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2. Living in the Empire 

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• Living in the British Empire  from the British National Archive:

 

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3. Britain: territories & regions of influence

 

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Click on one of the casahistoria sites below to go to one of our pages on the British Empire:

Africa: Australia: British India: China: Falklands/Malvinas: Ireland: Latin America: Middle East

See Section 4 below: The European experience in Africa Case Study: Australia go to the casahistoria site See Section 2c below: British India Impact of the West go to the casahistoria site Malvinas/Falklands go to the casahistoria site Ireland and the British go to the casahistoria site British involvement in Latin America - the casahistoria site Mesopotamia/Iraq go to the casahistoria site Palestine Mandate go to the casahistoria site

South East Asia

• Rajah Brooke & 19th Century Sarawak Chronology, bibliographies, & list of Web links related to Rajah Brooke, 19th century Sarawak, & the region & countries of Southeast Asia. Overall layout is rather puritan... From Univ of Ohio
• Rajahs of Sarawak Essentially a book review but well illustrated
• The Borneo Project: The Brooke Era looks at the colonisation period of Borneo's history. Sponsored by Earth Island Institute

 

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4. British India

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Documents

• The Western Intrusion Documents from the  Internet Indian History Sourcebook
• Raj Images of India and Pakistan and movies of India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka before Independence in 1947. Lush production from the excellent Harappa site
• The Story of the (Malakand) Guides by Colonel G. J. Younghusband. The Gutenberg edition of the 1908 military history of the British on the north west frontier in the 19th century.
• British Voices from South Asia Very useful witness accounts placed in a well supported and visual context. This site reproduces an exhibition which was held in Louisiana State University in 1996. The materials presented here focus on British India as a colonial subculture and on some of the cultural implications of the British-Indian connection
• Family Histories - Family History in India Cathy Day's excellent Resource. Essentially information regarding British, European and Anglo-Indian family history in India, Burma, Pakistan and Bangladesh. However very good for research into specifics such as occupations, army regiments, life in general
• Images of India Excellent set of photos of British India taken 1903-8 from Unique Tour company. Images are described as they were originally. Good on native Indian photos.

Early involvement

• From Trade to Colonization - Historic Dynamics of the East India Companies Article from South Asian History traces the transformation of the British East India Company from a trading company to a colonizing power.
• The East India Company Article by Vinay Lal, Associate Professor of History, UCLA
• British East India Company still exists. This is their (new) homepage. The older site had a more useful version of the company's history The site is currently under reconstruction, but let's hope it presents more of the company's history in its finalised form!!

The 1857 Indian Mutiny     

• The Sepoy Mutiny — India, 1857 Brief but useful. Gives a Western and Indian view of the mutiny. From the Atheneum
• The Indian Mutiny Synoptic seminar notes from the Univ Of New England. Clearly presented with outline of different interpretations
• The Great Rebellion of 1857 in India Outline but with excellent links section produced by Constitutional Rights Foundation
• The British Press & the Indian Mutiny How the press covered the mutiny. By Kevin Hobson.
• Contemporary Perspectives of the Sepoy Mutiny A look at the changing historical viewpoints on the event. Useful, but the web presentation makes for a difficult read.

The Raj

• British India Well supported and set out site from the Indian Manas site. Use the many links to find the aspect of British India you need.
• Sahib, the British Soldier in India, 1750 - 1914 Podcast of well known military historian Professor Richard Holmes examining Indian soldiering in peace and war. He addresses the experience of ordinary soldiers, why they joined up, how they got to India and what they made of it when they arrived
• British Education in India An analysis of how the British Education system influenced views of India in Britain and Europe, and how it was designed to further British aims in the subcontinent. Article from South Asian History
• Jute mills in India. Useful site into the economic value of India includes maps, photos and records of output in Assam, a major jute area.
• The British Women in the Empire: Obsession with Suttee Chapter 5 of the Victorian Suicide: Mad Crimes and Sad Histories, by Barbara T. Gates, University of Delaware, 1988.
• At the Heart of the Empire: Indians and the Colonial Encounter in Late-Victorian Britain This is the reverse - colonial Indians in Victorian Britain! Antoinette Burton focuses on the experiences of three Victorian travellers in Britain to illustrate how "Englishness" was made and remade in relation to imperialism. The accounts left by these three sojourners - all prominent, educated Indians - represent complex, critical ethnographies of "native" metropolitan society and offer revealing glimpses of what it was like to be a colonial subject in fin-de-siècle Britain. University of California Press,  1998
• The Magic Mountains: Hill Stations and the British Raj In this engaging and meticulously researched study, Dane Kennedy explores the development and history of the hill stations of the raj. (University of California Press, 1996)
• Peasants and Monks in British India William R. Pinch tackles one of the most important but most neglected fields of the colonial history of India: the relation between monasticism and caste. The highly original inquiry yields rich insights into the central structure and dynamics of Hindu society. (University of California Press, 1996)
• The Colonial Legacy - Some Myths and Popular Beliefs Literacy in British India in 1911 was only 6%, in 1931 it was 8%, and by 1947 it had crawled to 11%. The 1931 census revealed 74 per cent of Bombay's population lived in one-room tenements - with one-third living more than 5 to a room. After the Second World War, 13 per cent of Bombay's population slept on the streets. 10-15 tenements typically shared one water tap. Life expectancy in India had fallen to 23 in 1931! In the 50 years prior to independence, the Indian economy experienced zero growth. Committed article from South Asian History
• The army history forgot Detailed article by the respected BBC India correspondent, Mark Tully, on the role of the Indian soldiers who fought in the British Army. Despite being hampered by antiquated equipment and Winston Churchill's prejudice, they helped inflict a crushing defeat on the Japanese.

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5. General  sites for information on the British Empire

 

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• The British Empire (by Stephen Luscombe). Excellent, huge site looking at all aspects of imperial conqest and life in a basic, but colourful way. Good index makes use very easy.
• The British Empire - An Internet Gateway  (by Dr Jane Samson) A  useful set of links and guide to Imperial resources. A good launching pad for serious academic work on the British Empire.
• British Empire & Commonwealth Museum  Excellent site with changing online exhibitions. Their main web resource is the vast library of photos. Soon to come: digital oral accounts of Empire life.
• British Library: Links to British Empire history resources
• British National Archive Learning Curve site on the British Empire. There are a select number of relevant links at the foot of each background page. Designed for schools and colleges, but have good access to visual documents and basic outlines

 

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also! see the main casahistoria imperialism site for:

 

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•  Imperialism: theory & practice
•  Continental European Imperialism
•  The European experience in Africa
•  Gunboat Diplomacy
•  US Imperialism
•  Japan, China, Indochina
•  The native experience (separate site)
•  The anti colonialists (separate site)

 

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and finally: fed up looking at this screen? Try a book instead!          

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Use casahistoria's list of recommended reads to curl up with ...

 

These have all been read and are recommended by casahistoria If you want a longer(!) list including several novels and fuller crits/descriptions go to

 

 

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  v07.09