Contenu du sommaire : Les mondes britanniques

Over the course of the nineteenth century, the central tenets of liberal imperialism were challenged as different forms of rebellion, resistance, and instability in the colonies instigated a more general crisis about the nature and purpose of imperial rule, a crisis that precipitated the waning of ethical justifications of Empire. As modes of justification became more tentative in terms of their moral and political aspirations, late imperial ideologies of rule were presented less in ideological than pragmatic terms, as practical responses to and accommodations to the nature of ‘native society'. Under this cover, social, cultural, and racial theories entered through the back door, as it were, to explain and legitimate the existence of Empire; they functioned less as justifications than as alibis for the fait accompliof Empire. The most important consequence for ideologies of imperial rule was a move away from the commitment to the more transformative ambitions underlying the so-called civilizing mission, a central hallmark of the project of liberal imperialism. In place of the universalist project of civilization, which at its core believed in the possibility of assimilating and modernizing native peoples, a new emphasis on the potentially insurmountable difference between peoples came to the fore.

In her paper, Jose Harris revisits Edwardian Liberalism and explores the nexus between free trade, Empire and social reforms. Did the New Liberals –against their initial preconceptions– come to see ‘imperial defence' spending as a substantive form of ‘social welfare'? Was the colonial world an inspiring model for social reforms in the UK? How did Liberal Thought articulate the concepts of citizenship, race and class?

The invention and subversion of imperial patriotism: the politics of rites of Empire in Britain, 1877-1837. This paper analyses various public celebrations of the British Empire such Jubilees, Durbars, Empire Exhibitions, historical pageants and Empire Day, over a period extending from 1877 to 1938. The paper contends that the various public rituals and festivals of Empire under scrutiny, constituted as they were of a blend of loyalism towards the Crown, imperial and civic duty, pride in Britain's military and naval power, gave shape to a new form of patriotism: imperial patriotism, which was expected to exert a unifying cross-class, cross-party and cross-gender appeal on Victorian and Edwardian audiences by emphasizing their belonging to the “imagined community” of Empire. Initially constructed as a politically neutral object, imperial patriotism did not fade from public view in the interwar years.

George Orwell's complex political itinerary was however marked by an unwavering anti-colonialism; Orwell never really budged on this point, not even during World War II. Orwell's five years in Burma awakened him to colonial despotism, and many of his writings show how haunted he remained by his colonial experience. These reveal how keen Orwell was to educate the British public on what he called “colonial despotism”, which, to say the least, was no easy task, primarily because of public opinion's “absence of mind” (John R. Seeley) on such issues, or because it was reluctant to hear certain truths on Britain's Empire. Orwell was painfully aware of this difficulty: he knew that both the press and political parties were determined not to address this question.

A “Scottish Empire”? Scotland and the British World, 1815-1931. Scotland's participation in the British Empire has been recently reexamined within British historiography. This article sums up some key features of academic research on the subject and focuses on three issues – i.e. Scottish emigration, the exportation of Scottish values to the Empire and the relationship between Scottishness and imperialism.

The ambiguity of Britain's place in the world as a European and non-European power, closely linked to the Continent yet drawn towards extra-European interests, has long been a central influence upon its foreign policy and national identity. The Middle East, a region Britain has considered of vital importance since the beginning of the twentieth century, demonstrates the difficulties Britain has experienced in reconciling its economic and strategic interest in Europe and its ambition to remain the head of its world Empire. From the start of the century, the Middle East was the scene of numerous clashes with Britain's principal ally, France, which demonstrated the growing precariousness of its global position and the incompatibility of its European and imperial ambitions.

Historians of Britain commonly treat the inter-war period as a single unit. There are nonetheless three reasons for regarding 1931 as a major turning-point in British history. In the first place, the financial crisis of that year led Britain to abandon party government for the next fourteen years. Secondly, it abandoned the gold standard and free trade that year, ending a century of liberal economic policy. Thirdly, Britain not only abandoned its leadership of the globalised economy but turned against it by pursuing Imperial protectionism. This latter reversal of roles had grave consequences for Britain and the rest of the world.

This essay explores the contributions of women to decolonization struggles from the perspective both of women involved in anti-colonial movements and women who were part of the colonial authority structure. It argues that without a gendered analysis, our understanding of decolonisation remains partial, minimising women's roles and replicating masculinist political structures.

The recent publication of Count Harry Kessler Diary highlights the secret talks he held in Switzerland with Émile Haguenin during the winter 1916-1917. This unknown episode of WWI is interesting for several reasons. It was the last bilateral (French-German) attempt to negotiate peace before the 1917 multilateral manoeuvrings. It is a good example of how entrenched and irreconcilable the French and German positions were and why the secret peace talks had not the slightest chance of success.

The Gabriel Tarde's archives held at Centre d'histoire de Sciences Po cover a collection of private documents belonging to the 19 th century famous French scientist. Composed of unpublished manuscripts, they enable researchers to write an history of the scientific work process as well as to produce an history of the archives of research.

This article traces some aspects of recent British debates over ‘memory' of the imperial and colonial past, offering points of comparison between these and the parallel French discussions which have emerged still more recently but with great force. It focuses especially on the role which arguments over imperial violence and atrocity, including claims about colonial genocide, have played in these.