Roundtable discussion: Islands and the British Empire in the Age of Sail Seminar

Description of event:

Islands (and groups of islands) across the globe played crucial roles in the establishment and development of the British Empire. They acted as key nodal points, providing critical assistance for those embarked on long-distance voyages. Intercontinental maritime trade, colonial settlement, and scientific exploration would have been impossible without them. They also acted as sites of competition and conflict for rival European powers. The importance of islands outstripped their physical size, the populations they sustained, or their individual economic contribution to the imperial balance sheet. Standing at the centre of maritime routes of global connectivity, islands offer historians of the British Empire fresh perspectives on the intercontinental communication, commercial connections, and territorial expansion that characterised that empire.

Join us for a discussion of the role and significance of islands in the history of the British Empire. Contributors to the new Oxford History of the British Empire Companion Series volume on islands will assess the ways in which islands, in a variety of locations across the globe, contributed to the establishment, extension, and maintenance of that empire. As well as focusing on the specific example of the British

Empire, there will be opportunities to reflect on the role of islands and insularity in the history of empires more generally and the value of studying island history in a global context.

Speakers

Dr John McAleer (University of Southampton)
Professor Douglas Hamilton (Sheffield Hallam University)
Dr Katherine Roscoe (University of Liverpool
Dr Sarah Longair (University of Lincoln)
Professor Stephen Royle (Queen's University, Belfast)
Dr Annelies Cazemier (University of Southampton)

Everyone welcome!