State Library of Western Australia, call number: BA428/1
While Western Australia’s secession movement foundered, it sparked a series of debates around London’s obligations to overseas Britons, Britannic identity, and the future of imperial relations.
Kew Palace, where King George III liked to spend Christmas.
Thanks to detailed menu records from Kew Palace kitchens, we have a fascinating picture of the Christmas foods that were popular in the royal palaces.
Reggae, dancehall, and identity: how Jamaican music transformed British society.
Holly Squire/Canva
Nights out dancing! How African and Caribbean music and dance have shaped British culture.
King Charles III And Queen Camilla on their coronation day.
Christopher Furlong/Getty Images
Activists view their moral case for the return of the diamonds as unanswerable, but it runs up against many complications.
In this photo provided by Chad Fish, a large balloon drifts above the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of South Carolina, with a fighter jet and its contrail seen below it, on Feb. 4, 2023.
(Chad Fish via AP)
Chinese balloons must be assessed within the context of decades of mutual espionage and an awareness of the many storms in the U.S.-China relationship — and the history of empires.
An artefact is returned to the king of Benin in Nigeria.
Kola Sulaimon/AFP via Getty Images
Art stolen from African kingdoms is a knowledge system plundered by colonialists, who must take historical responsibility.
The university, and its pursuit of knowledge, was part of the colonial project. And historians, writes Satia, were key architects of empire.
Dave Hunt/AAP
From the 18th century, historians taught us to understand the world as a story of linear progress. But this viewpoint made them architects of empire. History, writes Yves Rees, has blood on its hands.
Queen Elizabeth II waves from the balcony of Buckingham Palace during the Platinum Jubilee Pageant.
Chris Jackson/Getty Images
The decolonisation process was to take place rapidly during the reign of Elizabeth II.
Territorial ambitions: in his speeches and writings, Vladimir Putin has indicated an ‘empire complex’.
EPA/Dmitry Astakhov/pool
Putin is following a strategy used by other imperial countries, particularly 19th-century China and Japan.
The Dead Sea scrolls show scribes using the theme of four kingdoms (Babylon-Persia, Greece, Rome and the kingdom of God) as a flexible way to prophecize.
(Shutterstock)
There is a long history of recalculating historical prophecies and projections based on the theme of four kingdoms.
Anthony Anex/EPA
In the past, quarantines were often seen as an excuse for state intervention, and condemned as instruments of despotism.
The links with Britain’s imperial past can make receiving an honour deeply problematic.
spatuletail/Shutterstock
The British Honours system and its link to empire is outdated and inappropriate, it must change.
Zambian President Edgar Lungu’s increasingly repressive government uses colonial-era laws to silence dissent.
EFE-EPA/ EPA/Phillipe Wojazer
The unstable authoritarian pathway that many post-colonial African states followed was facilitated by the way in which European empires undermined democratic elements within African societies.
Published by J.Evans and Sons, 42 Long Lane West, Smithfield.
The Peterloo massacre was one of the worst atrocities committed on British soil, but across the empire there were many such acts.
Print of the Peterloo Massacre published by Richard Carlile in 1819.
Flickr/ManchesterArchives
As well as an attack on the working classes, Peterloo was also an episode of violence against women.
AC Arts Photography via Shutterstock
The link between empire, inequality – and Brexit.
Shutterstock
The notion of ‘Empire 2.0’ embraced by Brexiteers is backward-facing nonsense.
Diego Garcia, as seen from space.
NASA via Wikimedia Commons
The UK is increasingly isolated in its claim to the Chagos Islands. If an international court finds in Mauritius’s favour, the implications could be huge.
Hamidah Samutharangkoon/Shutterstock
Bought from Denmark for their strategic value, a group of Caribbean islands has lived under the US flag for a century.
Demonstrators against Russian military actions in Ukraine rally in New York, March 2, 2014.
AP Photo/John Minchillo
Americans are shocked Russia meddled in our election. But there are centuries of precedent – and, at times, it’s been the US meddling.