Empire

The notion that  ‘Greed is Good’ was not born in the 1980s, nor even in the 20th century. Frank Trentmann traces the roots of today’s rampant consumer culture to the imperial ambitions of the great European powers.

The First World War threw together people from all over the world. Anna Maguire considers images of these chance meetings and the light they shed on a global conflict.

Poor and small, Portugal was at the edge of late medieval Europe. But its seafarers created the age of ‘globalisation’, which continues to this day.

Ironically, from his lofty, paternal point of view, Lord Curzon became one of the prime architects of Indian independence.

C.R. Boxer profiles the learned and pious Duchess of Aveiro, a proud and forceful member of the Iberian aristocracy, who devoted her wealth to the propagation of the Gospel overseas.

Victorian travellers had made Arab studies a romantic discipline; but, writes Alaric Jacob, British involvement in Arab affairs arose from the First World War.

After years of service in the West Indies, writes Ian Bradley, Ramsay in England helped to inspire the crusade for Abolition.

Just over a hundred and thirty years ago, writes Sarah Searight Great Britain acquired New Zealand with a minimum of political and financial fuss.

In the mid-nineteenth century, writes Christopher Lloyd, a young naval surgeon from Orkney played an important part in West African exploration.

Cecil Northcott describes how Mackenzie’s dream of a liberal empire south of the Zambezi met opposition from Cecil Rhodes and from the Boers.