Informal Empire and the Rise of One World Culture (Cambridge Imperial and Post-Colonial Studies)

Palgrave Macmillan is the global academic imprint of the above companies and has companies and representatives throughout the world. Palgrave® and Macmillan® are registered trademarks in the United States, the United Kingdom, Europe and other countries. This book is printed on paper suitable for recycling and made from fully managed and sustained forest sources. Logging, pulping and manufacturing processes are expected to conform to the environmental regulations of the country of origin. "Through their copious published writings, missionaries conveyed their experiences and anxieties about people and cultures they encountered in a much-consumed strand of colonial discourse, that allowed the British public to imagine the remote countries they inhabited. Using research that draws on these writings from missionaries in southern Africa and India, Missionary Discourses of Difference is organised into three important themes of imperial and postcolonial scholarship and major missionary concern: family, sickness and violence. Each thematic section considers both how missionaries represented race, religion, gender and culture and how their thinking was shaped by anxieties about their own experiences. This two-pronged approach allows for a sustained interrogation of the interplay between self and other in missionary writing and probes the limits of inclusion beneath the missionary commitment to universalism."--Publisher's description Informal empire is a key mechanism of control that explains much of the configuration of the modern world as it is today. This book traces the broad and undeniable outline of westernization through elite formations around the world in the modern era. It explains why the world is western and how formal empire describes only the tip of the iceberg of British and American power. Barton examines how the imperial web of influence can justly be said to have revolutionized human thought and culture at every level and in every location. He concludes by warning that the open elites that characterized the Victorian age have given way to closed elites that manipulate the levers of the imperial web to the detriment of meaningful culture and human liberty This is the undisputed best introduction to the history of the world-wide pattern of British activity in the nineteenth century, embracing its expansive spirit as well as its formal territorial empire. The dynamics of this extraordinary enterprise are considered broadly: the high-political concerns of strategy and international geopolitics are analyzed, as well as the economic dimension, missionary activity, and racial attitudes, together with a wide range of cultural aspects, including sport and the pursuit of sexual opportunity. Nor is the personal contribution of some of the leading Victorian figures neglected Front Matter....Pages i-ix Models of Global Transformation....Pages 1-29 The Idea of Informal Empire....Pages 30-47 The Palmerstonian Project....Pages 48-70 Informal Empire and Africa....Pages 71-94 Informal Empire and the Americas....Pages 95-118 Informal Empire and Asia....Pages 119-143 Informal Empire and the Middle East....Pages 144-167 The United States and the Imperial Web....Pages 168-185 Resistance and the Imperial Network....Pages 186-197 Back Matter....Pages 198-254 Cover 1 Contents 8 Acknowledgements 9 List of Abbreviations 10 1 Models of Global Transformation 11 2 The Idea of Informal Empire 40 3 The Palmerstonian Project 58 4 Informal Empire and Africa 81 5 Informal Empire and the Americas 105 6 Informal Empire and Asia 129 7 Informal Empire and the Middle East 154 8 The United States and the Imperial Web 178 9 Resistance and the Imperial Network 196 Notes 208 Bibliography 234 Index 256 "A new interpretation of imperialism and environmental change, and the anxieties imperialism generated through environmental transformation and interaction with unknown landscapes. Tying together South Asia and Australasia, this book demonstrates how environmental anxieties led to increasing state resource management, conservation, and urban reform."--Publisher's description The Idea Of An Aryan Race Became An Important Feature Of Imperial Culture In The 19th Century, Feeding Into Debates In Britain, Ireland, India, And The Pacific. This Study Traces The Emergence And Dissemination Of Aryanism Within The British Empire.