Despite emancipation from the evils of enslavement in 1838, most people of African origin in the British West Indian colonies continued to suffer serious material deprivation and racial oppression. This book examines the management and treatment of those who became insane, in the period until 1914. The exposure of deplorable conditions and flagrant abuses in the public lunatic asylum in Kingston, Jamaica, in the late 1850s exemplified the defective nature of provision for mentally disordered people throughout the region. Thereafter, British-inspired 'civilising' reforms were gradually...

This book argues that the rising tide of anti-colonialism after the 1930s should be considered a turning point not just in harnessing a new mood or feeling of unity, but primarily as one that viewed empire, racism, and economic degradation as part of a system that fundamentally required the application of strategy to their destruction.

This book provides an historical, critical analysis of the doctrine of 'civilising mission' in Portuguese colonialism in the crucial period from 1870 to 1930. Exploring international contexts and transnational connections, this 'civilising mission' is analysed and assessed by examining the employment and distribution of African manpower.

This volume provides a multidimensional assessment of the diverse ends of the European colonial empires, addressing different geographies, taking into account diverse chronologies of decolonization, and evaluating the specificities of each imperial configuration under appreciation (Portuguese, Belgian, French, British, Dutch).

The new world created through Anglophone emigration in the 19th century has been much studied. But there have been few accounts of what this meant for the Indigenous populations. This book shows that Indigenous communities tenaciously held land in the midst of dispossession, whilst becoming interconnected through their struggles to do so.

This book aims to examine French motivations behind the decolonisation of Tunisia and Morocco, and the responses of the United States and the UK to the French policy. France had refused the decolonisation of its overseas territories even after World War II, unlike Britain. Investigating why this policy change occurred is particularly significant in order to understand why most colonies obtained independence only 20-30 years after World War II. Interestingly, this process did not result in the destruction of the Alliance. As in the Algerian War, open confrontations between France and the...

This collection of essays explores the inter-imperial connections between British, Spanish, Dutch, and French Caribbean colonies, and the 'Old World' countries which founded them. Grounded in primary archival research, the thirteen contributors focus on the ways that participants in the Atlantic World economy transcended imperial boundaries. The volume presents linked chapters which together examine the evolving and strengthening interconnections between the changing political economies of Europe and the Caribbean during the 'long' eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. It brings together...

This pioneering book offers unique insights into the careers of Indian doctors in colonial Kenya. As such, it deepens and broadens recent historiography of the complex constitution of the British Empire. The British Empire, although ideologically racist, nevertheless relied upon staff of all nationalities and ethnicities. Ideas and practices were imported between various colonial dependencies as much as they evolved responsively to local conditions. The book highlights the complex ambiguities of Empire; advancing modern studies of the British Empire as a linked, multi-centred global...

A turn towards the 'colonial margins' can be observed lately within colonial and postcolonial studies. It has been argued that states without former colonies and their inhabitants shared colonial discourses and were intensely involved in colonial practices. This anthology looks at Switzerland, which constitutes a perfect case in point for a host of reasons: its strong economic involvement with imperial projects of other European countries, its transnationally entangled scientific community, its doctrine of neutrality, which, among other things, made the country attractive as operational base...

The Political Economy of Imperial Relations considers the relationship between Britain and Malaya after World War Two in theoretical and historical terms. It develops a new approach to imperialism, situating an understanding of the state in terms of the global economy. This approach challenges existing accounts of the relationship between Britain and Malaya by positing that it can best be characterized in terms of continuity rather than discontinuity. By analyzing the period from 1945 to 1960, the book charts Britain's commitment to Malaya, as well as Malaya's value to Britain, as...