The British Empire

by Samson, Jane

• ISBN13: 9780192892935
• ISBN10: 0192892932
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2001-08-09
• Publisher: Oxford University Press

Summary

The phenomenon of imperialism has never been under such intense scrutiny, by such a wide range of academic disciplines, as it is today. From cultural studies to the history of science, academics are engaged in a series of debates about empire which move far beyond traditional preoccupationswith metropolitan strategy, economics, and rivalry.Using primary and secondary documentary sources, this reader negotiates the many trends and concerns in recent debates to provide a broad-based, comparative history of the British Empire. Selected readings are presented within a chronological framework, from the origins of empire to decolonizationand beyond. Samson adopts a theme of identity to explore different perspectives through the sources, including metropolitan, colonial, and indigenous responses. General and section introductions explore such issues as the role of economics and religion in imperial expansion and rule; how indigenousand Creole populations constructed and expressed their own identities; and what changes were wrought by the process of decolonization. Bringing together a wide range of documentary evidence, this volume allows the varied and vital debates on aspects of imperialism and identity to be seen in thecontext of the broad history of the British Empire.

Author Biography

Jane Samson is Assistant Professor in the Department of History and Classics at the University of Alberta, Edmonton. She is editor, with Alan Frost, of 'Pacific Empires: Essays in Honour of Glyndwr Williams' (Melbourne: Melbourne University Press; Vancouver: UBC Press, 1999) and author of 'Imperial Benevolence: Making British Authority in the Pacific Islands' (Honolulu: University of Hawai'i Press and London: Curzon Press, 1998).

Table of Contents

Preface	v
List of Maps	xiii
Introduction	1	(7)
1. The Early Empire
Introduction	8	(3)
An Empire of the Sea	11	(1)
A Venetian	12	(1)
William Shakespeare	13	(1)
East India Company Charter	14	(1)
Navigation Act 1660	15	(1)
Hilary McD. Beckles	16	(5)
Richard Hakluyt	21	(2)
Ralph Lane	23	(1)
Captain John Smith	24	(4)
Slavery	27	(1)
Sir John Hawkins	28	(1)
Olaudah Equiano	29	(2)
Invoice, Royal African Company ship Swallow	31	(1)
Captain Phillips	31	(4)
Peter Kalm	35	(2)
Fernando	37	(1)
Winthrop D. Jordan	38	(5)
Colonial Identities	42	(1)
Calvin's Case	43	(1)
Ralphe Hamor	44	(1)
Edward Waterhouse	44	(2)
William Bradford	46	(1)
David Cressy	47	(2)
John Oldmixon	49	(1)
Petition of the Barbadian Assembly to Parliament	50	(5)
2. The Eighteenth Century
Introduction	52	(2)
New Horizons	54	(1)
Adam Smith	55	(1)
The African Association: `Plan of the Association'	56	(2)
Joseph Banks	58	(1)
Alexander Dalrymple	59	(2)
Edward W. Said	61	(3)
East India Company officials	64	(1)
Sir Stamford Raffles	65	(2)
The American Revolution	66	(1)
Matthew Smith and James Gibson	67	(2)
William Pitt and George Grenville	69	(2)
Edmund Burke	71	(2)
John Shy	73	(3)
The American Declaration of Independence	76	(2)
Letter from Philadelphia (from an unknown author)	78	(1)
Letter from Maryland (from a female correspondent)	79	(1)
Thomas Peters	79	(3)
Conquest and Identity	81	(1)
Royal Proclamation, 1763	82	(1)
`Petition of divers of the French inhabitants of the province of Quebec'	83	(1)
Lord Mansfield	84	(1)
`Petition for the repeal of the Quebec Act'	85	(2)
Lord Mansfield	87	(1)
Lord Charles Somerset	88	(1)
Daniel K. Richter	89	(5)
The Problem of India	93	(1)
Richard Becher	94	(1)
John Holwell	95	(1)
Warren Hastings	96	(1)
Edmund Burke	97	(1)
Addresses from inhabitants of Benares, India	98	(1)
William Cobbett	99	(1)
Lord Cornwallis	100	(1)
Rajat Kanta Ray	101	(7)
3. The Nineteenth Century
Introduction	105	(2)
Trade and Empire	107	(1)
W. E. Gladstone	108	(2)
Dr Wallick	110	(1)
`Bibee' Zuhoorun	111	(1)
Report of Government of India on indenture	112	(3)
`Imperial telegraphs', The Quarterly Review	115	(1)
Charles Eliot	116	(1)
Martin Lynn	116	(6)
Reform and Empire	121	(1)
Andrew Porter	122	(5)
Thomas Fowell Buxton	127	(1)
Edward Long	128	(1)
Conference on board Her Majesty's ship Bonnetta	129	(2)
John Williams	131	(1)
Sir Charles Trevelyan	132	(2)
Thomas Babington Macaulay	134	(1)
Lord Glenelg	135	(1)
Chinua Achebe	136	(4)
The British Diaspora	139	(1)
Edward Gibbon Wakefield	140	(1)
G. M. Douglas	141	(2)
`For the Information of Emigrants'	143	(1)
Daniel Quigley	144	(1)
Testimony of a labourer who became a landowner, Australia	145	(1)
Advertisement for women migrants to Australia	146	(1)
Magaret Strobel	147	(4)
John Stuart Mill	151	(1)
Lord Durham	152	(1)
P. J. Marshall	153	(6)
Lord Glenelg	159	(1)
Nancy and Anzac Munnganyi	159	(4)
Empire Contested	162	(1)
David Killingray	163	(3)
Lin, Imperial Commissioner	166	(2)
Petition from British residents of Canton	168	(1)
Treaty of Nanking, 1842	169	(1)
Charles Theophilus Metcalfe	170	(1)
Nana Sahib's Proclamation	171	(1)
Letter to the Editor of The Times	172	(1)
Royal Proclamation, 1858	172	(1)
Major Thomas Nelson	173	(1)
William Thompson (Te Waharra)	174	(1)
Governor Bowen	175	(4)
The `New Imperialism'	177	(2)
P. J. Marshall	179	(5)
Benjamin Disraeli	184	(1)
Lord Cromer	185	(1)
Treaty between Lo Bengula and agents of Cecil Rhodes	186	(1)
Appeal of Lo Bengula to Queen Victoria	187	(1)
Rudyard Kipling	188	(1)
J. A. Hobson	189	(2)
Earl of Rosebery	191	(1)
Joseph Chamberlain	192	(1)
Lord Lugard	193	(1)
Sir John Seeley	194	(6)
4. The Twentieth Century
Introduction	197	(2)
The End of Empire?	199	(1)
Wilfred Blunt	200	(1)
John M. Mackenzie	201	(6)
Henry Hopkinson	207	(1)
Kenneth Bradley	208	(2)
British Labour Party conference resolution, 1942	210	(1)
Anthony Nutting	211	(1)
John Darwin	212	(5)
Jan Christiaan Smuts	217	(1)
W. David McIntyre	218	(9)
The Empire at War	225	(2)
President Steyn of the Orange Free State	227	(1)
Joseph Chamberlain	227	(1)
Field-Marshal Lord Roberts	228	(1)
Private Ernest White	229	(1)
Australia's military contribution in the First World War	229	(1)
Letters by Indian soldiers	230	(1)
John Curtin	231	(1)
Winston Churchill	232	(1)
Colonial Office memorandum	233	(2)
Keith Jeffery	235	(7)
The Pioneers: India/Pakistan and Ghana	241	(1)
Sir Satyendra Sinha	242	(1)
The `Crawling Order'	243	(1)
The Indian National Conference's `Independence Day Resolution'	244	(2)
Mohandas Gandhi	246	(1)
Winston Churchill	247	(1)
M. A. Jinnah	247	(1)
Sir Penderel Moon	248	(2)
Petition of the National Congress of British West Africa	250	(1)
Kwame Nkrumah	251	(1)
Report by member of staff of the Governor of the Gold Coast	252	(1)
British Cabinet memorandum	253	(1)
`The Birth of Ghana'	254	(4)
Settler Minorities: Kenya and Zimbabwe	256	(2)
Elspeth Huxley	258	(2)
Memorandum from British Colonial Secretary	260	(1)
Koinange Mbiyu	261	(1)
British memorandum on Mau-Mau	261	(2)
Interviews with Mau-Mau members	263	(1)
Jomo Kenyatta	264	(1)
Joshua Nkomo	265	(1)
Ian Smith	266	(1)
Robert Mugabe	267	(1)
The Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting, 1979	268	(5)
Peoples and Borders: Palestine and Malaysia	271	(2)
Chaim Weizmann	273	(1)
Arthur Balfour	273	(1)
Memorandum from Arab delegation and Winston Churchill's reply	274	(1)
Report of Palestine Royal Commission	275	(1)
Statement of the British Government on Palestine	276	(1)
Ch'en Chia-keng	277	(1)
Petition of plantation owners in Malaysia	278	(1)
Sir D. MacGillvray	279	(2)
Tunku Abdul Rahman	281	(1)
Sir P. Liesching	282	(2)
Maps	284	(15)
Chronology	299	(15)
Select Bibliography	314	(4)
Acknowledgements	318	(2)
Index	320