Empire and Globalisation

Empire and Globalisation
Author: Gary B. Magee
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 315
Release: 2010-02-11
Genre: History
ISBN: 1139487671

Focusing on the great population movement of British emigrants before 1914, this book provides a perspective on the relationship between empire and globalisation. It shows how distinct structures of economic opportunity developed around the people who settled across a wider British World through the co-ethnic networks they created. Yet these networks could also limit and distort economic growth. The powerful appeal of ethnic identification often made trade and investment with racial 'outsiders' less appealing, thereby skewing economic activities toward communities perceived to be 'British'. By highlighting the importance of these networks to migration, finance and trade, this book contributes to debates about globalisation in the past and present. It reveals how the networks upon which the era of modern globalisation was built quickly turned in on themselves after 1918, converting racial, ethnic and class tensions into protectionism, nationalism and xenophobia. Avoiding such an outcome is a challenge faced today.

The British Imperial Century, 1815–1914

The British Imperial Century, 1815–1914
Author: Timothy H. Parsons
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
Total Pages: 199
Release: 2019-01-14
Genre: History
ISBN: 1442250933

The British Imperial Century provides a concise but comprehensive overview of the formation and administration of the empire from its origins in the early nineteenth century, to its climax at mid-century and ultimate denouement on the eve of the First World War.Considering the impact of British imperial rule and influence on subject peoples, Timothy H. Parsons explores the themes of cross-cultural social and environmental interaction from a world history perspective. He traces the transition from informal to formal empire, which broadened and intensified Britain's relations with Asia, Africa, and the western hemisphere. The establishment of extensive colonies and protectorates in Africa, the occupation of Egypt, the declaration of the Raj in India, and increased economic and political intervention in Latin America and in the Chinese and Ottoman empires brought ever-larger numbers of non-European peoples and cultures under either the influence or direct authority of the British Crown. By considering British imperialism through the lens of world history, Parsons moves beyond questions of Britain's motives in acquiring more territory to ask how it was able to acquire such an empire. As a global network of exchanges, the British Empire linked disparate regions in a series of distinct but overlapping exchanges. By co-opting and adapting the values and customs of their subjects imperial rulers strengthened their authority and legitimacy, but in doing so produced a hybrid culture that was largely British in style but not entirely British in substance. An ambitious and thoughtful contribution, The British Imperial Century will be invaluable for courses on world history and European history and as a supplement for courses on African, Asian, British, and Middle Eastern history.

Tannenberg

Tannenberg
Author: Dennis E. Showalter
Publisher: Potomac Books, Inc.
Total Pages: 716
Release: 2004
Genre: History
ISBN: 1597974943

The battle of Tannenberg (August 27-30, 1914) opened World War I with a decisive German victory over Russia-indeed the Kaiser's only clear-cut victory in a non-attritional battle during four years of war. In this first paperback edition of the classic work, historian Dennis Showalter analyzes this battle's causes, effects, and implications for subsequent German military policy. The author carefully guides the reader through what actually happened on the battlefield, from its grand strategy down to the level of improvised squad actions. Examining the battle in the context of contemporary diplom.

July 1914

July 1914
Author: Sean McMeekin
Publisher: Basic Books
Total Pages: 482
Release: 2014-04-29
Genre: History
ISBN: 0465038867

When a Serbian-backed assassin gunned down Archduke Franz Ferdinand in late June 1914, the world seemed unmoved. Even Ferdinand's own uncle, Franz Josef I, was notably ambivalent about the death of the Hapsburg heir, saying simply, "It is God's will." Certainly, there was nothing to suggest that the episode would lead to conflict -- much less a world war of such massive and horrific proportions that it would fundamentally reshape the course of human events. As acclaimed historian Sean McMeekin reveals in July 1914, World War I might have been avoided entirely had it not been for a small group of statesmen who, in the month after the assassination, plotted to use Ferdinand's murder as the trigger for a long-awaited showdown in Europe. The primary culprits, moreover, have long escaped blame. While most accounts of the war's outbreak place the bulk of responsibility on German and Austro-Hungarian militarism, McMeekin draws on surprising new evidence from archives across Europe to show that the worst offenders were actually to be found in Russia and France, whose belligerence and duplicity ensured that war was inevitable. Whether they plotted for war or rode the whirlwind nearly blind, each of the men involved -- from Austrian Foreign Minister Leopold von Berchtold and German Chancellor Bethmann Hollweg to Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Sazonov and French president Raymond Poincaré- sought to capitalize on the fallout from Ferdinand's murder, unwittingly leading Europe toward the greatest cataclysm it had ever seen. A revolutionary account of the genesis of World War I, July 1914 tells the gripping story of Europe's countdown to war from the bloody opening act on June 28th to Britain's final plunge on August 4th, showing how a single month -- and a handful of men -- changed the course of the twentieth century.

German Commerce Raiders 1914–18

German Commerce Raiders 1914–18
Author: Ryan K. Noppen
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Total Pages: 121
Release: 2015-11-20
Genre: History
ISBN: 1472809521

This is the story of Germany's commerce raiders of World War I, the surface ships that were supposed to starve the British Isles of the vast cargoes of vital resources being shipped from the furthest reaches of the Empire. To that end pre-war German naval strategists allocated a number of cruisers and armed, fast ocean liners, as well as a complex and globe-spanning supply network to support them – known as the Etappe network. This book, drawing on technical illustrations and the author's exhaustive research, explains the often overlooked role that the commerce raiders played in World War I. Whilst exploring the design and development of the ships, it also describes their operational history, how they tied up a disproportionate amount of the British fleet on lengthy pursuits, and how certain raiders such as the SMS Emden were able to wreak havoc across the oceans.

Mosquito Empires

Mosquito Empires
Author: J. R. McNeill
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 391
Release: 2010-01-11
Genre: History
ISBN: 1139484508

This book explores the links among ecology, disease, and international politics in the context of the Greater Caribbean - the landscapes lying between Surinam and the Chesapeake - in the seventeenth through early twentieth centuries. Ecological changes made these landscapes especially suitable for the vector mosquitoes of yellow fever and malaria, and these diseases wrought systematic havoc among armies and would-be settlers. Because yellow fever confers immunity on survivors of the disease, and because malaria confers resistance, these diseases played partisan roles in the struggles for empire and revolution, attacking some populations more severely than others. In particular, yellow fever and malaria attacked newcomers to the region, which helped keep the Spanish Empire Spanish in the face of predatory rivals in the seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries. In the late eighteenth and through the nineteenth century, these diseases helped revolutions to succeed by decimating forces sent out from Europe to prevent them.

Britain's Imperial Century, 1815-1914

Britain's Imperial Century, 1815-1914
Author: Ronald Hyam
Publisher:
Total Pages: 349
Release: 1993
Genre: Commonwealth of Nations
ISBN: 9780333577585

Provides a comprehensive chronological narrative of the history of the British Empire between 1815 and 1914, together with a more theoretical and reflective concluding chapter, thus giving an overview of British policy and action which takes account of the many factors underlying British expansion.

The Ottoman Road to War in 1914

The Ottoman Road to War in 1914
Author: Mustafa Aksakal
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 415
Release: 2008-12-11
Genre: History
ISBN: 1139474499

Why did the Ottoman Empire enter the First World War in late October 1914, months after the war's devastations had become clear? Were its leaders 'simple-minded,' 'below-average' individuals, as the doyen of Turkish diplomatic history has argued? Or, as others have claimed, did the Ottomans enter the war because War Minister Enver Pasha, dictating Ottoman decisions, was in thrall to the Germans and to his own expansionist dreams? Based on previously untapped Ottoman and European sources, Mustafa Aksakal's dramatic study challenges this consensus. It demonstrates that responsibility went far beyond Enver, that the road to war was paved by the demands of a politically interested public, and that the Ottoman leadership sought the German alliance as the only way out of a web of international threats and domestic insecurities, opting for an escape whose catastrophic consequences for the empire and seismic impact on the Middle East are felt even today.

The Pursuit of Power

The Pursuit of Power
Author: Richard J. Evans
Publisher: Penguin UK
Total Pages: 1071
Release: 2016-09-01
Genre: History
ISBN: 0241295777

ECONOMIST BOOKS OF THE YEAR 2016 'A scintillating, encyclopaedic history, rich in detail from the arcane to the familiar... a veritable tour de force' Richard Overy, New Statesman 'Transnational history at its finest ... .. social, political and cultural themes swirl together in one great canvas of immense detail and beauty' Gerard DeGroot, The Times 'Dazzlingly erudite and entertaining' Dominic Sandbrook, The Sunday Times A masterpiece which brings to life an extraordinarly turbulent and dramatic era of revolutionary change. The Pursuit of Power draws on a lifetime of thinking about nineteenth-century Europe to create an extraordinarily rich, surprising and entertaining panorama of a continent undergoing drastic transformation. The book aims to reignite the sense of wonder that permeated this remarkable era, as rulers and ruled navigated overwhelming cultural, political and technological changes. It was a time where what was seen as modern with amazing speed appeared old-fashioned, where huge cities sprang up in a generation, new European countries were created and where, for the first time, humans could communicate almost instantly over thousands of miles. In the period bounded by the Battle of Waterloo and the outbreak of World War I, Europe dominated the rest of the world as never before or since: this book breaks new ground by showing how the continent shaped, and was shaped by, its interactions with other parts of the globe. Richard Evans explores fully the revolutions, empire-building and wars that marked the nineteenth century, but the book is about so much more, whether it is illness, serfdom, religion or philosophy. The Pursuit of Power is a work by a historian at the height of his powers: essential for anyone trying to understand Europe, then or now.

Europe's Last Summer

Europe's Last Summer
Author: David Fromkin
Publisher: Vintage
Total Pages: 384
Release: 2007-12-18
Genre: History
ISBN: 0307425789

When war broke out in Europe in 1914, it surprised a European population enjoying the most beautiful summer in memory. For nearly a century since, historians have debated the causes of the war. Some have cited the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand; others have concluded it was unavoidable. In Europe’s Last Summer, David Fromkin provides a different answer: hostilities were commenced deliberately. In a riveting re-creation of the run-up to war, Fromkin shows how German generals, seeing war as inevitable, manipulated events to precipitate a conflict waged on their own terms. Moving deftly between diplomats, generals, and rulers across Europe, he makes the complex diplomatic negotiations accessible and immediate. Examining the actions of individuals amid larger historical forces, this is a gripping historical narrative and a dramatic reassessment of a key moment in the twentieth-century.