This book was first published in 1985.

This book was first published in 1985.

This atlas comprises a full guide to the history of Britain's imperial enterprise. In addition to Britain's colonial development, it touches on subjects including the changing territorial pattern of empire, exploration, trade, communications and imperial defence, war and conquest, the activities of Britain's missionaries and consuls and the spread of white settlement.

Spanning the entire period from the late fifteenth century beginnings of Britain's growth as a maritime commercial power to her withdrawal from most colonial possessions and her alignment with continental Europe in the 1970s and 1980s, this atlas traces the history of Britain's changing presence overseas. Each map is accompanied by explanatory text. The shifting territorial pattern of empire over more than four centuries, from the colonization of Virginia to the dismemberment of the African empire, is naturally prominent. British exploration is also covered, showing the routes taken and discoveries made, from Frobisher and Raleigh, to Cook and Livingstone. War, conquest and non-European military resistance are touched upon, especially in the American War of Independence, the Indian Mutiny, the South African campaign of 1899-1902, and recent World Wars. In addition, the atlas demonstrates the considerable influence and power, albeit of less formal kinds and at different times, brought by Britain's trade and investments, the patterns of imperial defence and communications, the spread of white settlement, the presence of her consuls, shipping and missionaries. This book should be of i

Scholars have recently begun to pay renewed attention to the economics of empire, focusing in particular on the requirements of metropolitan Britain's economy and on the activities of imperial businesses. Within this broad field, financial questions, not least the subject of investment overseas or the 'export of capital', have long had a prominent place, and have been equally affected by the development of new appraoches. The consensus as to the volume and direction of Britain's overseas investments is being vigorously challenged. Technological advances have encouraged on a greatly enlarged scale the compilation and analysis of information about British investments and shareholdings abroad. The gradual easing of restrictions on business records has increased facilities for the study, especially, of imperial and colonial banking. Work on the financial policies of central governments is revealing much of interest to students of twentieth-century colonial rule and decolonization. This collection of essays brings together a selection of the latest research on these and other themes, and, for comparative purposes, includes examples of recent continental work.