British Empire

Posts in The Copybook tagged ‘British Empire’

61
Lost for Words Sir Henry Morton Stanley

Welsh journalist Henry Stanley is despatched by head office in New York to find a missing British explorer.

In 1865 explorer David Livingstone went in search of the sources of the Nile. Three years passed with no word of his fate, so Welsh journalist Henry Stanley of the New York Herald was despatched to track him down. By the Autumn of 1871 the errand seemed hopeless, but then word came of a white man in Ujiji, on the eastern shore of Lake Tanganyika.

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62
The War of 1812 Clay Lane

In the year that Napoleon’s quest for European Empire faltered at Moscow, President Madison of the USA came to his aid.

In 1783, the American War of Independence ended with the creation of a new sovereign nation, the United States of America. Peace was short-lived, however, as zealous statesmen in Washington were itching to see revolution sweep on through Europe’s monarchies and across Britain’s Empire – especially Canada.

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63
Kim’s Game Rudyard Kipling

Kim O’Hara starts his apprenticeship as a British spy with a little competition.

In the city of Shimla, summer capital of the British Raj, a jeweller named Lurgan is schooling young orphan Kim O’Hara for intelligence work in Afghanistan. A Hindu boy already in his care has become so jealous of this ‘stranger’ that he has tried to poison Lurgan, and is now sobbing with remorse, which the canny Lurgan turns to advantage.

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64
Disbanding Empire Adam Smith

Adam Smith could not imagine it would ever happen, but he nevertheless recommended that Britain grant independence to her colonies.

Scottish economist Adam Smith regarded the British Empire as the best of its kind in history, but he still believed that it would be better for everyone if London abandoned her single market and meddlesome governance, and granted her colonies independence.

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65
Progressive Travancore S. Ramanath Aiyar

Contemporary historian Ramanath Aiyar catalogued the ways in which Maharajah Moolam Thurunal led the way in modernising British India.

In 1885, His Highness Sir Rama Varma Moolam Thurunal became Maharajah of Travancore. A close confidant was historian Ramanath Aiyar, who some eighteen years later catalogued the various ways in which the Maharajah had moved Travancore forward in terms of society and industry.

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66
Engines of Progress Sir Bartle Frere

Sir Bartle Frere, Governor of Bombay, shared his excitement at the way railways were making Indians more independent.

In a speech at the opening of the Bhor Ghat Incline between Bombay and Madras on April 21st, 1863, Sir Bartle Frere, Governor of Bombay, was quick to share with the assembled dignitaries his satisfaction that railways were bringing Indians an awareness of their rights and creating a more open and equal society.

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