Skip to main content
  • Book
  • © 2018

Violence, Colonialism and Empire in the Modern World

Palgrave Macmillan
  • Provides a comparative approach to how violence was used by a range of empires to assert and maintain control in colonies around the world
  • Chapters cover a number of colonies across Africa, Asia and Oceania, across two centuries and exploring a variety of violent practices
  • Brings together new research from an international group of scholars to challenge the long held view that these colonial projects were of benefit to the colonised peoples
  • Includes supplementary material: sn.pub/extras

Part of the book series: Cambridge Imperial and Post-Colonial Studies (CIPCSS)

Buy it now

Buying options

eBook USD 119.00
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book USD 159.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book USD 159.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Other ways to access

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check for access.

Table of contents (13 chapters)

  1. Front Matter

    Pages i-xi
  2. Colonial Violence and ‘Ways of Seeing’

    1. Front Matter

      Pages 23-23
    2. The Psychology of Colonial Violence

      • Richard N. Price
      Pages 25-52
    3. Colonial Violence and the Picturesque

      • Elizabeth Mjelde
      Pages 53-72
  3. Colonial Authority and the Violence of Law

    1. Front Matter

      Pages 91-91
    2. Martial Law in the British Empire

      • Lyndall Ryan
      Pages 93-109
  4. Dynamics of Colonial Warfare

    1. Front Matter

      Pages 151-151
    2. The Dynamics of British Colonial Violence

      • Michelle Gordon
      Pages 153-174
  5. Back Matter

    Pages 287-292

About this book

This book explores the theme of violence, repression and atrocity in imperial and colonial empires, as well as its representations and memories, from the late eighteenth through to the twentieth century. It examines the wide variety of violent means by which colonies and empire were maintained in the modern era, the politics of repression and the violent structures inherent in empire. Bringing together scholars from around the world, the book includes chapters on British, French, Dutch, Italian and Japanese colonies and conquests. It considers multiple experiences of colonial violence, ranging from political dispute to the non-lethal violence of everyday colonialism and the symbolic repression inherent in colonial practices and hierarchies. These comparative case studies show how violence was used to assert and maintain control in the colonies, contesting the long held view that the colonial project was of benefit to colonised peoples.

Reviews

“An essential resource for scholars of empire violence, this volume draws revealing connections between colonial sites and experiences rarely analysed alongside one another before. Ranging from the settler colonialism of the early nineteenth century to the devastating impact of contested decolonisation in South East Asia, the contributors clarify the multiple ways in which violence was not just recurrent in colonialism but fundamentally constitutive of it.” (Martin Thomas, Professor of Imperial History, University of Exeter, UK)

Editors and Affiliations

  • Centre for the History of Violence, University of Newcastle Australia, Callaghan, Australia

    Philip Dwyer

  • School of Humanities, University of Adelaide, Adelaide, Australia

    Amanda Nettelbeck

About the editors

Philip Dwyer is the founding Director of the Centre for the History of Violence at the University of Newcastle, Australia.

Amanda Nettelbeck is Professor in the Department of History at the University of Adelaide, Australia, and a Fellow of the Australian Academy of the Humanities.

Bibliographic Information

Buy it now

Buying options

eBook USD 119.00
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book USD 159.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book USD 159.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Other ways to access