Britain's Declining Empire

Britain's Declining Empire
Author: Ronald Hyam
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 14
Release: 2007-02-05
Genre: History
ISBN: 1316025659

An authoritative political history of one of the world's most important empires on the road to decolonisation. Ronald Hyam's 2007 book offers a major reassessment of the end of empire which combines a study of British policymaking with case studies on the experience of decolonization across Africa, Asia and the Caribbean. He describes the dysfunctional policies of an imperial system coping with postwar, interwar and wartime crises from 1918 to 1945 but the main emphasis is on the period after 1945 and the gradual unravelling of empire as a result of international criticism, and the growing imbalance between Britain's capabilities and its global commitments. He analyses the transfers of power from India in 1947 to Swaziland in 1968, the major crises such as Suez and assesses the role of leading figures from Churchill, Attlee and Eden to Macmillan and Wilson. This is essential reading for scholars and students of empire and decolonisation.

The Decline and Fall of the British Empire, 1781-1997

The Decline and Fall of the British Empire, 1781-1997
Author: Piers Brendon
Publisher: Vintage
Total Pages: 850
Release: 2010-02-09
Genre: History
ISBN: 0307388417

A WASHINGTON POST BOOK WORLD NOTABLE BOOK After the American Revolution, the British Empire appeared to be doomed. Yet it grew to become the greatest, most diverse empire the world had seen. Then, within a generation, the mighty structure collapsed, a rapid demise that left an array of dependencies and a contested legacy: at best a sporting spirit, a legal code and a near-universal language; at worst, failed states and internecine strife. The Decline and Fall of the British Empire covers a vast canvas, which Brendon fills with vivid particulars, from brief lives to telling anecdotes to comic episodes to symbolic moments.

Unfinished Empire

Unfinished Empire
Author: John Darwin
Publisher: Penguin UK
Total Pages: 574
Release: 2012-09-06
Genre: History
ISBN: 1846146712

A both controversial and comprehensive historical analysis of how the British Empire worked, from Wolfson Prize-winning author and historian John Darwin The British Empire shaped the world in countless ways: repopulating continents, carving out nations, imposing its own language, technology and values. For perhaps two centuries its expansion and final collapse were the single largest determinant of historical events, and it remains surrounded by myth, misconception and controversy today. John Darwin's provocative and richly enjoyable book shows how diverse, contradictory and in many ways chaotic the British Empire really was, controlled by interests that were often at loggerheads, and as much driven on by others' weaknesses as by its own strength.

The Decline, Revival and Fall of the British Empire

The Decline, Revival and Fall of the British Empire
Author: John Gallagher
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 244
Release: 2004-01-29
Genre: History
ISBN: 9780521891042

John Gallagher was a major influence on a generation of students of empire. His re-interpretation of the nature of British imperialism stimulated much debate. Here, Anil Seal has edited a group of Gallagher's major essays.

The British Empire

The British Empire
Author: Sarah E. Stockwell
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
Total Pages: 386
Release: 2008-01-29
Genre: History
ISBN: 1405125357

This volume adopts a distinctive thematic approach to the history of British imperialism from the eighteenth to the twentieth century. It brings together leading scholars of British imperial history: Tony Ballantyne, John Darwin, Andrew Dilley, Elizabeth Elbourne, Kent Fedorowich, Eliga Gould, Catherine Hall, Stephen Howe, Sarah Stockwell, Andrew Thompson, Stuart Ward, and Jon Wilson. Each contributor offers a personal assessment of the topic at hand, and examines key interpretive debates among historians Addresses many of the core issues that constitute a broad understanding of the British Empire, including the economics of the empire, the empire and religion, and imperial identities

Understanding the British Empire

Understanding the British Empire
Author: Ronald Hyam
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 575
Release: 2010-05-20
Genre: History
ISBN: 0521115221

A study of key themes in the history of the British Empire by one of the senior figures in the field.

Britain and Decolonisation

Britain and Decolonisation
Author: John Darwin
Publisher: Palgrave He, Print UK
Total Pages: 383
Release: 1988
Genre: Decolonization
ISBN: 9780333292563

Presented chronologically, this study focuses on the post war break-up of the British Empire which began with the abandonment of the Raj in India and the eventual entry into the European Community. The author examines the significance and the reasons behind this imperial retreat.

Britain’s Informal Empire in Spain, 1830-1950

Britain’s Informal Empire in Spain, 1830-1950
Author: Nick Sharman
Publisher: Springer Nature
Total Pages: 243
Release: 2021-09-25
Genre: History
ISBN: 3030779505

Based on five years of archival research, this book offers a radical reinterpretation of Britain and Spain’s relationship during the growth, apogee and decline of the British Empire. It shows that from the early nineteenth century Britain turned Spain into an ‘informal’ colony, using its economic and military dominance to achieve its strategic and economic ends. Britain’s free trade campaign, which aimed to tear down the legal barriers to its explosive trade and investment expansion, undermined Spain’s attempts to achieve industrial take-off, demonstrating that the relationship between the two countries was imperial in nature, and not simply one of unequal national power. Exploring five key moments of crisis in their relations, from the First Carlist War in the 1830s to the Second World War, the author analyses Britain’s use of military force in achieving its goals, and the consequences that this had for economic and political policy-making in Spain. Ultimately, the Anglo-Spanish relationship was an early example of the interaction between industrial power and colonies, formal and informal, that characterised the post-World War Two period. An insightful read for anyone researching the British Empire and its colonies, this book offers an innovative perspective by closely examining the volatile relationship between two European powers.