Internal Empire : The Rise and Fall of English Imperialism

This is the main purpose of this book: to show that the breakup of the UK, while perhaps not inevitable, has deep-rooted causes and is not primarily due to short-term factors driven by the limited vision of English politicians. Other authors and commentators have noted the centrifugal tendencies at work, but most have failed to place them in the correct historical context. History matters, and the solutions adopted by the English political class to hold the UK together no longer work. Understanding this is crucial if the constituent parts that reemerge after the end of the UK are to live in harmony with each other. And nowhere is this truer than in England, which must come to terms with its own hegemonic past and confront its own demons honestly, while reordering its affairs to take advantage of the new realities. Over several centuries, England imposed itself by force and by treaty on the other three nations of the Hiberno-British Isles to form its own English Empire. For much of its life, the United Kingdom has only endured out of shared interest in overseas territorial expansion--a British Empire built on slavery. In his new history, Victor Bulmer-Thomas charts the slow rise and rapid decline of English imperialism at home, from the fourteenth century to the present. When independence movements in the colonies began challenging the British Empire, a Commonwealth was constructed to hold together both former imperial possessions--including the Irish Free State--and the four nations of the internal empire. The Commonwealth was later supplanted by the European Economic Community, but Europe's potential as a long-term source of cohesion for the UK was dashed when the English voted to leave the EU in 2016, dragging the whole UK with them. With Empire, Commonwealth and Europe all gone, British unity is more fragile than ever. Facing the prospect of an independent Scotland, a reunited Ireland and an increasingly autonomous Wales, England may yet have to acknowledge its forgotten history as an aggressive imperial force on Britain's own, often unwilling, soil. From the 900s to today, the fascinating past, present and future of English imperialism in Britain and Ireland.