Ruling the World: Freedom, Civilisation and Liberalism in the Nineteenth-Century British Empire
Cambridge University Press, 1/7/2021
EAN 9781108444897, ISBN10: 110844489X
Paperback, 416 pages, 22.9 x 15.2 x 2.4 cm
Language: English
Originally published in English
Ruling the World tells the story of how the largest and most diverse empire in history was governed, everywhere and all at once. Focusing on some of the most tumultuous years of Queen Victoria's reign, Alan Lester, Kate Boehme and Peter Mitchell adopt an entirely new perspective to explain how the men in charge of the British Empire sought to manage simultaneous events across the globe. Using case studies including Canada, South Africa, the Caribbean, Australia, India and Afghanistan, they reveal how the empire represented a complex series of trade-offs between Parliament's, colonial governors', colonists' and colonised peoples' agendas. They also highlight the compromises that these men made as they adapted their ideals of freedom, civilization and liberalism to the realities of an empire imposed through violence and governed in the interests of Britons.
Introduction
Part I. 1838
The Year of Freedom
1. Setting the scene for emancipation
2. Managing expectations
3. Political freedom
4. Settler liberties
5. Free trade, famine and invasion
6. Steam and opium
Conclusion to Part I
An empire of freedom?
Part II. 1857
The Year of Civilization
7. Setting the scene
Hubris and crisis
8. 'A struggle of life and death'
9. A new imperial government
Conclusion to Part II
An empire of civilization?
Part III. 1879
The Year of Liberalism
10. Liberal fathers and sons
11. Imperialism
12. Imperial wars and their aftermaths
Conclusion to Part III
A liberal empire?
Appendix. Cast of characters.