Imperial Meridian: The British Empire and the World 1780-1830

This is a book for students of modern British history and all those interested in it concentrating on an oft-ignored period in the history of the British Empire - the emergence and decline of the Second Empire between 1780 and 1830. The book examines the effect of "empire" not only in the regions colonized: Asia and the Middle East; but also on domestic politics and society and on the existing colonies, such as Ireland, Australia and Southern Africa. In this impressive and ambitious survey Dr Bayly studies the rise, apogee and decline of what has come to be called 'the Second British Empire' -- the great expansion of British dominion overseas (particularly in Asia and the Middle East) during the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic era that, coming between the loss of America and the subsequent partition of Africa, constitutes the central phase of British imperial history.