Research Catalog

Absent-minded imperialism : Britain and the expansion of empire in nineteenth-century Brazil

Title: Absent-minded imperialism : Britain and the expansion of empire in nineteenth-century Brazil / Peter Rivière.
Author: Rivière, Peter.
Publication: London ; New York : Tauris Academic Studies, 1995.

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Status	Format	Access	Call Number	Item Location
Request for On-site Use Request Scan How do I pick up this item and when will it be ready?	Text	Request in advance	F2523.5.G7 R585 1995g	Off-site

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Description

xii, 194 pages, 8 unnumbered pages of plates : color illustrations, map; 23 cm

Summary

This book looks at the mainsprings of imperial expansion and illustrates the grain of truth in J.R.
Seeley's famous phrase in The Expansion of England: 'We seem to have conquered and peopled half the world in a fit of absence of mind.' Peter Riviere gives a vivid account of how the British Empire at the zenith of its power was dragged reluctantly, and with little thought and no clear policy, into a minor border dispute with Brazil which was solved only after sending a boundary commission and an expeditionary force.
Centred on the Indian village of Pirara on the border between northern Brazil and British Guiana, in a remote territory in the interior, the story of the Anglo-Brazilian border dispute reveals much about the varied and conflicting motivations of imperial expansion. Zealous Protestant and Catholic mission activity, attempts to end slavery, and the overwhelming motivation to establish links and to define and control imperial boundaries were key aspects of the dispute.
This is a beautifully written and vivid anthropological and historical narrative, with acute analysis of imperial expansion, based upon extensive fieldwork and Foreign Office, Colonial Office and missionary society records.

Alternative Title

Britain and the expansion of empire in nineteenth-century Brazil

Subjects

Brazil > Foreign relations > 1822-1889
Brazil > History > Empire, 1822-1889
Brazil > Foreign relations > Great Britain
Great Britain > Foreign relations > Brazil

Bibliography (note)

Includes bibliographical references (p. 183-187) and index.

Contents

1. Introduction -- 2. First stages 1829-1837 -- 3. The first mission at Pirara 1838 -- 4. Retreat to Urwa 1839 -- 5. Retreat to Waraputa 1840-41 -- 6. The occupation of Pirara 1842 -- 7. The withdrawal from Pirara 1842 -- 8. The closing scenes 1842-43 -- 9. The aftermath -- 10. Afterthoughts.

ISBN

1850439133

LCCN

94061500

OCLC

ocm32455757

Owning Institutions

Columbia University Libraries