Abstract
When J. R. Seeley published his timely book The Expansion of England, he compared the British Empire to those of Greece and Rome. He argued that the British Empire was powerful because it was an extension of the state, peopled by Europeans, who were subjects of the Crown. He denied that the British Empire was one of conquest, as the Roman Empire had been, with the exception of India; it was an empire of free peoples who enjoyed a common culture and religion. He was concerned lest the empire, by expanding beyond the limits of this common nationality, would weaken and die. For such was the condition of most empires.
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Notes
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© 1999 D. George Boyce
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Boyce, D.G. (1999). Empire, Race and Citizenship. In: Decolonisation and the British Empire, 1775–1997. Palgrave, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-27755-1_11
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