Englands Colonial Empire

This open access book explores the role of religion in England's overseas companies and the formation of English governmental identity abroad in the seventeenth century. Drawing on research into the Virginia, East India, Massachusetts Bay, Plymouth, New England and Levant Companies, it offers a comparative global assessment of the inextricable links between the formation of English overseas government and various models of religious governance across England's emerging colonial empire. While these approaches to governance varied from company to company, each sought to regulate the behaviour of their personnel, as well as the numerous communities and faiths which fell within their jurisdiction. This book provides a crucial reassessment of the seventeenth-century foundations of British imperial governance.

Prize-winning historian Robert Gildea dissects the legacy of empire for the former colonial powers and their subjects.

"Originally published in the U.K. in 2014 under the title Ten cities that made an empire, by Allen Lane, London."

This brief study analyzes the motives and processes of British empire building in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, as well as the role that the American colonies played in that system. Professor Ubbelohde underscores the economic and strategic aspects of colonialism, and asserts that in spite of imperial policy, the American colonies eventually developed a substantial degree of local autonomy that became an integral part of their future national heritage.

Bruce Lenman's hugely ambitious study explores three interacting themes: the growth of England's sprawling colonial empire; its military dimension; and the impact of colonial warfare on national identity. He starts in Ireland, with the renewed assault of English settlers on the Irish Gaeltacht. Under the (Scottish) Stuarts, England then began a dramatic expansion across the North Atlantic. In America, the 'Indian Wars', fought with minimal Crown support, helped forge an independent military capability among the colonists; while, in the West Indies, slave numbers and French intervention forced English settlers into a new dependency on the Crown. In India, the East India Company achieved ascendancy by sepoy armies under British control. These were very different kinds of empire; and a showdown became inevitable. The climactic conflict, the American Revolution, would not only dictate the future shape of colonial expansion, but also decisively reshaped the identities of all the participants.--Publisher description.

British colonial rule of the tropics is the critical background to contemporary development issues. This study of Britain's economic and political relationship with its tropical colonies provides detailed analyses of trade and policy. The considerations of past successes and failures elucidate current opportunities and developments. No other book covers this broad topic with such detail and clarity.