The Empire Project: The Rise and Fall of the British World-System, 1830–1970

by John Darwin

• ISBN13: 9780521302081
• ISBN10: 0521302080
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2009-10-30
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Summary

'The British Empire, wrote Adam Smith, 'has hitherto been not an empire, but the project of an empire' and John Darwin offers a magisterial global history of the rise and fall of that great imperial project. The British Empire, he argues, was much more than a group of colonies ruled over by a scattering of British expatriates until eventual independence. It was above all a global phenomenon. Its power derived rather less from the assertion of imperial authority than from the fusing together of three different kinds of empire: the settler empire of the 'white dominions'; the commercial empire of the City of London; and 'Greater India' which contributed markets, manpower and military muscle. This unprecedented history charts how this intricate imperial web was first strengthened, then weakened and finally severed on the rollercoaster of global economic, political and geostrategic upheaval on which it rode from beginning to end.

Table of Contents

List of maps	p. ix
Preface and acknowledgments	p. xi
Introduction: the project of an Empire	p. 1
Towards 'The Sceptre of the WorldÆ: the elements of Empire in the long nineteenth century
Victorian origins	p. 23
The octopus power	p. 64
The commercial republic	p. 112
The Britannic experiment	p. 144
'Un-British ruleÆ in 'Anglo-IndiaÆ	p. 180
The weakest link: Britain in South Africa	p. 217
The Edwardian transition	p. 255
'The great liner is sinkingÆ: the British world-system in the age of war
The war for Empire, 1914-1919	p. 305
Making imperial peace, 1919-1926	p. 359
Holding the centre, 1927-1937	p. 418
The strategic abyss, 1937-1942	p. 476
The price of survival, 1943-1951	p. 514
The third world power, 1951-1959	p. 566
Reluctant retreat, 1959-1968	p. 610
Conclusion	p. 649
Notes	p. 656
Select bibliography	p. 789
Index	p. 795
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