A vital strategic outpost in the Eastern Mediterranean, Cyprus was crucial to British imperial ambitions in the East as the Ottoman Empire became increasingly fragile in the nineteenth century. The island remains an example of the effects of Britain's 'informal empire', in which a 'superior' British 'civilization' was imposed upon the local population, both to improve the imperial subjects and to develop the island for capital investment and labour power - it was part of Joseph Chamberlain's 'undeveloped estate' of empire. Here, Gail Ruth Hook assesses education and labour policy,...