This volume traces the history of the British Empire through the use of primary and secondary documentary sources. Selections are presented within a chronological framework and organized around a central theme of identity, providing a clear and coherent approach to the selected readings. General and section introductions explore such issues as the role of economics and religion in imperial expansion and rule; how indigenous and Creole populations constructed and expressed their own identities; and what changes were wrought by the process of decolonization. With the emphasis on primary sources, this volume examines the phenomenon of British imperialism, while taking into account the wide range of debates that have recently invigorated the study of imperialism.

• General Introduction


• The Early Empire


• An empire of the sea


• Slavery


• Colonial identities


• The Eighteenth Century


• New horizons


• The American Revolution


• Conquest and identity


• The problem of India


• The Nineteenth Century


• Trade and empire


• Reform and empire


• The British diaspora


• Empire contested


• The 'new imperialism'


• The Twentieth Century


• The end of empire


• The empire at war


• The pioneers: India/Pakistan and Ghana


• Settler minorities: Kenya and Zimbabwe


• Peoples and borders: Palestine and Malaysia


• Maps


• Chronology


• Select bibliography

Jane Samson is Assistant Professor in the Department of History and Classics at the University of Alberta, Edmonton. She is editor, with Alan Frost, of 'Pacific Empires: Essays in Honour of Glyndwr Williams' (Melbourne: Melbourne University Press; Vancouver: UBC Press, 1999) and author of 'Imperial Benevolence: Making British Authority in the Pacific Islands' (Honolulu: University of Hawai'i Press and London: Curzon Press, 1998).