European Empires from Conquest to Collapse, 1815-1960

New edition of a trail-blazing history of imperial warfare

European Empires from Conquest to Collapse is a vivid anticolonial reckoning with the history of imperial warfare. Global in scope, it deftly surveys the fighting forces and military engagements of the Great Powers, from the British in India to the scramble for Africa. Victor Kiernan lays bare the doctrines and realities of colonial fighting, dispelling official legends. Europe often boasted that coloni- alism was ‘civilised’, but the facts show it could be barbaric. Kiernan traces how guerrilla insurgency against colonial oppression developed into one of the most sophisticated branches of the art of war.

With a foreword by Tariq Ali, author of Winston Churchill: His Times, His Crimes.

Victor Kiernan (1913–2009) was Chair of Modern History at Edinburgh University. A member of the Communist Party Historians’ Group with E. P. Thompson and Christopher Hill, he spent several years teaching in Lahore and translated the Urdu poets Iqbal and Faiz. His many books included Lords of Human Kind, America: The New Imperialism, and studies of Horace and Shakespeare.

Foreword by Tariq Ali
Editor’s Preface
Author’s Preface

1. Europe and the World in 1815

2. The European Armies
i. Introductory
ii. The British army
iii. Royal and Company forces in India
iv. Foreign armies
v. Arms and the men

3. Indian Wars
i. Conquest completed
ii. India expanding
iii. The Mutiny
iv. The new Indian army

4. Britain and Russia: Wars of the Borderlands
i. The Caucasus and the first Afghan War
ii. Central Asia and the second Afghan War
iii. The watch on the Indian frontiers

5. Wars in Northern Africa

6. Wars in Black Africa
i. Kingdoms and Republics
ii. Tribes and villages
 
7. Wars of Two Oceans
i. The British in the Pacific
ii. The Dutch in the Archipelago
iii. The French in Indochina

8. Rebellions
i. European settlers
ii. Non-European peoples
iii. European solidarity and the Boxer Rebellion

9. A Century of War
i. Advance of military technology 123
ii. Food, drink, health
iii. The soldier’s vocation
iv. Native troops, and the cost of conquest
v. The resistance

10. Civilization and Barbarism
i. The civilizing mission, and religion
ii. Doctrines of colonial war
iii. Realities of colonial war

11. Europe and Its Conquests
i. Publicity and the public
ii. Political consequences

12. The Great War
i. The colonial background of 1914
ii. Colonial forces and campaigns

13. Challenge and Response: 1919–45
i. New empire problems
ii. New technology
iii. Imperialism and fascism
iv. The Second World War

14. The Dismantling of the Empires
i. A new era
ii. Wars of liberation against France
iii. Black Africa

15. Epilogue