Colonial Empires and Armies 1815-1960

This extraordinarily wide-ranging book is the first to bring within a single view the wars which created Europe's empires - the manner in which they were conducted, and their impact not only on the societies thus brought within Europe's grasp but also on the societies which launched them. Beginning with the post-Napoleonic era, it presents all the major episodes of an often dramatic story in which the military agents of European imperialism met the peoples of the rest of the world in armed conflict. The ideology of empire is also addressed: the concept of the civilizing mission, the triumph of civilization over barbarism, ardently supported by the missionary organizations. In reality, colonialist motives were mainly those of material profit, and colonialist and their propagandists did much to work up the nationalist rivalries and hatred which exploded in 1914-18, with the colonial world drawn on for cannon-fodder. Brilliant sketches of imperial and colonial life are interwoven with analysis of the changing balance of economic and political power, as Victor Kiernan describes how the colonial liberation movements turned the tables in the aftermath of the Second World War.