The British Empire, wrote Adam Smith, ''has hitherto been not
an empire, but the project of an empire'' and John Darwin offers a
magisterial global history of the rise and fall of that great
imperial project. The British Empire, he argues, was much more than
a group of colonies ruled over by a scattering of British
expatriates until eventual independence. It was, above all, a
global phenomenon. Its power derived rather less from the assertion
of imperial authority than from the fusing together of three
different kinds of empire: the settler empire of the ''white
dominions''; the commercial empire of the City of London; and
''Greater India'' which contributed markets, manpower and military
muscle. This unprecedented history charts how this intricate
imperial web was first strengthened, then weakened and finally
severed on the rollercoaster of global economic, political and
geostrategic upheaval on which it rode from beginning to end.
目錄:
Introduction: the project of an Empire
Part I. Towards ''The Sceptre of the World'': The Elements of Empire
in the Long Nineteenth Century: 1. Victorian origins
2. The octopus power
3. The commercial republic
4. The Britannic experiment
5. ''Un-British rule'' in ''Anglo-India''
6. The weakest link: Britain and South Africa
7. The Edwardian transition
Part II. ''The Great Liner is Sinking'': The British World-System in
the Age of War: 8. The War for Empire, 1914–1919
9. Making imperial peace, 1919–1926
10. Holding the centre, 1927–1937
11. The strategic abyss, 1937–1942
12. The price of survival, 1943–1951
13. The third world power, 1951–1959
14. Reluctant retreat, 1959–1968
Conclusion.