The appropriation of the Phoenicians in British imperial ideology

The Phoenicians played ambivalent roles in Western historical imagination. One such role was as a valued predecessor and prototype for the industrial and maritime enterprise of nineteenth‐century imperial Britain. Explicit parallels were drawn in historical representations and more popular culture. It was widely believed that the Phoenicians had been present in Britain, especially in Cornwall, despite a lack of convincing historical evidence, and much importance was placed on supposed archaeological evidence. Ideological tensions arose from the need to reconcile ancient and modern Britain, and from the Semitic origin of the Phoenicians. This example shows the power of archaeological objects to provide material support for national and imperial constructions of the past.     

Empires ancient and modern: strength,modernity and power in imperial ideology from the Liberal period to Fascism

This article examines the image of Empire developed in public discourse in Italy during the late Liberal period and Fascism by placing it in the context of representations of the British Empire, with which Italian imperial ambitions were compared. There is a continuity in seeing the British Empire as the expression of industrial and commercial modernity and its resultant strength, but what in the Liberal period was seen as an unparalleled superiority became under Fascism a supremacy acquired in a particular period but now exhibiting signs of decline, which Fascism should contest and surpass. Admiration of the British was mixed with disparagement: key figures expressed a competitive resentment towards Britain and its dominant international position, seeing it as the epitome of ‘modern’ imperial power against which Fascism was destined to be measured. In the 1930s signs of the British Empire's decline were sought, developing the idea in Gibbon's Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire that British domination would also rise and fall, and announcing the replacement of the ‘British order’, founded on commercial modernity and the strength of money and capital, by Fascism's new civilisation, with its authentic heritage of imperial romanità. This competitiveness towards Britain, which historiography has principally seen as a component of foreign policy (as was clear over Ethiopia), has additional significance when seen as an element of political culture that relates to the concept of the State. The autonomy and strength of the State were an important feature of Fascism's self-representation and of its legal culture, and in this light the possession of an empire came to be seen as an essential aspect of statehood and power.     

Regensburg,Wandalgarius and the novi denarii: Charlemagne's monetary reform revisited

Until now, Philip Grierson's tentative dating of Charlemagne's monetary reform to 793/4 has been generally accepted. His dating was based not only on numismatic evidence but also on his attempt to set this event in the context of Charlemagne's activities from 792 to 794. This traditional date of the reform does not, however, take into account evidence provided by Codex Sangallensis 731, in which the scribe Wandalgarius drew the image of a post‐reform coin around mid‐October 793. Based on this evidence as well as the historical contextualization of Charlemagne's stay in Regensburg in 791–3, this paper attributes the introduction of the novi denarii to the period between the autumn of 792 and the early autumn of 793, when his court was located in Regensburg.     

Australindia: the geography of imperial desire

A tradition of imperial geographical fantasy fuses India and Australia. This paper discusses the strategic role these utopian proposals played in imperial erotics, in aiding the foundational ambition of empire, which is to connect. The proponents of these geographical hybrids (T.J. Maslen, W. Pickering and Thomas Livingston Mitchell) occupied very different positions in Greater Britain's colonial administration and the minority knowledges represented by their speculative overlays of India onto Australia circulated in very different cultural circles. The insider/outsider status of these ex-army, turned surveyors suggests a more complex ecology of alternative discourses circulating in the imperial imaginary: as proposals for future places, the schemes discussed in this article were fictions that aestheticized invasion, making it a metaphor for ultimate unity.     

Charlemagne's peaches: a case of early medieval European ecological adaptation

What happened to the many ‘Mediterranean’ fruits the Romans brought to north‐west Europe when the empire that supported their dissemination ended? Charlemagne's capitulary De villis called for the cultivation of various fruit trees, including peach (Prunus persica). That fruit hits the sweet spot between plants that were rare in early medieval northern Francia, like date palm, and those that were commonplace, like plum. Thus, the peach is an excellent proxy for Charlemagne's imperial and ecological aspirations. Using both written and archaeobotanical evidence for peaches in Francia, this article analyses how adapting exotic plants to northern climates served the purposes of early medieval rulers.     

Writing imperial history in the age of high nationalism: imperial historians on the fringes of the Habsburg monarchy

For a long time, the late period of the Habsburg Monarchy has been characterized as a battlefield of nation-building elites who employed historical scholarship (among other means) to promote nationalistic ideas. More recent studies, however, have examined and called attention to the powerful structures which held this monarchy together. In the age of historicism, the Habsburg Monarchy also needed a plausible historical narrative on which it could base claims of the legitimacy of its rule. This narrative was created first and foremost by Viennese historians. Yet there were historians in the Habsburg Monarchy’s regional centres who made significant contributions to the development of concepts of an imperial history, too. In this article, the author examines their efforts. Until around 1900, supranationalism and regionalism were the dominant concepts in the historical writings of the authors in the Military Frontier and Bukovina and also in the works of the renowned Prague historian Anton Gindely. Loyal to Vienna, some Hungarian historians reassessed national history in order to reconcile it with the imperial past. Transnational history was also a method of demonstrating the congruity of national and imperial interests. In the age of high nationalism, historians thus contributed to both national and imperial cohesion.     

Charlemagne's involvement in central and southern Italy: power and the limits of authority

This article is an overview of political developments in southern Italy during Charlemagne's reign. Traditionally the historiography has approached this topic from a Carolingian or papal perspective. Without denying the reality of both papal and Carolingian influence, the article argues that neither of these institutions exercised predominant influence in southern Italy in this period, much as they may have wished to. Rather the pattern of political (and to an extent ideological) development in the area was determined by a series of compromises dictated by self-interest and the limits of power. This article therefore deals in turn with the evidence concerning the main protagonists in the south: the abbey of Farfa, the dukes of Spoleto, the monasteries of Monte Cassino and San Vincenzo al Volturno and the princes of Benevento. The article goes on to argue that the activities of these institutions are driven by self-interest. Finally the paper concludes that in the 790s there is a change in the way Carolingian government worked, at least in Spoleto.     

Sarus the Goth: from imperial commander to warlord

The genesis of the first western kingdoms in early medieval Europe has often been framed as the consequence of barbarian invasions bringing down the Roman empire in its western provinces. This article considers a considerably more corrosive factor in the breakdown of western imperial structures, i.e. the warlordism of its own military personnel, via a case study of the Gothic aristocrat Sarus’ micro‐politics of mobility. This article will show that Sarus is one of the earliest attested cases of men willing to opt out of imperial service and use violence to reintegrate themselves later. Re‐examining the rapidly shifting political circumstances, it will demonstrate that Sarus was increasingly forced to move and take independent violent action, together with his men, in order to survive. This has major implications for a newly developing early medieval European phenomenon: the transformation of regular imperial commanders into irregular warlords.     

Introduction: Textured historicity and the ambivalence of imperial legacies

ABSTRACT

In pursuit of a novel perspective on legacies of empire in the present, this introduction addresses prominent debates related to post-imperialism, collective memory, and the construction of historical knowledge, while also reviewing recent trends in post-Habsburg and post-Ottoman studies. First, I examine the insights and limitations of ‘memory studies,’ ultimately proposing a more capacious model of post-imperial ‘ambivalence.’ I then recapitulate Walter Benjamin’s dialectical approach to historical knowledge in order to anchor the signal conceptual contribution of the volume, ‘textured historicity.’ This discussion is followed by a meditation on the role of metaphors in conceptualizing post-imperial legacies and a roster of the most common metaphors for post-imperial legacies. Finally, the introduction briefly summarizes the volume’s constituent essays and the rubrics that unite them.     

National functions of the imperial institute

Fragments of Earth Lore. By Professor Geikie, D.C.L., LL.D., F.R.S., etc. Edinburgh: John Bartholomew and Co., 1893. Pp. 428.

Ordnance Gazetteer of Scotland: A survey of Scottish Topography, Statistical, Biographical, and Historical. New Edition. Edited by Francis H. Groome. London: William Mackenzie, N.D. Vols. 1. and 11. Aan to Eynort. Pp. 288 and 272.

Geografia y Geológia del Ecuador. Publicada por Órden del Supremo Gobierno de la Kepública por Teodoro Wolf, Dr. Phil., Antiguo Profesor de la Escuela Politecnica de Quito y Geó1ogo del Estado. Con 12 Laminas autotípicas, 47 Ilustraciones en el texto, y 2 Cartas. Leipzig: Tipografía de F. A. Brockhaus, 1892. Pp. xii + 671.

Venice: An Historical Sketch of the Bepublic. By Horatio F. Brown. With Maps and Plan. London: Percival and Co., 1893. Pp. xxiii + 434. Price 16s.

Lettres sur l'Inde. Par Monseigneur Laouenan, de la Société des Missions‐étrangères, Archevêque de Pondichéry. Publiées par Adrien Launay, de la même Société. Paris: Librairie Victor Lecoffre, 1893. Pp. 296.

Russia. Note e Ricordi di Viaggio. Di Giuseppe Modrich. Torino‐Roma: L. Roux e C., 1892. Pp. 550. Price 5 L.

Historic Towns: York. By James Raine, M.A., D.C.L. London: Longmans, Green, and Co., 1893. Pp. xi + 223. Price 3s. 6d.

Scotland Before 1700: From Contemporary Documents. Edited by P. Hume Brown. Edinburgh: David Douglas, 1893. Pp. xx + 368.

Sunny Manitoba: Its Peoples and its Industries. By Alfred 0. Legge. With Map and Iilustrations. London: T. Fisher Unwin, 1893. Pp. 297.

Carnet d'un Voyageur. Au Pays des Veddas, Ceylan. Par Emile Deschamps, Officier d'Académie, etc. etc. Avec 116 figures d'après les croquis et photographies de l'auteur, et une carte. Paris: Société d'Editions Scientifiques, 1892. Pp. iv + 492.

A Collection of Treaties, Engagements, and other Papers of Importance relating to British Affairs in Malabar. Edited with notes by W. Logan, Madras Civil Service. Second Edition. Madras: Printed by the Superintendent, Government Press, 1891. Pp. xxvi + 402 + xlv.

Four Months in Persia, and a Visit to Transcaspia. By C. E. Biddulph, M.A., etc. London: Kegan Paul, Trench, Trübner and Co., 1892. Pp. 137. Price 3s. 6d.

Letters from Queensland. By The Times Special Correspondent. London: Macmillan and Co., 1893. Pp. 110. Price 2s. 6d.

Amerika. Eine allgemeine Landeskunde. In Gemeinschaft mit Dr. E. Deckert und Professor Dr. W. Kükenthal herausgegeben von Prof. Dr. Wilhelm Sievers. Leipzig und Wien, 1893.

Longmans’ School History of India. By the Rev. G. U. Pope, D.D., sometime Fellow of the Madras University. London: Longmans, Green, and Co., 1892. Pp. 303. Price 2s. 6d.

Philips's Geographical Manuals. The Geography of the British Colonies and Dependencies, Physical, Political, Commercial. By William Hughes, F.R.G.S., and J. Francos Williams, F.R.G.S. London: George Philip and Son, 1892. Pp. viii + 232. Price 2s. 6d.

Practical Guide to the Geography of the British Isles and General Geography. By R. Burnett. Aberdeen: John Adam, 1893. Pp. 132. Price 1s. 6d.

The Geography of Asia: A Brief Handbook for Students. London: Blackie and Son, Limited, 1893. Pp. 38. Price 6d.

The Elements of Physiography. By John I. Prince. Part II.: Advanced Stage. Seventh Edition. London: John Heywood, 1889. Pp. 176. Price 1s. 6d.

To the Other Side. By Thomas Rhodes. With Maps and Illustrations. London: George Philip and Son, 1893. [Edinburgh: Sold by J. and H. Lindsay.] Pp. 106. Price 1s.

Carlsbad: A Medico‐Practical Guide. By E. Kleen, M.D. Pp. 101. G. P. Putnam's Sons: New York and London, 1893.

Where to Go Abroad: A Guide to the Watering‐Places and Health‐Resorts of Europe, the Mediterranean, etc. Edited by A. E. Hope Moncrieff. London: Adam and Charles Black, 1893. Pp. 466. Price 3s. 6d.

Liberton in Ancient and Modern Times. By George Good. With Introduction by Kev. W. H. Gray, D.D. Edinburgh: Andrew Elliot, 1893. Pp. xx + 185.

A Ride from Land's End to John o’ Groats. By Evelyn Burnaby, M.A., S.C.L. London: Sampson Low, Marston, and Company (Limited), 1893. Pp. xxiv + 146.

Kamerun und Sudan. Von H. Jäger. Berlin: F. K. Beuge, 1893. Pp. 162.

Un Voyage au Yunnan. Par le Dr. Louis Pichon (of Shanghai). Paris: Plon, Nourrit et C^ie., 1893.

Louis Agassiz: His Life and Work. By Charles Frederick Holder, LL.D., Author of The Life of Charles Darwin, Living Lights, etc. (Leaders in Science Series.) 12mo, pp. xviii + 327. 28 Illustrations. New York and London: G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1892. Price $1.50.

Argentine, Patagonian, and Chilian Sketches, with a Few Notes about Uruguay. By C. E. Akers. London: Harrison and Sons. N. D. Pp. vi + 190.

The Australians: A Social Sketch. By Francis Adams. London: T. Fisher Unwin, 1893. Pp. 314.

Letters from South Africa. By The Times Special Correspondent. London: Macmillan and Co., 1893. Pp. 116.

Tropical America. By Isaac N. Ford. London: Edward Stanford, 1893. Pp. 409. Price 10s. 6d.

Shearer's Illustrated Guide to Stirling, Stirling Castle, Bannockburn, Wallace's Monument, and Neighbourhood. Stirling: K. S. Shearer and Son, 1893. Pp. 108.

Northumberland: its History, its Features, and its People, by the Rev. James Christie, B.A. London. Carlisle: Charles Thurnam and Sons; Newcastle: Mawson, Swan, and Morgan; London: Presbyterian Publication Committee, 1893. Pp. 152.     

Nature,space and distances in an imperial boundary network: The delimitation of the Nyasa-Tanganyika plateau boundary

This article discusses an episode of boundary delimitation/demarcation conducted between British and German imperial powers on the central African Nyasa-Tanganyika plateau in the late 1890s. I situate vignettes on the boundary's delimitation in 1897-98 within broader processes of imperial territorialisation to note that the boundary eventually produced on the plateau represented a fabrication resolving tensions between its ‘natural’ and textual sources. Specifically, I argue the boundary was produced to mediate between a diplomatic nature, written in metropolitan worlds by diplomats and cartographers, and a colonial nature, a zone of phenomenal experiences, inhuman encounters and ‘sensation’ (Wark, 2016). I emphasise the experience of technical practice to suggest that this itself represented a form of imperial power, capable of challenging or ‘deferring’ (Bhabha, 2012) metropolitan circuits of governance and knowledge production, not least by revealing the liveliness of the material world undergoing imperial territorialisation. Sensation produced the form of the writings and archives of survey-exploration: often confounded by problems of their data and surroundings, commissioners made the epistemological and subjective manoeuvrings through which they appeared to rise above their inert surroundings to master them. But this does not characterise the experience of fieldwork on the plateau, which was constituted by a panoply of technical situations wherein delineations between objects, observers and their material settings were indeterminable.     

The decomposition of the Danish imperial monarchy

One of the classical questions in the study of nationalism concerns the end of empires. Is nationalism, to use the phrase of Hiers and Wimmer, the cause or consequence of the end of empire? This paper considers a neglected case, that of the decomposition of the Danish imperial monarchy in the years between 1848 and 1864. We find that nationalist conflicts indisputably caused the end of this political entity. Crucially, Danish nationalists in the imperial core preferred to downsize the territories controlled by the Oldenburgs rather than to share power with German speakers in the periphery. Decomposition was not, however, inevitable: an early introduction of power‐sharing schemes might have saved the imperial monarchy.     

Ireland in the imperial imagination: British nationalism and the Anglo-Irish Treaty

ABSTRACT

The signing of the Anglo-Irish Treaty on 6 December 1921 was a watershed moment in modern Irish history. In addition to copper-fastening the partition of the island, the agreement catalysed the bifurcation of revolutionary Sinn Féin and set in train the processes that culminated, ultimately, in the outbreak of a bitter Civil War the following June. The events that led to the Treaty and the debates on it in Dáil Éireann have received extensive treatment from historians. However, scholars have paid far less attention to the impact of the Treaty on British politics; in particular, they have neglected to explore how the concession of limited Irish self-government impacted Britain’s national self-image at a time of crucial imperial adjustment following the Great War. This article will examine the range of arguments proffered for and against the Treaty in the House of Commons and the House of Lords and suggest that Parliamentary opposition to the settlement was underpinned by a sense of imperial-national feeling, one guided by an attitude of conscious superiority to non-British elements that can be understood productively as a form of British nationalism.