The Rise of a Global Superpower

In this podcast Dr Sean Lang of Anglia Ruskin University examines commerce and imperial expansion between 1800-1870

1. Introduction: What was the British Empire during this period? The changing perceptions of the role of empire after the American War of Independence.
2. A change in thinking: Colonies as commodities to colonies as people. British strategy in the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars.
3. Population explosion: large scale emigration to Canada/Australia/South Africa/New Zealand.
4. Free trade, the abandonment of mercantilism, the repeal of the corn laws. The British empire as a global economic community.
5. British technological superiority providing the means for growth in Empire.
6. The consequences of the international security system set up in Vienna in 1815. British extension of global control to pre-empt rival powers expansion.
7. The rhetoric of Pax Brittanica, abolition, reform and the development of empire as mission.
8. Concepts of civilisation, moral superiority and racism.
9. When did the need for mission end? What was Britain holding on to these areas for?

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