portugal, Spain, England, France, and the Netherlands especially, wanted overseas colonies to bolster their economic, religious and political ambitions, and provide an outlet for the energies of ambitious young men. England (Britain after 1703) was the most successful because it resisted the ambitions of Spain and, in a series of wars in the 18th century, defeated France in North America and India.

First efforts, 1497-1640

Portugal and Spain built the first empires, based on the wealth of Brazil and Mexico and Peru. England was allied with Portugal, but was a foe of Spain, a much larger country with a stronger navy in the century after Columbus. The English responded as predators, raiding and seizing Spanish ships, under the cover of "privateering" authorized by the government. Spain in 1588 sent a major fleet (the Armada) to conquer England, but it was destroyed by storms, and Spain lost her superiority at sea. England set out small expeditions to claim land (such as Newfoundland, settled in 1610) and set up bases to raid the Spanish main. Most of the early efforts were of small scale, and failed, such as the "Lost Colony of Roanoke" (1585-87), where a hundred settlers in North Carolina simply vanished. The small settlement at Jamestown miraculously survived and once the value of native tobacco was appreciated it became the nucleus for the highly successful colony of Virginia. In 1619 the Virginians set up an elected legislative assembly, the house of burgesses, which is now the state legislature. Religion motivated some 30,000 Puritans, a community-oriented, modernizing group that settled Massachusetts and Connecticut, and created the Yankee model of being American.

13 American colonies

• see Colonial America
• Atlantic history

The English captured the Dutch colony of New Amsterdam in 1664 and renamed it New York. Each of the 13 American colonies was different, but typically a colony was ruled by a governor appointed from London who controlled the executive administration and relied upon a locally elected legislature to vote taxes and make laws. By the 18th century, the American colonies were growing very rapidly because of ample supplies of land and food, and low death rates. They were richer than most parts of Britain, and attracted a steady flow of immigrants, especially teenagers who came as indentured servants. The tobacco and rice plantations imported black slaves from the British colonies in the West Indies, and by the 1770s they comprised a fifth of the American population. The question of independence from Britain did not arise as long as the colonies needed British military support against French and Spanish power. London regarded the American colonies as existing merely for the benefit of the mother country.

Second Empire

Gentlemanly capitalists and the economics of Empire

Imperial policy was set by London-based financial and mercantile interests. Gentlemanly capitalism was the nexus of landed, financial, and service elites that dominated politics and the economy in Britain and were the driving force behind imperial expansion. That is, "gentlemanly capitalists" in Britain set policy, while the dominions were run by a dependent and collaborating elite.

Culture of the Empire

The Victorians saw themselves as the vanguard of western civilization, as pioneers of industry and progress. They were confident in their ability to improve the human condition everywhere, and of their capacity to turn potential wealth into reality. Their formula was liberalism, that is the release private enterprise from the dead hand of the state. They believed that unending social energy would flow from the interplay of free minds, free markets and Christian morality. The Victorian outlook, furthermore, was suffused with a vivid sense of moral superiority, religious mission and self-righteousness. Across the globe the Canningites and Palmerstonians worked endlessly to bring about conditions favouring commercial advance and liberal awakening. Since the 1970s, historians more attuned to the sensitivities of the colonized people have challenged the effectiveness of the imperialists.

Maps

• 

  West Indies in 1763

• 

  India in 1763

• 

  Empire in 1783, showing the lost American colonies in gray

• 

  India in 1857

• 

  South Africa, 1910

• 

  Africa in 1881

• 

  Indian Ocean area 1920

• 

  Suez Region, 1922

Bibliography

Overviews

• Black, Jeremy. The British Seaborne Empire (2004)
• Brendon, Piers. "A Moral Audit of the British Empire." History Today, (Oct 2007), Vol. 57 Issue 10, pp 44-47, online at EBSCO
• Bryant, Arthur. The History of Britain and the British Peoples, 3 vols. (1984–90), popular.
• Cain, P. J. and A.G. Hopkins. British Imperialism, 1688-2000 (2nd ed. 2001), 739pp, detailed economic history that presents the new "gentlemanly capitalists" thesis excerpt and text search
• Colley, Linda. Captives: Britain, Empire, and the World, 1600-1850 (2004), 464pp excerpts and online search from Amazon.com
• Ferguson, Niall. Empire: The Rise and Demise of the British World Order and the Lessons for Global Power (2002), excerpt and text search
• Hyam, Ronald. Britain's Imperial Century, 1815-1914: A Study of Empire and Expansion (1993). excerpt and text search
• James, Lawrence. The Rise and Fall of the British Empire (1997).
• Judd, Denis. Empire: The British Imperial Experience, From 1765 to the Present (1996). online edition
• Lloyd; T. O. The British Empire, 1558-1995 Oxford University Press, 1996 online edition
• Louis, William. Roger (general editor), The Oxford History of the British Empire, 5 vols. (1998–99).
  • vol 1 "The Origins of Empire" ed. by Nicholas Canny
  • vol 2 "The Eighteenth Century" ed. by P. J. Marshall excerpt and text search
  • vol 3 The Nineteenth Century edited by William Roger Louis, Alaine M. Low, Andrew Porter; (1998). 780 pgs. online edition, also excerpt and text search
  • vol 4 The Twentieth Century edited by Judith M. Brown, (1998). 773 pgs online edition also excerpt and text search
  • vol 5 "Historiography" ed, by Robin W. Winks (1999) excerpt and text search
• Marshall, P. J. (ed.), The Cambridge Illustrated History of the British Empire (1996). excerpt and text search
• Robinson, Howard . The Development of the British Empire (1922), 465pp online edition
• Rose, J. Holland, A. P. Newton and E. A. Benians (gen. eds.), The Cambridge History of the British Empire, 9 vols. (1929–61); vol 1: "The Old Empire from the Beginnings to 1783" 934pp online edition Volume I
• Smith, Simon C. British Imperialism 1750-1970 (1998). brief

Atlases and reference

• Bartholomew, John. Atlas of the British empire throughout the world (1868 edition) online 1868 edition; (1877 edition) online 1877 edition, the maps are poorly reproduced
• Bayly, C. A. ed. Atlas of the British Empire (1989). survey by scholars; heavily illustrated
• Dalziel, Nigel. The Penguin Historical Atlas of the British Empire (2006), 144 pp excerpts and online search from amazon.com
• Faunthorpe, John Pincher. Geography of the British colonies and foreign possessions (1874) online edition
• Lucas, Charles Prestwood. A Historical Geography of the British Colonies: part 2: West Indies (1890) online edition
• Lucas, Charles Prestwood. A Historical Geography of the British Colonies: part 4: South and East Africa (1900) online edition
• Olson, James S. and Robert S. Shadle; Historical Dictionary of the British Empire (1996) online edition
• Porter, A. N. Atlas of British Overseas Expansion (1994)

Political, economic and intellectual studies

• Andrews, Kenneth R. Trade, Plunder and Settlement: Maritime Enterprise and the Genesis of the British Empire, 1480–1630 (1984).
• Armitage, David. The Ideological Origins of the British Empire (2000). online edition
• Armitage, David, 'Greater Britain: A Useful Category of Historical Analysis?' American Historical Review, 104 (1999), 427–45. in JSTOR
• Armitage, David, ed. Theories of Empire, 1450–1800 (1998).
• Armitage, David, and M. J. Braddick, eds. The British Atlantic World, 1500–1800, (2002)
• Barker, Sir Ernest, The Ideas and Ideals of the British Empire (1941).
• Baumgart, W. Imperialism: The Idea and Reality of British and French Colonial Expansion, 1880-1914 (1982)
• Bayly, C. A. Imperial Meridian: The British Empire and the World, 1780-1831 (1989).
• Bennett, George (ed.), The Concept of Empire: Burke to Attlee, 1774–1947 (1953).
• Blaut, J. M. The Colonizers' Model of the World 1993
• Cain, P. J. and A.G. Hopkins. British Imperialism, 1688-2000 (2nd ed. 2001), 739pp, detailed economic history that presents the new "gentlemanly capitalists" thesis
  • Cain, P. J.. and A. G. Hopkins. "Gentlemanly Capitalism and British Expansion Overseas I. The Old Colonial System, 1688-1850," Economic History Review, 2nd ser. 39, 4 (1986): 501-525 in JSTOR
  • Cain, P. J.. and A. G. Hopkins. "Gentlemanly Capitalism and British Expansion Overseas II: New Imperialism, 1850-1945," The Economic History Review Vol. 40, No. 1 (Feb., 1987), pp. 1-26 in JSTOR
  • Cain, P. J.. and A. G. Hopkins. "The Political Economy of British Expansion Overseas, 1750-1914," The Economic History ReviewVol. 33, No. 4 (Nov., 1980), pp. 463-490 in JSTOR
• Darby, Philip. The Three Faces of Imperialism: British and American Approaches to Asia and Africa, 1870-1970 (1987)
• Doyle, Michael W. Empires (1986). excerpt and text search
• Dumett, Raymond E. Gentlemanly Capitalism and British Imperialism: The New Debate on Empire. (1999). 234 pp.
• Elliott, J.H., Empires of the Atlantic World: Britain and Spain in America 1492-1830 (2006), a major interpretation excerpt and text search
• Gallagher, John, and Ronald Robinson. "The Imperialism of Free Trade" The Economic History Review, Vol. 6, No. 1 (1953), pp. 1-15 in JSTOR, online free at Mt. Holyoke highly influential interpretation in its day
• Harlow, V. T. The Founding of the Second British Empire, 1763–1793, 2 vols. (1952–64).
• Heinlein, Frank. British Government Policy and Decolonisation, 1945-1963: Scrutinising the Official Mind (2002). excerpt and text search
• Herbertson, A. J. The Oxford Survey of the British Empire, (1914) online edition
• Ingram, Edward. The British Empire as a World Power: Ten Studies (2001) excerpt and text search
• Jackson, Ashley. British Empire and the Second World War (2006)
• James, Lawrence. The Rise and Fall of the British Empire (1994).
• Johnson, Robert. British Imperialism (2003). historiography excerpt and text search
• Kennedy, Paul, The Rise and Fall of British Naval Mastery (1976).
• Kenny, Kevin, ed. Ireland and the British Empire (2004). excerpt and text search
• Koehn, Nancy F. The Power of Commerce: Economy and Governance in the First British Empire (1994) online edition
• Knorr, Klaus E., British Colonial Theories 1570–1850 (1944).
• Louis, William Roger. The British Empire in the Middle East, 1945-1951: Arab Nationalism, the United States, and Postwar Imperialism (1984) online edition
• Louis, William Roger. Imperialism at Bay: The United States and the Decolonization of the British Empire, 1941-1945 (1978) online edition
• Marshall, Peter, and Glyn Williams, eds. The British Atlantic Empire before the American Revolution (1980) online edition
• Mehta, Uday Singh, Liberalism and Empire: A Study in Nineteenth-Century British Liberal Thought (1999).
• Webster, Anthony. Gentlemen Capitalists: British Imperialism in South East Asia, 1770-1890 (1998) excerpt and text search

Social and cultural studies

• August, Thomas G. The Selling of the Empire: British and French Imperialist Propaganda, 1890-1940 (1985)
• Bailyn, Bernard, and Philip D. Morgan (eds.), Strangers within the Realm: Cultural Margins of the First British Empire (1991)
• Brantlinger, Patrick. Rule of Darkness: British Literature and Imperialism, 1830-1914 (1988).
• Broich, John. "Engineering the Empire: British Water Supply Systems and Colonial Societies, 1850-1900." Journal of British Studies 2007 46(2): 346-365. Issn: 0021-9371 Fulltext: at Ebsco
• Clayton, Martin. and Bennett Zon. Music and Orientalism in the British Empire, 1780s-1940s (2007) excerpt and text search
• Constantine, Stephen. "British Emigration to the Empire-commonwealth since 1880: from Overseas Settlement to Diaspora?" Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth History 2003 31(2): 16-35. ISSN 0308-6534
• Hall, Catherine, and Sonya O. Rose. At Home with the Empire: Metropolitan Culture and the Imperial World (2007) excerpt and text search
• Hall, Catherine. Civilising Subjects: Colony and Metropole in the English Imagination, 1830–1867 (2002)
• Hodgkins, Christopher. Reforming Empire: Protestant Colonialism and Conscience in British Literature (U of Missouri Press, 2002) online edition
• Hyam, Ronald. Empire and Sexuality: The British Experience (1990).
• Karatani, Rieko. Defining British Citizenship: Empire, Commonwealth, and Modern Britain (2003) online edition
• Lassner, Phyllis. Colonial Strangers: Women Writing the End of the British Empire (2004) online edition also excert and text search
• Lazarus, Neil, ed. The Cambridge Companion to Postcolonial Literary Studies (2004)
• Levine, Philippa, ed. Gender and Empire (2004). excerpt and text search
• McDevitt, Patrick F. May the Best Man Win: Sport, Masculinity, and Nationalism in Great Britain and the Empire, 1880-1935 (2004). excerpt and text search
• Morgan, Philip D. and Hawkins, Sean, ed. Black Experience and the Empire (2004). excerpt and text search
• Morris, Jan. The Spectacle of Empire: Style, Effect and Pax Britannica (1982).
• Porter, Andrew. Religion Versus Empire?: British Protestant Missionaries and Overseas Expansion, 1700-1914 (2004)
• Potter, Simon J. News and the British World: The Emergence of an Imperial Press System. Clarendon, 2003
• Price, Richard. "One Big Thing: Britain, its Empire, and Their Imperial Culture." Journal of British Studies 2006 45(3): 602-627. Issn: 0021-9371 Fulltext: Ebsco
• Rubinstein, W. D. Capitalism, Culture, and Decline in Britain, 1750-1990 (1993),
• Rüger, Jan. "Nation, Empire and Navy: Identity Politics in the United Kingdom 1887-1914" Past & Present 2004 (185): 159-187. ISSN 0031-2746 online
• Sauerberg, Lars Ole. Intercultural Voices in Contemporary British Literature: The Implosion of Empire (2001) online edition
• Spurr, David. The Rhetoric of Empire: Colonial Discourse in Journalism, Travel Writing and Imperial Administration (1993). excerpt and text search
• Trollope, Joanna. Britannia's Daughters: Women of the British Empire (1983).
• Wilson, Kathleen. The Island Race: Englishness, Empire, and Gender in the Eighteenth Century (2003).
• Wilson, Kathleen, ed. A New Imperial History: Culture Identity, and Modernity in Britain and the Empire, 1660–1840 (2004)

Primary sources

• Board of Education. Educational Systems of the Chief Crown Colonies and Possessions of the British Empire (1905). 340pp online edition
• Boehmer, Elleke ed. Empire Writing: An Anthology of Colonial Literature, 1870-1918 (1998) online edition
• Brooks, Chris. and Peter Faulkner (eds.), The White Man's Burdens: An Anthology of British Poetry of the Empire (Exeter UP, 1996).
• Hall, Catherine. ed. Cultures of Empire: A Reader: Colonizers in Britain and the Empire in the 19th and 20th Centuries (2000) excerpt and text search

Historiography and memory

• Adams, James Truslow. "On the Term 'British Empire,'" American Historical Review, 22 (1927), 485–9; in JSTOR
• Barone, Charles A. Marxist Thought on Imperialism: Survey and Critique (1985)
• Cannadine, David, "'Big Tent' Historiography: Transatlantic Obstacles and Opportunities in Writing the History of Empire," Common Knowledge 11.3 (2005) 375-392 in Project Muse
• Cannadine, David. Ornamentalism: How the British Saw Their Empire (2002) excerpt and text search
• Colley, Linda. "What Is Imperial History Now?" in David Cannadine, ed. What Is History Now? (2002), 132–47.
• Wilson, Kathleen, ed. A New Imperial History: Culture, Identity and Modernity in Britain and the Empire, 1660-1840 (2004). excerpt and text search
• Pocock, J. G. A. 'The Limits and Divisions of British History: In Search of the Unknown Subject', American Historical Review, 87 (1982), 311–36.
• Prakash, Gyan. “Writing Post-Orientalist Histories of the Third World: Perspectives from Indian Historiography,” Comparative Studies in Society and History 32, 2 (1990): 383-408 in JSTOR

External Links

• primary sources and older secondary sources