Imperial Factor Research Articles

Brexit and the ‘Imperial Factor’: A longue durée Approach to British Exceptionalism

ABSTRACT To what extent can we detect echoes of the triumphant Britannia (Thomas Arne composed Rule Britannia in 1740) in contemporary Brexit debates? What were the subliminal refractions of the refrain ‘Britons never will be slaves’ in complaints about the frequently evoked ‘Brussels shackles’? Through a longue durée approach to two major elements of modern British history – Britannia and the celebration of colonial expansion as a ‘bringer of progress’, this article charts the persistence of political and cultural visions including the Empire simultaneously as an expression, a tool and a channel of British exceptionalism. Positing that the Empire was integral to the emergence of British identity and its consolidation, it also underlines, through references to John Robert Seeley’s highly influential work, the key role played by England in this process. Based upon the hypothesis that past reflections on Britain’s global role – including those championed by Cecil John Rhodes – have left an imprint on the Brexit conversation in the run-up to, and aftermath of, the vote, this article introduces the concept of ‘imperial factor’ as a way of taking into account the long-term impact that the development and possession of the world’s largest empire has left on British ways of seeing the world, and, crucially, of seeing Britain’s place in the world. Beyond the case-study of exceptionalism offered here, further research, especially of a quantitative nature, is suggested to refine our understanding of the precise extent to which the ‘imperial factor’ played a role in the Brexit vote of 2016. Conceived as an instrument to take into account the potential imperial dimension of a multi-faceted phenomenon such as Britain’s departure from the EU, the ‘imperial factor’ is, more broadly, a useful tool to gauge – in the UK but also among other formerly imperial nations – the potential and variable long-term influence that the possession of an empire left on national visions, psyche and practices.

Meiji Japan and The Imperial Rule: A Symbiotic Encounter

To speak of Meiji Ishin, one would normally come across many pieces of literature that mention the return of the Emperor to the centre of politics and administration in comparison to the previous Tokugawa administration (1603-1868). Yet one crucial question comes up from this is that as to why the Meiji insurgencies decided to bring the Emperor to the front and how this act would benefit their cause? In addressing such a crucial point, this paper attempts to revisit the essentiality of the Imperial factor in pushing forward the Meiji Ishin in the country during the 19th Century. It seeks to examine and investigate the motives that prompted the Meiji insurgencies to use the ‘imperial factor’ in their struggle in facing the Shogunate administration. In so doing, the study uses a method of content analysis to examine the significance of the ‘Imperial factor’ based on analysis of both Japanese and Western literature alike. The study suggests that Japanese Meiji insurgencies who later took up the charge of transforming Japan as a modern and strong nation-state economically and militarily must have realized that only with the support of the Japanese monarchy that this revolution could be strengthened and legitimized against the Shogunate forces and most importantly they could effectively push their reforms agenda in the country.

Integration of Central Asian Territories in the System of National and Regional Administration of the Russian Empire (19<sup>th</sup> Century)

The article analyzes the rulemaking and administrative work of government institutions from the point of regulatory impact on public life in the regional dimension. When systematizing the process of creating various models of autonomous governance, the imperial essence of Russia is identified by the formula “essentially monarchical power – regional non-sovereign entities – supra-ethnic composition of the population”. The article examines the accounting and possible consolidation of the classical principles of public administration: administrative, national and state structuring and convergent institutionalization of power relations in relation to a particular region. It argues that the meaning of the imperial factor lies in the diversity of socio-political traditions of the diverse national and ethnic composition of the population of Russia, which became a result of the development of a complex centralized state. Concerning the Central Asian territories, the idea of power relations in the empire in practice transformed into the interaction of various groups of its population against the background of the non-definiteness of the processes of formation of national identities. The article concludes by arguing that considering the regional-appointee (namestnichestvo) model of national-regional governance of Russia, the traditional state-legal existence as a condition for its sustainable functioning and transformation was provided by a certain set of political and legal measures as promising lines of ethnopolitics.

New Paradigms on Aurangzeb and Golconda Connection

One of the most widely debated areas of medieval Indian History is the Deccan policy of the Mughals especially under Aurangzeb who annexed Golconda and Bijapur, prominent Deccani Kingdoms. There have been many questions and interpretations on the motive of Aurangzeb encompassing sectarian and imperial factors. The views on the issue are varied and diversified. Aurangzeb was a strong advocate for annexation of the Deccani kingdoms even during the time when he was the Deccan Governor during the reign of this father and Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan. However, Shah Jahan was not in favor of annexing the states but was content with extracting tribute from them and has allowed them to remain as independent states. However, when Aurangzeb became the emperor, he had finally annexed the states after crushing the Marathas. The present paper examines various possibilities that prompted the last powerful Mughal Emperor to invade and annex Golconda kingdom under the Qutub Shahis. It also analyses the outcome of the annexation with questions such as whether or not Aurangzeb was able to reap any benefits of the annexation of Golconda and on the process of economic and administrative integration of the Deccani State into the imperial networks and its fall out.

Historical Aspects of the Imperial Identity: Perspectives of Interdisciplinary Research

The article attempts to identify new opportunities for studying the role of the imperial factor in British foreign policy, which are opened up by using the category of imperial identity, which the authors present as a variant of a more universal category of regional identity. In order to find out the complex nature of regional identity, the authors make a comparative analysis of the existing ones in modern regionalism. (A. Paasi) and “humanitarian geography” (D.N. Zamyatin) definitions of the region as a way of political, historical and cultural organization of space. The methodological postulates of these concepts create the basis for an interdisciplinary approach in the framework of the “new imperial history” and allow us to consider the British Empire at the height of its power in the 19th — first half of the 20th centuries as the most significant region in world politics. Awareness of its special role in the prevailing international system was at the heart of the imperial identity and foreign policy ideas of the British political elite, which, in turn, makes it possible to draw a clearer line between identity and imperial ideology. The authors come to the conclusion that such a formulation of the problem forms a new discussion agenda both on imperial issues and on issues of identity.

ПРЕЛОМЛЕНИЯ ИМПЕРСКОГО КОМПЛЕКСА В ИДЕНТИЧНОСТИ ИМПЕРСКОГО НАРОДА. (НАРОД — «ЦЕМЕНТ», ЗАСЕЛЯЮЩИЙ «ЗАБРАННЫЙ КРАЙ» ИЛИ «РУССКОЯЗЫЧНОЕ НАСЕЛЕНИЕ» С МЕЖНАЦИОНАЛЬНЫМИ БРАКАМИ)

The article examines the phenomenon of the imperial people, which has some special qualities that allow it to integrate peoples and territories. Many researchers of the empire recognize the importance of the imperial people factor, but it is quite difficult to indicate its specific characteristics. It is concluded that the Russians, having moved to the outskirts of the empire, to some extent changed their behavior patterns and became what is sometimes called “other Russians”. They differ from the Russians from the indigenous territories and have the qualities of a “cement people” that holds together parts of the empire. The Russians identity turned out to be duplex. They are predominantly occupied with themselves in their autochthonous territories as one of the peoples of the Earth and can perceive themselves as an ethnic whole. But they absorb the contradictions between peoples on the outskirts of the empire and create a kind of new — imperial — integrity. Then they have not have only a special Russian national identity, but rather a messianic one, coupled with an imperial function. Russians as an imperial people understand themselves (and others too) as bricks of a single empire. We aim to cover this topic in this article we rely on data from sources about the Russian peasant colonization of the late 19th — early 20th centuries. We also use the statistics of interethnic marriages in the USSR, which were an important factor in the homogenization of the peoples of the Soviet empire.

Association of lipid indices with markers of obesity in first year medical students

Dyslipidemia is one of the imperial factors in determining the risk of cardiovascular disease, which is often associated with obesity. Body mass index (BMI), the most applicable anthropometric measure, is a general adiposity predictor, whereas waist circumference (WC) and waist-to-hip ratio (WHR) were established as measures of abdominal adiposity. Total 148 medical students, age between 17-20 years were enrolled in this cross sectional study. BMI and WHR were obtained by measuring Weight, height, WC, and hip circumference (HC). Triglycerides (TG), total cholesterol (TC), high density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C), and low density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C) were measured by the International Federation of clinical chemistry (IFCC) approved enzymatic colorimetric methods. Statistically significant positive correlations were observed between BMI and indices of different lipid parameters namely TG, TC, TC/HDL-C, and LDL-C/HDL-C. Similar statistical significances were also observed when WC and WHR were compared with lipid indices. From the findings, it could be inferred that BMI is used as non-invasive alternative for lipid indices and atherogenic parameters in medical students as compare to other markers of obesity assessment.

Intersecting Imperialisms

Abstract Richard Flanagan’s The Narrow Road to the Deep North (2013), which features the Thai-Burma “Death Railway” in World War Two, depicts a complex web of imperial regimes that converge and clash in the mid-twentieth century. The protagonist is an Australian soldier effectively fighting for his country’s former colonizer, Britain, which is losing its empire to Japan. I build on Laura Doyle’s concept of “inter-imperiality” to explore how the novel illuminates the historical process of imperial factors intersecting at multiple levels, from the geopolitical and economic to the personal and cultural. The novel demonstrates how inter-imperial identities challenge simple binary models of imperialism, and how so-called national literatures are produced in a world context. This is evident in Flanagan’s intertextual homage to classical Japanese author Matsuo Bashō. The novel also highlights how world literature discourse ought to take into account temporal and ethicopolitical factors (Pheng Cheah), suggesting an overlap with postcolonial studies.

‘To Arms!’: Invasion Narratives and Late‐Victorian Literature

AbstractThis article introduces readers to the fiction of invasion, a paranoid literary phenomenon that responded to widespread social concerns about the possible invasion of Britain by an array of hostile foreign forces in the period between 1870 and 1914. It begins with an overview of the development of this relatively unknown body of work in the late‐Victorian and Edwardian periods, charting assumptions of imminent large‐scale war, fascination with the technology of warfare and the marked participation of military men who used the fiction to agitate for increased defence spending. While this alarmist brand of popular fiction provoked considerable contemporary commentary, modern critical engagement with it has been somewhat limited. Beginning in the 1960s and dominated by the work of the master bibliographer I. F. Clarke, the initial scholarly response necessarily took the form of classification and survey and evinced particular interest in adjudging the accuracy of fictional predictions about future war. More recent scholarship is concerned with reading the fiction in the context of its own times, probing its relationship with external imperial factors and internal domestic concerns and its effectiveness as a propaganda tool. In addition to offering an overview of this line of enquiry, this article seeks to broaden the understanding of the invasion narrative in fin‐de‐siècle popular fiction, drawing lines out to the recurrence of the invasion theme across a broad range of genres and modes exceeding that of future war fiction and including so‐called ‘yellow peril’ narratives, crime and detective fiction and the gothic. In conclusion, a number of avenues complementing the textual and the historical are suggested for future exploration.

In service of two masters: a political history of radio in pre-independence Botswana

This study identifies and critically analyses the major imperial (global and regional) political and economic factors and decisions that influenced and shaped the development of pre-independence radio broadcasting in the Bechuanaland Protectorate. With little or no consideration of the needs of the local population, two duelling imperialist powers – Great Britain and the Union of South Africa – negotiated, disagreed, and eventually virtually co- established a centralised, administrative radio network that reflected their own regional ambitions. Based primarily on key official British Protectorate, High Commission and Union government documents obtained from extensive archival research in the Botswana National Archives, a detailed picture emerges of two duelling imperial powers planning for their own divergent regional futures, via the establishment of administrative and political dimensions of radio policies, for a territory which both wished to control for their own purposes. Once Britain had decided against allowing South Africa's annexation of Bechuanaland, radio politics and policies fell more into line with those in other British colonial African and Asian territories, primarily managing perceived anti-colonial nationalist challenges and deterring the perceived threats posed by apartheid- and Cold War-inspired communist influences.

Imperial Factors in the Rise of Nationalism In Nigeria

Imperial Factors in the Rise of Nationalism In Nigeria

Powerless and Frustrated: Britain's Relationship With China During the Opening Years of the Second Sino–Japanese War, 1937–1939

Foreign policy is multi-faceted. It was not only diplomatic, political, socio-cultural, economic, Imperial, and strategic factors that structured—and limited—Britain's foreign policy during the interwar period; so, too, did those of other countries. Given the number and variety of Britain's—and the interconnected other Powers'—interests in China, Britain's relationship with China during the opening years of the Second Sino–Japanese War provides a useful insight which has wider implications on Britain's road to war narrative. Given the topic's neglect, one can be forgiven for inferring that events in Europe entirely eclipsed those of East Asia. This article demonstrates the contrary. As awareness of Chinese suffering spread and as Japanese aggrandisement threatened British interests, sinophilism became vogue once again. However, the often insurmountable obstacles that the interwar period presented to Britain and others—particularly the United States—limited Britain's ability to aid China. It was not for want of fortitude.

The Hudson’s Bay Company as a Context for Science in the Columbia Department

This article aims to elucidate and analyze the links between science, specifically natural history, and the imperialist project in what is now the northwestern United States and western Canada. Imperialism in this region found its expression through institutions such as the Hudson's Bay Company (HBC). I examine the activities of naturalists such as David Douglas and William Tolmie Fraser in the context of the fur trade in the Columbia Department. Here I show how natural history aided Britain in achieving its economic and political goals in the region. The key to this interpretation is to extend the role of the HBC as an imperial factor to encompass its role as a patron for natural history. This gives a better understanding of the ways in which imperialism--construed as mercantile, rather than military--delineated research priorities and activities of the naturalists who worked in the Columbia Department.

The Importance of Being British? Imperial Factors and the Growth of British Imports, 1870–1960

Between 1870 and the 1950s, the volume and proportion of British exports to the Empire and Commonwealth grew steadily. Many have attributed this trend to non-market advantages allegedly rooted in imperial rule and the inherent Britishness of these markets. Quantitative methods show, however, that in most periods, other considerations, most notably the economic growth of the importing markets, were of much greater importance in explaining the pattern of British exports.

The Ottoman Administration of the Spice Trade in the Sixteenth-century Red Sea and Persian Gulf

AbstractFollowing the Ottoman conquest of Egypt and the Levant in 1516-17, administrators of the empire began to experiment with several innovative strategies to increase the total volume of the spice trade between the Indian Ocean and the Mediterranean, and to maximize the state's share of its revenues. These became progressively more sophisticated over time, until by the end of the 1560s a comprehensive infrastructure was in place, including a rationalized empire-wide tax regime for regulating private trade, a network of "imperial factors" who bought spices for the sultan in overseas emporiums, and an annual convoy of spice galleys that shipped cargoes of state-owned pepper from the Yemen to the markets of Egypt and Istanbul. All of this, combined with natural advantages of geography and the goodwill of Muslim traders in the Indian Ocean, enabled the Ottomans to mount a formidable challenge to the "pepper monopoly" of the Portuguese Estado da India. À la suite de la conquête ottomane de l'Égypte et du Levant en 1516-17, les administrateurs de l'empire commencèrent à mettre en application diverses stratégies novatrices dans le but d'augmenter le volume total du commerce des épices entre l'océan Indien et la Méditerranée et de maximiser la part de l'État dans ses revenus. Ces stratégies se perfectionnèrent avec le temps et vers la fin des années 1560 une infrastructure complète était en place, incluant un régime fiscal repensé à l'échelle de l'empire afin de réglementer le commerce privé, un réseau de "facteurs impériaux" achetant des épices pour le compte du sultan dans les comptoirs d'outremer et un convoi annuel de galères transportant du Yémen aux marchés de l'Égypte et d'Istanbul des cargaisons de poivre appartenant à l'État. Grâce à tous ces éléments, de même qu'à leurs avantages géographiques naturels et à la disposition favorable des marchands musulmans dans l'océan Indien, les Ottomans purent présenter un défi de taille au "monopole sur le poivre" de l'Estado da India portugais.

The ebbing of European ascendancy: an international history of the world 1914-1945

Prologue - Europe's world diplomacy and the state system to 1900. Act I Europe's war: the coming of the First World War the First World War the Russian revolution. Act II The West's peace: the Paris Peace Conference and the Versailles Treaty the Eastern Treaty 1919-1923. Act III The West's world: the imperial factor sub-Saharan Africa the Middle East East Asia Latin America the United States Europe in the 1920s. Act IV The world's crises: the Great Depression challenges of the dissatisfied, 1931-1937. Act V The world's war: war east and west, 1937-1941 World War II, 1942-1945. Epilogue: a different world the aftermath.

The strange death of the liberal empire: Lord Selborne in South Africa

Combining political biography with a study of imperialism, this is an examination of Lord Selborne's career as High Commissioner for South Africa from 1905 to 1910. The author aims to provide a clearer understanding of British imperial policy and of a crucial period in South African history. He examines Selborne's conception of empire and, by implication, the nature of British imperialism, focusing on the Chinese labour controversy, the self-government issue, the development of racial segregation, and the creation of the Union of South Africa. The book also offers a reassessment of the role which the imperial factor played in shaping the state, economy and society of 20th-century South Africa. Behind the debate over imperial policy, Torrance argues, were deep and bitter divisions inextricably linked to domestic tensions within Britain itself.

State formation and the imperial factor in Nineteenth‐Century Canada

Colonial Leviathan: State Formation in Mid‐Nineteenth Century Canada edited by Allan Greer and Ian Radforth. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1992. Pp. xii + 328. £36.00 (hardback); £14.95 (paperback). ISBN 0–8020–5931–7; 0–8020–6871–5. True Government by Choice Men? Inspection, Education, and State Formation in Canada West by Bruce Curtis. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1992. Pp.ix + 250. £36.00 (hardback); £14.95 (paperback). ISBN 0–8020–5967–8; 0–8020–6894–4. Britain and the Origins of Canadian Confederation, 1837–67 by Ged Martin. Basingstoke and London: Macmillan, 1995. Pp.xi + 388. £47.50 (hardback). ISBN 0–333–52288–5. Ex Uno Plures: Federal‐Provincial Relations in Canada, 1867–1896 by Garth Stevenson. Montreal and Kingston: McGill‐Queen's University Press, 1994. Pp.xi + 401. £38.50 (hardback). ISBN 0–7735–0986–0.

C.W. de Kiewiet, the imperial factor, and South African ‘native policy’

Abstract This article criticises de Kiewiet's discussion, and also provides a reassessment, of British ideas concerning ‘native policy’ in the 1870s, the period in which Carnarvon attempted to establish a British ‘confederation’ in South Africa. De Kiewiet, following Macmillan, saw the imperial factor as a counterweight to settler rapacity, and hence represented Carnarvon's motives as philanthropic and his desire for a ‘uniform native policy’ as a wish to protect Africans from oppression and proletarianisation. Against this, it is argued that the priorities of Glenelg were not those of Carnarvon, and that the creation of an African working class was inescapable if a ‘civilised’ and economically expanding dominion was to be established in South Africa; and that the experience of Jamaica (with its similarities to Natal) and elsewhere following the emancipation of the slaves, and the consequent growth of racism and decline in philanthropy, together with the growth of the black population in South Africa in n...

Local Imperatives and Imperial Policy: The Sources of Lord Carnarvon's South African Confederation Policy

In the 1870s Lord Carnarvon, the British secretary of state for the colonies, attempted to unite the colonies and republics of South Africa into a selfgoverning (that is, settler-governed) dominion under the British flag, which he hoped would extend northwards to the Zambezi. So grandiose a scheme was clearly something more than the attempts at imperial retrenchment that earlier proposals for union had been. But there is little agreement among historians on the reasons for it. Until the publication of Goodfellow's work in 1966,1 the standard work on the subject was C. W. de Kiewiet's The Imperial Factor in South Africa.2 De Kiewiet, the least dogmatic of historians, gave no single or definite answer to the question of why Carnarvon wanted to confederate South Africa. Perhaps he gave the greatest stress, as Carnarvon himself did, to the necessity for a uniform native policy, the desire for which on Carnarvon's part De Kiewiet tended to see in humanitarian terms. De Kiewiet, like his mentor, W. M. Macmillan, belonged to what might be called the Liberal-Imperial school of South African historiography, which saw the imperial connection as a counterweight to settler rapacity and lamented that it had not been more effective. The view that the motive, or even a motive, behind Carnarvon's confederation scheme was a desire to protect the black population of South Africa from the whites, is not one that can survive a reading of Goodfellow. He makes it clear that the impulses behind it were not at all liberal. The South Africa Act of 1877, as originally drawn up by Carnarvon and his advisers, was more restrictive than that drawn up by white South Africans in 1910, since it excluded non-whites from representation in the federal Assembly. One of the objections of the Cape ministry to Carnarvon's scheme was to its retrograde and illiberal nature.3 Goodfellow's own conclusion, following Robinson and Gallagher,4 is that Carnarvon's interest in South Africa arose essentially from its strategic position on the route to India, and that confederation was intended to ensure continued