← Departments
British Empire
The making and unmaking of the largest empire in history — its architects, its servants, and its critics.
Who is Who in this Department ☞
Literature & Cultural Voice
Converse with
G.A. Henty Simulacrum
122 Imperial Adventure Novels · Empire as Moral Education · History as Character Formation
19th-20th century
Converse with
H. Rider Haggard Simulacrum
King Solomon's Mines · She · Africa as Adventure Romance · The Imperial Imaginary
19th-20th century
Converse with
Joseph Conrad Simulacrum
Heart of Darkness · Lord Jim · Nostromo · Critique from Inside the Assumptions
19th–20th century
Converse with
Rudyard Kipling Simulacrum
Kim · The Jungle Book · Plain Tales from the Hills · The White Man's Burden · Nobel 1907
19th–20th century
Converse with
John Buchan Simulacrum
The Thirty-Nine Steps · Prester John · The Gentleman Adventurer · Governor-General of Canada
19th-20th century
Converse with
Chinua Achebe Simulacrum
Things Fall Apart · The Counter-Narrative · Answering Conrad · African Literature in English
20th–21st century
Exploration & Intelligence
Converse with
James Cook Simulacrum
Three Voyages · The Chart as Claim · Navigation and Naming as Imperial Acts · Pacific · Australia
18th century
Converse with
Joseph Banks Simulacrum
Botany Bay · Kew Gardens · The Botanical Empire · 41 Years as President of the Royal Society
18th-19th century
Converse with
William Jones Simulacrum
The Indo-European Discovery · Comparative Linguistics · Sanskrit · Bengal as Laboratory · Asiatic Society
18th century
Converse with
Thomas Stamford Raffles Simulacrum
Singapore · Java · Liberal Imperialism · Natural History · The Company Reversed His Reforms
18th-19th century
Converse with
David Livingstone Simulacrum
Central Africa · Commerce and Christianity · The Arab Slave Trade · Heart Buried at Chitambo
19th century
Converse with
Richard Francis Burton Simulacrum
Immersion as Epistemology · 29 Languages · Mecca in Disguise · Lake Tanganyika · 1001 Nights
19th century
Converse with
Henry Morton Stanley Simulacrum
Congo for Leopold · Dr Livingstone I Presume · The Dark Mirror · Exploration Without Humanitarian Gloss
19th-20th century
Converse with
Mary Kingsley Simulacrum
West Africa Alone · Travels in West Africa · Deflationary Empiricism · Against Missionary Distortion
19th–20th century
Administration & Doctrine
Converse with
Robert Clive Simulacrum
Battle of Plassey · The Making of British India · East India Company · Parliament's Accounting
18th century
Converse with
James Wolfe Simulacrum
Quebec · The Plains of Abraham · The Hero Who Dies at the Moment of Victory · Benjamin West's Painting
18th century
Converse with
Warren Hastings Simulacrum
First Governor-General of India · The Administrator Who Loved India · Burke's Target · Impeachment
18th century
Converse with
Richard Wellesley Simulacrum
Subsidiary Alliance · Doubled British India · Governor-General · Wellington's Brother
18th-19th century
Converse with
Duke of Wellington Simulacrum
India · Waterloo · The Empire as Military School · Tipu Sultan · The Marathas
18th–19th century
Converse with
Charles Napier Simulacrum
Conquest of Sindh · Peccavi · A Very Advantageous Piece of Rascality · The Self-Aware Conqueror
18th-19th century
Converse with
Benjamin Disraeli Simulacrum
Suez Canal · Queen as Empress · Imperial Romance · Political Theatre · One Nation
19th century
Converse with
Henry Maine Simulacrum
From Status to Contract · Ancient Law · India as Legal Laboratory · Comparative Jurisprudence
19th century
Converse with
Walter Bagehot Simulacrum
The English Constitution · The Dignified and the Efficient · How Power Actually Works
19th century
Converse with
James Fitzjames Stephen Simulacrum
Liberty Equality Fraternity · The Reply to Mill · Indian Penal Code · Law May Enforce Morality
19th century
Converse with
Charles Gordon Simulacrum
Khartoum · The Martyred General · Imperial Death as Spectacle · Two Days Before Relief Arrived
19th century
Converse with
Lord Cromer Simulacrum
Egypt · The Invisible Empire · Governing Without Owning · The Proconsul as Type
19th-20th century
Converse with
Herbert Kitchener Simulacrum
Omdurman · Sudan · Boer War · War as Industrial Problem · The Mathematics of Slaughter
19th-20th century
Converse with
Alfred Milner Simulacrum
The Boer War · Imperial Federation · Empire by Paperwork · Engineering Conditions for War
19th-20th century
Converse with
Robert Baden-Powell Simulacrum
Scouting for Boys · Mafeking · Imperial Military Virtues as Universal Character Formation
19th-20th century
Converse with
Frederick Lugard Simulacrum
Indirect Rule · The Dual Mandate · Nigeria · Governing Through Existing Structures
19th–20th century
Converse with
George Curzon Simulacrum
Viceroy of India · The Partition of Bengal · Imperial Grandeur · The Complete Believer
19th–20th century
Critics & Dissenters from Within
Converse with
Edmund Burke Simulacrum
Hastings Prosecution · Power Must Answer · The Particular Against the Abstract · Reflections on the Revolution in France
18th century
Converse with
Thomas Clarkson Simulacrum
Abolition · The Brooks Diagram · 35,000 Miles · The Infrastructure of the Moral Campaign
18th-19th century
Converse with
William Cobbett Simulacrum
Rural Rides · The Great Wen · Empire Destroyed England First · The Agrarian Radical
18th-19th century
Converse with
Sydney Smith Simulacrum
Edinburgh Review · Wit as Moral Weapon · Against Evangelical Missionaries · Against Flogging
18th-19th century
Converse with
Thomas Carlyle Simulacrum
Hero Worship · The Occasional Discourse · The Philosophical Ground of Racial Hierarchy
19th century
Converse with
Richard Cobden Simulacrum
Free Trade as the Alternative to Empire · The Manchester School · The Corn Laws · Commerce is the Grand Panacea
19th century
Converse with
John Bright Simulacrum
The Quaker Conscience · Non-Intervention · A Crime Wrapped Up in a Blunder · Corn Laws · Anti-War
19th century
Converse with
Herbert Spencer Simulacrum
Survival of the Fittest · Social Darwinism · Evolution as Universal Law · The Ideological Lubricant
19th-20th century
Converse with
Francis Galton Simulacrum
Correlation · Regression · Eugenics · Fingerprints · The Polymath and His Catastrophic Application
19th-20th century
Converse with
J.A. Hobson Simulacrum
Imperialism: A Study (1902) · The Economic Mechanism · Surplus Capital · The Flag Follows the Dividend
19th–20th century
Converse with
Roger Casement Simulacrum
Congo Atrocities Report · Peruvian Rubber Slavery · The Consul Who Turned · Executed for Treason 1916
19th–20th century
Colonial Voices & Resistance
Converse with
Dadabhai Naoroji Simulacrum
The Drain Theory · Poverty and Un-British Rule in India · First British Indian MP · The Accounts Do Not Lie
19th–20th century
Converse with
Bal Gangadhar Tilak Simulacrum
Swaraj is My Birthright · Mass Politics · Twice Imprisoned · The Grammar is the Philosophy
19th-20th century
Converse with
Mahatma Gandhi Simulacrum
Satyagraha · Non-Cooperation · Hind Swaraj · The Withdrawal of Consent
19th–20th century
Converse with
Marcus Garvey Simulacrum
Africa for the Africans · Pan-Africanism · UNIA · Separate Self-Determination
19th-20th century
Converse with
C.L.R. James Simulacrum
The Black Jacobins · Beyond a Boundary · Cricket as Colonial Politics · Marxism · Pan-Africanism · Trinidad
20th century
Converse with
Frantz Fanon Simulacrum
The Wretched of the Earth · Black Skin White Masks · Colonisation as Psychological Structure · Martinique · Algeria
20th century