Empire

Mrs Venn Fey cleaning a rifle. From the article ‘Brave, Armed and Watchful, Yet Busy with Daily Duties: A Typical Kenya Housewife’, Illustrated London News, 15 January 1955. Illustrated London News Ltd/Mary Evans Picture Library.

The Women Who Fought the Mau Mau

During the Kenya Emergency, white women took up arms against the Mau Mau rebels. What did it mean to be both domestic and violent?

A grey-headed kingfisher, watercolour by George Forster made during James Cook’s second voyage, 1772. Natural History Museum, London/Bridgeman Images.

‘The Traveller’ by Andrea Wulf review

The Traveller: The Revolutionary Life of George Forster and His Search for Humanity by Andrea Wulf brings the most enlightened of Enlightenment radicals into the mainstream.

Enslaved people cultivating and curing tobacco in the West Indies, 1686. Heritage Images/TopFoto.

Slavery in the Colonial Caribbean

This month marks the 400th anniversary of the arrival of the first enslaved people in the English Caribbean.

12th Bengal Cavalry, the winning polo team, Peshawar Tournament, 1898. British Library/Bridgeman Images.

King of Games: Politics, Polo, and the Raj

Indian teams besting British sides on the polo field threatened to undermine the colonial enterprise.

‘Effects of the Explosion at the House of Detention Clerkenwell Seen from Within the Prison Yard’, 1867. Museum of London.

The Clerkenwell Outrage

The first Irish Republican bomb detonated on English soil was not intended as an act of terrorism, but its impact – and death toll – sent shockwaves through Victorian London.

Japanese soldiers marching into Beijing on the cover of Asahigraph magazine, 1 September 1937. Private Collection. Public Domain.

‘Blood Dawn’ by Hans van de Ven review

Blood Dawn: World War II and the Making of Modern Asia by Hans van de Ven finds Japanese grievance and ambition in the eye of the storm.

A student photographed for the Picture Post’s ‘Is There A British Colour Bar?’ feature, 2 July 1949. Photo by Bert Hardy/Picture Post/Hulton Archive/Getty Images.

The Hans Crescent Strike: The Students at the Hotel

Eager to create goodwill towards Britain in its former colonies, the postwar government encouraged students from across the Empire to study in London. Housing them was a problem, as events in the summer of 1951 revealed.

George Washington with his enslaved personal servant, William Lee, by John Trumbull, 1780. Metropolitan Museum of Art. Public Domain.

What Became of the Black Loyalists?

Hoping to weaken the rebels’ cause, Britain offered freedom to enslaved people who joined the British army. At the end of the American Revolutionary War that promised freedom had to be honoured – but how and where?

Colonel John Nixon making the first public reading of the Declaration of Independence in the State House Yard, Philadelphia, 8 July 1776. English engraving, 1783. Granger/TopFoto.

Disputing the Declaration of Independence

That the United States declared its independence in July 1776 is well known; that the British state commissioned, but never published, a counter-declaration is not.

Tobacco box with royal arms of Great Britain, c.1679-97. Metropolitan Museum of Art. Public Domain.

‘This Little World’ and ‘A Golden World’ review

Two recent books – This Little World: A New History of Tudor and Stuart England by Nandini Das and A Golden World: How the Americas Transformed Renaissance England by Lauren Working – put 16th- and 17th-century England on the map.