Yuri Pines
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- October 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780691134956
- eISBN:
- 9781400842278
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691134956.003.0006
- Subject:
- History, Asian History
This chapter explores the reasons for the recurrence of large-scale popular uprisings throughout imperial history. It considers how the idea of rebellion correlates with fundamental principles of ...
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This chapter explores the reasons for the recurrence of large-scale popular uprisings throughout imperial history. It considers how the idea of rebellion correlates with fundamental principles of Chinese political culture, such as monarchism and intellectual elitism. Moreover, the chapter looks at why the rebellions serve to support rather than disrupt the empire's longevity. These issues are then related to the broader issue of the political role of the “people,” here referring primarily, although not exclusively, to the lower strata, in the Chinese imperial enterprise. In answering these questions, this chapter focuses on ideological and social factors that both legitimated rebellions and also enabled their accommodation within the imperial enterprise.Less
This chapter explores the reasons for the recurrence of large-scale popular uprisings throughout imperial history. It considers how the idea of rebellion correlates with fundamental principles of Chinese political culture, such as monarchism and intellectual elitism. Moreover, the chapter looks at why the rebellions serve to support rather than disrupt the empire's longevity. These issues are then related to the broader issue of the political role of the “people,” here referring primarily, although not exclusively, to the lower strata, in the Chinese imperial enterprise. In answering these questions, this chapter focuses on ideological and social factors that both legitimated rebellions and also enabled their accommodation within the imperial enterprise.
Yuri Pines
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- October 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780691134956
- eISBN:
- 9781400842278
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691134956.003.0002
- Subject:
- History, Asian History
This chapter considers how China has maintained the sustainability of a unified empire, and more importantly, its regeneration after periods of division. It proposes that the answer should be sought ...
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This chapter considers how China has maintained the sustainability of a unified empire, and more importantly, its regeneration after periods of division. It proposes that the answer should be sought primarily in the realm of ideology. The idea that “All-under-Heaven” (tianxia) should be unified under the aegis of the single monarch predated the imperial unification of 221 BCE and directly contributed to it. As this chapter demonstrates, it became the true cornerstone of traditional Chinese political culture, and decisively shaped political dynamics during ages of unity and fragmentation alike. Although in the course of imperial history the quest for unity had to be qualified to accommodate domestic and foreign political realities, it was never essentially compromised. Indeed, it may be argued that this belief remains the single most important legacy of the traditional political culture well into present day.Less
This chapter considers how China has maintained the sustainability of a unified empire, and more importantly, its regeneration after periods of division. It proposes that the answer should be sought primarily in the realm of ideology. The idea that “All-under-Heaven” (tianxia) should be unified under the aegis of the single monarch predated the imperial unification of 221 BCE and directly contributed to it. As this chapter demonstrates, it became the true cornerstone of traditional Chinese political culture, and decisively shaped political dynamics during ages of unity and fragmentation alike. Although in the course of imperial history the quest for unity had to be qualified to accommodate domestic and foreign political realities, it was never essentially compromised. Indeed, it may be argued that this belief remains the single most important legacy of the traditional political culture well into present day.
C. A. Bayly
- Published in print:
- 1999
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198205661
- eISBN:
- 9780191676741
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198205661.003.0003
- Subject:
- History, World Modern History, British and Irish Modern History
The historiography of the second British Empire of the period 1783–1860 was already in vigorous debate at the very time when that the Empire was being established. From the American Revolution ...
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The historiography of the second British Empire of the period 1783–1860 was already in vigorous debate at the very time when that the Empire was being established. From the American Revolution onwards, writers of histories began to take up a number of broad positions on this phase of British territorial expansion that set the terms of debate for the next century. The overlapping traditions in writing on the British Empire persisted into the later 19th century, but a distinct set of themes began to emerge from about 1880 and held sway until the First World War. The historical interpretations during 1950–80, specifically the motive force of British expansion, are discussed. Moreover, the historical interpretations in the 1980s and 1990s are explored. Some Imperial historians, especially in Britain, have deplored what they see as the politicization of Imperial history by issues of gender, race, and ‘post-coloniality’. While the naiveté of some of this work deserves their disparagement, this chapter has argued that Imperial history has always been intensely political.Less
The historiography of the second British Empire of the period 1783–1860 was already in vigorous debate at the very time when that the Empire was being established. From the American Revolution onwards, writers of histories began to take up a number of broad positions on this phase of British territorial expansion that set the terms of debate for the next century. The overlapping traditions in writing on the British Empire persisted into the later 19th century, but a distinct set of themes began to emerge from about 1880 and held sway until the First World War. The historical interpretations during 1950–80, specifically the motive force of British expansion, are discussed. Moreover, the historical interpretations in the 1980s and 1990s are explored. Some Imperial historians, especially in Britain, have deplored what they see as the politicization of Imperial history by issues of gender, race, and ‘post-coloniality’. While the naiveté of some of this work deserves their disparagement, this chapter has argued that Imperial history has always been intensely political.
Robin W. Winks
- Published in print:
- 1999
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198205661
- eISBN:
- 9780191676741
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198205661.003.0041
- Subject:
- History, World Modern History, British and Irish Modern History
The study of the British Empire is embedded in an ever-changing culture, largely but not exclusively academic, and trends and expectations in the field naturally reflect the larger environment. There ...
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The study of the British Empire is embedded in an ever-changing culture, largely but not exclusively academic, and trends and expectations in the field naturally reflect the larger environment. There is no point in the historiography of the British Empire at which development differed in any sustained and significant way from general trends in the development of historical studies broadly, though of course specific lines of inquiry also reflected the more nation-, class- or time-specific cultures from which they came. Nationalism played the most important role in the selection of subjects for study. It can scarcely be surprising to find that the history of the British Empire reflects the changes in the years since the Second World War. In the 1960s, there was a notable trend towards embedding the history of the British Empire, and of the Commonwealth, into the comparative history of imperialism. In the future, writing about the history of the British Empire is likely to require more collaborative ventures. One would like to think that in time the concept of ‘Other’ will have only a historiographical utility.Less
The study of the British Empire is embedded in an ever-changing culture, largely but not exclusively academic, and trends and expectations in the field naturally reflect the larger environment. There is no point in the historiography of the British Empire at which development differed in any sustained and significant way from general trends in the development of historical studies broadly, though of course specific lines of inquiry also reflected the more nation-, class- or time-specific cultures from which they came. Nationalism played the most important role in the selection of subjects for study. It can scarcely be surprising to find that the history of the British Empire reflects the changes in the years since the Second World War. In the 1960s, there was a notable trend towards embedding the history of the British Empire, and of the Commonwealth, into the comparative history of imperialism. In the future, writing about the history of the British Empire is likely to require more collaborative ventures. One would like to think that in time the concept of ‘Other’ will have only a historiographical utility.
Lindsay Proudfoot and Dianne Hall
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- July 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780719078378
- eISBN:
- 9781781702895
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Manchester University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7228/manchester/9780719078378.003.0002
- Subject:
- History, Imperialism and Colonialism
This chapter explores the recent historical and geographical literature on empire and colonialism. It argues that the historical literature has remained largely immune to the idea that different ...
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This chapter explores the recent historical and geographical literature on empire and colonialism. It argues that the historical literature has remained largely immune to the idea that different social and cultural constructions of space and place might play an instrumental role in colonial identity formation. In particular, it examines the encounter between postcolonial theory and British imperial history per se. The complex intimacies between race, gender and representation have long been common currency in the new imperial history of the non-white empire. Various studies have pointed to the power and tenacity of the subjective colonial geographies created and sustained by different imperial claims to truth. The new imperial history remains remarkably immune to the seductive charms of geography's irredentist claims concerning the inherent spatiality of the human condition. Ethnic performances were integral to some at least of the settler place-narratives created by the Irish and Scots.Less
This chapter explores the recent historical and geographical literature on empire and colonialism. It argues that the historical literature has remained largely immune to the idea that different social and cultural constructions of space and place might play an instrumental role in colonial identity formation. In particular, it examines the encounter between postcolonial theory and British imperial history per se. The complex intimacies between race, gender and representation have long been common currency in the new imperial history of the non-white empire. Various studies have pointed to the power and tenacity of the subjective colonial geographies created and sustained by different imperial claims to truth. The new imperial history remains remarkably immune to the seductive charms of geography's irredentist claims concerning the inherent spatiality of the human condition. Ethnic performances were integral to some at least of the settler place-narratives created by the Irish and Scots.
Barry M. Gough
- Published in print:
- 1999
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198205661
- eISBN:
- 9780191676741
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198205661.003.0021
- Subject:
- History, World Modern History, British and Irish Modern History
The corpus of writing on the subject of the interrelationship between naval and Imperial history previously has been confined to two branches. However, Arthur J. Marder and Gerald S. Graham ...
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The corpus of writing on the subject of the interrelationship between naval and Imperial history previously has been confined to two branches. However, Arthur J. Marder and Gerald S. Graham revolutionized, in their respective fields, the correlation of naval power and colonial empires in the 19th century. The study of the navy and its influence on the Empire and vice versa remained a largely untouched field of study. In line with this, a discussion on Marder, Graham, J. C. Beaglehole and the Pacific, and unfinished business is presented. The general linkage of navy to Empire continues to escape historians, perhaps because the task is such a daunting one. Case studies are needed: a survey of the role of British naval power and its relation to the Pax Britannica; a survey of overseas stations and bases; and a study of how the Royal Navy influenced the course of the early history of colonial and Commonwealth navies.Less
The corpus of writing on the subject of the interrelationship between naval and Imperial history previously has been confined to two branches. However, Arthur J. Marder and Gerald S. Graham revolutionized, in their respective fields, the correlation of naval power and colonial empires in the 19th century. The study of the navy and its influence on the Empire and vice versa remained a largely untouched field of study. In line with this, a discussion on Marder, Graham, J. C. Beaglehole and the Pacific, and unfinished business is presented. The general linkage of navy to Empire continues to escape historians, perhaps because the task is such a daunting one. Case studies are needed: a survey of the role of British naval power and its relation to the Pax Britannica; a survey of overseas stations and bases; and a study of how the Royal Navy influenced the course of the early history of colonial and Commonwealth navies.
Laura Chrisman
- Published in print:
- 2000
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198122999
- eISBN:
- 9780191671593
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198122999.003.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, World Literature, 19th-century and Victorian Literature
This book explores the historical experience of British imperialism in South Africa, as mediated through the works of three novelists: the imperialist Henry Rider Haggard, the liberal ...
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This book explores the historical experience of British imperialism in South Africa, as mediated through the works of three novelists: the imperialist Henry Rider Haggard, the liberal anti-imperialist Olive Schreiner, and the African nationalist Sol Plaatje. South Africa currently occupies a marginalized place in cultural studies of British imperialism. With the single exception of the Anglo-Boer War, South Africa's literary impact on the British metropolis during the ‘Age of Empire’ receives scant critical attention when compared to India, which continues to be seen as ‘the jewel in the crown’, the land that colonized British imaginations at every point in its colonial and imperial history. This book counteracts this emphasis on India as the definitive site of British imperial culture.Less
This book explores the historical experience of British imperialism in South Africa, as mediated through the works of three novelists: the imperialist Henry Rider Haggard, the liberal anti-imperialist Olive Schreiner, and the African nationalist Sol Plaatje. South Africa currently occupies a marginalized place in cultural studies of British imperialism. With the single exception of the Anglo-Boer War, South Africa's literary impact on the British metropolis during the ‘Age of Empire’ receives scant critical attention when compared to India, which continues to be seen as ‘the jewel in the crown’, the land that colonized British imaginations at every point in its colonial and imperial history. This book counteracts this emphasis on India as the definitive site of British imperial culture.
A. P. Thornton
- Published in print:
- 1999
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198205661
- eISBN:
- 9780191676741
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198205661.003.0039
- Subject:
- History, World Modern History, British and Irish Modern History
Imperial historians make no claim to ‘a sense of the whole society’. But where imperialism is routinely stripped, and operated on under halogen lamps, the history of collaboration is still in shadow. ...
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Imperial historians make no claim to ‘a sense of the whole society’. But where imperialism is routinely stripped, and operated on under halogen lamps, the history of collaboration is still in shadow. Historiography, advises the historian Henri Brunschwig, ‘is not the fact of writing history, but the mode of writing’. The global omnipresence of imperialism naturally promoted it to top-billing on banners of protest. English historians, wary of power, readily distinguish between English expansion and European rapacity overseas. Good government was on the face of it so much better than self-government that the matter was scarcely discussed. Emigrants took ship to better their prospects. A migrant minority took ship in order to take charge at the far end. Transients only, their baggage and outlook stayed intact. The 20th-century empires all ended with long casualty-lists; but it is only the British who are constructing memorials both nostalgic and concrete.Less
Imperial historians make no claim to ‘a sense of the whole society’. But where imperialism is routinely stripped, and operated on under halogen lamps, the history of collaboration is still in shadow. Historiography, advises the historian Henri Brunschwig, ‘is not the fact of writing history, but the mode of writing’. The global omnipresence of imperialism naturally promoted it to top-billing on banners of protest. English historians, wary of power, readily distinguish between English expansion and European rapacity overseas. Good government was on the face of it so much better than self-government that the matter was scarcely discussed. Emigrants took ship to better their prospects. A migrant minority took ship in order to take charge at the far end. Transients only, their baggage and outlook stayed intact. The 20th-century empires all ended with long casualty-lists; but it is only the British who are constructing memorials both nostalgic and concrete.
A. G. Hopkins
- Published in print:
- 1999
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198205661
- eISBN:
- 9780191676741
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198205661.003.0040
- Subject:
- History, World Modern History, British and Irish Modern History
Historiography is retrospective by definition and classificatory by common practice. Its value lies in identifying contours and boundaries, and in enabling observers to view the landscape as a whole. ...
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Historiography is retrospective by definition and classificatory by common practice. Its value lies in identifying contours and boundaries, and in enabling observers to view the landscape as a whole. Historiography has pitfalls as well as advantages. The evolution of historical studies is the result of a combination of two related forces: the momentum built up within the scholarly body to find solutions to specific intellectual problems, and the response of scholars to the external influences that have a bearing on their lives. The year 1960 is an appropriate starting-point for this survey because it marks, as well as any single year can, the end of British Empire and the beginning of the era of independence. It became clear that the concept of a ‘traditional society’ was simply the antonym of an assumed modernity. The effect of post-modernist influences on Imperial history is well known, but it should nevertheless be recorded in case it slips from future minds, as many earlier influences have been lost to those of the present. Looking now at the 21st century, it seems reasonable to predict that Imperial history has a future and not just a past.Less
Historiography is retrospective by definition and classificatory by common practice. Its value lies in identifying contours and boundaries, and in enabling observers to view the landscape as a whole. Historiography has pitfalls as well as advantages. The evolution of historical studies is the result of a combination of two related forces: the momentum built up within the scholarly body to find solutions to specific intellectual problems, and the response of scholars to the external influences that have a bearing on their lives. The year 1960 is an appropriate starting-point for this survey because it marks, as well as any single year can, the end of British Empire and the beginning of the era of independence. It became clear that the concept of a ‘traditional society’ was simply the antonym of an assumed modernity. The effect of post-modernist influences on Imperial history is well known, but it should nevertheless be recorded in case it slips from future minds, as many earlier influences have been lost to those of the present. Looking now at the 21st century, it seems reasonable to predict that Imperial history has a future and not just a past.
Richard Drayton
- Published in print:
- 1999
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198205661
- eISBN:
- 9780191676741
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198205661.003.0016
- Subject:
- History, World Modern History, British and Irish Modern History
Science and medicine played a part in British expansion from the age of Ralegh to that of Curzon and Nehru. But the critical history of this involvement is just about thirty years old. The terms of ...
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Science and medicine played a part in British expansion from the age of Ralegh to that of Curzon and Nehru. But the critical history of this involvement is just about thirty years old. The terms of the alliance of science and the British Empire had historiographical consequences which endured well into the 20th century. The suggestion that modern science helped to construct the racial ‘Other’ was rapidly absorbed in the 1970s into the mainstream of Imperial history. Work on colonial medicine began by the early 1980s. The inclusion of Britain (and Europe generally) into the space of Imperial history will have important consequences. In particular, by addressing how the ‘indigenous’ negotiated with the exotic, whether in Bombay or Bristol, we are going beyond thinking of empire or science as crimes inflicted by Britain on its colonies.Less
Science and medicine played a part in British expansion from the age of Ralegh to that of Curzon and Nehru. But the critical history of this involvement is just about thirty years old. The terms of the alliance of science and the British Empire had historiographical consequences which endured well into the 20th century. The suggestion that modern science helped to construct the racial ‘Other’ was rapidly absorbed in the 1970s into the mainstream of Imperial history. Work on colonial medicine began by the early 1980s. The inclusion of Britain (and Europe generally) into the space of Imperial history will have important consequences. In particular, by addressing how the ‘indigenous’ negotiated with the exotic, whether in Bombay or Bristol, we are going beyond thinking of empire or science as crimes inflicted by Britain on its colonies.
Andrew Mackillop
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- January 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780199573240
- eISBN:
- 9780191731310
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199573240.003.0003
- Subject:
- History, British and Irish Modern History
The participation of Scots in the commercial and territorial empire of the English East India Company over the course of the long eighteenth century remains one of the most understudied aspects of ...
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The participation of Scots in the commercial and territorial empire of the English East India Company over the course of the long eighteenth century remains one of the most understudied aspects of the wider Scottish role in the British Empire. This chapter surveys the latest research on the numbers, social origins and identities of Scots in Asia, while reflecting on the benefits and limitations of adopting a particular Scottish perspective on British expansion in Asia. It emphasises the central role of London-based patronage and local networks in securing places for a regionally and socially diverse range of Scots, who in turn maintained discernibly Scottish identities while in Asia. It concludes that a closer engagement between Scottish evidence and more general debates on the nature of pre-1815 British imperialism can be mutually beneficial for both Scottish History and British Imperial Studies.Less
The participation of Scots in the commercial and territorial empire of the English East India Company over the course of the long eighteenth century remains one of the most understudied aspects of the wider Scottish role in the British Empire. This chapter surveys the latest research on the numbers, social origins and identities of Scots in Asia, while reflecting on the benefits and limitations of adopting a particular Scottish perspective on British expansion in Asia. It emphasises the central role of London-based patronage and local networks in securing places for a regionally and socially diverse range of Scots, who in turn maintained discernibly Scottish identities while in Asia. It concludes that a closer engagement between Scottish evidence and more general debates on the nature of pre-1815 British imperialism can be mutually beneficial for both Scottish History and British Imperial Studies.
P. J. Marshall
- Published in print:
- 1999
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198205661
- eISBN:
- 9780191676741
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198205661.003.0002
- Subject:
- History, World Modern History, British and Irish Modern History
By 1929, the tradition that British Imperial history could be divided into phases, with an ‘old’ or ‘first’ Empire separate from what was to follow, was long established. It was a tradition that went ...
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By 1929, the tradition that British Imperial history could be divided into phases, with an ‘old’ or ‘first’ Empire separate from what was to follow, was long established. It was a tradition that went back into the first half of the 19th century. Throughout its long usage, there has been a rough consensus as to what is meant by the term ‘first British Empire’, even if some points have been contested. The first Empire was often said to have come into existence during the Interregnum, since the act passed in 1651 is usually taken as the prototype for the later Laws of Trade, and to have lasted until the Navigation Acts began to be modified and dismantled in the early 19th century. For those who saw the first Empire as dominated by the enforcement of commercial regulations, its constitutional or political history was a secondary issue. The concept of a first British Empire has proved to be a useful and even an indispensable one for some 150 years.Less
By 1929, the tradition that British Imperial history could be divided into phases, with an ‘old’ or ‘first’ Empire separate from what was to follow, was long established. It was a tradition that went back into the first half of the 19th century. Throughout its long usage, there has been a rough consensus as to what is meant by the term ‘first British Empire’, even if some points have been contested. The first Empire was often said to have come into existence during the Interregnum, since the act passed in 1651 is usually taken as the prototype for the later Laws of Trade, and to have lasted until the Navigation Acts began to be modified and dismantled in the early 19th century. For those who saw the first Empire as dominated by the enforcement of commercial regulations, its constitutional or political history was a secondary issue. The concept of a first British Empire has proved to be a useful and even an indispensable one for some 150 years.
Thomas Bartlett
- Published in print:
- 1998
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198205630
- eISBN:
- 9780191676710
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198205630.003.0012
- Subject:
- History, World Modern History, British and Irish Modern History
This chapter explores Ireland, which was already playing its role in later Imperial history, as part colony and part partner in Empire. Ireland’s developing position within the British Empire during ...
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This chapter explores Ireland, which was already playing its role in later Imperial history, as part colony and part partner in Empire. Ireland’s developing position within the British Empire during the 18th century is described. It is also shown that Ireland benefited from the Imperial connection in this century. Throughout the 18th century, restrictions on Irish colonial commerce were regularly denounced as evidence both of England’s resolve to keep ‘poor Ireland poor’ and of her determination to do down a prospective rival. The worsening relations between Britain and her colonies in America had not gone unnoticed in Ireland. After 1800, the Irish of all descriptions entered enthusiastically into the business of Empire. The Empire was greatly admired and highly prized in 19th-century Ireland.Less
This chapter explores Ireland, which was already playing its role in later Imperial history, as part colony and part partner in Empire. Ireland’s developing position within the British Empire during the 18th century is described. It is also shown that Ireland benefited from the Imperial connection in this century. Throughout the 18th century, restrictions on Irish colonial commerce were regularly denounced as evidence both of England’s resolve to keep ‘poor Ireland poor’ and of her determination to do down a prospective rival. The worsening relations between Britain and her colonies in America had not gone unnoticed in Ireland. After 1800, the Irish of all descriptions entered enthusiastically into the business of Empire. The Empire was greatly admired and highly prized in 19th-century Ireland.
John Shy
- Published in print:
- 1998
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198205630
- eISBN:
- 9780191676710
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198205630.003.0014
- Subject:
- History, World Modern History, British and Irish Modern History
This chapter offers a discussion on the American colonies in war and revolution during thirty-five crucial years of Imperial history. From about 1740, the scale of North American warfare began to ...
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This chapter offers a discussion on the American colonies in war and revolution during thirty-five crucial years of Imperial history. From about 1740, the scale of North American warfare began to grow, and more Americans, more often than not, found themselves drawn into the military realm. Two events of the 1740s marked the new level of direct American involvement in Britain’s wars. Revolution in the American colonies did not originate solely in the prior experience of war, as the account in this chapter makes clear, but behaviour in both Great Britain and North America in 1763–75, leading to the revolutionary crisis, was profoundly shaped by the immediately preceding two decades of Imperial warfare. At the war’s end in 1783, the United States confronted the wreckage of war. The war gave the United States a charismatic national leader whose post-war performance would be crucial in bringing stability to the Revolutionary Republic.Less
This chapter offers a discussion on the American colonies in war and revolution during thirty-five crucial years of Imperial history. From about 1740, the scale of North American warfare began to grow, and more Americans, more often than not, found themselves drawn into the military realm. Two events of the 1740s marked the new level of direct American involvement in Britain’s wars. Revolution in the American colonies did not originate solely in the prior experience of war, as the account in this chapter makes clear, but behaviour in both Great Britain and North America in 1763–75, leading to the revolutionary crisis, was profoundly shaped by the immediately preceding two decades of Imperial warfare. At the war’s end in 1783, the United States confronted the wreckage of war. The war gave the United States a charismatic national leader whose post-war performance would be crucial in bringing stability to the Revolutionary Republic.
Michael Meeker
- Published in print:
- 2002
- Published Online:
- May 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780520225268
- eISBN:
- 9780520929128
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520225268.001.0001
- Subject:
- Anthropology, Middle Eastern Cultural Anthropology
This study of modern Turkey is the result of many years of ethnographic fieldwork and archival research. The author combines anthropological and historical methods to examine the transition from the ...
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This study of modern Turkey is the result of many years of ethnographic fieldwork and archival research. The author combines anthropological and historical methods to examine the transition from the Ottoman Empire to the Turkish Republic in a major region of the country, the eastern Black Sea coast. His most significant finding is that a state-oriented provincial oligarchy played a key role in successive programs of reform over the course of more than two hundred years of imperial and national history. As the author demonstrates, leading individuals backed by interpersonal networks determined the outcome of the modernizing process, first during the westernizing period of the Empire, then during the revolutionary period of the Republic. To understand how such a state-oriented provincial oligarchy was produced and reproduced along the eastern Black Sea coast, the author integrates a contemporary ethnographic study of public life in towns and villages with a historical study of official documents, consular reports, and travel narratives. The book provides a new understanding of the complexities and contradictions of modern Turkish experience.Less
This study of modern Turkey is the result of many years of ethnographic fieldwork and archival research. The author combines anthropological and historical methods to examine the transition from the Ottoman Empire to the Turkish Republic in a major region of the country, the eastern Black Sea coast. His most significant finding is that a state-oriented provincial oligarchy played a key role in successive programs of reform over the course of more than two hundred years of imperial and national history. As the author demonstrates, leading individuals backed by interpersonal networks determined the outcome of the modernizing process, first during the westernizing period of the Empire, then during the revolutionary period of the Republic. To understand how such a state-oriented provincial oligarchy was produced and reproduced along the eastern Black Sea coast, the author integrates a contemporary ethnographic study of public life in towns and villages with a historical study of official documents, consular reports, and travel narratives. The book provides a new understanding of the complexities and contradictions of modern Turkish experience.
Douglas M. Peers and Nandini Gooptu (eds)
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- January 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780199259885
- eISBN:
- 9780191744587
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199259885.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, British and Irish Modern History, Asian History
South Asian History has enjoyed a remarkable renaissance over the past thirty years. Its historians are not only producing new ways of thinking about the imperial impact and legacy on South Asia, but ...
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South Asian History has enjoyed a remarkable renaissance over the past thirty years. Its historians are not only producing new ways of thinking about the imperial impact and legacy on South Asia, but also helping to reshape the study of imperial history in general. The chapters here address a number of these important developments, delineating not only the complicated interplay between imperial rulers and their subjects in India, but also illuminating the economic, political, environmental, social, cultural, ideological, and intellectual contexts which informed, and were in turn informed by, these interactions. Particular attention is paid to a cluster of binary oppositions that have hitherto framed South Asian history, namely colonizer/colonized, imperialism/nationalism, and modernity/tradition, and how new analytical frameworks are emerging which enable us to think beyond the constraints imposed by these binaries. Closer attention to regional dynamics as well as to wider global forces has enriched our understanding of the history of South Asia within a wider imperial matrix. Previous impressions of all-powerful imperialism, with the capacity to reshape all before it, for good or ill, are rejected in favour of a much more nuanced image of imperialism in India that acknowledges the impact as well as the intentions of colonialism, but within a much more complicated historical landscape where other processes are at work.Less
South Asian History has enjoyed a remarkable renaissance over the past thirty years. Its historians are not only producing new ways of thinking about the imperial impact and legacy on South Asia, but also helping to reshape the study of imperial history in general. The chapters here address a number of these important developments, delineating not only the complicated interplay between imperial rulers and their subjects in India, but also illuminating the economic, political, environmental, social, cultural, ideological, and intellectual contexts which informed, and were in turn informed by, these interactions. Particular attention is paid to a cluster of binary oppositions that have hitherto framed South Asian history, namely colonizer/colonized, imperialism/nationalism, and modernity/tradition, and how new analytical frameworks are emerging which enable us to think beyond the constraints imposed by these binaries. Closer attention to regional dynamics as well as to wider global forces has enriched our understanding of the history of South Asia within a wider imperial matrix. Previous impressions of all-powerful imperialism, with the capacity to reshape all before it, for good or ill, are rejected in favour of a much more nuanced image of imperialism in India that acknowledges the impact as well as the intentions of colonialism, but within a much more complicated historical landscape where other processes are at work.
Francis Wcislo
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- May 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780199543564
- eISBN:
- 9780191725104
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199543564.003.0007
- Subject:
- History, European Modern History, Political History
The view from the Alexander Nevsky Lavra looks up the broad expanse of avenue that leads toward the Admiralty Spire at the center of imperial St Petersburg, the capital that the first All-Russian ...
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The view from the Alexander Nevsky Lavra looks up the broad expanse of avenue that leads toward the Admiralty Spire at the center of imperial St Petersburg, the capital that the first All-Russian Emperor, Peter the Great, erected on the shores of the Gulf of Finland. Following Nevsky Prospect from there back to the monastery, whose baroque architecture tied Peter's new European culture to Russia's Orthodox and medieval past, the visitor finds its cemetery, where St Petersburg's city elite honored itself. There, tucked in a small, enclosed courtyard expanse, is to be found a large, granite grey tombstone, which marks the site where Witte was laid to rest on 2 March 1915, seven months after the outbreak of what was becoming the Great War. This chapter considers what can be said about Witte's life story from the perspective of its own end time, only some two years removed from the destruction of the empire that had shaped it.Less
The view from the Alexander Nevsky Lavra looks up the broad expanse of avenue that leads toward the Admiralty Spire at the center of imperial St Petersburg, the capital that the first All-Russian Emperor, Peter the Great, erected on the shores of the Gulf of Finland. Following Nevsky Prospect from there back to the monastery, whose baroque architecture tied Peter's new European culture to Russia's Orthodox and medieval past, the visitor finds its cemetery, where St Petersburg's city elite honored itself. There, tucked in a small, enclosed courtyard expanse, is to be found a large, granite grey tombstone, which marks the site where Witte was laid to rest on 2 March 1915, seven months after the outbreak of what was becoming the Great War. This chapter considers what can be said about Witte's life story from the perspective of its own end time, only some two years removed from the destruction of the empire that had shaped it.
Lindsay J. Proudfoot and Dianne P. Hall
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- July 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780719078378
- eISBN:
- 9781781702895
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Manchester University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7228/manchester/9780719078378.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, Imperialism and Colonialism
This book takes two of the most influential minority groups of white settlers in the British Empire—the Irish and the Scots—and explores how they imagined themselves within the landscapes of its ...
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This book takes two of the most influential minority groups of white settlers in the British Empire—the Irish and the Scots—and explores how they imagined themselves within the landscapes of its farthest reaches, the Australian colonies of Victoria and New South Wales. Using letters and diaries as well as records of collective activities such as committee meetings, parades and dinners, it examines how the Irish and Scots built new identities as settlers in the unknown spaces of Empire. Utilizing critical geographical theories of ‘place’ as the site of memory and agency, the book considers how Irish and Scots settlers grounded their sense of belonging in the imagined landscapes of south-east Australia. Emphasizing the complexity of colonial identity formation and the ways in which this was spatially constructed, it challenges conventional understandings of the Irish and Scottish presence in Australia. The opening chapters locate the book's themes and perspectives within a survey of the existing historical and geographical literature on empire and diaspora. These pay particular attention to the ‘new’ imperial history and to alternative transnational and ‘located’ understandings of diasporic consciousness. Subsequent chapters work within these frames and examine the constructions of place evinced by Irish and Scottish emigrants during the outward voyage and subsequent processes of pastoral and urban settlement, and in religious observance.Less
This book takes two of the most influential minority groups of white settlers in the British Empire—the Irish and the Scots—and explores how they imagined themselves within the landscapes of its farthest reaches, the Australian colonies of Victoria and New South Wales. Using letters and diaries as well as records of collective activities such as committee meetings, parades and dinners, it examines how the Irish and Scots built new identities as settlers in the unknown spaces of Empire. Utilizing critical geographical theories of ‘place’ as the site of memory and agency, the book considers how Irish and Scots settlers grounded their sense of belonging in the imagined landscapes of south-east Australia. Emphasizing the complexity of colonial identity formation and the ways in which this was spatially constructed, it challenges conventional understandings of the Irish and Scottish presence in Australia. The opening chapters locate the book's themes and perspectives within a survey of the existing historical and geographical literature on empire and diaspora. These pay particular attention to the ‘new’ imperial history and to alternative transnational and ‘located’ understandings of diasporic consciousness. Subsequent chapters work within these frames and examine the constructions of place evinced by Irish and Scottish emigrants during the outward voyage and subsequent processes of pastoral and urban settlement, and in religious observance.
Ryan Tucker Jones
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- June 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780199343416
- eISBN:
- 9780199373819
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199343416.003.0006
- Subject:
- History, European Early Modern History, Cultural History
The naturalists Peter Simon Pallas and Thomas Pennant both composed compendia describing North Pacific nature in the last decades of the eighteenth century. In the spirit of an increasingly imperial ...
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The naturalists Peter Simon Pallas and Thomas Pennant both composed compendia describing North Pacific nature in the last decades of the eighteenth century. In the spirit of an increasingly imperial culture marking European natural history, Pallas took the Russian Empire as the space to organize the animals he described. As a result, Pallas’s Zoographia Rosso-Asiatica did not account for the extinction of the sea cow and the near-extinction of the sea otter. Pennant, though beginning his book with similar ideas, was forced by the American Revolution to imagine a space not defined by political boundaries. His Arctic Zoology provided the key conceptual linkage–namely, biogeography–necessary for North Pacific observers to challenge the concept of nature’s economy and to understand the extinctions then taking place. Both works are testaments to the power and unpredictable consequences of empire on understandings of the natural world.Less
The naturalists Peter Simon Pallas and Thomas Pennant both composed compendia describing North Pacific nature in the last decades of the eighteenth century. In the spirit of an increasingly imperial culture marking European natural history, Pallas took the Russian Empire as the space to organize the animals he described. As a result, Pallas’s Zoographia Rosso-Asiatica did not account for the extinction of the sea cow and the near-extinction of the sea otter. Pennant, though beginning his book with similar ideas, was forced by the American Revolution to imagine a space not defined by political boundaries. His Arctic Zoology provided the key conceptual linkage–namely, biogeography–necessary for North Pacific observers to challenge the concept of nature’s economy and to understand the extinctions then taking place. Both works are testaments to the power and unpredictable consequences of empire on understandings of the natural world.
Faith Hillis
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- August 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780801452192
- eISBN:
- 9780801469268
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Cornell University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7591/cornell/9780801452192.003.0001
- Subject:
- History, Russian and Former Soviet Union History
This introductory chapter documents an ambitious effort to mobilize a nation in defense of the Russian empire, in the process emphasizing the significance of this event and the implications it holds ...
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This introductory chapter documents an ambitious effort to mobilize a nation in defense of the Russian empire, in the process emphasizing the significance of this event and the implications it holds for imperial history. On many counts, the southwestern borderlands of the empire, which stretched from the right bank (west side) of the Dnieper River to the border with the Habsburg empire, would seem an unlikely locale to give rise to a Russian nationalist imagination. Yet from the beginning, right-bank activists had insisted that their program would strengthen the Russian state by preserving the values on which it was founded, aligning it with the desires of the people it ruled, and enhancing its ability to compete with its rivals.Less
This introductory chapter documents an ambitious effort to mobilize a nation in defense of the Russian empire, in the process emphasizing the significance of this event and the implications it holds for imperial history. On many counts, the southwestern borderlands of the empire, which stretched from the right bank (west side) of the Dnieper River to the border with the Habsburg empire, would seem an unlikely locale to give rise to a Russian nationalist imagination. Yet from the beginning, right-bank activists had insisted that their program would strengthen the Russian state by preserving the values on which it was founded, aligning it with the desires of the people it ruled, and enhancing its ability to compete with its rivals.
