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This chapter discusses the great Händel Commemoration and how it exemplified the consolidation of a national culture of great power and durability. This posthumous apotheosis reveals a good deal about the development of British culture in the 18th century. In addition, it explains that the Protestant Reformation greatly intensified nationalism. Religious independence was then underpinned by a surge of cultural nationalism. Under Queen Elizabeth, resolutely Protestant and impeccably English, cultural achievement was married to political success to form a powerful source of legitimation. This chapter examines the sources of England’s wealth, particularly the advance of commerce which made the strongest and most widespread impression. Next, it discusses the country’s fourth national asset — liberty. It then explores the life of King George III.

A centralized state was constructed in Tonga by a warrior chief of a maximal lineage. From 1845, through war, title succession, and adroit patronage of Wesleyan missionary converts, Taufa'ahau emerged in the manner of Kamehameha in Hawai'i as a territorial paramount by descent and achievement as King George Tupou I. New and old institutions were combined in the Tongan Constitution of 1875; and for the first time secular and religious titles were held by one high chief. His successors warded off a series of interventions by Fiji's governors, but the Colonial Office acknowledged Tonga's autonomy as a sovereign state from 1911. Since then, foreign settlement and foreign over-rule have been kept at bay by a patrimonial state that has managed to satisfy its nobility and office-holders and retain the loyalty of most Tongans.

This chapter begins by giving a brief description about William Herschel's family and his private life. It explains that despite their poverty, the Herschels were very conscious of the value of good education. It describes Herschel as a determined boy who was willing to do any kind of work just to earn money. It narrates William's love for building telescopes; this made him a famous astronomer and was his fuel for building his own telescope-making business. It adds that his approach to astronomy was something quite new and how his approach led to his discovery of the planet Uranus. It also tells of how was able to receive a state income from King George III so that he would no longer have to spend most of his time earning money as a musician. It discusses William's other discoveries and investigates the life of William's son, John Frederick.

This chapter examines the meaning, method, and practice of conquest in Australia. It suggests that the continent and islands of Australia were claimed for the British Empire in an interlinked chain of ritual extending over more than fifty years. James Cook hoisted the British flag on Possession Island on August 22, 1770 and claimed the territory he had seen in the name of King George III and this claim was reinforced by the King himself on 12 October 1786. Several other claims were made and settlements established from that moment until 1829, but the actual conquest of the country and its people extended a long time beyond those years.

This chapter considers Venizelos' political views. Venizelos was less devoted than Trikoupis to the principle of the superiority of parliamentary politics over all other forms of democratic governance. His own inclination was toward the Aristotelian division of politics into pure and corrupt versions. He was therefore less concerned with the political system than with its actual operation. This view of politics naturally placed the burden of state management on the persons in power, rather than on the system of politics. Success, therefore, would depend mostly on the attributes of the personalities who were placed, by choice or chance, in the key posts of power. When Venizelos restored the damaged prestige of the monarchy, after the 1909 coup had challenged its legitimacy, and reinstated King George as the arbiter of parliamentary politics in 1910, he was depending entirely on the moderation and prudence of the particular monarch for the viability of the institution. He could anticipate neither the assassination of George nor the character of Constantine, who replaced him on the throne in 1913. Before the National Schism, Venizelos had encouraged a bipolar system of governance in which the head of state and the head of government shared substantial authority. His hope was that the grateful monarch would be willing to grant his consent on vital issues of reform and foreign policy.

This chapter looks at colonial attitudes to British foreign policy during the War of the Austrian Succession (1740–8), the brief peace of 1748–57, and the Seven Years War (1757–63). It touches on themes including the balance of power, the Hanoverian connection, the Austrian, Prussian, and Dutch alliances, the Diplomatic Revolution of 1756, and the Treaties of Aix-la-Chapelle (1748) and Paris (1763). It follows how colonists understood struggles with France and Spain in the Americas within these larger conflicts, from the capture of Louisbourg by the Massachusetts militia in 1745 to events in the Ohio Valley in the mid-1750s, and came to view the colonies as part of the European geopolitics system. And it explores how colonial and metropolitan sentiments about European warfare began to diverge during these conflicts.

This chapter aims to detail the gathering crescendo for some form of action to be taken on the drink issue. As the war progressed, its pressures had increasing repercussions on the home front. The expenditure of shells and arms on an unprecedented scale increased pressure on Britain’s industrial infrastructure. Adjusting to this demand for military hardware was a difficult task and the type of war being fought accentuated the problem. Britain’s factories, whilst simultaneously having to deal with a large amount of its experienced workforce joining the army, could not cope with demand. Blame had to be placed somewhere, so it is unsurprising that the industrial working class bore the brunt of accusations regarding degenerate behaviour. During this period Lloyd George and King George V spoke about how important the drink issue was to the war effort. In an important speech Lloyd George criticised workers’ drinking habits and his actions suggest that he wanted a ‘national conversation’ to occur on the issue. This was the period during which the ‘severity’ of the drink problem was finally realised by society.

This chapter sheds light on the period when King George II declared war on France in 1744. The focus of the campaigns fought elsewhere shifted from the south to the west and the southeast became more complex and more dangerous with Georgia's role overshadowed by that of the far stronger colony of South Carolina. The British had an unstable coalition of Chickasaws, Cherokees, and a few Choctaws. The Lower Creeks enjoyed this position as they were lured by all the imperial powers and received gifts from all of them. In 1738 the British government relieved the Georgia Trustees of the responsibility for military affairs, and Oglethorpe as the British commander in chief, had the main responsibility for maintaining Indian relations. His appointment of Captain William Horton as his successor as chief negotiator and his subsequent relieving by his superior officer lieutenant colonel Alexander Heron are some of the topics looked at in this chapter.

The focus of this chapter alternates throughout from Ostenaco and his travels to the centre of London, to Reynolds’s endeavour to paint his portrait, back to Ostenaco, back to Reynolds, and then finally ends with Ostenaco’s voyage home in October 1762. The chapter covers only six months, but this period turned out to be portentous for both Cherokee and British fortunes. The Cherokees looked set to enjoy some assured independence herein and the British teetered on the verge of wiping out all imperial rivalry. Amid the narrative flipping, we follow Ostenaco’s adventures through the seamier regions of London’s lowlife—including taverns, spas, and drunken escapades in pleasure gardens—to his diplomatic meeting with King George III. We witness Reynolds’s meeting with Ostenaco and his attempt to capture the Cherokee’s image on canvas according to his neoclassical philosophy of art. Reynolds afterwards reckoned the work a failure—an intriguingly rare moment of defeat for the painter—but it nonetheless distils much about attitudes to empire in Britain at the time.

This chapter highlights the uniqueness of the establishment of colonial Georgia compared to other English colonies. It was first undertaken as a philanthropic enterprise to create a place where the worthy poor of England and Europe could find refuge. Georgia was the only place where the enslavement of blacks and the exploitation of Indians were prohibited. It officially began with the royal grant of territory and governing authority to a group of twenty-one colonial promoters by King George II in June 1732. The territory extended from the Savannah River to the Altamaha River and westerly from the heads of these rivers to the South Seas. James Edward Oglethorpe is described as the foremost of the original Georgia Trustees and the chapter examines his domination of the early history of colonial Georgia.

This chapter focuses on the conservative reaction to the emergence of radical Whiggism in the 1750s and 1760s —termed the New Toryism—that developed during the 1760s and early 1770s. What was the character of the New Toryism? How and why did it transform British overseas expansion as a whole, from the colonies of North America and the West Indies to the trading settlements of South Asia? Before examining in detail the rise and development of the New Toryism during the early reign of King George III and the shift it led to in Britain's imperial expansion, it first settles accounts with the Namierite interpretation that has remained prominent for over six decades in the historiography on the politics of empire during the 1760s and 1770s.

Lloyd George’s offer to host the trial in England was accepted by the Council of Four. But when the Prime Minister told Parliament that it would take place in London, King George V, who was the cousin of Kaiser Wilhelm II, objected strenuously. The Powers did not meet to plan the trial and organise the prosecution, although the British assigned a government lawyer to prepare a brief and to instruct two barristers. Completed in December 1919, the brief was amateurish and incomplete, reflecting either a lack of will to proceed with the trial or else a self-confidence that establishing guilt would be a simple matter. It was almost exclusively based upon published sources in the public domain.

The 1960s began well. In 1961, Cole’s wife Maria gave birth to twin girls, and Cole sang at the Inaugural Gala for President John F. Kennedy (who later in the year made a surprise appearance at the debutante ball for Nat and Maria’s oldest child, Carole). Nat started the decade with his first concert album, Live at the Sands, and his most ambitious concept album, Wild Is Love, followed by an hour-long special for Canadian TV. In the early 1960s, he also recorded some of his most breathtakingly beautiful albums with a new collaborator, the young Ralph Carmichael, who joined him on The Magic of Christmas, the beautiful Touch of Your Lips, and Nat King Cole Sings/George Shearing Plays, which amounted to a three-way collaboration with the great British pianist, Carmichael, and Cole.

This chapter examines the Highland soldiers' experiences as a military laborer within the empire. Subjected to unfamiliar levels of discipline and punishment, the recruited Highlanders had been acculturated to the brutal world of soldiering in the army of King George. They also underwent corporate professionalization, making them think in new ways about their priorities and imperatives. This training included not only developing skills and social habits as soldiers, but it also made these soldiers cognizant of their rights as military laborers. Thus, living in such an imperial world exposed even the poorest Highlanders to market-orientated structures to a greater degree than they had previously experienced in the changing Highlands.

Beginning with the War of Jenkins's Ear and King George's War in the 1740s, Pennsylvania's peaceful status was threatened by rising imperial tensions. This chapter argues that debates over war, defense, and pacifism seemed to herald the end of the ideal of spiritual community and exacerbate existing as well as perceived differences in Pennsylvania.

This chapter offers a brief overview of Connecticut politics in the eighteenth century. After discussing Sherman's first significant publication, “A Caveat against Injustice,” it describes his rise to prominence as a civic leader in the state. The bulk of the chapter focuses on his role in America's move toward independence. A central thesis is that Sherman and his Calvinists colleagues were significantly influenced by religious concerns and the Reformed political tradition.

The fourth chapter introduces Sultan Mohammed Shah, the third Aga Khan and spiritual leader of millions of Ismaili Muslims. The chapter begins with a brief history of the Aga Khans’ historical ties to the Prophet Mohammed and then provides a description of the third Aga Khan’s life and career as a political and religious leader, diplomat, and businessman. The chapter concludes with an explanation of the Aga Khan’s entrance into European aristocratic society, where he interacted with British royals such as Queen Victoria and Kings Edward VII and George V, and his reintroduction to the sport of horse racing, which he had loved as a child in India.

This chapter argues that it is entirely credible that the heady collision of Sir Walter Scott, King George IV, and European Romanticism in Edinburgh in 1822 explains much about tartanry's sentimental vulgarity and its weird mixture of ostentation and supplication. It observes however that what remains seemingly beyond the range of explication is the fundamental, almost ridiculous mismatch between this impractical concoction and its symbolic importance to a nation seeking to build an international reputation on its hard practical skills in engineering, industrial chemistry, and finance.