British Empire

The British Empire' was the worldwide domain controlled by Great Britain from its origins about 1600 until its collapse around 1960.

The term "British Empire" was used by historians as early as 1708: (John Oldmixon, The British Empire in America, Containing the History of the Discovery, Settlement, Progress and Present State of All the British Colonies, on the Continent and Islands of America (London, 1708)) before that the term was "English Empire," as in Nathaniel Crouch, The English Empire in America: Or a Prospect of His Majesties Dominions in the West-Indies (London, 1685).

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.

Maps

West Indies in 1763

India in 1763

Empire in 1783, showing the lost American colonies in gray

[[

India in 1857

Canada in 1860s, before Confederation

South Africa, 1910

Africa in 1881

Indian Ocean area 1920

Bibliography

Overviews

• Bayly, C. A. ed. Atlas of the British Empire (1989). survey by scholars; heavily illustrated
• 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
• Dalziel, Nigel. The Penguin Historical Atlas of the British Empire (2006), 144 pp 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),
• Hyam, Ronald. Britain's Imperial Century, 1815-1914: A Study of Empire and Expansion (Macmillan, 1993).
• James, Lawrence. The Rise and Fall of the British Empire (1997).
• Judd, Denis. Empire: The British Imperial Experience, From 1765 to the Present (London, 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. (Oxford U.P., 1998–99).
  • vol 1 "The Origins of Empire" ed. by Nicholas Canny
  • vol 2 "The Eighteenth Century" ed. by P. J. Marshall
  • vol 3 The Nineteenth Century edited by William Roger Louis, Alaine M. Low, Andrew Porter; 1998. 780 pgs. online edition
  • vol 4 The Twentieth Century edited by Judith M. Brown, (1998). 773 pgs online edition
  • vol 5 "Historiography" ed, by Robin W. Winks
• Marshall, P. J. (ed.), The Cambridge Illustrated History of the British Empire (Cambridge, 1996).
• Olson, James S. and Robert S. Shadle; Historical Dictionary of the British Empire 1996 online edition
• 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. (Cambridge, 1929–61); vol 1: "The Old Empire from the Beginnings to 1783" 934pp online edition Volume I
• Smith, Simon C. British Imperialism 1750-1970 Cambridge University Press, 1998. brief

Political, economic and intellectual studies

• Adams, James Truslow. "On the Term 'British Empire,'" American Historical Review, 22 (1927), 485–9; in JSTOR
• Andrews, Kenneth R. Trade, Plunder and Settlement: Maritime Enterprise and the Genesis of the British Empire, 1480–1630 (Cambridge, 1984).
• Armitage, David. The Ideological Origins of the British Empire Cambridge University Press, 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 (Aldershot, 1998).
• Barone, Charles A. Marxist Thought on Imperialism: Survey and Critique (1985)
• 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 (Oxford University Press, 1982)
• Bayly, C. A. Imperial Meridian: The British Empire and the World, 1780-1831 (Longman, 1989).
• Bennett, George (ed.), The Concept of Empire: Burke to Attlee, 1774–1947 (London, 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 (Yale University Press, 1987
• Doyle, Michael W. Empires (Cornell UP, 1986).
• 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 (Yale University Press, 2006).
• Harlow, V. T., The Founding of the Second British Empire, 1763–1793, 2 vols. (London, 1952–64).
• Heinlein, Frank. British Government Policy and Decolonisation, 1945-1963: Scrutinising the Officiial Mind Routledge, 2002.
• Herbertson, A. J. The Oxford Survey of the British Empire, The Clarendon Press, 1914 online edition
• Ingram, Edward. The British Empire as a World Power (2001)
• James, Lawrence. The Rise and Fall of the British Empire (1994).
• Johnson, Robert. British Imperialism Palgrave Macmillan, 2003. historiography
• Kennedy, Paul, The Rise and Fall of British Naval Mastery (London, 1976).
• Kenny, Kevin, ed. Ireland and the British Empire Oxford U. Press 2004.
• Koehn, Nancy F. The Power of Commerce: Economy and Governance in the First British Empire Cornell University Press, 1994 online edition
• Knorr, Klaus E., British Colonial Theories 1570–1850 Toronto, 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 Oxford University Press, 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 (Chicago, 1999).
• 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
• Webster, Anthony. Gentlemen Capitalists: British Imperialism in South East Asia, 1770-1890 (1998)

Social and cultural studies

• August, Thomas G. The Selling of the Empire: British and French Imperialist Propaganda, 1890-1940 Greenwood Press, 1985
• Bailyn, Bernard, and Philip D. Morgan (eds.), Strangers within the Realm: Cultural Margins of the First British Empire (Chapel Hill, 1991)
• Boehmer, Elleke ed. Empire Writing: An Anthology of Colonial Literature, 1870-1918 Oxford University Press, 1998
• Brantlinger, Patrick. Rule of Darkness: British Literature and Imperialism, 1830-1914 (Cornell UP, 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
• Brooks, Chris. and Peter Faulkner (eds.), The White Man's Burdens: An Anthology of British Poetry of the Empire (Exeter UP, 1996).
• Cannadine, David. Ornamentalism (2002)
• 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
• 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 (Manchester UP, 1990).
• Karatani, Rieko. Defining British Citizenship: Empire, Commonwealth, and Modern Britain (Frank Cass, 2003) online edition
• Lassner, Phyllis. Colonial Strangers: Women Writing the End of the British Empire Rutgers University Press, 2004 online edition
• Levine, Philippa, ed. Gender and Empire Oxford U. Press, 2004.
• McDevitt, Patrick F. May the Best Man Win: Sport, Masculinity, and Nationalism in Great Britain and the Empire, 1880-1935 Palgrave Macmillan, 2004.
• Morgan, Philip D. and Hawkins, Sean, ed. Black Experience and the Empire Oxford U. Press, 2004.
• Morris, Jan. The Spectacle of Empire: Style, Effect and Pax Britannica (Faber, 1982).
• Porter, Andrew. Religion Versus Empire?: British Protestant Missionaries and Overseas Expansion, 1700-1914 Manchester U. Press 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
• Sauerberg, Lars Ole. Intercultural Voices in Contemporary British Literature: The Implosion of Empire (Palgrave, 2001) online edition
• Spurr, David. The Rhetoric of Empire: Colonial Discourse in Journalism, Travel Writing and Imperial Administration (Duke UP, 1993).
• Trollope, Joanna. Britannia's Daughters: Women of the British Empire (Hutchinson, 1983).
• Wilson, Kathleen, ed. A New Imperial History: Culture, Identity and Modernity in Britain and the Empire, 1660-1840 Cambridge U. Press 2004.

Primary sources

• Bartholomew, John. Atlas of the British empire throughout the world (1868 edition( online 1868 edition; (1877 edition) online 1877 edition
• Faunthorpe, John Pincher. Geography of the British colonies and foreign possessions (1874) online edition
• Great Britain Board of Education. Educational Systems of the Chief Crown Colonies and Possessions of the British Empire (1905). 340pp online edition
• Lucas, Charles Prestwood. A Historical Geography of the British Colonies: part 4: South and East Africa (1900) online edition

External Links

• primary sources and older secondary sources

---