Ruling the World: Freedom, Civilisation and Liberalism in the Nineteenth-Century British Empire [Hardcover]

Reveals how the British Empire's governing men enforced their ideas of freedom, civilization and liberalism around the world.Provides a more balanced understanding of the British Empire and reveals how the men in charge of the most diverse empire in history enforced their ideas of freedom, civilization and liberalism around the world as they managed some of the greatest crises of the Victorian period.Provides a more balanced understanding of the British Empire and reveals how the men in charge of the most diverse empire in history enforced their ideas of freedom, civilization and liberalism around the world as they managed some of the greatest crises of the Victorian period.Ruling the World tells the story of how the largest and most diverse empire in history was governed, everywhere and all at once. Focusing on some of the most tumultuous years of Queen Victoria's reign, Alan Lester, Kate Boehme and Peter Mitchell adopt an entirely new perspective to explain how the men in charge of the British Empire sought to manage simultaneous events across the globe. Using case studies including Canada, South Africa, the Caribbean, Australia, India and Afghanistan, they reveal how the empire represented a complex series of trade-offs between Parliament's, colonial governors', colonists' and colonised peoples' agendas. They also highlight the compromises that these men made as they adapted their ideals of freedom, civilization and liberalism to the realities of an empire imposed through violence and governed in the interests of Britons.Introduction; Part I. 1838: The Year of Freedom: 1. Setting the scene for emancipation; 2. Managing expectations; 3. Political freedom; 4. Settler liberties; 5. Free trade, famine and invasion; 6. Steam and opium; Conclusion to Part I: An empire of freedom?; Part II. 1857: The Year of Civilization: 7. Setting the scene: Hubris and crisis; 8. 'A struggle of life and death'; 9. A new imperial government; Conclusion to Part II: An empire of civilizalƒ!