Because many of the documents and books about Puerto Rico have been written by the island's colonizers, only the victors were celebrated. With this in mind, the author has expressly composed this book from the viewpoint of the colonized, suppressed, and exploited. She challenges a previously-held notion that the Tainos simply gave up at the first sight of the Spaniards, and shows that they not only fought the intruders, but continued to resist them for more than sixty years after the battle of Yaguecas. The author discusses the fate and contributions of Africans who, as slaves or as free persons, became instrumental in Puerto Rico's social and economic development and shows how this multi-cultural Caribbean island brings together the global traditions of the Americas, Africa, and Europe.

In the period between the 1770s and 1840s, through the process of colonial state formation, the early colonial state in India was able to harness and extract vast amounts of agrarian wealth in north India. However, little is known of the histories of the Indian scribes and the role they played in shaping the early patterns of British colonial rule. This book offers a new way of interpreting the colonial state's origins in north India. It examines how the formation of early agrarian revenue settlements exacerbated an extant late Mughal taxation tradition, and how the success of British power was shaped by this extant paper-oriented revenue culture. It goes on to examine how the service and cultural histories of various Hindu scribal communities fit within broader changes in political administration, taxation, patterns of governance and a shared Indo-Islamic administrative culture. The author argues that British power after the late eighteenth century came as much through bureaucratic mastery, paper and taxes as it did through military force and commercial ruthlessness. The book draws upon private family papers, interviews and Persian sources to demonstrate how the fortunes of scribes changed between empires, and the important role they played at the height of the British Raj by 1900. Offering a detailed account of how agrarian wealth provided the bedrock of the colonial state's later patterns of administration, this book is a unique and refreshing contribution to studies in South Asian History, Governance and Imperialism.

'More than just a work of first-class scholarship, Liberty's Exiles is a deeply moving masterpiece that fulfils the historian's most challenging ambition: to revivify past experience.' Niall Ferguson Liberty's Exiles was shortlisted for the 2011 BBC Samuel Johnson Prize. Early in the afternoon of 25 November 1783, the American Revolution was finally over; the British were gone, the patriots were back and a key moment inscribed itself in the annals of the emerging United States. Territorial independence from Great Britain had effectively begun. In 'Liberty's Exiles', Maya Jasanoff examines the realities of the end of the Revolution, through looking at the lives of the Loyalist refugees - those men and women who took Britain's side. She tells the story of Elizabeth Johnston from Savannah, whose family went on to settle in St Augustine, Scotland, Jamaica and Nova Scotia; Reverend Jacob Bailey, who fled from New England across rough seas to Canada with his family and little more than the clothes on his back; five-year-old Catherine Skinner - the daughter of a loyalist - who was trapped as a prisoner in her home, hiding from the gunshots of rebel raiders. Their experiences speak eloquently of a larger history of exile, mobility and the shaping of the British Empire in the wake of the American War. Beautifully written and rich with source material, 'Liberty's Exiles' is a history of the American Revolution unlike any before.

British Burma in the New Century draws upon neglected but talented colonial authors to portray Burma between 1895 and 1918, which was the apogee of British governance. These writers, most of them 'Burmaphiles' wrote against widespread misperceptions about Burma.

"This is the first book-length study of the French Caribbean presence in Africa, and serves as a unique contribution to the field of African Diaspora and Colonial studies. By using administrative records, newspapers, and interviews, it explores the French Caribbean presence in the colonial administration in Africa before World War II"--Provided by publisher.

In A History of Manchuria, Ian Nish describes the turbulent times which the three Northeastern Provinces of China experienced in the last two centuries. The site of three serious wars in 1894, 1904 and 1919, the territory rarely enjoyed peace though its economy progressed because of the building of arterial railways. From 1932 it came under the rule of the Japanese-inspired government of Manchukuo based at Changchun. But that was short-lived, being brought to an end by the punitive incursion and occupation of the country by Soviet forces in 1945. Thereafter the devastated territory was fought over by Chinese Nationalist and Communist armies until Mukden (Shenyang) fell to the Communists in October 1948. Manchuria, under-populated but strategically important, was the location for disputes between China, Russia and Japan, the three powers making up the 'triangle' which gives the name to the sub-title of this study. These countries were hardly ever at peace with one another, the result being that the economic growth of a potentially wealthy country was seriously retarded. The story is illustrated by extracts drawn from contemporary documents of the three triangular powers.

Patrolling the Border focuses on a late eighteenth-century conflict between Creek Indians and Georgians. The conflict was marked by years of seemingly random theft and violence culminating in open war along the Oconee River, the contested border between the two peoples. Joshua S. Haynes argues that the period should be viewed as the struggle of nonstate indigenous people to develop an effective method of resisting colonization. Using database and digital mapping applications, Haynes identifies one such method of resistance: a pattern of Creek raiding best described as politically motivated border patrols. Drawing on precontact ideas and two hundred years of political innovation, border patrols harnessed a popular spirit of unity to defend Creek country. These actions, however, sharpened divisions over political leadership both in Creek country and in the infant United States. In both polities, people struggled over whether local or central governments would call the shots. As a state-like institution, border patrols are the key to understanding seemingly random violence and its long-term political implications, which would include, ultimately, Indian removal.

African research played a major role in transforming the discipline of anthropology in the twentieth century. Ethnographic studies, in turn, had significant effects on the way imperial powers in Africa approached subject peoples. Ordering Africa provides the first comparative history of these processes. With essays exploring metropolitan research institutes, Africans as ethnographers, the transnational features of knowledge production, and the relationship between anthropology and colonial administration, this volume both consolidates and extends a range of new research questions focusing on the politics of imperial knowledge. Specific chapters examine French West Africa, the Belgian and French Congo, the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan, Italian Northeast Africa, Kenya, and Equatorial Africa (Gabon) as well as developments in Britain, France, Germany, Italy, and Switzerland. A major collection of essays that will be welcomed by scholars interested in imperial history and the history of Africa. -- .

The American Revolution: A Historical Guidebook is a guide to the major sites of the Revolutionary War as well as to the most authoritative books on the war written during the last fifty years. Composed of nearly 150 entries on sites including battle fields and encampments; forts; museums; and meeting houses and gathering places such as Faneuil Hall in Boston and Keeler Tavern in Ridgefield, Connecticut, this guidebook is an essential reference for anyone interested in Revolutionary War history. Entries include essays from the most authoritative and accessible books on the American Revolution, including such classic works as Barbara Tuchman's The First Salute and David Hackett Fischer's Washington's Crossing, as well as a number of illuminating primary documents by Abigail Adams, Benjamin Franklin, George Washington, and others. The essays provide context and overview, giving a sense of the major figures and events as well as the course of the Revolution. Frances Kennedy, general editor, provides connecting narrative throughout the text, which moves chronologically from the pre-Revolutionary years up through 1787. The resulting book is encyclopedic in scope yet accessible to the general reader. Accompanied by historical maps, it offers a comprehensive picture of how the Revolutionary War unfolded on American soil, and also points readers to the best writing on the subject in the last fifty years.

This book provides evidence that Labour in Trinidad and Tobago played a vital role in undermining British colonialism and advocating for federation and self-government. Furthermore, there is emphasis on the pioneering efforts of the Labour movement in party politics, social justice, and working class solidarity.

Queen Victoria, who also bore the title of Empress of India, had a real and abiding interest in the British Empire, but other European monarchs also ruled over possessions 'beyond the seas'. This collection of original essays explores the connections between monarchy and colonialism, from the old regime empires down to the Commonwealth of today. With case studies drawn from Britain, France, the Netherlands, Germany and Italy, the chapters analyse constitutional questions about the role of the crown in overseas empires, the pomp and pageantry of the monarchy as it transferred to the colonies, and the fate of indigenous sovereigns under European colonial control. The volume, with chapters on North America, Asia, Africa and Australasia, provides new perspectives on colonial history, the governance of empire, and the transnational history of monarchies in modern Europe. -- .

Informal empire is a key mechanism of control that explains much of the configuration of the modern world. This book traces the broad outline of westernization through elite formations around the world in the modern era. It explains why the world is western and how formal empire describes only the tip of the iceberg of British and American power.

Ecology and Power in the Age of Empire provides the first wide-ranging environmental history of the heyday of European imperialism, from the late nineteenth century to the end of the colonial era. It focuses on the ecological dimensions of the explosive growth of tropical commodity production, global trade, and modern resource management-transformations that still visibly shape our world today-and how they were related to broader social, cultural, and political developments in Europe's colonies. Covering the overseas empires of all the major European powers, Corey Ross argues that tropical environments were not merely a stage on which conquest and subjugation took place, but were an essential part of the colonial project, profoundly shaping the imperial enterprise even as they were shaped by it. The story he tells is not only about the complexities of human experience, but also about people's relationship with the ecosystems in which they were themselves embedded: the soil, water, plants, and animals that were likewise a part of Europe's empire. Although it shows that imperial conquest rarely represented a sudden bout of ecological devastation, it nonetheless demonstrates that modern imperialism marked a decisive and largely negative milestone for the natural environment. By relating the expansion of modern empire, global trade, and mass consumption to the momentous ecological shifts that they entailed, this book provides a historical perspective on the vital nexus of social, political, and environmental issues that we face in the twenty-first-century world.

This fascinating, entertaining and often gruelling book by James Mills, examines the lunatic asylums set up by the British in nineteenth-century India. The author asserts that there was a growth in asylums following the Indian Mutiny, fuelled by the fear of itinerant and dangerous individuals, which existed primarily in the British imagination. Once established though, these asylums, which were staffed by Indians and populated by Indians, quickly became arenas in which the designs of the British were contested and confronted. Mills argues that power is everywhere and is behind every action; colonial power is therefore just another way to assert control over the less powerful. This social history draws on official archives and documents based in Scotland, England and India. This book is essential reading for anyone interested in history, sociology, or the general interest reader.

In 1944, the British Fourteenth Army and the Japanese Fifteenth Army clashed around the town of Imphal, Manipur, in North East India in what has since been described as one of the greatest battles of the Second World War. Over 200,000 soldiers from several nations fought in the hills and valley of Manipur on the India-Burma (Myanmar) frontier. This book is the first systematic mapping of the main scenes of the fighting in the critical Battle of Imphal. It connects the present with the past and links what exists today in Manipur with what happened there in 1944. The events were transformative for this little-known place and connected it with the wider world in an unparalleled way. By drawing on oral testimonies, written accounts and archival material, this book revisits the old battlefields and tells the untold story of a place and people that were perhaps the most affected by the Second World War in India. The volume will be of great interest to scholars and researchers of military history, especially the Second World War, defence and strategic studies, area studies, and North East India.

Europe's rapacious hunger for other people's lands is one of the key shaping forces of our contemporary world. Everything is touched by our colonial past, from the way we see the world to the food we eat. Our contemporary preoccupations and ills - from globalization to humanitarian intervention to international terrorism - have colonialism somewhere in their genetic make-up. The character and policies of contemporary international organizations - from the United Nations to the European Union - have also been deeply affected by the colonial inheritance of their members, whether as perpetrators or "victims". Weaving together the complex strands of history and politics into one compact narrative, this book addresses the key theories of colonialism, examining them against contemporary realities. It goes on to looks at how the different policies of colonisers have had profoundly contradictory effects on the way different empires ended in the 20th century. These endings in turn affected the entire nature of modern day international relations. It also exposes the moral ambiguities of colonialism and the hypocrisies, which underlay colonial policies in the 19th and 20th centuries.

Originally published in 1902, this study expands on the ideas of imperialism which were a key focus of many countries in the early twentieth century, particularly in Great Britain. Hobson starts by outlining the economic origins of imperialism with an analysis on methodology and results, before delving into the theory and practice of Imperialism and its political significance at the turn of the century. This edition was first published in 1938 and was completely revised to reflect the changes that occurred in world history from first publication. This title will be of interest to students of Politics or History.

This volume explores the planning and architectural cultures that shaped the model space of French colonial Dakar, a prominent city in West Africa. With a focus on the period from the establishment of the city in the mid-nineteenth century until the interwar years, the book reveals a variety of urban politics, policies and practices, and complex negotiations on both the physical and conceptual levels. Chronicling the design of Dakar as a regional capital, the book suggests a connection between the French colonial doctrines of assimilation and association, and French colonial planning and architectural policies in sub-Saharan Africa. Of interest to scholars in history, geography, architecture, urban planning, African studies and Global South studies, the book incorporates both primary and secondary sources collected from multilateral channels in Europe and Senegal. -- .

"A strength of the volume is its coverage of the "applied" aspects of knowledge, from Anthropology through to Eugenics and state and social planning. There is also a commendable sensitivity to the unique ethnic dynamics of southern Africa, not least, for example, the complications of an "indigenized" and powerful Afrikaner nationalism." Donal Lowry, Oxford Brookes University This collection, dealing with case studies drawn from South Africa, Zimbabwe, Mozambique and Mauritius, examines the relationship between scientific claims and practices on the one hand and the exercise of colonial power on the other. It challenges conventional views that portray science as a detached mode of reasoning with the capacity to confer benefits in a more or less even-handed manner. That science has the potential to further the collective good is not fundamentally at issue, but science can also be seen as complicit in processes of colonial domination. Not only did science assist in bolstering aspects of colonial power and exploitation, it also possessed a significant ideological component: it offered a means of legitimating colonial authority by counter-poising Western rationality to native superstition and it served to enhance the self-image of colonial or settler elites in important respects. This innovative volume ranges broadly through topics such as statistics, medicine, eugenics, agriculture, entomology and botany. Its interdisciplinary approach will find a readership amongst historians, sociologists, anthropologists and historians of science and medicine, both at an undergraduate and at a specialist level. Contributions are drawn from South Africa, Britain and North America.

Through a study of the British Empire's largest women's patriotic organisation, formed in 1900, and still in existence, this book examines the relationship between female imperialism and national identity. It throws new light on women's involvement in imperialism; on the history of 'conservative' women's organisations; on women's interventions in debates concerning citizenship and national identity; and on the history of women in white settler societies. After placing the IODE (Imperial Order Daughters of the Empire) in the context of recent scholarly work in Canadian, gender, imperial history and post-colonial theory, the book follows the IODE's history through the twentieth century. Chapters focus upon the IODE's attempts to create a British Canada through its maternal feminist work in education, health, welfare and citizenship. In addition it reflects on the IODE's responses to threats to Anglo-Canadian hegemony posed by immigration, World Wars and Communism, and examines the complex relationship between imperial loyalty and settler nationalism. Tracing the organisation into the postcolonial era, where previous imperial ideas are outmoded, it considers the transformation from patriotism to charity, and the turn to colonisation at home in the Canadian North.

This is a detailed study of the various ways in which London and India were imaginatively constructed by British observers during the nineteenth century. This process took place within a unified field of knowledge that brought together travel and evangelical accounts to exert a formative influence on the creation of London and India for the domestic reading public. Their distinct narratives, rhetoric and chronologies forged homologies between representations of the metropolitan poor and colonial subjects - those constituencies that were seen as the most threatening to imperial progress. Thus the poor and particular sections of the Indian population were inscribed within discourses of western civilization as regressive and inferior peoples. Over time these discourses increasingly promoted notions of overt and rigid racial hierarchies, the legacy of which remains to this day. This comparative analysis looks afresh at the writings of observers such as Henry Mayhew, Patrick Colquhoun, Charles Grant, Pierce Egan, James Forbes and Emma Roberts, thereby seeking to rethink the location of the poor and India within the nineteenth-century imagination. Drawing upon cultural and intellectual history it also attempts to extend our understanding of the relationship between 'centre' and 'periphery'. The other empire will be of value to students and scholars of modern imperial and urban history, cultural studies, and religious studies.

The French North African Crisis analyzes the postwar breakdown in French imperial rule in North West Africa, concentrating primarily upon the Algerian war of independence. This book highlights the human tragedy involved and the divisive consequences within French metropolitan politics of intractable colonial conflict. It further examines how far the protracted crisis of colonial control in North Africa shaped French foreign and security policy and this impacted upon Anglo-French relations, the western alliance and the wider process of decolonization.

This guide is an updated version of Mandy Banton's indispensable introduction to the records of British government departments responsible for the administration of colonial affairs, and now held in The National Archives of the United Kingdom. It covers the period from about 1801 to 1966. It has been planned as a user-friendly guide concentrating on the organisation of the records, the information they are likely to provide and how to use the contemporary finding aids. It also provides an outline of the expansion of the British empire during the period and discusses the organisation of colonial governments.

In a work based on new archival, press, and literary sources, the author revises the picture of German imperialism as being the brainchild of a Machiavellian Bismarck or the "conservative revolutionaries" of the twentieth century. Instead, Fitzpatrick argues for the liberal origins of German imperialism, by demonstrating the links between nationalism and expansionism in a study that surveys the half century of imperialist agitation and activity leading up to the official founding of Germany's colonial empire in 1884.

This book examines how, quite by accident and under very unfortunate circumstances, Britain's colony of South Carolina afforded women an unprecedented opportunity for economic autonomy. Though the colony prospered financially, throughout the colonial period the death rate remained alarmingly high, keeping the white population small. This demographic disruption allowed white women a degree of independence unknown to their peers in most of England's other mainland colonies, for, as heirs of their male relatives, an unusually large proportion of women controlled substantial amounts of real estate. Their economic independence went unchallenged by their male peers because these women never envisioned themselves as anything more than deputies for their husbands, fathers, brothers, and friends.

As far as low country settlers were concerned, allowing women to assume the role of planter was necessary to the creation of a traditional, male-centered society in the colony. Fundamentally conservative, women in South Carolina worked to safeguard the patriarchal social order that the area's staggering mortality rate threatened to destroy. Critical to the perpetuation of English culture and patriarchal authority in South Carolina, female planters attended to the affairs of the world and helped to preserve English society in a wilderness setting.