Empire

In the mid-nineteenth century, writes Christopher Lloyd, a young naval surgeon from Orkney played an important part in West African exploration.

Cecil Northcott describes how Mackenzie’s dream of a liberal empire south of the Zambezi met opposition from Cecil Rhodes and from the Boers.

The most distinguished of the three thousand foreign volunteers who fought against Britain during the Boer War, writes Roy Macnab, was a brilliantly gifted French soldier.

Michael Langley analyses the achievements of a great explorer of early colonial Australia.

From the 1830s until the end of British rule, Simla was the summer capital of successive Governors-General and Viceroys.

William Seymour describes how independence for India in 1947 put an end to the long and close association of the Indian princes with British power.

Amid the disasters of the first Afghan War, writes James Lunt, the successful defence of Jellalabad, beyond the Khyber Pass, stands out as a well-deserved battle-honour.

For mixed motives, writes C.E. Hamshere, the construction of the British East African railway was begun in 1892,  to which the development of modern Kenya and Uganda is greatly indebted.

The largest of African republics possesses an ancient and composite civilization, but the form that the country takes today owes much to two British colonial administrators.

Charles Chevenix Trench describes how an adventurous Greek in British Service played a large part in the trade and politics of the Horn of Africa.