The Rule of Empires: Those Who Built Them, Those Who Endured Them, and Why They Always Fall

493 Pages·2010·0.79 MB·English

by  Timothy Parsons

THE RULE OF EMPIRES
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THE RULE OF EMPIRES
Those Who Built Them,
Those Who Endured Them,
and Why They Always Fall
Timothy H. Parsons
1
2010
3
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Copyright © 2010 by Timothy H. Parsons
Published by Oxford University Press, Inc.
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Parsons, Timothy, 1962–
The rule of empires : those who built them,
those who endured them,
and why they always fall / Timothy H. Parsons.
p. cm.
ISBN 978-0-19-530431-2
1. Colonies—History. 2. Colonization—History.
3. Imperialism—History. I. Title.
JV61.P33 2010
325'.3—dc22 2009044192
1 3 5 7 9 8 6 4 2
Printed in the United States of America
on acid-free paper
For Annie, always
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CONTENTS
Acknowledgments, ix
Introduction: The Subjects of Empire, 1
1 Roman Britain: The Myth of the Civilizing
Empire, 21
2 Muslim Spain: Blurring Subjecthood in Imperial
Al-Andalus, 65
3 Spanish Peru: Empire by Franchise, 111
4 Company India: Private Empire Building, 169
5 Napoleonic Italy: Empire Aborted, 231
6 British Kenya: The Short Life of the
New Imperialism, 289
7 France under the Nazis: Imperial Endpoint, 351
Conclusion: Imperial Epitaph, 423
Notes, 451
Index, 473
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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
As a social historian of twentieth-century Africa, I incurred consider-
able scholarly debts in writing on so many different empires that are
far outside my own area of specialization. Bruce Masters introduced
me to the study of Islamic societies more than two decades ago, and
Ahmet Karamustafa continued this education with his close reading
of the Umayyad Spain chapter. Matthew Restall read the initial pro-
posal for this book as an anonymous reviewer for Oxford University
Press and then was immensely supportive in helping me fi nd my way
in Spain’s American empire. Mark Burkholder and Rick Walter each
reviewed that chapter closely and also made numerous suggestions
and corrections. Similarly, Tom Metcalf generously helped me navi-
gate the complexities of the history of British rule in South Asia, and
Hillel Kieval did the same for the Nazi empire in Europe. I have drawn
inspiration from Dane Kennedy’s and Lori Watt’s views of empire,
and I am particularly grateful to my dear friend Derek Peterson for
his close and critical reading of the introduction. Richard Davis was
an equally important source of wise advice, and I particularly valued
Keith Bennett’s patience and encouragement during the writing pro-
cess. Although they were not fully aware of it, my graduate students
John Aerni, Muey Saeteurn, and Meghan Ference made an important
intellectual contribution to the book’s central arguments through their
thoughtful and probing questions. Rethinking empire from the per-
spectives of subject peoples has been a diffi cult and complex process,
and so of course I alone am responsible for any errors of fact or inter-
pretation that have crept into this exercise in academic trespassing.
ix