Envisioning Empire

Examining the pivotal period between the end of the Seven Years' War and the dawn of the American Revolution, Envisioning Empire reinterprets the development of the British Empire in the 18th century. With exceptional geographical scope, this book provides new ways of understanding the actors and events in many imperial arenas, including West Africa, North America, the Caribbean, and South Asia.While 1763 has long been seen as marking a turning point in British and British-colonial history, Envisioning Empire treats this epochal year, and the decade that followed, as constituting a discrete 'moment' in Imperial history that is significant in its own right. Exploring the programs and plans that sought to incorporate the vast new territories and millions of new subjects into the British state and imperial system, it demonstrates how the period between the end of the Seven Years' War and the beginning of the American Revolution was one of contested ideas about the future of British overseas expansion. By examining these competing imperial visions and designs from the perspective of Britain's new subjects as well as from that of British ministers, Envisioning Empire both illuminates and complicates the boundaries that have been drawn between the first and second British empires and reveals how the Empire was being conceived, discussed, and debated during an era of rapid transformation.

List of IllustrationsAcknowledgements List of Contributors1. Introduction: The Spirit of 1763 Robert A. Olwell (University of Texas at Austin, USA)2. The Ideological Origins of Illiberal Imperialism: Metropolitan Politics and the Post-1763 Transformation of the British Empire James M. Vaughn (University of Texas at Austin, USA)3. Forging the Laws of Subjecthood after 1763 Hannah Weiss Muller (Brandeis University, USA)4. Multi-Confessional Governance: Incorporating Catholics in the British Empire, 1713-1783 Jessica L. Harland-Jacobs (University of Florida, USA)5. 1763 and the Genesis of British Africa Christopher Leslie Brown (Columbia University, USA) 6. Rebellion of the Puppet Nabob:Mir Qasim's Desperate Campaign against the East India Company Sudipta Sen (UC Davis, USA) 7. A Tale of Two Treaties:Negotiating with the Indians in Bengal and Florida in 1765 Robert A. Olwell (University of Texas at Austin, USA) 8. The East India Company's "Ancient Form of Government" and the Exigencies of Empire:Bengal 1765 to 1773 P. J. Marshall (King's College, UK)9. Varieties of "Patriotism" in the Post-1763 British Empire: The Strange Career of Charles Lee David L. Preston (The Citadel, USA)10. Epilogue: The Spirit of 1773 James M. Vaughn (University of Texas at Austin, USA) Index