时间：9月16日（星期一）下午3：00——4:30

地点：英语学院5361会议室

主讲人：Miles Taylor（英国伦敦大学）

主办：上海外国语大学英国研究中心

讲座内容：

The British empire of the Victorian period spanned the whole globe. By 1914 – the eve of the first world war – British dominion covered 1/5 of the world’s land surface. This was an unprecedented phenomenon. No other imperial power, from the ancient Assyrians, Greeks and Romans, through the medieval Chinese and Mogul dynasties, onto the early modern maritime empires of Spain, Portugal and the Netherlands, and amongst the modern day examples such as the former Soviet empire, or even the Starbucks and drones empire of the USA, have ever controlled such a large mass of land. And yet Britain was an island. Its empire was remote. Unlike contemporary continental 19^th century empires such as the German and Russian the lands of the British empire were not contiguous. The more than 100 colonies of the British empire were far away from the metropole – the nearest (not including Ireland) was Gibraltar, the furthest Fiji in the Pacific. And the success of this empire was not built on the land, nor on military forces, but the on the sea. In my lecture today I want to explore this paradox: namely, how did British sea-power give Britain such a comparative advantage over its main rivals in the 19^thcentury ? Do all successful empires require a strong navy or command of the ocean, or is the British a particular and unusual case ? How closely is a nation’s economic power connected to its military capability, whether on land, sea or air? My lecture concentrates on three main themes. First, I describe the ‘pax Britannica’: how the British navy created the foundations at sea for British domination of trade and diplomacy outside Europe. Secondly, I examine the navy at home, for during the era of Victorian reform, the navy itself was not immune from cuts in expenditure and the liberal desire for efficient government. Thirdly and finally, I will look at the new maritime cities and cultures that were created during the Victorian empire, and how from being in a position of relative strength at sea, Britain became highly vulnerable as an island and as an empire by 1914.

主讲人介绍：

Professor Miles Taylor, Director of the Institute of Historical Research, University of London and Professor of History, University of London.

Publications:

(co-ed. with Michael Wolff) The Victorians since 1901: Histories, Representations and Revisions (Manchester: ManchesterUniversity Press, 2004)

Ernest Jones, Chartism and the Romance of Politics, 1819-69 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2003)

(ed.) Walter Bagehot, The English Constitution (Oxford: The World’s Classics, Oxford University Press, 2001)

(co-ed. with Jon Lawrence) Party, State and Society: Electoral Behaviour in Britainsince 1820 (Aldershot: Scolar Press, 1997)

The Decline of British Radicalism, 1847-1860 (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1995)