Imperial Places

{description}: A short-lived factory of the East India Company existed at the port of Hirado in present-day Nagasaki, Japan from 1613 to 1623 where British merchants -- alongside the Dutch -- attempted to trade with the Japanese. The trade ultimately proved to be fruitless and the company directed its efforts elsewhere, while the Tokugawa shogunate closed off most of its ports to foreign powers. Hirado reminds us of the early, tenuous acts of informal rule by the British, or the failed ventures that did not necessarily result in imperialism.

{name}: Sakura Christmas

{section}: Friday 11am

Timestamp: 1/30/2012 22:29:57

{description}: Built in 1886, Melrose House became the headquarters for British forces after 1900 during the Anglo-Boer War (1899-1902) between the British Empire and the Boer Republics. The Peace Treaty of Vereeniging (Association) was signed here on 31 May 1902, bringing one of Britain's most costly colonial wars to an end and laying out the terms of eventual self-government in South Africa under the authority of the British monarch.

{name}: Matthew Kustenbauder

{section}: Wednesday 2pm

Timestamp: 1/31/2012 6:13:55

{description}: This site shows one of the most prominent psychiatric institutions, built initially for British soldiers by the British Raj, and later opened up for 'natives', in the Indian subcontinent. Each ward is named for an eminent European psychiatrist or physician, which tells us a little bit about who was considered important, medically speaking, by the British at this time. Prior to the hospital's establishment in 1918, Ranchi was only significant to the British Empire as a hill station for troops, which was ransacked during the Indian Rebellion of 1857-8.

{name}: Anouska Bhattacharyya

{section}: Wednesday 3pm

Timestamp: 1/31/2012 7:19:58

{description}: The Abadan Refinery was the largest oil refinery in the world at the time of its completion in 1912. It was run by the Anglo-Persian Oil Company, founded after London millionaire William Knox D'Arcy obtained a valuable exclusive concession from the Shah of Persia. This represents the wide reach of British economic imperialism in the early 20th century. Though Persia/Iran was never under formal British control, Iranian nationalists resented the generous terms of the concession. The 1951 nationalisation of the Abadan Refinery precipitated a crisis that led to the fall of the Mossadegh regime and stands as a symbol of continued anti-British feeling in the region.

{name}: Mircea Raianu

{section}: Wednesday 4pm

Timestamp: 1/31/2012 10:03:44

{description}: On this site in March, 1770, British troops fired on civilian protesters, killing five.

{name}: Maya Jasanoff

{section}: Wednesday 2pm (Dzavid)

Timestamp: 2/1/2012 10:17:18

{description}: It is the sight of the Boston Tea Party that was a factor for Britain's loss of America as part of their Empire and the beginning of the American Revolution.

{name}: Jane Kislak

{section}: Wednesday 2pm (Matthew)

Timestamp: 2/1/2012 10:17:48

{description}: The Slave Trade Act of 1807 served to abolish the slave trade in the Empire. A year later, the British Empire established the colony of Sierra Leone as a settlement for freed slaves. The capitol is Freetown.

{name}: Xiaokun Pam Chang

{section}: Thursday 2pm (Gitanjali)

Timestamp: 2/1/2012 10:21:02

{description}: Won by the colonists in October 1777, the Battle of Saratoga was a major turning point in the Revolutionary War. British General John Burgoyne had lead his troops on a campaign to divide the northern colonies from the southern colonies as a way of disrupting communication as well as limiting each sides' supplies. The campaign, however, had cost him many casualties, and although he had been waiting on reinforcements under General Howe, they never came. Colonial forces began to encircle Burgoyne's troops until he was forced to take the offensive. Under the leadership of Horatio Gates and his field general, Benedict Arnold, the Continental Army defeats Burgoyne's troops and Burgoyne surrenders. This battle is significant not only because it was a major victory for the Continental Army, but also because it convinced the French that the American colonists could aptly fight a war against a European military power, winning over the French as crucial allies in the war. Suddenly, Britain was considerably overwhelmed. The image posted is that of General John Burgoyne's surrender to Gates.

{name}: Katherine Aoki

{section}: Wednesday 2pm (Matthew)

Timestamp: 2/1/2012 11:39:44

{description}: The Cenotaph is a war memorial constructed in 1923 and is located on the Central District of Hong Kong. It is a replica of the Cenotaph on Whitehall in London, however unlike the original it has Chinese characters on it. Although, it was initially built to honour the war dead of the First World War, the names of those that died in the Second World War were added as well. In fact, Hong Kong was occupied by the Japanese during WWII from 1941-45. It was only on 16 September 1945 when the Japanese officially surrendered the territory. This was an important period for Hong Kong since both the British and Nationalist leader Chiang Kai-shek claimed legitimacy over the region. Nonetheless, the British quickly re-establish its rule over the region by despatching Rear Admiral Sir Cecil Harcourt to the island on the navy ship HMS Swiftsure. On an end note, during British Rule, up till 1997, Liberation Day ('the Liberation of Hong Kong from Japan) was commemorated here. Despite that, after the handover official celebrations ceased and Liberation Day was not considered a general holiday any longer.

{name}: Tanit Chearavanont

{section}: Wednesday 2pm (Matthew)

Timestamp: 2/1/2012 12:21:49

{description}: At this site, tradition holds, on January 29, 1819, Sir Stamford Raffles first landed in Singapore, a small island at the tip of the Malaysian Peninsula. Raffles was a young British colonial official, who would one day found Singapore, which is now a thriving, port city. Raffles had good knowledge of the Malay language, which had helped him gain the position that he then held, Governor-General of Bencoolen, and was in search of a port to counter the Dutch trading powers. This action did not make the Dutch happy, but Singapore grew quickly as a port city and a Sir Raffles, though he spent little time there, was instrumental in the drafting of a constitution for Singapore in 1823. In 1824, a treaty between the Dutch and the English secured Singapore for the British. Singapore would remain a British colony, with various degrees of independence, until World War II, when it was occupied by the Japanese. Within a decade of the ending of World War II, Singapore became an independent city-state Republic, as it is now.

{name}: Phil Ngo

{section}: Wednesday 4pm (Mircea)

Timestamp: 2/1/2012 12:31:31

{description}: The English ship, Olive Blossom, arrived in the scarcely populated island of Barbados in 1625.  In 1627, the first English settlers arrived and it eventually became an English colony.  Bridgetown is the capital of Barbados; along with Boston, Massachusetts and Port Royal, Jamaica, it was one of the three largest cities in British America.  At first, the main export was tobacco, but eventually sugar cane production took over and most of the island’s land was devoted to its production by slaves.  This made it a very economically valuable part of the British Empire.

{name}: Gina McDonald

{section}: Thursday 3pm (Gitanjali)

Timestamp: 2/1/2012 15:06:14

{description}: New Smyrna has the distinction of being the site of the largest single attempt at British colonization in the New World. Three times larger than Jamestown, the settlement was founded in 1767 by Dr. Andrew Trumbull, a Scottish physician who brought with him 1500 indentured European laborers. After receiving a land grant from the crown, He declared New Smyrna the 14th colony in North America. The site was named for the hometown of Trumbull's wife, the town of Smyrna in what is now Turkey. The British traded control of Cuba to the Spanish after the Seven Years' War, and in return took over the Spanish colonies of East and West Florida. Nearly the entire Spanish population left, and the British began an aggressive campaign to bring new settlers to Florida. The settlers tried to grow sugarcane, hemp, and indigo, but few crops survived in the sandy Florida soil, and many settlers died of tropical diseases in the sweltering heat. The indentured laborers eventually tired of Trumbull's authoritarian rule, and the settlement collapsed. The surviving settlers fled north to St. Augustine. The sparsely populated Florida remained loyal to the British Empire during the American Revolution, but as part of the Treaty of Paris ending the war, Florida south of the 31st parallel was returned to Spanish control. Spain ceded the Florida Territory, which had become a burden to defend from Indian attacks and escaped slaves, to the US in 1822 as part of the Adams-Onis Treaty.

{name}: Tyler Gildan

{section}: Wednesday 5pm (Nick)

Timestamp: 2/1/2012 15:10:56

{description}: The Treaty of Paris was signed on February 10, 1763 by Great Britain, France, and Spain. It marked the end of the Seven Years' War and the beginning of a powerful British empire. Because of the Treaty of Paris, Britain gained many territories around the world, including the Americas east of the Mississippi, Canada, Florida, Grenada, Tobago, Dominica, Senegal, and several parts of India.

{name}: Jennifer Shi

{section}: Thursday 2pm (Gitanjali)

Timestamp: 2/1/2012 15:40:58

{description}: This airfield was a major center of action during the Falklands War of 1982. The war was fought between the British and Argentina after the latter had invaded the isolated, British-owned islands off the coast of South America. Though the British Empire's heyday was long past, the desire to retain these faraway possessions and defend British sovereignty hearkened back to the imperial days. Port Stanley was occupied by the Argentinians early on in the war, but it was later taken over by the RAF. A decisive victory in the Falklands boosted Conservative PM Margaret Thatcher's popularity at home, inspiring nostalgia for British greatness.

{name}: Morgan Wilson

{section}: Wednesday 2pm (Matthew)

Timestamp: 2/1/2012 16:23:07

{description}: Port Royal, Jamaica was originally settled and controlled by Spain, but was captured by the British in 1655 during the imperial power struggle for strategic Caribbean islands. It became the capital of Jamaica and served as home port for the Brethren of the Coast (pirates out for revenge against the Spanish crown and who were later legalized as British privateers). The British and The Brethren saw a similar enemy in the Spanish and formed a mutually beneficial relationship to defend Port Royal. After a massive earthquake in 1692, the capital of Jamaica was moved to Spanish Town, then later to Kingston, both of which grew enormously through the resettlement of earthquake survivors.

{name}: Zack Pope

{section}: Wednesday 3pm (Anouska)

Timestamp: 2/1/2012 17:27:51

{description}: This location is Botany Bay. Captain James Cook made his first landing on mainland Australia here in 1770. He returned to Britain and recommended this location for future colonization efforts; less than twenty years later, the first fleet of British ships arrived to establish a penal colony.

{name}: Peter Zhang

{section}: Friday 1pm (Sakura)

Timestamp: 2/1/2012 17:35:35

{description}: Fort St. George was the first British fortress in India. It was built in 1644, and was the nucleus for the formation of the city of Madras. It served as both a trading center as well as a military check on the French presence in Pondicherry. Today it is an administrative building for the Indian government.

{name}: Ashok Cutkosky

{section}: Friday 10am (Nick)

Timestamp: 2/1/2012 18:01:06

{description}: Yorktown marked a significant victory for colonial forces in the American revolution. Here Lord Cornwallis was trapped and besieged by combined French and American forces. After months of begging vainly for reinforcements, his army starving and ravaged by disease, he was forced to surrender on October 19, 1781. On that day, the bands played "The World Turned Upside Down" in acknowledgement of the incredible defeat of Britain's powerful, well-trained empire at the hands of the colonial upstarts (though realistically, the French deserved much of the credit). Having surrendered some 7000 men, Britain was prompted into negotiating a peace treaty.

{name}: Tony Feng

{section}: Friday 12pm (Dzavid)

Timestamp: 2/1/2012 18:59:22

{description}: In April, 1919 British Forces under the Command of Brigadier General Reginald E.H. Dyer opened fire on a crowd of thousands of Hindu, Muslim, and Sikhs in the Garden of Jallianwala Bagh. It is estimated that over 500 unarmed civilians were killed during the massacre. The Amritsar Massacre was prompted by a British fear of Indian rebellion and reprisal. Since 1857, British Officials in India governed heir subjects with fear and suspicion. In early 1919, tensions between native Indians in Punjab and British officials was at an all time high. Indian Crowds in the Punjab Province protested the detainment of rebellion leaders by British forces. General Dyer saw the protest as an opportunity to flex British military muscle. His forces fired on the crowd for over ten minutes. Dyer did not face stringent consequences for his actions and blatant disregard for Indian life and civil order. He was merely relieved of his command as a reprimand for his rash behavior. Historians argue that Amritsar was the turning point of Britain's hold in India. The massacre painted a very ugly, bloody picture of Britain's rule in India to the rest of the world. Rather than galvanize the Indian population, the massacre was a rallying cry for activists seeking independence.

{name}: Kevin Sprague

{section}: Wednesday 5pm (Nick)

Timestamp: 2/1/2012 20:05:44

{description}: On September 12, 1759, at the Plains of Abraham, occurred a critical battle in the Seven Years' War. This short battle on the plains in Quebec City ended in a resounding victory for the British, but at the cost of the life of General James Wolfe. The Battle of the Plains of Abraham was a key victory for the British who were then able to seize land in Canada and get a foothold in North America; British rule in Canada essentially began at the end of this battle because Britain won Quebec.

{name}: Madeline Connors

{section}: Friday 12pm (Dzavid)

Timestamp: 2/1/2012 20:31:26

{description}: West Point is the United States Army Base, located on the Hudson River. Its location (at an abominable S curve- very difficult for sailing ships to quickly pass through) was trivial to the American's success over the British in the American Revolution; it prevented the British from mounting successful attacks farther north on the Hudson River. It is important to the history of the British Empire for its importance in the British losing the American Colonies during the American Revolution. Because of its strategic location, the British had a difficult time using their powerful Navy up the Hudson River against the colonists. West Point was also the scene for the Execution of John Andre (cited in Linda Colley's ""Captives"") and the falling out of the American traitor Benedict Arnold, who tried and failed to sell the military base's plans to the British. This plan, centered around West Point, could have been a trivial turning point in the war for the British.

{name}: Bobby Flitsch

{section}: Wednesday 2pm (Matthew)

Timestamp: 2/1/2012 20:52:14

{description}: This was the site of the 1757 battle fought between the East India Company led by Robert Clive against the Nawab, who lost because of the bribed general, Mir Jafar.

{name}: Chang (Julia) Wang

{section}: Friday 11am (Sakura)

Timestamp: 2/1/2012 21:10:26

{description}: Pondicherry, now officially known as Puducherry (meaning “New Village” in Tamil), is a former French colony in southern India. In 1674, the French East India Company set up a trading center in the city, which eventually became France’s chief colony on the subcontinent. In 1693, during the race for spices and textiles between Great Britain and the Netherlands, the Dutch captured Pondicherry, but eventually gave it back to the French in 1699. During the Seven Years’ War (also, appropriately, known as the French and Indian War), the British expanded their control in North America and India, claiming control of Quebec and Pondicherry. Ananda Ranga Pillai’s belief that “‘the Goddess of Fortune [had] departed from Madras to take up her residence at Pondicherry’” turned out to be wrong, much to the lament of the French (Ferguson 26). At the Treaty of Paris in 1763, however, the British decided to return the colony to the French. Not 30 years later, though, did the British once again capture Pondicherry during the chaos of the French Revolution, but like before, they released control of it in 1814. When the British gave India its independence in 1947, the French government also commenced proceedings to cede control of Pondicherry. In 1963, the territory officially joined the nation of India.

{name}: Matthew Beck

{section}: Wednesday 2pm (Dzavid)

Timestamp: 2/1/2012 21:16:24

{description}: Independence Hall in Philadelphia was built between 1732 and 1756 and was meant to serve as the State House for the Province of Pennsylvania (when the colonies were still under the rule of the British Empire). However, when the Revolutionary War began, the building became the headquarters of the Second Continental Congress. The most famous room in Independence Hall is the Assembly Room, in which George Washington became the head of the Continental Army (1775). The Declaration of Independence, the colonies’ formal declaration of separation from the British Empire, was signed in the Assembly Room on July 4, 1776. During the two times that the British occupied Philadelphia during the Revolutionary War, the Congress had to be moved from the State House to Baltimore and Lancaster, respectively. The events that occurred between American revolutionaries in Independence Hall forever changed the role of the British Empire in North American affairs.

{name}: Jackie Schechter

{section}: Friday 12pm (Dzavid)

Timestamp: 2/1/2012 21:24:28

{description}: The Siege of Louisbourg took place as part of the Seven Years War and was a tactical endeavor on behalf of the British to secure a safe route into Quebec by way of the St. Lawrence River. In the summer of 1758, British Forces led by James Wolfe, Jeffrey Amherst and Edward Boscawen, launched an assault on the Fort and earned victory after the French surrendered on the 26th of July. Britain’s success left the Saint Lawrence vulnerable and led to Wolfe’s victory in Quebec on the Plains of Abraham. After demolishing the Fortress, British Forces abandoned the area in 1768.

{name}: Jonathan Longcroft

{section}: Friday 10am (Nick)

Timestamp: 2/1/2012 22:01:41

{description}: After the conclusion of the War of Spanish Succession in 1713, the British Empire gained control over Gibraltar. As noted by Ferguson in Empire, Gibraltar was a strategic position that regulated maritime travel and trade to and from the Mediterranean through the Straight of Gibraltar. This reaffirmed the British dominance of the seas and ensured maritime success in the region. To this day it is considered a British overseas territory.

{name}: George Mills

{section}: Thursday 3pm (Gitanjali)

Timestamp: 2/1/2012 22:10:19

{description}: British interest in Egypt began to pique towards the end of 18th century when the British emerged as the dominant European power on the Indian subcontinent. Instead of circumnavigating the Cape of Good Hope en route to India, the British sailed to Egypt, made the short journey to the Red Sea on foot, and continued from there. In fact, Napoleon realized the strategic importance of Egypt to the British and landed his troops there in an effort to block this valuable corridor. This was the provocation for the great naval battle of Aboukir Bay, where Nelson and the Royal Navy dealt a decisive blow to Napoleon’s forces, with the French forces ultimately surrendering in 1801. Fast-forward 70 years and British interest in Egypt is again sparked in large regard due to their Indian colonies. The French inaugurated the Suez Canal in 1869, cutting the London-Bombay transit times by a number of weeks. Needless to say, the British were less than pleased that this crucial passage was controlled by the French (in conjunction with the local Khedive government.) However, the Khedive had borrowed heavily in undertaking this mammoth project and consequently found himself inundated with debt. The opportunistic British investors were quick to swoop in and purchased Khedive’s shares of the Suez Canal Company, once again using their economic muscle for strategic means. However, the Khedive government again found itself in dire economic straits a few years later and at this point the British and French assumed control of its financial dealings. The British then ousted Khedive after he resisted their power-grab and inserted his son Tawfiq in his stead. This Egyptians began to riot in response to this gradual loss in autonomy and tried to bring an end to all European involvement in their country.. Once again the British took the helm in quashing Egyptian resistance as the French opted to focus on various domestic issues. Finally in 1882, the British sent expeditionary forces to the Suez Canal who quickly dispatched of the Egyptian resistance. British occupation of Egypt had begun!

{name}: Gabriel Rosen

{section}: Friday 10am (Nick)

Timestamp: 2/1/2012 22:35:17

{description}: On January 20, 1841, during the First Opium War, the Governor-General of Guangdong Qishan and the Plenipotentiary and Chief Superintendent of British Trade in China Charles Elliot met at Shajiao Fort for the Chuenpee Convention. This treaty included the ceding of Hong Kong to the British but neither side actually ratified the agreement, both unhappy with its terms. British forces, unaware of the official positions, occupied the island six days later. On February 1, Elliot claimed Hong Kong as British territory and declared its residents subjects of the Crown - not originally part of the Convention. The Treaty of Nanking and the Treaty of the Brogue in 1842 and 1843 formally concluded the war and solidified the transfer of Hong Kong to the British. (The Opium Wars, W. Travis Hanes III, Frank Sanello)

{name}: Natalie Panno

{section}: Wednesday 3pm (Anouska)

Timestamp: 2/1/2012 22:36:23

{description}: The Treaty of Nanking, signed in 1842, marked the end of the First Opium War which was fought between the Chinese and the British. This treaty stipulated that the Chinese would give up Hong Kong to the British for 99 years, open up ports in Xiamen, Guangzhou, Fuzhou, Ningbo, and Shanghai to foreign trade, and compensate the British for the opium destroyed in the war (a whopping 21 million dollars!). However, the British had no obligations in return, thus earning the name of an 'unequal treaty'.

{name}: Jennifer Wu

{section}: Friday 10am (Nick)

Timestamp: 2/1/2012 23:00:24

{description}: On February 6, 1840 the Treaty of Waitangi was signed by representatives of the British Crown and members of the indigenous Maori tribe of the North Island of New Zealand. This treaty, though debated by both parties as to what was exactly agreed to, established British control in New Zealand creating a Governor of New Zealand position, and unofficially represents New Zealands founding document.

{name}: Joe Barbato

{section}: Friday 11am (Sakura)

Timestamp: 2/1/2012 23:21:31

{description}: The Writers' Building (also known as the Mahakaran in the Bengali language) was designed by Thomas Lyon and built in 1777. It is located in West Bengal's capital city, Calcutta, and was originally erected to serve as an office for the writers of the British East India Company. At the time of its construction, the building exemplified the pervasive influence of British cultural, intellectual, and artistic life on the territories of India. Today, the Writers' Building houses the office of the Chief Minister of West Bengal and is also the secretariat building of the State Government of West Bengal in India. The structure has undergone numerous renovations and additions since it was originally built.

{name}: Catherine Gamble

{section}: Wednesday 2pm (Dzavid)

Timestamp: 2/2/2012 0:07:04

{description}: Spion Kop (1900) was a costly battle for the British in the Second Boer War. The Boers were armed with Mauser rifles that could match the British firearms, which eliminated the usual technological advantage for the British. In addition, lackluster strategies caused the British troops to be stuck in trenches whereas the Boers obtained higher ground. The British lost this battle and suffered large casualties. The outcome caused great concern the British government and ended General Buller's career in disgrace.

{name}: Yucheng Pan

{section}: Thursday 4pm (Mircea)

Timestamp: 2/2/2012 0:25:52

{description}: The Battle of Blaauwberg was fought by Britain and the French-controlled Netherlands as part of the Napoleonic Wars and resulted in a resounding British win that led to the reestablishment of British rule in South Africa. In order to maintain trade routes with the East, the Cape became an important commodity for countries looking to send ships around the tip of Africa. During the early nineteenth century, Cape Town was controlled by the Netherlands and, by extension, France, which occupied the country. In fear of France taking dominion over the sea route, Britain sent a fleet of ships under Lieutenant General Sir David Baird to seize the colony, which was at the time governed by Lieutenant General Jan Willem Janssens and his small band of military forces. When the Britain reached Cape Town in January of 1806, the commandant of Cape Town quickly surrendered, but Janssens, despite being outnumbered, held out in the mountains for nearly a week, waiting for French reinforcements that never arrived. The Articles of Capitulation were signed on the 18th of January, and the British occupied the colony for years afterward until Cape Town was formally ceded by the Netherlands in 1814.

{name}: Janice Zhang

{section}: Thursday 3pm (Gitanjali)

Timestamp: 2/2/2012 0:57:02

{description}: Here, on February 6, 1840, around forty Maori chiefs signed this treaty, thereby ceding all their lands to the Crown. A number of tribal leaders refused to sign at first, but eventually more than 500 chiefs ended up signing the document. The British drafted to treaty to prevent other foreign powers from settling New Zealand and to create a government to rule over the British traders and sailors, who had been living in New Zealand lawlessly previously. The Maori chiefs hoped to gain protection from other foreign powers and to open up trade routes that would increase the prosperity of their people.

{name}: Kurt Ruegg

{section}: Friday 10am (Nick)

Timestamp: 2/2/2012 9:37:50

{description}: This was the site of the Delhi Durbar or Imperial Durbar events, extravagant gatherings in India to celebrate the coronation of a British King. These happened in 1877, 1903, and 1911. The 1903 event was particularly dramatic, organized by the viceroy and vicerene of India, Lord and Lady Curzon. In an interesting twist of cultures, Mary Curzon wore her now famous peacock gown to this event. The dress was designed by arguably the most famous and sought after dress designer in Europe, Charles Worth of Paris, but the fabric for her state gowns was manufactured in Delhi. Even more exotically, the dress was embroidered all over with a design of peacock feathers, with a jewel-like beetle body sewn into the eye of each feather motif. Lady Curzon was known as a well-dressed woman, and this emphasizes the continual importance of Indian textiles in the British Empire, and showcases the cultural blending inherent in British India.

{name}: Antonia Pugliese

{section}: Wednesday 2pm (Dzavid)

Timestamp: 2/2/2012 12:41:35

{description}: This small town is the site of Jefferson’s Monticello, an icon of Anglo-American civilization. Jefferson’s estate, and, later the site of his burial place, Monticello typified classical American architecture in terms of its design, conducted by the most enlightened of American architects, and its construction, completed in the Neo-Classical architectural style that was the aesthetic of Jefferson’s era. Moreover, this iconic building and memorial achieves especial relevance in light of its evident similarities to the tomb of another pivotal American figure, Lord Cornwallis. In an architectural move that is no coincidence, many of the structural details of the Tomb of Lord Cornwallis—most notably, its pillars, very like those flanking the Monticello—recall strongly the design of Jefferson’s Virginian estate and burial site. Though situated across the world in Ghazipur, Cornwallis’ tomb and its parallels in design and appearance to Jefferson’s remain a physical testament to the breadth and expanse of the British Empire, serving to link two such remote locations as Charlottesville, Virginia and Ghazipur, India.

{name}: Emery Poor

{section}: Friday 12pm (Dzavid)

Timestamp: 2/2/2012 12:54:13

{description}: Versailles was the location of the negotiations that concluded World War I and led to the Treaty of Versailles. In this treaty, the British Empire reached its peak, both in terms of territory and population. It gained control of a number of former German and Ottoman colonies around the world, including Palestine, Transjordan, parts of Cameroon and Togo, and numerous Pacific Islands. While these colonies were technically under the mandate system of the newly created League of Nations, the British had de facto control over these areas.

{name}: Sam Pokross

{section}: Friday 12pm (Dzavid)

Timestamp: 2/2/2012 13:03:00

{description}: St. Thomas Cathedral is located in present day Mumbai (formerly known as Bombay, an important trade city for the East India Company). Its construction was started in 1678 by Gerald Aungier, the governor of Bombay, but was abandoned after his death in 1677. It was picked up again by the East India Company around 1710, and completed shortly after. It is an example of the introduction of European architectural styles to regions affected by trade with the East India company.

{name}: Caitlin Stanton

{section}: Friday 11am (Sakura)

Timestamp: 2/2/2012 13:47:16

{description}: Jamestown is known as the first successful British settlement in continental North America. Jamestown was founded in 1607 by the London Company (charter of James I, in order to form settlement on the North American continent). Following the failed colony of Roanoke, Jamestown became the first permanent colony established by the British. Jamestown was the capital of the Colony of Virginia between 1616 and 1699.

{name}: Rohan Goel

{section}: Wednesday 2pm (Dzavid)

Timestamp: 2/2/2012 14:58:27

{description}: The British decision to seize a colonial weapons store in Concord, MA on the evening of April 18, 1775 set off a chain of events that would ultimately mark the beginning of the American Revolution. The colonists received word of the British move in time to prepare for their arrival, and they camped out in the night in the neighboring town of Lexington. In the morning, the two forces faced each other. Someone fired—no one knows who—and the war had begun.

{name}: Simon de Carvalho

{section}: Wednesday 2pm (Matthew)

Timestamp: 2/2/2012 16:50:45

{description}: One lesson the British learned from the Revolutionary War was to look at the bigger picture rather than focus on losses. Britain had failed to keep the 13 colonies, but it still maintained the most economically successful part of its Empire - namely, its sugar-producing islands in the Caribbean. After the British lost against America and its allies, they went to the Caribbean prepared to save the territories most responsible for their economic prowess. In April 1782, Sir George Rodney led the British to defeat the French in the Battle of the Saints. This forced the French and Spanish to abandon their planned conquest of Jamaica and left the British with their Caribbean colonies and the economic strength they provided. The Rodney Memorial in Jamaica still stands today to commemorate the Battle.

{name}: Katherine Price

{section}: Wednesday 2pm (Dzavid)

Timestamp: 2/2/2012 16:56:16

{description}: The Battle of Bunker Hill – which actually took place on Breed’s Hill – took place on June 16th and 17th in 1775. On June 16th in the cover of night American revolutionaries led by Colonel Prescott occupied Breed’s Hill in order to protect Boston’s shipyards. Upon discovering that Breed’s Hill had been fortified, General Howe led British troops in an attempt to take control of the hill. It was during this battle that General Prescott allegedly gave his famous order "Don't shoot until you see the whites of their eyes”, most likely given to preserve American ammunition. At the cost of many causalities, the British gained control of Breed’s Hill and the Americans retreated. This battle is significant because it proved to Americans and the rest of the world that the British army was not invincible, and that the American Revolutionaries were capable of fighting and doing harm to the British. Moreover, the battle marks growing American enthusiasm for the Revolutionary War, a war that would eventually cost Britain the 13 Colonies and cause Britain to reconsider how it governed other territories such as India.

{name}: Brenna Hilferty

{section}: Wednesday 3pm (Anouska)

Timestamp: 2/2/2012 17:54:39

{description}: Haifa is a port city in present-day israel that was one of many areas given to the British in the Sykes-Picot Agreement in 1916. After the fall of the Ottoman Empire during WWI, the French and British, represented by French diplomat François Georges-Picot and British Sir Mark Sykes respectively, negotiated this agreement to divide up the territory into French and British spheres of influence. on 16 May 1916. This is a significant moment during the British Empire as it expanded its territories to include Palestine, Transjordan, areas around the Persian Gulf, the port of Haifa in present day Israel, and southern Iraq (around Baghdad). England had administrative authority over these territories and they influenced current geography by drawing the boundaries of these areas.

{name}: Farha Faisal

{section}: Wednesday 3pm (Anouska)

Timestamp: 2/2/2012 20:33:25

{description}: Bunce Island, off the coast of Sierra Leone, was the site of a British slave castle in the eighteenth century. The island was a crucial location in the history of the Atlantic slave trade. Used as a base for slave merchants, the fort was operated by several British companies during two periods of activity, from 1670-1728 and from the mid-1740s onwards. During the American Revolutionary War, French forces, then allied with the American army, attacked the island in 1779. This event illustrates the international scope of Britain's more localized imperial military conflicts. Bunce Island was also a key supplier of slaves to American colonies producing rice crops, specifically South Carolina and Georgia. Britain outlawed the slave trade in 1807.

{name}: Nicholas Rinehart

{section}: Thursday 3pm (Gitanjali)

Timestamp: 2/2/2012 20:56:49

{description}: The Battle of Chesapeake took place near the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay on September 5, 1781, during the American War of Independence. It was a naval battle that pitted the British Royal Navy, led by Sir Thomas Graves, against a French fleet, commanded by Francois de Grasse. In the months leading up to the battle, American forces led by George Washington had besieged British troops led by Lord Cornwallis at nearby Yorktown, VA. Chesapeake Bay served as a strategic naval point of interest, as the Royal Navy could use it to reinforce or evacuate Cornwallis' blockaded troops at Yorktown. It was here that the British naval fleet intercepted the French fleet, and a brief but deadly naval conflict ensued. Although the fleets were evenly matched, the French won a decisive victory, and Graves and the Royal Navy were forced to retreat to New York. With control of the waters surrounding Yorktown squarely in the hands of the French and revolutionary forces, Cornwallis was forced to surrender his forces to Washington at Yorktown, effectively ending the war.

{name}: Andrew Tilt

{section}: Thursday 5pm (Anouska)

Timestamp: 2/2/2012 21:59:42

{description}: As part of the Napoleonic Wars, Britain invaded Buenos Aires in 1806 and 1807. Spain and France were allies, so Britain attacked Spain's colonies in South America. Britain wanted to gain control of the of Río de la Plata - River Plate - basin; however, both the 1806 and the 1807 invasions failed. In 1806, British troops occupied Buenos Aires for six weeks, but ultimately surrendered to a local militia. In 1807, Britain fought for only a few days before surrendering. Although Britain was unsuccessful, Buenos Aires' victories inspired the city to establish its own government, and Argentina claimed its independence in 1816. Since then, and with the exception of the Falklands War in the 1980s, diplomatic relations between Argentina and Britain have been peaceful. Economic relations are also strong, as is indicated by the establishment of the British department store Harrods in Buenos Aires in 1914.

{name}: Eve Rosenbaum

{section}: Wednesday 3pm (Anouska)

Timestamp: 2/3/2012 0:16:36

{description}: Seringapatam (originally Sriringapatna) is a town on the outskirts of Mysore, India that was the site of a major victory for the British army in 1799. 50,000 British and allied troops under General George Harris clashed with the Kingdom of Mysore's final 30,000 troops at this siege which lasted from April to May 1799. Finally, after what may have been treachery, the allied troops were able to storm the citadel and defeat the Tippu Sultan, who was found dead near one of the gates of the city. Following his death, the British reinstated the previous dynasty, the Wodeyars, although they retained true power in the kingdom. This victory gave Britain control of all of south India and returned the Kingdom of Mysore to Hindu rule (albeit in name only).

{name}: Vinay Jayaram

{section}: Thursday 3pm (Gitanjali)

Timestamp: 2/3/2012 3:04:12

{description}: Fort William was established in Calcutta, in Bengal, in order to provide protection for the East India Trading Company's outpost there. Tensions had been raising between the Nawab of Bengal and the Company, because the Company had started to raise an army for reasons of protection. On June 19, 1756, the Nawab of Bengal actually laid siege to and took control of Fort William. The British who were captured in the taking of the fort were then herded into a what is know as the Back Hole of Calcutta, a 14 by 18 foot cell located in the recesses of the fort. According to John Holwell, an employee of the Company, 123 out of 146 prisoners of war suffocated to death in the Black Hole. This event is significant in the history of the British Empire because it led to the ordering to Robert Clive to retaliate against this Nawab, an event know as the battle of Plassey.

{name}: William Orman

{section}: Thursday 2pm (Gitanjali)

Timestamp: 2/3/2012 10:43:18

{description}: In the late 19th century, a Sudanese revolutionary movement led by a self-proclaimed "Mahdi" (Islam's messianic redeemer) fought back against Turko-Egyptian and British colonists. After capturing the capital city, Khartoum, and killing British general Charles Gordon in 1885, the Mahdists maintained control for several years under the Mahdi's successor, Khalifa Abdallahi ibn Muhammad. It wasn't until 1898, during the "scramble for Africa," that Britain decided to reassert Egypt's former authority over the Sudan. British Lord Kitchener led Egyptian soldiers in a campaign to defeat the Mahdist army. This location is the site of the Khalifa's residence, which is now a museum commemorating the Battle of Omdurman, in which Kitchener's men won a decisive victory.

{name}: Ruth Pimentel

{section}: Wednesday 3pm (Anouska)

Timestamp: 2/3/2012 10:54:04

{description}: The town of Tappan, which lies along the border of New York and New Jersey, was where the British army major John André was hung by American forces. Serving as an aide-de-camp for British commander-in-chief Henry Clinton, André collaborated with American general Benedict Arnold to help the British win West Point. Unfortunately for André, he was captured by American forces behind enemy lines. André mistakenly perceived the men as British troops. It was reported that he met his fate with courage and dignity.

{name}: Tom Keefe

{section}: Thursday 4pm (Mircea)

Timestamp: 2/3/2012 11:45:27

{description}: In Ghazipur in North India is the Tomb of Lord Cornwallis. Lord Cornwallis was the governor of India in the late 18th century. The architecture of his tomb is very significant as there are many similarities to Thomas Jefferson's Monticello in Charlottesville, VA. The neoclassic architecture of this tomb, with a domb and twelve columns, is interesting architecture in India. However, these similarities show the vastness of the British Empire and its influence on regions across the world. Source: Lecture and http://asi.nic.in/asi_monu_tktd_up_lordcornwallis.asp

{name}: Taylor Shimberg

{section}: Wednesday 4pm (Mircea)

Timestamp: 2/3/2012 11:56:03

{description}: On October 21, 1805 the British Royal Navy faced off against a combined French-Spanish fleet off Cape Trafalgar, Spain. In what became the most decisive British naval victory of the War of the Third Coalition, the French and Spanish lost 22 ships of their 33, while all 27 vessels in the British fleet escaped intact. Admiral Lord Horatio Nelson, the legendary British naval commander, led his fleet to victory by eschewing orthodox naval tactics and dividing the combined Franco-Spanish fleet by sailing his ships in columns perpendicular to the enemy line. The victory reaffirmed Britain's naval superiority and ensured that even the French wouldn't dare to attempt an invasion on Britain, but it was dampened somewhat when Nelson was mortally wounded by a musket bullet. To this day, a number of monuments commemorate the battle and Nelson's loss, including Nelson's Column in Trafalgar Square, London.

{name}: Daniel Garber

{section}: Wednesday 3pm (Anouska)

Timestamp: 2/3/2012 12:08:03

{description}: The Battle of Quebec, fought on December 31, 1775, was the first decisive British victory of the American Revolutionary War. It saw many devastating American casualties including the wounding of Benedict Arnold (he was still on the American side at the time), the death of General Richard Montgomery, and the capture of over 400 American troops. French-speaking Canadiens were divided in their support of the two opposing forces. Many of those who supported the Americans fled the area upon the American retreat. The American supporters who remained behind suffered the consequences once the province was under British control.

{name}: Taylor Phillips

{section}: Wednesday 3pm (Anouska)

Timestamp: 2/3/2012 13:55:25

{description}: The battle of Waterloo took place in 1815 near - not in present day Waterloo, Belgium. The Battle was between Napoleon (the French) and allies Gebhard Von Blucher (Prussian) and The Duke of Wellington (the English). Waterloo was the last battle that Napoleon's fought. It ended his tyrant reign over France. To quote Wellington it was the “nearest run thing you ever saw in your life”. After Waterloo, there was almost half a century of international peace in Europe due to Britain's dominance. -information from http://www.battleofwaterloo.org/

{name}: Stephanie Star

{section}: Friday 1pm (Sakura)

Timestamp: 2/3/2012 15:32:03

{description}: Under the rule of King James VI of Scotland (King James I of England and Ireland) policies of guarded religion toleration were nullified by the Anglican Church, which unfortunately allowed Irish policy to be dominated by the interests of the English governing class. This policy implementation was followed by a flight from Ireland from many of the Gaelic lords of Ulster. This departure however, opened the way for the plantation of Ulster to be governed by a new landowning class consisting of Scots and Englishmen. This provided for the most successful British settlement made in Ireland. In 1606 British tenantry and laborers were introduced as landowners and many became extremely wealthy in the process and in 1609 King James officially controlled the plantation. The official colony of Ulster included the counties of Tyrconnell, Tyrone, Fermanagh, Cavan, Coleraine, and Armagh. It is said that the colonization of Ulster was to pay for the costly Nine Years War but this vision was not shared by all including the British Attorney-General of Ireland Sir John Davies. The Plantation of Ulster continued up until the 18th century with little interruption. **in an ironic turn of events the flight of the Irish to North America at the beginning of the 17th century laid the foundation for the Glorious Revolution where Britain ultimately lost the control of the 13 Colonies.

{name}: Garrett Barnard

{section}: Thursday 2pm (Gitanjali)

Timestamp: 2/3/2012 15:46:46

{description}: The Gold Coast, now Ghana was a British Colony until it gained independence in 1957. The gold coast had several European interests in it, starting with the Portuguese, and was heavily desired for the gold deposits in its soil. The British eventually took over rule of these other colonies, annexing the Dutch and fighting with the local Ashanti people in the Anglo-Ashante wars (1863-1864, 1873,1874, 1893,1894). Other natural resources the British sought was ores, diamonds, ivory, pepper, timber, and cocoa. In 1844 a treaty with local Fante rulers was passed which came to be known as the bond of 1844 that required local chieftens to report serious crimes to the British officials and to submit these criminals to the British Judicial system, a clear imposition of British Empire in the ruling of another nation.

{name}: Graham Topol

{section}: Wednesday 2pm (Dzavid)

Timestamp: 2/3/2012 17:24:57

{description}: Lagos is a main port of Nigeria. It was formally annexed in 1861 by the British. This allowed the British to gain control over palm and other trades, as well as crush the remaining Slave Trade. In 1807 Parliament prohibited British subjects from participating in the slave trade, but because of a demand for slaves in Cuba and Brazil there were still many slaves that were shipped through Lagos but other traders; even with a British blockade of the coast nearly 1 million slaves were exported from Nigeria in the 19th Century.

{name}: Jimmy Field

{section}: Thursday 5pm (Anouska)

Timestamp: 2/3/2012 17:33:28

{description}: The Suez Canal was inextricably linked to Britain's role in Egypt. In 1875, in order to finance an economically troubled government, the Khedive of Egypt sold his shares in the Suez Canal Company to British Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli, making Britain the controlling shareholder in the company virtually overnight. A few years later, the Khedive was forced to seek out loans from both Britain and France, which established a joint oversight committee into Egyptian economic and domestic affairs as a condition for financial help. As France's influence in the country waned, British control grew, and soon Britain was the de facto ruler (though the position of khedive was formally kept to present a facade of Egyptian political rule). Together with this newfound political power, the Suez Canal provided huge economic opportunities to Britain, creating entirely new and faster trading routes to connect Britain's vast empire. Maps could be drastically reworked to facilitate shipping, and overseas travel time to India could be cut in half. This presence in Egypt facilitated the growth of Britain's informal economic empire, as well as its relations with countries in the Levant (some of which it would eventually rule).

{name}: Clare Duncan

{section}: Thursday 2pm (Gitanjali)

Timestamp: 2/3/2012 18:16:46

{description}: The Kanpur Massacre in Kanpur, India occurred on June 27, 1857 in the midst of the greater Sepoy Rebellion of 1857-1857. The massacre in Kanpur (or Cawnpore as it was known by the British) came at the heels of a twenty-day siege on the British garrison at Kanpur. Greatly outnumbered, the British sustained heavy losses during the fighting while disease coupled with food and water shortages also took their toll on the British troops. On June 25, 1857 the British agreed to surrender to the Sepoy forces in exchange for safe passage out of Kanpur to the nearby Allahabad. However, on June 27, the morning of the evacuation, Sepoy soldiers attacked the British, killing many and capturing the rest. Within a few hours, these captives were also killed. Many details concerning why shots were fired and who instigated the fighting are unknown to this day. Nevertheless, the Kanpur Massacre marks one of the bloodiest moments in the Sepoy rebellion, and perhaps in the entire history of British rule in India. In addition to leaving hundreds of British soldiers, women, and children dead, the massacre also made headlines back home in Britain. As stories of the horrors that occurred reached Britain, they became an important source of pro-Imperialist propaganda. As a result, the Kanpur massacre resulted not only in massive loss of life, but also served to illustrate the barbarity and savagery of natives in India that the British feared. Thus, the often sensationalized and exaggerated tales of the violence inflected in Kanpur served to reinforce domestic support for Britain’s civilizing mission in India.

{name}: Louisa French

{section}: Wednesday 5pm (Nick)

Timestamp: 2/4/2012 0:36:22

{description}: On October 16, 1775 -- six months after the Battles of Lexington and Concord had taken place -- Captain Henry Mowat sailed into the northern-Massachusetts port of Falmouth (now the City of Portland in present-day Maine) with a fleet of Royal Navy ships. His mission was to quell the growing rebellion in Massachusetts by retaliating against coastal towns such as Falmouth that harbored Patriot activities. Mowat told the citizens of the town that he would withhold fire only if they would swear allegiance to King George and surrender their weapons. When the townspeople failed to do so, Mowat ordered his fleet to fire upon Falmouth on the morning of October 18. The bombardment continued well into the evening. By day's end, the fleet had destroyed hundreds of buildings and left over two-fifths of the town's population homeless. Instead of quelling the growing rebellion, the Burning of Falmouth ended up fueling it. Within weeks of the incident, news spread throughout the colonies and became the subject of propaganda. In response, the Continental Congress authorized privateer actions against the Royal Navy and accelerated plans for its own Continental Navy for the collective defense of the colonies.

{name}: Jason Sandler

{section}: Thursday 2pm (Gitanjali)

Timestamp: 2/4/2012 2:19:50

{description}: The trial of Warren Hastings, which both fueled and exemplified the debate over whether Britain should impose its own constitution over its far-flung subjects or govern them according to their own customs, opened in Westminster Hall on February 13th, 1788.

{name}: Michelle Chang

{section}: Friday 10am (Nick)

Timestamp: 2/4/2012 11:20:50

{description}: One of many important events that occurred in the British Parliament was the impeachment trial of William Hastings, in which Edmund Burke put Hastings' methods of governing an empire on trial. Instead of returning home to a hero's welcome after his tenure as Governor-General in Bengal, Hastings was accused by Burke of torturing Indian women and committing numerous other crimes. Throughout the trial, Hastings was forced to defend his choice to rule via the established form of government in India, the mogul constitution, rather than imposing the British system of government on the Indian people. Although Hastings was eventually acquitted, the trial proceedings lasted nine years (1786-1795), and the reputations of both men suffered as a result.

{name}: Kent Toland

{section}: Thursday 3pm (Gitanjali)

Timestamp: 2/4/2012 11:25:28

{description}: From 1762 to 1764, Manila (the capital), along with the nearby port of Cavite, was occupied by the British as a result of Spain siding with France in the Seven Years’ War. Although officially under the control of a British governor, Manila remained unofficially in the hands of the Archbishop of Manila and the Real Audiencia after a surrender agreement. Although Manila was plundered, Britain was not able to take over any more territory because of resistance from these groups. When the Peace of Paris was signed in 1763, there was no specific provision made for Philippines and thus it was returned to the Spanish Crown.

{name}: Alex Kiefer

{section}: Friday 12pm (Dzavid)

Timestamp: 2/4/2012 11:44:23

{description}: In 1796, Britain occupied certain coastal areas of Sri Lanka, which they called Ceylon and was mainly controlled by the Dutch at that time. They were concerned that the French, upon taking control of the Netherlands during the Napoleonic Wars, would take over Sri Lanka as well. In 1803, the British attempted to move inland but were successfully repulsed by the native Sri Lankans and their king. However, the Treaty of Amiens ceded the entire coastal area to the British East India Company, and by 1815, the British were able to occupy Kandy, the inland capital ruled by the native king. They opened coffee, tea, and rubber plantations. Sri Lanka remained a British colony until it was granted independence in 1948.

{name}: Alex Kiefer

{section}: Friday 12pm (Dzavid)

Timestamp: 2/4/2012 12:06:00

{description}: Although originally claimed by Columbus, the British established a settlement on St. Kitts in 1623, and it soon became a hub for British expansion in the Caribbean along with an important producer of sugar cane. There were also French settlements in the area. English and French settlers massacred the local Kalinago people on the island in 1626. In 1628, English settlers from St. Kitts colonized the neighboring island of Nevis. One year later, however, the Spanish asserted their claim over the islands by occupying both and sending the settlers back to their original countries. The French and English soon recovered control and the island was ceded to the British for the final time in 1783. St. Kitts and Nevis were forced to unify in the late 1800s by the British. It was granted internal autonomy in 1967 and received full independence in 1983, becoming the newest sovereign nation in the Americas.

{name}: Alex Kiefer

{section}: Friday 12pm (Dzavid)

Timestamp: 2/4/2012 12:34:53

{description}: The Battle of Trenton was a decisive victory for the American Troops in the American Revolution. The battle took place on December 26th, 1776, after Washington's famous crossing of the Delaware River. The American Troops defeated the Hessians stationed in Trenton, capturing nearly two-thirds of the Hessian troops. The British Empire did not necessarily have an "alliance" with the Hessian leaders in Germany, but rather hired the Hessian troops. This battle, coming after several loses for the Americans, was a moral boosting victory. The win inspired more men to enlist and attracted men to serve for longer periods of time. This location relates the British Empire because it was one of the first battles in which Americans were hugely successful, and foreshadows the eventual loss for Britain in the Americas.

{name}: Michaela Tracy

{section}: Thursday 4pm (Mircea)

Timestamp: 2/4/2012 15:16:46

{description}: In the 1670s, the British privateer Captain Morgan acquired 836 acres of land in the Rio Minho valley in Jamaica, which is now know as Morgan's Valley. Rather than returning to England and retiring as a wealthy gentleman, Morgan chose to invest in land that was ideal for growing sugar cane. He later acquired over 4,000 more acres of land in the nearby St. Elizabeth Parish area of Jamaica. Captain Morgan's very wise investment was indicative of a large change in the intentions of England's imperial empire. Instead of searching for gold in the Americas and stealing from the Spanish and French, the Empire began cultivating cash crops, such as sugar, which would prove to bring about incredible wealth, as well as the side effects of slavery and colonization.

{name}: Erin Aoyama

{section}: Thursday 3pm (Gitanjali)

Timestamp: 2/4/2012 15:40:02

{description}: Having lost the American colonies, the British were in need of a new place of banishment for their criminals. Australia fit the bill. After discovery of the Western Coast in the 1700's, in 1835, John Batman explored what is now Northern Melbourne and purchased 600,000 acres from an indigenous tribe. When his settlement party arrived, ready to set up camp, a separate British group, sponsored by John Pascoe Fawkner, had already established settlement in the exact location of interest. The two groups decided to share the area. Having been known by multiple names in the first years, in 1837, the city was officially named "Melbourne" in honor of the Prime Minister at the time, William Lamb, 2nd Viscount Melbourne. Proclaimed a city by Queen Victoria in 1847, Melbourne became the capital of the Colony of Victoria. The discovery of Victorian gold in 1851 lead to a gold rush for which Melbourne served as the major port. This lead to massive growth in both infrastructure and population. Having become the richest city in the world and the second in size (only after London) in the Empire, Melbourne's economic explosion peaked in the 1880's.

{name}: Natalia Paine

{section}: Thursday 4pm (Mircea)

Timestamp: 2/4/2012 15:50:42

{description}: As a result of the Treaty of Nanking, which ended the First Opium War, the port of Shanghai was conceded to the British in 1842. There, the British set up a settlement, which later combined with the concessions of other powers such as the United States and France became the Shanghai International Settlement. From the 1860's until its return to China in 1943, the area was ruled by the Shanghai Municipal Council, in which the British held the most seats. The picture is of the Bund, a strip inside the settlement along the riverfront where many of the banks, customs houses, and consulates were located.

{name}: Tianen Li

{section}: Wednesday 5pm (Nick)

Timestamp: 2/4/2012 16:24:34

{description}: The Victoria Memorial is a building dedicated to the memory of Queen Victoria and clearly serves as a symbol for the British imperial presence in India. At the time of its building (construction which began in 1906 and ended in 1921), the memorial was meant to serve as a tribute to the success of the British empire in India. Designed by a British architect (Sir William Emerson) but funded by Indian states, this Memorial clearly represents the political dynamic between Britain and India at the time of its conception and during imperial rule.

{name}: Julia Eger

{section}: Wednesday 5pm (Nick)

Timestamp: 2/4/2012 16:30:47

{description}: British Troops arrived at what is now known as Larz Anderson Bridge on April 19, 1775. The 1000 reinforcements, under Lord Percy, found the bridge over the Charles River somewhat useless. The revolutionary Cambridge residents had removed its planks in attempt to prevent the British soldiers from crossing. However, the boards were stored on the bank of the river, making it quite simple for the British troops to replace and carry on their way. That night, Jonathan Hasting's house on Cambridge Common was selected as the headquarters for the New England Militia, led by General Artemas Ward. Soon after, more than twenty thousand men from all over New England flooded Cambridge. The soldiers set up tents on Cambridge Common while churches, vacant estates, and Harvard buildings served as barracks, officer's quarters and hospitals. To protect the safety of its students, Harvard College cancelled classes on May 1, 1775. With the students' absence, more than 1,600 troops were quartered in Harvard's buildings. Commander-in-chief George Washington came to Cambridge on July 2, met with the New England generals, and took command of the army. He stayed in what is now the Longfellow National Historic Site. Information from: http://www2.cambridgema.gov/historic/revolutionarymap.html

{name}: Alaina Murphy

{section}: Thursday 2pm (Gitanjali)

Timestamp: 2/4/2012 16:48:22

{description}: The Cape Coast Castle is a large stone fort and military stronghold. It was seized by the British in 1664 from the Dutch, the previous occupants. The castle was first used for the trading of Gold and timber, two of Ghana's biggest exports. It was later used as a holding place for slaves, and became a large force in the trans-alantic slave trade. Inscribed on an archway overlooking the ocean is the phrase "a place of no return," something that the castle itself was often referred to. Here was the last place the captive slaves were held before being shipped across the Atlantic Ocean. Ghana's coast is the most densely lined with castles and forts involved in the slave trade in all of Africa. In 1844, the castle became the headquarters for the colonial government and by 1874 the British were the last European power left in Ghana, thus giving them total control.

{name}: Miriam (Molly) Perlmutter

{section}: Wednesday 3pm (Anouska)

Timestamp: 2/4/2012 17:09:34

{description}: The Battle of Vitoria took place in 1813. Lead by the Duke of Wellington, allied British, Portuguese, and Spanish forces attacked Vitoria, Spain. They defeated the French army there, killing or wounding 5000 and taking 3000 men prisoner. Although Joseph Bonaparte, self declared King of Spain, managed to escape, Wellington successfully ended Napoleonic rule in Spain. This battle was also crucial in assuring victory for Britain and its allies in the Peninsular War.

{name}: Alex Kiefer

{section}: Friday 12pm (Dzavid)

Timestamp: 2/4/2012 18:01:01

{description}: This ancient pagoda, meaning tiered tower, is believed to be over 2,500 years old making it possibly the oldest in the world. The Shwedagon Pagoda is located in Yangon, Burma and is often considered the most holy site for the Buddhist population of Burma. However this sacred place has seen the many vices of war--once by the Portuguese in 1608 and twice by the British during the first and second Anglo-Burmese wars, when it was used as a fortress. These occupations were also not brief; the first occupation lasted just over two years, essentially for the entire first Anglo-Burmese War and the second an astonishing seventy-seven years, even though the second Anglo-Burmese went on for less than a year! The first Anglo-Burmese began 1824 and the third war ended in 1886, and by this time, the three wars had resulted in a complete annexation of the state. This lithograph dates back to the first occupation of the Shwedagon Pagoda by Britain and depicts two British men standing alfresco near the occupied holy site.

{name}: Yacoub Kureh

{section}: Friday 11am (Sakura)

Timestamp: 2/4/2012 19:13:18

{description}: The Gateway of India is a monument in Mumbai (Bombay), India. Located on the shore of the Arabian Sea in the Apollo Bunder area in South Mumbai, this 85 feet high basalt arch was built to honor the visit of King George V and Queen Marry to Mumbai in December 1911. The construction of the foundation started on March 31st, 1911. However, it was interrupted between 1915 and 1919 due to reclamations for the land on which the gateway was being built. The foundations were completed in 1920, and construction was finished in 1924. Built from yellow basalt and reinforced concrete, the Gateway combines Hindu and Muslim architectural styles which complement each other: the arch belongs to the Muslim style which is best seen in the three domes located on top of the arch and the decorations are in Hindu style. The Gateway was opened on 4 December 1924, by the Viceroy, the Earl of Reading. The estimated cost of the construction amounted to 2,100,000 rupees. The gateway is also a symbol of the independence of India. The last British troops to leave India, the First Battalion of the Somerset Light Infantry, passed through the Gateway in a ceremony on 28 February 1948. Furthermore, a statue of Chatrapati Shivaji (19 February 1630 – 3 April 1680), the founder of Maratha Empire was erected in front of the monument to serve as a reminder that modern India was also built through the efforts of its ancestors. Today, the gate stands witness to the history of British India and it is one of the most visited tourist attractions in Mumbai. Ferry boats that take visitors around the harbor or to Elephanta Caves leave hourly from here.

{name}: Antonia Oprescu

{section}: Friday 1pm (Sakura)

Timestamp: 2/4/2012 19:48:57

{description}: In 1841, a Spanish slave ship carrying nearly 200 African slaves and some 20 crew members wrecked off the coast of East Caicos. The ship, called the Trouvadore, had been bound for Cuba, where the slaves were to be sold. Because the Caicos Islands were part of the British Empire, which had gradually abolished slavery in its colonies in the wake of the 1833 Slavery Abolition Act, residents were unsure what to do with the ostensibly enslaved survivors of the wreck. While the ship’s Spanish captain attempted to offer a cash reward to locals who would ensure the slaves’ delivery to Spain, authorities in Grand Turk ultimately sent their own ships and soldiers to rescue the survivors and brought them back to the courthouse where they were detained for some time. Since authorities realized that sending the slaves back to Africa—or even to another local island for that matter—would be far too expensive (especially given the cost of the rescue), they decided instead to keep the majority of the Africans on the island on a three-year contract working for the salt rakers. Though the Africans weren’t technically slaves any longer, the working conditions were difficult and locals insisted that they go to church and learn English. There is no definitive record as to what happened after the contract was up, but evidence suggests that the former slaves became free citizens of the Caicos Islands, perhaps even starting their own settlement, known as Bambarra, in Middle Caicos, having been saved by a shipwreck from a lifetime of slavery.

{name}: Amy Weiss-Meyer

{section}: Wednesday 3pm (Anouska)

Timestamp: 2/4/2012 22:16:23

{description}: Cyprus’s entry into the British Empire happened under rather unusual circumstances in 1878. The Cyprus Convention of 4 June 1878 was a good example of how the British Empire acquired some lands in secret agreements with other countries/empires in exchange for their support in wars, agreements and congresses. British Empire and Ottoman Empire reached an agreement that granted control of Cyprus to Great Britain following the British intervention on the side of the Ottoman Turks by sending a fleet to intimidate the Russians. The timing of this new land acquisition was very important for the British, as it was a period of fast increase of sea-borne traffic in the Eastern Mediterranean due to the Suez Canal that had opened nine years ago. Since much of this traffic was British en route to or from India, this island proved to be a major base of operation for the occupation of Egypt that would happen only 4 years later. This was an important mark of Britain’s growing dominance of the Eastern Mediterranean. Even though the British had agreed to run Cyprus on behalf of the Ottomans, this agreement was paused and even reversed during the chaotic years of World War One. Cyprus was declared to be a Crown Colony in 1925. Its history from then until 1960 is full of events such as Italian and German invasions, internal chaos and Greek Cypriot riots. After the Suez Canal debacle in 1956, much of strategic rationale for keeping Cyprus disappeared for Britain.

{name}: Ezgi Bereketli

{section}: Thursday 2pm (Gitanjali)

Timestamp: 2/4/2012 22:32:33

{description}: The British took control over Hong Kong in 1842 with the Treaty of Nanking which marked the end of the First Anglo-Chinese War (also known as the First Opium War, 1839-42). With the exception of the Japanese occupation which took place during the Second World War, the city remained under British control until July 1, 1997, when the United Kingdom transferred the sovereignty of Hong Kong to the People’s Republic of China. Today, both Chinese and English are official languages in Hong Kong and its population is over 7 million. Katrina Evtimova (adapted from Wikipedia)

{name}: Katrina Evtimova

{section}: Friday 10am (Nick)

Timestamp: 2/4/2012 22:52:38

{description}: Aroostook County in Northern Maine was nearly the epicenter of a major conflict between the British Empire and the United States in the mid-18th century, a dispute now referred to as the Aroostook War. The war of 1812 had left the Northeastern-most border of the United States unclear, but with the region containing more moose than people that was of little concern until the formation of the State of Maine and gradual settlement by loggers seeking old growth timber sparked border disputes and skirmishes between rival lumberjacks. As tensions rose, Maine raised its militia, expanding the road to the region and constructing two forts along the St. John river which today mark the Northern and Eastern-most towns in the region. The federal government also took interest, authorizing 50,000 soldiers and $10 million dollars for an offensive should open conflict break out, and moving several regiments and artillery units north in preparation. The British, for their part, moved their own militias and military to the border, making a conflict seem imminent. Thankfully, diplomats intervened before shots were fired, settling the border in part using and old map drawn by Benjamin Franklin. Though the conflict was never a hot war, dozens of troops reportedly died in the frigid Maine winter (with temperatures dipping below negative 40 degree Fahrenheit), often getting lost on patrols when blizzards would strike, and the newly constructed road aided settlement of an area that would later house Loring Air Force Base one of the largest in the world, and a key location in the Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union.

{name}: Jared Sleeper

{section}: Wednesday 2pm (Dzavid)

Timestamp: 2/4/2012 23:58:37

{description}: The Bambatha Rebellion of 1906 was a response to the increase in taxes placed on the colony in the years following. Because of increased competition for labor in neighboring gold mines, work on farmlands were declining, prompting officials to increase taxes to pressure people into working. However Chief Bambatha, was among the chiefs who refused to pay the tax. With the support of King Dinizulu Bambatha returned to Natal and gathered forces who engaged with guerrilla tactics against the British. However in April of 1906, Colonel Duncun was sent out with an expedition and in a uneven confrontation at Mome Gorge decimated the rebels and beheaded Bambatha.

{name}: Lewin Xue

{section}: Wednesday 2pm (Dzavid)

Timestamp: 2/5/2012 0:30:23

{description}: Saratoga, NY is the location of the Battles of Saratoga (1777), which are considered to be turning points in the Revolutionary War. British General John Burgoyne surrendered after the second battle, which was the impetus behind France entering into the war on America's behalf and extending the war to the global arena.

{name}: Dorothy McLeod

{section}: Thursday 5pm (Anouska)

Timestamp: 2/5/2012 0:36:23

{description}: The British East India Company's head office was located on Leadenhall Street in London, England. It was at this location that meetings took place of the company's two governing bodies: the Court of Directors and the Court of Proprietors. Seats on both courts were allocated based on the value of East India stock held by the shareholders, with the Court of Directors being more exclusive. Because of the distance from company headquarters to India, communication was difficult; as a result, East India employees enjoyed considerable freedom from control of the company. Because most salaries were only modest, many employees conducted their own business on the side. This was later ridiculed as ""the good old principles of Leadenhall Street economy -- small salaries and immense perquisites.""

{name}: Ryan Meltzer

{section}: Friday 12pm (Dzavid)

Timestamp: 2/5/2012 0:46:37

{description}: The Pale referred to the part of Ireland that was governed by British law. Though the British monarch commanded allegiance from every major Irish king after the Earl of Pembroke (called “Strongbow”) wrested Ireland from the Vikings in the 1100s, British colonization of Ireland was, in reality, far more difficult. By the reign of Elizabeth I, Ireland was informally divided into those who acknowledged British rule, mainly the British colonists of the Pale and some colonists in the south, and the rest of Ireland, which still followed Gaelic customs and traditions. A common legal system did indeed extend across the divide, but after the English conversion to Protestantism in the early 1500s, the question of religion was a contentious one, as most Irish citizens remained fiercely Catholic. The Irish finally won independence from the British in 1923, though Northern Ireland is still under British rule today. The line of defensive fortifications around the Pale, such as the image of Castle Roche seen here, teaches students of British history that even close to home, British imperialism was always a struggle.

{name}: Caroline Williams

{section}: Friday 11am (Sakura)

Timestamp: 2/5/2012 10:25:43

{description}: In the nineteenth century, Dane Kennedy writes in _The Highly Civilized Man_, "explorers were engaged in a global search for the material resources needed to sustain the European-centered capitalist economy," and none more so than explorers from the British Empire (125). For example, Captain Richard Burton traveled the world, in part on behalf of British industrialists, in search of new deposits of iron ore and other metals and minerals. To this end, he visited the Morro Velho Gold Mine in 1867, where he observed its operations, inspected its sites, "toured a diamond-digging area" (Kennedy 126), and "speculated in the Brazilian mining industry" (126). Burton typifies the great Victorian British explorer-- learned, accomplished, ambitious, profit-hungry-- and while he was in some ways a critic of British colonization, he was also in some ways an active propagator of Empire, who provided Britain the means with which it financed its colonial enterprises, formal and informal.

{name}: Joshua Wilson

{section}: Thursday 5pm (Anouska)

Timestamp: 2/5/2012 10:45:22

{description}: In the summer of 1760, black African slaves rebelled against their masters in St. Mary’s Parish, Jamaica. The uprising’s leader, Tacky, had been a Coromantee chief in present-day Ghana before his enslavement. Tacky and his followers decided to wait until Easter Sunday to launch their offensive, knowing that it would catch their oppressors off-guard. In the early morning hours on Easter Monday, the rebels attacked the Frontier and neighboring Trinity plantations, taking over both and killing each property’s master. Pressing onward, Tacky and his men broke into the town of Port Maria’s storeroom to acquire arms. They moved toward the plantations of Heywood Hall and Esher, picking up fellow slaves to join their cause as they went. In the commotion, a slave from rebel-run Esher escaped and informed white authorities of the rebellion. Planter militia, troops, and even Maroon soldiers (contracted by the British) mobilized to combat Tacky and his forces. Fearing retribution and capture, many slaves returned to their plantations. Tacky and a small company of his men continued to fight. When a Maroon fighter killed Tacky, his men went into hiding and eventually committed suicide rather than return to their slave lives. A monument was erected in Tacky’s honor in Claude Stuart Park, Port Maria. The revolt, known as Tacky’s War, was not the only attempted slave rebellion in the Sugar Islands, but it was significant in its demonstration of colonial brutality against and oppression of Caribbean slaves.

{name}: Mattie Kahn

{section}: Wednesday 5pm (Nick)

Timestamp: 2/5/2012 11:09:40

{description}: Nova Scotia, located at the head of the St. Lawrence River, was the ideal location for settlement and trade and therefore the site of many power struggles between the French and British Empires. The French had originally claimed it as a part of its New France colony, naming it Acadia, but between numerous wars such as King Williams' War, the British won control of the territory by 1710. The American Revolution (1776-1783) brought many raids on Nova Scotian ports, and after the Patriots' victory, the colony became the evacuation site for thousands of Loyalists. In 1758, Nova Scotia, with its elected Assembly, became the first British colony to establish representative government. Later, in 1848, under the direction of Haligonian Joseph Howe, Nova Scotia also became the first British colony to be governed by a responsible government, or a system of government in which the executive branch is directly accountable to the legislative branch, and therefore the common people (i.e. the House of Commons).

{name}: Veri Seo

{section}: Thursday 3pm (Gitanjali)

Timestamp: 2/5/2012 11:12:19

{description}: With Britain's naval supremacy over the seas in the 19th Century, it became necessary for ships to develop a precise way to track their current position in degrees of longitude and latitude. The sextant was used to calculate the latitude, by measuring the angle between the sun and the sea. The simplest way to calculate longitude is to keep track of time at a certain position use a marine chronometer to determine the distance away from that time source. An observatory in Greenwich served as the official time keeper of the British Empire. It became the accepted as the standard time around the globe for just under a century and was not replaced until 1972 by several atomic clocks located around the world. Nevertheless, Greenwich Mean Time ensured that Britain would be placed in the center of practically every world map.

{name}: Simon Lieu

{section}: Friday 1pm (Sakura)

Timestamp: 2/5/2012 11:19:42

{description}: In February of 1930, Gandhi closed in on a new social issue on which to center his anti-government campaign of non-violent civil disobedience—an effort imperative to his crusade to achieve the secularization of India. He looked to the salt tax as an issue around which all regions, classes, and ethnic groups could rally, for the mineral was a necessity to all Indian subjects. Gandhi decried the salt tax to be, “the most iniquitous of all [of the Salt Laws] from the poor man’s standpoint,” for the British monopoly on the salt tax marked the sale or production of salt—an easily accessible resource—by anyone other than the British government as a criminal offense (Scott). On March 12, 1930, Gandhi, accompanied by 78 satyagrahi men, began his 240 mile 23 day journey on foot from Sabarmati to the coastal village of Dandi. Over the course of each day, the procession swelled with more followers, eventually reaching two miles in length. On April 6, 1930, Ghandi picked up a lump of mud and salt from the seashore at Dandi and boiled it to illegally make salt in defiance of the Salt Tax. He subsequently urged his thousands of followers to make their own salt from the seashore. Thus began a “war” on the salt tax, which lasted until April 13, 1930. In reaction to Ghandi’s defiant act, the British government arrested over sixty thousand people by the end of the month. Ghandi was later arrested “under a regulation of 1827” on May 4 of the same year (Scott). Regardless of these arrests, thousands of people continued to make or buy illegal salt. As a result, this period is considered to be the highest point of Gandhi’s political career and a turning point in the Indian struggle for independence from Great Britain, for it mobilized thousands of Indians and attracted international attention to the independence movement (Scott). Graham, Scott. “The Salt March to Dandi.” Emory University Postcolonial Studies 1998. Accessed 5 February, 2012. http://english.emory.edu/Bahri/Dandi.html

{name}: Lauren Libby

{section}: Thursday 2pm (Gitanjali)

Timestamp: 2/5/2012 13:20:40

{description}: After World War I, Britain gained control of former Ottoman Empire territories in the Middle East, including Palestine, Transjordan and Iraq. The British Mandate for Palestine formalized British rule in Palestine form 1922 to 1948. During the war, the Ottoman Empire’s alliance with the Central Powers threatened British control of the Suez Canal, an important passageway linking communications, resources and travel to India. The conquest of Palestine would secure both the Suez Canal as well as a land bridge between the Mediterranean Sea and the Persian Gulf, which would strengthen military dominance in the area as well as an additional defense of British interests in India. Palestine, with its Arab majority, Jewish minority and complicated religious and political history, would prove to be a very challenging territory for British leaders. The conflicts over the creation of a Jewish state, exacerbated by WWII and the Holocaust, ultimately led to British withdrawal in 1948, leaving the issue for the United Nations to decide.

{name}: Robert Paris

{section}: Thursday 5pm (Anouska)

Timestamp: 2/5/2012 14:40:27

{description}: Kota Kinabalu, formerly known as Jesselton, was established by the British North Borneo Company (BNBC) in the late 1800s. Though it was not a capital city at the time, today it is an important center of commerce and tourism. The BNBC began in 1881 as a follow-up to small colonizations and trading posts on Borneo. It first established a settlement on Gaya Island just off the mainland, but this was destroyed in 1897 by an uprising of the indigenous seafaring Bajau people. The BNBC also began collecting taxes from locals. After the first settlement destruction, the BNBC established Jesselton on the mainland (after Charles Jessel, who was the Vice Chairman of the Company). Jesselton proceeded to become a major trading post and the terminus of the North Borneo Railway by 1906, the only rail transport system still operating on Borneo. Much of the city's original architecture was destroyed during WWII, as the British razed the city early in the war when fleeing the Japanese. The last South Pacific Allied offensive in 1945 destroyed what was left of the city. After WWII, the BNBC was unable to refinance rebuilding of Jesselton and gave control to the British Crown in 1946. Jesselton became the capital of Sabah (formerly North Borneo) in 1963 with Malaysian independence, and it was renamed "Kota Kinabalu" in 1968. Much of the city still bears the mark of British legacy: cars drive on the left side of the road, and the city bears a highly multicultural population of Malays, Filipinos, Chinese, Indians, Kadazan-Dusuns, and Bajaus.

{name}: Rachel Hawkins

{section}: Friday 10am (Nick)

Timestamp: 2/5/2012 15:14:31

{description}: The British’s squabble with Venezuela over borderlines was an ongoing dispute that began in the early 1800s. It was reignited in the 1850s when gold was discovered within the contested area. After failed negotiation attempts, Venezuela forewent diplomatic relations with Britain and appealed to the US for help in 1887. The result was the Venezuela Crisis of 1895, when President Grover Cleveland threatened to become involved on basis of the Monroe Doctrine. Though the ultimate result was a treaty which favored Britain, the involvement of the United States, and Venezuela’s action made Britain unwelcome in Latin America and set a precedent of US involvement. Britain had to be willing to compromise.

{name}: Alexandra Kiley

{section}: Wednesday 5pm (Nick)

Timestamp: 2/5/2012 15:51:35

{description}: St. John's Church in Calcutta, India was built by the British, showing the European religious influence.

{name}: Rainie Opel

{section}: Wednesday 2pm (Matthew)

Timestamp: 2/5/2012 16:02:00

{description}: The city of Meerut in Utter Pradesh, India, was the site of initiation of the Indian Rebellion of 1857, in which Indian soldiers in service of the British East India Company rebelled against their colonial officers. The uprising was triggered by British legislation that forced the native soldiers to go against their religious beliefs. In particular, the use of the Lee-Enfield Rifle, which required the soldier to bite off the end of a cartridge covered in pig fat and beef tallow in order to load the firearm, proved problematic for Hindu soldiers, for whom cows are sacred, and Muslim soldiers, for whom eating pork is prohibited. On May 9th, 1857, almost the entirety of the 3rd cavalry was imprisoned for refusing to obey their superiors' orders to bite the cartridges. Along with members of the 11th and 20th cavalry, they broke out and turned on the British officers, initiating the rebellion. The rebellion continued with mutinies across northern India, ultimately leading to the nationalization of the British East india Company in 1858.

{name}: Jacqueline Quinn

{section}: Wednesday 5pm (Nick)

Timestamp: 2/5/2012 16:19:18

{description}: St. Martin-in-the-Fields is an Anglican (Church of England) church located in Trafalgar Square in London. The present church was completed in 1726. It served as the model for the construction of St. John's Church in Calcutta, which was completed in 1787. Therefore, it is evidence of increasing British influence in India in the 18th century. British culture in India was manifested in popular aesthetics, including architecture.

{name}: Kemie Iko

{section}: Thursday 5pm (Anouska)

Timestamp: 2/5/2012 16:28:18

{description}: Sir Francis Drake was one of the most successful and profitable sailors (the Spanish called him a pirate) that the British Empire ever had. Born in 1540 to a large farming family, he came to be a sailor when his father apprenticed him to a neighbor of the family who was a shipmaster. He made a name for himself when he raided a Spanish mule train in Panama and came away with more than 20 tons of gold and silver. From this point onward Drake commanded many naval missions on behalf of the British Crown all over the globe. He was hugely successful in terrorizing and plundering Spanish ships and ports and was a key leader in the defeat of the Spanish Armada in 1588. He was also famous for being the first British sailor to circumnavigate the globe. He was knighted in 1581 and was a member of Parliament for a period of time. His skill and leadership helped Britain empire develop its famous naval dominance.

{name}: Stefan Skalbania

{section}: Wednesday 2pm (Dzavid)

Timestamp: 2/5/2012 17:22:22

{description}: The British Cemetery in Goa is one of the last remnants of the British Empire’s stamp on Goa, India, which was largely under Portuguese control during the 19th century. Built in 1802, the cemetery is about 180 years old and has 56 gravestones and 47 tombstones for the dead ranging from deaths in 1808 to 1912. It was erected after a British garrison of 10,000 troops was stationed in Fort Cabo in Goa in order to fight off a French fleet during the Napoleonic Wars of 1799-1813. In 1878, an Anglo-Portuguese treaty allowed the British control of the Goa railways. From then onward, any British man working for the Portuguese or relative of a British employee was to be buried at this cemetery. The cemetery is the only remaining British landmark in Goa as all other monuments and buildings were destroyed by the Portuguese.

{name}: Farheen Mukarram

{section}: Thursday 5pm (Anouska)

Timestamp: 2/5/2012 18:00:37

{description}: Hong Kong was a part of the British Empire since it was lost to Britain in the Opium Wars in 1899 until the handover back to China in 1997. British people arriving to Hong Kong were unaccustomed to the humid weather. As a result, Victoria Peak (commonly referred to as ""the Peak""), the highest point on Hong Kong Island as the least humid area of Hong Kong, was reserved for white people only, specifically for British nationals. Members of the British colonial government and high ranking employees of Jardines, the most influential company in Hong Kong at the time, composed of the vast majority of people who lived on the Peak. It was only accessible by rickshaw and the Peak Tram, the latter of which was mostly used by the servants of members of the

{description}: 22.270333,114.150074

{name}: Friday 10am (Nick)

{section}: 2/5/2012 21:03:28

{description}: On November 7, 1841 slaves revolted aboard the New Orleans bound Brig Creole. Led by Madison Washington, 19 slaves took command of the cargo ship, steering it to the British Bahamas where slavery had been abolished three years before. Once they arrived, British governing officials boarded the ship, and defying American wishes, freed the slaves aboard. This event heightened tensions between the British and U.S., demonstrating the power of British law to intercede in American affairs.

{name}: Camille Owens

{section}: Wednesday 4pm (Mircea)

Timestamp: 2/5/2012 21:06:24

{description}: Fiji became a crown colony of Great Britain on October 10, 1874 with the signing of the Deed of Cession. The Cession Monument located in Levuka, Fiji stands as a reminder of the day Fiji became a British colony. The Deed of Cession was signed in Levuka, Fiji which was the capital of Fiji at the time due to its position as a hub of trade with Western cultures. The capital was later moved to Suva in 1881. The deed was signed by the king of Fiji, Cakobau, due to financial pressures from the Americans. After the trading store of an American man, John Brown Williams, was burned, Americans demanded that the Fijians pay for the loss. However, Fiji was unable to pay its debt and King Cakobau agreed to annexation into the British Empire in the hopes of avoiding the debt to the Americans. There were many cultural consequences for Fiji after it became a British colony: its national language changed from Fijian to English, Queen Elizabeth II’s face was printed on the currency, and the British brought thousands of workers from India to work on sugar cane plantations which altered the demographics of Fiji. Fiji would not become independent until 1970, but Britain’s cultural legacy remains.

{name}: Kalyn Saulsberry

{section}: Friday 11am (Sakura)

Timestamp: 2/5/2012 21:15:31

{description}: Charleston, South Carolina was a center of culture both before and during the American Revolution in the time of the British Empire. The city gets its name from British King Charles II, who was restored to the throne after Oliver Cromwell's brief stint as ruler. Charles gave the land that would become Charleston to a close group of Lords, who aptly named the new settlement Charles Town. Before the Revolution, Charleston was a major hub of Atlantic Trade for the British, as it was the largest city south of Philadelphia. Several rice, sugar, and cotton plantations surround the Charleston area, making it a valuable economic resource for the British Crown. Additionally, its harbors provided several strategic military positions. In the early years of the Revolution, local residents caught wind of the fact that the British fleet was heading toward Charleston to lay siege on the city, so they quickly built a fort made out of wood from palmetto trees. This fort proved to be impenetrable to British artillery, and kept Charleston safe for nearly four years after the initial siege. This is where South Carolina earned its nickname (The Palmetto State), and its flag is a combination of the early American Liberty Flag, and a palmetto tree.

{name}: Greg Roop

{section}: Thursday 5pm (Anouska)

Timestamp: 2/5/2012 23:08:14

{description}: British Captain James Cook encountered the archipelago of Tonga in October of 1773 during his second voyage to the region. Upon his arrival, he was in his own words, ""welcomed a shore by acclamations from an immence [sic] crowd of Men and Women not one of which had so much as a stick in their hands"" (http://www.captaincooksociety.com/ccsu41172.htm). As a result of this warm reception and similar greetings he received on future voyages, Cook dubbed the nation ""The Friendly Islands"", a moniker it holds to this day. Ironically, it was revealed in the accounts of one William Mariner, an Englishman who lived in Tonga from 1806-1810, that during Cooks' stay, the local chieftains were planning to ambush, kill, and eatt the captain and his crew, a plot that was foiled by infighting and Cooks' timely departure from the island.

{description}: -21.175448,-175.181122

{name}: Friday 11am (Sakura)

{section}: 2/5/2012 23:15:25 Charleston, SC

Timestamp: In 1670, Charles Town was founded on the eastern coast of North America on the spot where present-day Charleston is. Although founded with money from King Charles II, it was used originally by a private business enterprise named the Lords Proprietors. Interestingly, the colony promised religious freedom and tolerance, at least for non-Catholics, in its Constitution, which was created by the Lords Proprietors. People from England, France, Scotland, Ireland, and Germans including Protestants, Catholics, and Jews settled the city. In 1720, Charles Town officially became a royal colony, gaining the protection of the English Navy. During the eighteenth century, the city grew wealthy as they traded the cash crops of rice and indigo across the British Empire; it became one of the British Empire’s richest colonies. A vast majority of the population of South Carolina was made up of slaves, to work the cash crop plantations. Even the city expanded, the settlers of Charleston felt increased opposition to the taxes and control put upon them by the British. South Carolina declared independence from the British in March of 1776. After the American Revolution, Charles Town was renamed Charleston.

{description}: Copp's Hill is most often known for its cemetery, the Copp's Hill Burying Ground that is a stop on the Freedom Trail in Boston. There are many famous Patriots buried here that played a big role in the American Revolution. For example, Robert Newman hung two lanterns on the steeple of the Old North Church in Boston as part of Paul Revere's warning signal during the Battles of Lexington and Concord. This location also played a part for the British in the Battle of Bunker Hill as it provided the British with a great vantage point over Charlestown. The British used this high elevation to train their cannons onto the American forces fighting in Charlestown.

{name}: Todd Lubin

{section}: Thursday 4pm (Mircea)

Timestamp: 2/5/2012 23:30:01

{description}: The First Anglo-Afghan War, also known as Auckland's Folly, began with a surprise attack by the British on the fortress of Ghazni in 1839. The war was fought between British India and Afghanistan from 1839 to 1842; the conflict stemmed from longstanding British apprehension of Russian invasion of India, and fear that Afghan leadership would allow the Russian empire to take control of that state. Governor-General George Eden (Lord Auckland) ordered for British intervention in Afghanistan in order to establish a pro-British leadership, but instead created a war considered one of Britain's worst disasters. The war is also an example of early conflict in the Great Game, a struggle for influence and control between Britain and Russia in the nineteenth century.

{name}: Esther Hsiang

{section}: Thursday 5pm (Anouska)

Timestamp: 2/5/2012 23:45:11

{description}: The ""Lost Colony"" at Roanoke Island remains an enigma for historians. In 1585, Sir Walter Raleigh dispatched Sir Richard Grenville to lead an expedition to the island, where he established a settlement of just over a hundred colonists. He left them there, promising to return with fresh supplies in April 1586. However, when the relief shipment failed to show up on time, the colonists opted to sail back to England with Sir Francis Drake, who stopped by Roanoke Island on his way back from successful raids in the Caribbean. In 1587, the British launched a second attempt at a Roanoke Colony, this time under the command of John White. When hostilities with the natives threatened the colony's survival, John White sailed back to England to ask for help, leaving 115 colonists behind. Once again, help arrived late. White was not able to return to Roanoke until 1590, only to find the settlement deserted. There were no signs of a struggle, and yet the 115 colonists at Roanoke were never found.

{description}: 35.911542,-75.665081

{name}: Thursday 5pm (Anouska)

{section}: 2/5/2012 23:48:05 Bank of England

Timestamp: This is the site of the Bank of England. The formation of the Bank of England in 1694 radically transformed the history of England. The goal of the Bank of England was ""to manage the government's borrowings as well as the national currency"" (Ferguson 19). By forming a national bank, England was able to be competitive on a global scale. The system of public debt allowed the government to take out debt which made it easier to finance wars, participate in global trade, and improvements in public debt markets made private stock and debt markets more secure. This, spurred an age of entrepreneurship and was one of the major reasons that joint stock companies like the East India company flourished. In Societies of the World 19, Professor Ferguson talked about how Britain's superior public credit markets is one of the biggest factors why Napoleon was never able to defeat Britain.

{description}: 51.514044,-0.088041

{name}: Thursday 5pm (Anouska)

{section}: 2/6/2012 0:47:30

{description}: The Great Exhibition was an international exhibition that took place in Hyde Park. Organized by members of the Royal Society of the Arts, this exhibition was to show the world that Great Britain was the leader of the industrial age. Notable exhibits included the largest diamond at that time, barometers, and the fax machine's precursor. Notable guests included Charles Darwin, Lewis Carroll, and Samuel Colt.

{name}: James Johnson

{section}: Wednesday 4pm (Mircea)

Timestamp: 2/6/2012 1:47:38

{description}: Valentia Island, just off the Western coast of Ireland, was the Eastern terminus of the first transatlantic telegraph cable. The cable stretched from Foilhommerum Bay on Valentia Island to the town of Heart's Content in Newfoundland, in Eastern Canada. The telegraph cable allowed communication between the United Kingdom and North America to take a matter of minutes rather than weeks. It took many tries to lay the cable; after a failed attempt in 1857, the connection was successfully made in 1858, and the first official telegraph sent across the Atlantic Ocean was a congratulatory message from Queen Victoria to U.S. President James Buchanan. However, this first cable failed several weeks later. Several more attempts were made over the next decade; eventually, the first long-lasting, truly successful cable was laid in 1866. The cable was made of copper wires, wrapped in layers of gutta-percha (a rubber-like material from Southeast Asia - thank goodness for those colonies!), wound with tarred hemp. The thousands of miles of cable were loaded onto a ship in coils, and then gradually unwound and laid to rest on the ocean floor as the ship chugged across the Atlantic. The ship which finally laid the successful cable in 1866 was the Great Eastern, designed by the great Victorian engineer Isambard Kingdom Brunel (who also designed the Bristol Bridge and the Thames Tunnel).

{name}: Chelsea Link

{section}: Wednesday 3pm (Anouska)

Timestamp: 2/6/2012 2:18:59

{description}: In 1756, the Indian city of Calcutta was taken from the British by Siraj-ud-Daulah. Nearly 150 people were imprisoned in a small room overnight, according to John Zephaniah Holwell, who published a narrative of the incident. He explained that many of them died in the cramped space; prisoners trampled each other in effort to reach a window to avoid suffocation in what became known as the ""Black Hole of Calcutta."

{description}: 22.557428,88.337789

{name}: Wednesday 5pm (Nick)

{section}: 2/6/2012 9:57:09

{description}: Holetown was the first site of colonization by the British in February of 1627 on the island of Barbados. Known at the time as Jamestown, it had been visited by Spanish and Portugese settlers but was officially colonized by any Europeans up until that point. It was claimed in the name of King James I of England and interestingly enough, this initial site of colonization led to Britain's conquering of the entire island. Initially the British used indentured labor from their own English men themselves in places like modern day Holetown but they would ultimately rely on black Caribbeans' labor to produce sugar cane by the 1640's.

{name}: Susan Reed

{section}: Wednesday 5pm (Nick)

Timestamp: 2/6/2012 11:42:32

{description}: Bangalore is now the considered the IT capitol of India. The fort here was captured by the forces of Lord Cornwallis on March 21, 1791. The region was in a state of warfare as the British battled Tippu Sultan throughout the Anglo-Mysore Wars. Sultan was defeated in the Fourth War in 1799, cementing the regions place in the British Empire. Other than its significance as a military fort, the region quickly became a settlement for many Europeans due the salubrious climate. In 1906, Bangalore became the first city in Asia to get electricity. (referenced Wikipedia)

{name}: Ben Glauser

{section}: Friday 10am (Nick)

Timestamp: 2/6/2012 11:46:34

{description}: This is the location of the Battle of Majuba Hill on February 27, 1881 in the First Boer War where a Boer force under the command of Commandant Joachim Ferreira, Field Cornet Stephanus Roos, and Commandant D.J.K. Malan assaulted a hill being occupied by a British force under Major-General George Pomeroy Colley. This battle resulted in a disastrous defeat for the British forces and led directly to the end of the First Boer war, resulting in the creation of the South African Republic.

{name}: Michael Abatemarco

{section}: Friday 1pm (Sakura)

Timestamp: 2/6/2012 11:52:23

{description}: Thomas Clarkson travelled across Britain to research the slave trade and push for its abolition and it was at this pub in Bristol where most of his most important discoveries were made. When he first arrived in the city discussing the slave trade with owners and sailors was reasonably easy, but as news of his mission spread he found people increasingly reluctant to talk with him. Anyone involved in the slave trade shunned him and any attempts at research seemed a lost cause. He continued to try and visited many pubs and taverns on the dockside, before befriending Thompson, the landlord of the Seven Stars. ""I perceived in a little time the advantage of having cultivated an acquaintance with Thompson of the Seven Stars. For nothing could now pass in Bristol relative to the seamen employed in this trade, but it was soon brought to me."" - Clarkson

{description}: 51.452937,-2.589512

{name}: Thursday 4pm (Mircea)

{section}: 2/6/2012 11:55:46

{description}: In 1919, an Irish Assembly gathered in Dublin to declare Irish independence. After many years of struggle between British rule and the Irish people for freedom, many Irishmen began an all out guerrilla war. On November 21st, 1920, known today as Bloody Sunday, 18 British agents were assassinated and the Brits retaliated by opening fire on a crowd of Irishmen. The fighting would end in 1921, creating an Irish Free State that was still within the sovereignty of the British Empire. Although this temporarily reduced tensions between the British administration and the Irish people, many battles would rage between the two powers. Not until 1937 would the Irish sign their own Constitution.

{name}: Amy Friedman

{section}: Friday 1pm (Sakura)

Timestamp: 2/6/2012 12:30:15

{description}: During WWI (1914-18) over one and a half million Indian Army soldiers fought alongside British troops for the Allies. Thousands of wounded combatants were treated in Britain at temporary military hospitals such as the Royal Pavilion. In Brighton, the bodies of deceased Hindus and Sikhs were cremated on a ghat (funeral pyre) and the Chattri, inaugurated in 1921 on the Downs near Patcham, now stands as a memorial to their sacrifice for the British Empire. The Chattri, which means 'umbrella' in Hindi, Punjabi, and Urdu, was designed by E.C. Henriques from Mumbai. The dome and its eight pillars are built from white Sicilian marble and the monument includes an inscription in both Hindi and English. The tomb stands as a physical testament to the connections wrought by the British Empire across the globe. Indian soldiers fought valiantly as subjects of the British Empire and British forces depended on their valuable contribution to the war effort. The intimate relationship between British and Indian forces extends back to the early colonization of the subcontinent when the East India Company employed sepoys. The Chattri Memorial illustrates India's footprint on the continent.

{name}: Natasha Kingshott

{section}: Thursday 2pm (Gitanjali)

Timestamp: 2/6/2012 12:33:28

{description}: Wide Sargasso Sea is a novel written by Jean Rhys, as the prequel to Jane Eyre. Jean Rhys is a native of the Caribbean and discusses the effects of imperial Britain and post abolition in the novel. Berakua is the place where Rhys received her inspiration for the plantation Coulibri, which was Antionette's home as a child.

{name}: Stephanie Lim

{section}: Wednesday 4pm (Mircea)

Timestamp: 2/6/2012 13:05:35

{description}: This location is home to connaught place. Built as part of lutyens Delhi with a central business district. It was built during the British Raj and is an example of the power of the British Empire and the investment in the development of India. The impressive set of concentric rings of buildings matched well with the style of Lutyens Delhi and are now a focal point of commerce in modern Delhi

{name}: Edward Winters Ronaldson

{section}: Friday 12pm (Dzavid)

Timestamp: 2/6/2012 14:06:09

{description}: During the American Revolution General William Howe led British forces to defeat Patriot forces under General George Washington. British forces wanted to capture New York City to gain access to the Hudson River. After facing each other, George Washington led the Patriot army in a retreat to Manhattan by boat, which saved the Continental Army from capture. The battle subsequently led to the British capture of New York City on September 15, 1776.

{name}: Anne Wenk

{section}: Thursday 5pm (Anouska)

Timestamp: 2/6/2012 14:23:27

{description}: Coined in 1874 by Edwin Arnold from The Daily Telegraph, this brainchild of Cecil Rhodes would have created a continuous railroad track from Cairo, Egypt to Cape Town, South Africa. Such a feat would essentially bring together the British Empire that existed at that time in Africa. A consolidation like this would effectively foster trade and enable British troops to quickly move from one location of the continent to another in times of conflict. Many obstacles existed that initially prevented the British from accomplishing this major project. For instance, the Portuguese desired power over the the land in then Angola and Mozambique, which directly interfered with completion of the railway. Before the first World War, Germany also possessed a significant claim in East Africa that interfered with completion. Following Germany's demise in WWI, Britain did not have the economic capabilities to finish the track, and African independence following the Second World War permanently stalled the railway. Much of the railway is still in operation today, and there remains a possibility of finishing the task by connecting the only missing part in areas of Northern Sudan and Uganda.

{name}: Benjamin DeVore

{section}: Friday 10am (Nick)

Timestamp: 2/6/2012 14:57:09

{description}: The Battle of the Eureka Stockade occurred on December 3, 1854, in Ballarat, Victoria. The rebellion was the result of gold miners' frustrations concerning the heavy taxes the British imposed on them through license fees and exorbitantly priced mining tools. The battle was short and easily won by the British troops, leaving a little more than thirty individuals dead, mostly miners. A series of high-profile treason trials followed the battle, but Australian juries refused to find any of the men guilty. Some view the encounter as the most prominent act of rebellion in Australia's colonial history as well as the trigger for certain changes in Australia's government toward increased democracy.

{name}: Richard Sims

{section}: Wednesday 4pm (Mircea)

Timestamp: 2/6/2012 15:33:02

{description}: The House of Burgesses, founded by the Virginia Colony, had its very first meeting in Jamestown Virginia (also the first sustainable American colony) on July 30, 1619 while the colonies were still under the British reign. As proposed by Governor George Yeardley, Virginia was to establish basic laws for the colonists. Meeting only once a year, they would decide upon things such as tax minimums on tobacco and other goods and make laws. Once met, the House of Burgesses would present their minutes and decisions to the Governor who would either accept or decline the laws they wanted to pass. It was America's first form of Representative Government where the Governor appointed a few members and the rest were elected by the ""members"" of the colonies (those above the age of 17 who were white and owned land).

{description}: 38.783796,-77.140503

{name}: Thursday 4pm (Mircea)

{section}: 2/6/2012 15:36:26

{description}: In the graveyard of All Saint’ Church, Fulham, is where Granville Sharp was buried after his death on July 6, 1813. His tomb commemorates him for his “principles of justice, humanity, and religion”. Granville, one of the founding members of the Society for Effecting the Abolition of Slave Trade (1787), helped advance Britain toward abolition of slavery. Granville’s success with the Somersett Case (1772) effectively abolished slavery in England, freeing slaves on English soil, and his work with William Wilberforce led to the passing of a bill in 1807 to abolish slave trade. Restoration work was done on Granville’s tomb and completed in 2007, in time for a service marking the bicentenary of the Slave Trade Act in Britain.

{name}: Haley Brown

{section}: Friday 11am (Sakura)

Timestamp: 2/6/2012 15:45:59

{description}: On October 22, 1764, was a huge victory for the British East India Company over the Mughal Empire. It gave the Company political rule over Bengal, so that Warren Hastings was able to organize Bengal administration.

{name}: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/34/Shah-alam-ii-mughal-emperor-of-india-reviewing-the-east-india-companys-troops-1781-1894_1247854.jpg

{section}: Devon Kovacs

Timestamp: Wednesday 2pm (Matthew)

{description}: This is the Temple/Mosque Babri Masjid, located in Ayodya in the district of Uttar Pradesh of North Eastern India. Hindus believe Ayodya to be the birthplace of Lord Rama; furthermore, Hindus argue that this temple, built in 1528, was created after the demolition of a previous temple in its place, solely dedicated to the worship of Rama. The mosque/temple is now famous for its demolition in 1992 as depicted in the image attached, but was a site of conflict starting in the early 1850s. During this time, Hindus and Muslims both worshiped in the temple, ultimately causing disputes between the two religious groups. In 1859, the colonial British Empire in India intervened by erecting a fence to separate Hindu and Muslim areas of worship; the fence allowed Muslims to worship inside the temple, and Hindus to only worship outside the temple. As this fence stood for almost 90 years, it caused turmoil and bloodshed for many Indians. The aftermath of the 1992 demolition is still present today, with neither Hindus nor Sunnis willing to divide the land up. It seems that the British Empire’s “quick fix” fence was not a lasting solution, though the consequences of their intervention have certainly endured.

{name}: Lily Glimcher

{section}: Wednesday 2pm (Matthew)

Timestamp: 2/6/2012 16:43:56

{description}: Originally built by the French in 1755, Fort Carillon was situated along the mouth of the La Chute River, between Lake Champlain and Lake George; it was of strategic importance for trade routes. After an unsuccessful British attack in 1758, British troops under Jeffery Amherst laid siege to the fort in 1759 and renamed it Ticonderoga. During the American Revolution, Fort Ticonderoga was captured by Benedict Arnold, Ethan Allen, and the Green Mountain Boys in a surprise attack on May 10, 1775. The victory had far-reaching consequences: Henry Knox transported 59 artillery pieces from the fort to Boston, forcing the British to evacuate that city in 1776. In July of 1777, it fell back into British hands under General Burgoyne, only to be abandoned after the failure of the Saratoga campaign.

{name}: Zoe DeStories

{section}: Wednesday 3pm (Anouska)

Timestamp: 2/6/2012 18:07:49

{description}: New Zealand became a colony on May 3rd, 1841. New Zealand was rare amongst British colonies in that they were granted a lot of autonomy by the British government. The New Zealand Constitution Act in 1852 granted self-government to the people of New Zealand.

{name}: Parker Sebastian

{section}: Thursday 3pm (Gitanjali)

Timestamp: 2/6/2012 18:25:38

{description}: Curzon Hall is a part of the School of Science of the University of Dhaka, the first university in the East Bengal (now Bangladesh). This hall was named after Lord George Nathaniel Curzon, the viceroy of India (1899-1905). Architecturally, this hall is a amalgamation European and Mughal elements. This Hall is a part the history of the British Empire in both east and west Bengal. Historically this is a very important place, because this hall is the place where the British Government found University of Dhaka, the first university in East Bengal. After 1911, when the British government abolished the 1905 partition of Bengal (which was done in the favor of the Muslim majority of East Bengal), in 1912 Viceroy Lord Hardinge proposed to establish a university in East Bengal as a compensation of the annulment of the partition. The university started it's activity in the Curzon Hall. The foundation of the Curzon Hall and the University of Dhaka reminds us of the fact that the British divided the whole India in terms of religion; later we see the reflection of this very fact in 1947, when the British left India, but divided the whole region into two parts-- Parkistan and India.

{name}: Tarik Adnan Moon

{section}: Friday 11am (Sakura)

Timestamp: 2/6/2012 18:44:03

{description}: Although Bermuda was first discovered by Spanish explorers in 1505, it was settled (by accident) by the Virginia Company. Sir George Somers was captaining the boat Sea Venture to Jamestown, Virginia to provide extra provisions for the settlers already there as part of the Virginia Company. During a storm, the ship crashed on Bermuda where the sailors spent months rebuilding their ship. They eventually made their way successfully to Jamestown, only to find the settlers there starving, before they turned around back to England. The Virginia Company decided to keep some settlers on the island and as a result Britain has maintained possession on the island continuously to this day. The islands were sometimes called the 'Somers Isles' in reference to its founder. Given their small amount of land, especially compared to the Americas, Bermuda focused its economy on ship building as opposed to agriculture. The island also served as an important dockyard for the Royal Navy including during the War of 1812. Today, still under British control, Bermuda is known as a tourist location and a location for offshore banking. Sources(http://www.sccs.swarthmore.edu/users/08/ajb/tmve/wiki100k/docs/History_of_Bermuda.html, https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/bd.html, http://bermuda-history.blogspot.com/)

{name}: Benjamin Blatt

{section}: Friday 1pm (Sakura)

Timestamp: 2/6/2012 18:59:33

{description}: Many people are unaware that Havana, Cuba was a part of the British Empire. From 1762-1763, Havana was besieged and occupied by the British as part of the Seven Years' War since it was such a vital Caribbean naval base. The Spanish defeat at the hands of the British represented a severe blow in the war effort, as Havana was also the capital of the Spanish West Indies. The Cathedral of St. Francis of Assisi is one of the few contemporary reminders in Havana of this unusual period of British rule. The Cathedral was built in the late sixteenth century for the Franciscans, but it was used for Anglican worship when the British controlled the city. After Havana was returned to Spain as part of the Treaty of Paris, the Spanish refused to use the church for worship anymore because they believed it had been tainted. Ever since then it has only been used for concerts.

{name}: Thomas "Buddy" Bardenwerper

{section}: Thursday 4pm (Mircea)

Timestamp: 2/6/2012 19:48:31

{description}: Gerry's Landing (or the site of the modern day Cambridge Boat Club & subsequently the headquarters of the Head of the Charles Regatta - two great vestiges of British culture) is where Sir Richard Saltonstall and Rev. George Phillips, leading a group of settlers landed in 1630 forming one of the earliest settled communities in Britain's Massachusetts Bay Colony - what is today called the town of Watertown. This town used to be much larger (closer to Boston in population), and in 1632, residents of Watertown protested against a tax imposed on them to build a fort in Cambridge because they were not represented in British government. This contributed to the creation of the colonial government. Gerry's landing is named for Elbridge ""Gerry"" a signer of the Declaration of Independence and Governor of Massachusetts who lived close by to this site. (Source: http://www.hmdb.org/marker.asp?marker=48016 and http://www.1911encyclopedia.org/Watertown,_Massachusetts)

{description}: 42.372622,-71.134247

{name}: Thursday 3pm (Gitanjali)

{section}: 2/6/2012 19:58:24

{description}: In the 1880s the British arrived in Southern Africa. They did so in the form of The British South Africa Company, which was lead by Cecil Rhodes. At that time the area of what would come to be called Rhodesia, was under the rule of the powerful Matabele tribe and their Chief Lobengula. Rhodesia came under the rule of the British in 1889 when Queen Victoria signed a charter. A fight between Lobengula's tribesmen in 1893 made the British setters feel unsafe and this lead to a fight between the British and the Matabele tribe. The Matabele fought hard but in the end they lost due to the technological advantage that the British held. Lobengula was killed during this war, effectively ending central resistance to British rule in Rhodesia.

{name}: Nix Maasdorp

{section}: Thursday 2pm (Gitanjali)

Timestamp: 2/6/2012 20:05:34

{description}: During his exploration of the East coast of Australia in May of 1770 Captain Cook named the bay Morton's Bay in honor of Lord Morton. However, due to an error in the first published accounts of Cook's voyage, the bay was labelled Moreton's Bay, hence the Moreton Bay Colony. In 1823 John Oxley, a British explorer, sailed up the Brisbane River, and the following year he established the first European settlement in the bay at the present site of Redcliffe. The settlement quickly became a port for British ships and grew from there.

{name}: Will Geiken

{section}: Thursday 3pm (Gitanjali)

Timestamp: 2/6/2012 20:57:57

{description}: Glasgow - my hometown - was nick-named the ""second city of the Empire"" (the first being London) because the city itself and the surrounding area (most notably Lanarkshire) built the vast majority of the ships used by the Empire and produced many of the goods used for trading; the livestock driven down from the Highlands was traded in Glasgow, and there were also vast cotton and textile mills. The biggest industry however was the that of the steel, and of the ship. Sadly, industry in Glasgow has all but vanished today but for hundreds of years - up until twenty or so years ago - you would see giant ships sailing up the River Clyde and into the heart of the city.

{description}: 55.861634,-4.248834

{name}: Wednesday 2pm (Matthew)

{section}: 2/6/2012 21:13:02

{description}: Lucknow is the capital city of Uttar Pradesh in India, then known as Oudh. The Siege of Lucknow lasted from May 30 to November 27, 1857, during the Indian Rebellion of 1857. The rebellion in Lucknow is believed to have begun due to introduction of the Enfield Rifle. As the cartridges of the Enfield Rifle were believed to be greased with pork and beef fat this violated both the Hindu and Muslim religions. Sir Henry Lawrence was British commissioner for the territory and on May 1, 1857 one of regiments refused to "bite the cartridge". 1729 British soldiers were involved (rising to about 8,000) and around 5,000 (rising to around 30,000) Indian Rebels were involved. There were two sieges and the fighting was seen as a test of British resolve. The final day of the second relief produced more Victoria Cross winners than any other day (twenty-four).

{name}: Caspar Jopling

{section}: Friday 12pm (Dzavid)

Timestamp: 2/6/2012 21:15:33

{description}: Fort Henry was built on Point Henry in Kingston, Ontario during the War of 1812. At the time of its construction, Ontario was part of the British Empire, and was referred to as Upper Canada. The British had two main reasons for building this fort, to protect their waterways, and to protect the Royal Navy Dockyards from attacks by the USA. An attack on Point Henry would have been detrimental to the British because it would have cut off communication between the Royal Navy Dockyards and all settlement to the east of Kingston. Thus jeopardizing possible attacks on all of Lower Canada, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, and the the St.Lawrence River. Point Henry was located where Lake Ontario met the Saint Lawrence River, both were fundamental trading routes for the British. Furthermore, after the War of 1812, Point Henry was even more vital to British trade due to construction of the Rideau Canal. After completion of the Rideau Canal, Point Henry was located where Lake Ontario, the Rideau Canal, and the St.Lawrence River all intersected, which would be considered the heart of the British's trading routes in present Canada. The original fort cost 70,000 pounds for the British to construct. It was occupied by British troops until 1870. Fort Henry is the largest fortification west of Quebec city. Note: The photo is a painting of the Royal Navy Dockyards as seen from Fort Henry. Information was acquired from the Fort Henry website: http://www.forthenry.com/index.cfm/en/about-the-fort1/tour-the-fort/history-of-the-fort/

{name}: Shelby Raglan

{section}: Wednesday 2pm (Dzavid)

Timestamp: 2/6/2012 21:45:59

{description}: This was the area in which the Newfoundland settlement and the London and Bristol, also known as, The Newfoundland Company made its business. Based on Avalon Peninsula, the company specialized mining, fishing, hunting and agriculture. The Company was granted charter under James I but was mostly unsuccessful as a financial endeavor and the crown began to grant the lands that were priorly exclusive to the company in 1616.

{name}: Ryan Cutter

{section}: Thursday 5pm (Anouska)

Timestamp: 2/6/2012 22:02:24

{description}: Stone Town, Zanzibar, off the coast of Tanzania, is the site of the Anglo-Zanzibar War of 1896, which is also known as the shortest war in history. Zanzibar became a British protectorate in 1890, as a result of the Treaty of Zanzibar with Germany. European interest in Zanzibar derived largely from its position as a commercial hub of slavery, as slavery was not abolished there until 1889. Even as Zanzibar lost economic importance with the end of the slave trade, the British continued to control its leadership, appointing Sultans as they saw fit. When Sultan Hamed bin Thuwain died, the British appointed his cousin as his replacement, but Khaled bin Bargash, who had already tried to come to power when Hamed was alive, moved into the palace with 2000 men and declared himself Sultan. In response, British naval troops bombarded the palace, destroying it and causing 500 deaths amongst Khaled's forces and just one British death. The firing lasted for only 40 minutes. Khaled fled Zanzibar, and the British appointed their original choice, Sultan Hamoud, who supported the British government. The incident not only demonstrated the influence of the British Empire in its less economically significant territories, but also the power it had to enforce its dominance in such territories. Zanzibar didn't gain its independence until 1963.

{name}: Tyler Lewis

{section}: Thursday 2pm (Gitanjali)

Timestamp: 2/6/2012 22:32:00

{description}: Fort Denison is a natural rock island located in the middle of the Sydney Harbor in Australia. Surrounded by water near an area called “The Rocks” and the present-day location of the Sydney Opera House, Fort Denison fulfilled the requirement of being what Niall Ferguson called, a “prison within the prison.” (Ferguson, pg. 87). This colony had been founded as a location of punishment for convicts, but was beginning to thrive and establish its own society under the rule of the colony’s governor Lcahlan Macquarie. Yet despite this, not every convict could be redeemed and Fort Denison served as one location of continued punishment for those who committed crimes while in Australia. Originally just a slab of rock, the first prisoner, Thomas Hill, was sentenced to a week chained on the rocks with just bread and water. (According to a tour guide of mine in Sydney this past winter, great white sharks were so abundant in the Sydney Harbor at that time that no prisoner—even if un-chained— dared attempt to swim back to the mainland in fear of being eaten!). In 1796, a gibbet was installed on this island to hang those who committed the most egregious of crimes while in this penal colony. It is said that the first person hung was Francis Morgan, a man who was sent to the penal colony for murder and then subsequently bashed a man to death with a rock in Sydney. While serving as a prison within a prison, convicted people were forced to build a fort upon this slab of rock. With the completion of a small fort on this rock, Fort Denison later became a lookout to help protect Sydney Harbor from foreign attack.

{name}: Bruce Taylor

{section}: Wednesday 2pm (Matthew)

Timestamp: 2/7/2012 0:36:47

{description}: The Battle of Quebec in 1775 was the first major defeat of the American Continental Army in the Revolutionary War, as part of General Richard Montgomery's failed attempt to invade Canada. During this battle, General Montgomery was killed, and over 400 American soldiers were taken prisoner. After a series of key military victories at Ticonderoga and Crown Point, Continental forces moved north to engage the British at their now-fortified position in Quebec city, reinforced by forces under Benedict Arnold. At this point of the war, the Continental Army had expected for the local French Canadian population to join forces against the British, due to residual tensions from the French and Indian War. However, due to the Quebec Act of 1774, which restored significant land holdings to the local French in Quebec, they chose not to join the battle between British forces and the Continental Army. With the British position heavily reinforced and cold weather affecting the condition of Continental army supplies, the American forces were forced to surrender after suffering heavy casualties, including Benedict Arnold being shot in the leg and the death of General Montgomery. Quebec was later further fortified by British naval forces, but the following counterattack was unable to regain the positions of Ticonderoga and Crown Point held by Benedict Arnold's forces.

{name}: Justin Koh

{section}: Wednesday 5pm (Nick)

Timestamp: 2/7/2012 0:38:14

{description}: In 1882, British and Egyptian forces clashed in this battle at city of Tel-el-Kebir.This city was strategically located between Alexandria, Cairo and the Suez Canal. The Egyptian, Ahmed Urabi led the Egyptian rebel forces in hopes of removing the British from Egypt. However, the British knew the value of the Suez Canal and were ready to defend their empire. There had been a few prior minor skirmishes, but this battle proved the British would remain in power. The Egyptians were defeated and the British led a march on Cairo in honor of their victory.

{name}: Elizabeth Fitzhenry

{section}: Friday 11am (Sakura)

Timestamp: 2/7/2012 10:51:05

{description}: The Berlin Conference (also referred to as Congo Conference) took place in the Reich Chancellery, once located at Wilhelmstrasse 77 in Berlin between November 15th 1884 and February 26th 1885. At the Berlin Conference, representative of 14 states met at the invitation of German chancellor von Bismarck to discuss trade policies and imperial strategies in Africa. The main result was the declaration of free trade at the Congo and the Niger rivers. The Berlin Conference was a milestone in the race for the colonization process of the European Imperial powers in Africa. Before the Berlin conference, the imperial powers were mainly concentrated on the coast of Africa, a result of the slave and commodity trade in the 18th and 19th century. The extraction of the resources of interior Africa and the strategic civilization of the Native population began mainly under the Belgian king Leopold II. in Congo, a region endowed with resources that elsewhere hardly exist. Other imperial forces aimed at joining the race for the extraction of Africa, being in need for scarce resources to fuel the ongoing industrial revolution and wanting to keep up with the competing European powers in the so called ‘philanthropic’ civilization of the black continent. As a result, the Berlin Conference finalized the division of the African continent into arbitrary sectors under the control of European powers and eliminated all tribal authority and autonomy.

{name}: Fritzi Reuter

{section}: Friday 12pm (Dzavid)

Timestamp: 2/7/2012 11:24:53

{description}: The Albany Congress occurred in 1754 and was a meeting in which seven representatives from the 13 colonies of British North America met daily to discuss possible union in response to conflicts between the French and the Indians. The impetus for the meeting was the looming threat of attack from the French, and the colonists’ desire to improve relations with the Native Americans in order to cement their position and allies. However, this meeting is of historical importance because it was the first time that the colonies met together to discuss a concentrated plan and potential association. Benjamin Franklin proposed the Albany Plan of Union, which would have called for a confederation of12 colonies presided over by a President appointed by the British. A congressional assembly comprised of two delegates from each of the colonies would convene every so often. Although the colonists rejected this plan because it would undermine their individual powers, Franklin’s proposition formed the basis for the Articles of Confederation and later the Declaration of Independence. Additionally, the rejection of this plan further removed colonial interest and ties to that of the British, as the crown would not be able to appoint the executive power.

{name}: Merry Batter

{section}: Wednesday 2pm (Dzavid)

Timestamp: 2/7/2012 11:41:10

{description}: The Treaty of Amiens was signed in Amiens, France on March 25, 1802. Joseph Bonaparte, the elder brother of Napoleon, and Marquess Cornwallis, British Army officer, signed the treaty in hopes of ending the hostile relations between the French Republic and the United Kingdom during the French Revolutionary Wars. The treaty was significant because after the 1801 Treaty of Lunéville, which marked the end of the Second Coalition against Revolutionary France, Britain was the only nation left at war with France. The Treaty of Amiens, known as a “Definitive Treaty of Peace,” finally resulted in a yearlong period of peace between the two nations. This was the longest break in the war between 1792 and 1814.

{name}: Barr Yaron

{section}: Thursday 3pm (Gitanjali)

Timestamp: 2/7/2012 12:37:09

{description}: In the middle of the twentieth century, as the British were assessing exit options in India, a Muslim independence movement was brewing. Between March 22nd and March 24th, 1940, the All-India Muslim League met in Lahore and passed what is now known as the Lahore Resolution. The Lahore Resolution stated that Muslim majority areas in India should be constituted as ""independent states."" Moreover, it urged that Muslims be given equal rights in areas in which they were a minority of the population. The statements made in the resolution ultimately led to the Muslim independence movement that culminated in the partition of India and the formation of the state of Pakistan. In a rush to leave India, the British failed to help in the peaceful division of the new nations. Land was not fairly distributed and emigration was restricted. What resulted was sectarian violence and the seeds were planted for the four Indo-Pak wars that would follow.

{description}: 31.592574, 74.309506

{name}: Wednesday 2pm (Matthew)

{section}: 2/7/2012 13:45:39

{description}: Originally claimed in 1917 as part of a British decree claiming sovereignty over a number of lands in the Southern hemisphere, the British Antarctic Territory includes 150,058 sq. miles in the continent of Antarctica, the South Orkney Islands, and the South Shetland Islands. Essentially a wedge of the Antarctic region, the area was used by the British for meteorological research during World War II and continues to be used for that purpose to this day. Britain’s ownership of the area was reaffirmed and redefined by the 1961 Antarctic Treaty, which, for those countries that recognize it, apportions different sections of the continent to a number of nations. The British Antarctic Territory remains one of the British Overseas Territories—a group of 14 British landholdings that, having been claimed during the height of British imperialism, fall under the jurisdiction of the United Kingdom but are not an official a part of the nation.

{name}: Hana Rouse

{section}: Wednesday 4pm (Mircea)

Timestamp: 2/7/2012 14:28:18

{description}: The Battle of Concord was the second British-American encounter in the American Revolutionary War after the Battle of Lexington earlier that day where the redcoats easily won. Concord was told that the British were advancing. The Minutemen, a volunteer force of Americans ready to fight with very little notice, gather together to face the British force on April 19, 1775. The minutemen met the British forces at the North Bridge, which is over the Concord River. After the conflict, the British retreat, and later, the Americans fought sneakily instead of facing the British in the open, which frustrated the British very much. Combined from the battle of Lexington and Concord, the British casualties were numbered at 273, whereas the Minutemen suffered 94 deaths. This fighting signified the start of the American Revolutionary War. The specific location is of the Minute Man National Historical Park. This relates to the history of the British Empire because it showed not only that the American Revolution had begun, but although the British were clearly better trained, more experienced, and more equipped than the Americans, it was not going to be an easy British victory. On a larger scale, the loss of this territory to the British will be a large one and the loss of this war has been argued as a significant symbol of the decline of the British empire. The picture is of the conflict on Concord Bridge when the Minuetmen met the British, forcing the British to retreat.

{name}: Meg Casscells-Hamby

{section}: Thursday 2pm (Gitanjali)

Timestamp: 2/7/2012 14:36:32

{description}: Nelson's column, erected in 1843, recognizes Admiral Nelson's victory over the French and Spanish at the battle of Trafalgar in 1805. The battle of Trafalgar was arguable the most decisive victory of the Napoleonic wars (1803-1815). The responsibility of victory has largely been afforded to Nelson's unorthodox tactics and effective leadership. The battle was not only notable because of the British victory over the French and Spanish but more so because it demonstrated the Naval superiority that the British had established over the past century. It is this superiority that allowed the British Empire to expand with the help of some of the greatest generals and exploratory sailors such as Admiral Horatio Nelson and James Cook respectively. For me, the Royal Navy is what made Britain great.

{name}: James Briggs

{section}: Friday 1pm (Sakura)

Timestamp: 2/7/2012 15:02:50

{description}: Following his famous crossing of the Delaware and subsequent victories against the Red Coats at Trenton and Princeton in December of 1776, George Washington stationed his army in Morristown, NJ, for the winter of 1777. The small New Jersey town remained his winter headquarters through the spring of 1779. The locations was strategic: Morristown is within travelling distance of New York, Philadelphia, and New England. The economy of the area was based on agriculture and craftsmanship, meaning supplies were available for the Continental Army. Surviving the winters was one of the major hurdles of an eighteenth-century army; thus, Morristown is an essential piece of the story of the success of the Continental Army in their rebellion against the British Crown. Sources: Online Encyclopedia Britannica, website of the National Park Service (nps.gov), and pbs.org

{name}: Isabel Ruane

{section}: Wednesday 4pm (Mircea)

Timestamp: 2/7/2012 15:20:36

{description}: Robert Clive was born in Styche Hall in 1725. After his successful time in India, Clive returned to Styche Hall and commissioned the well-known architect Sir William Chambers to rebuild the Hall for Clive's father to live in. Clive gave his father enough money to live very comfortably, and new buildings were added to the Hall, which has enormous ornamental grounds surrounding it. The Hall is now broken up into flats, but it serves as a reminder of the incredible amount of money Clive and his contemporaries returned from India with - a profit that sparked Briton's discontent with the East India Company and how it ran business in India.

{name}: Hannah Cardiel

{section}: Wednesday 3pm (Anouska)

Timestamp: 2/7/2012 15:37:08

{description}: The “nabobs”, a play on the Indian title “nawob” were British men who returned from their positions of power in India extraordinarily wealthy and began to throw their money around, for example spending extraordinary amounts of money on stately homes. Thomas Pitt’s acquisition of Swallowfield Park in 1717 is just one example of this. It was not only the acquisition of lavish real estate that earned men such as Pitt this title. Pitt, for example, did not content himself with just this lavish home; instead he also bought the parliamentary seat of Old Sarum. His 1770 speech in which he famously claimed that “the riches of Asia have been poured in upon us, and brought with them not only Asiatic luxury, but, I fear, Asiatic principles of government… the importers of foreign gold have forced their way into Parliament, by such a torrent of private corruption” (Ferguson pg48), highlights the hypocrisy of the nabobs, who were quick to condemn Asiatic principles whilst reaping the benefits and rewards of British expansion there for themselves.

{name}: Abigail Fiedler

{section}: Wednesday 3pm (Anouska)

Timestamp: 2/7/2012 15:57:56

{description}: During a trip intended for Peurto Deseado, British Captain, John Strong, found himself instead at the Falkland Islands (named after the 5th Viscount of Falkland who had financed Strong's trip), where he refueled and continued on his voyage. His superiors, namely Admiral George Anson tried to push for the Islands to be colonized, but was unsuccessful; the islands were first truly colonized by the French in 1764. The settlement was organized by Louis-Antoine de Bougainville, and the Islands were re-named "Les Iles Malouines." After years of conflict, (between the French, Spanish, British and even Americans) the Islands were uninhabited for several years in the early 1800s, and it wasn't until 1841 that the British formally colonized the Falkland Islands, thinking they were strategically placed near the tip of Argentina. The Islands remain in British possession--for the most part--to this day, and are a "self-governing British overseas territory," modern remnants of the fallen empire. (http://www.britishempire.co.uk/maproom/falkland.htm)

{name}: Angie Berkowitz

{section}: Thursday 4pm (Mircea)

Timestamp: 2/7/2012 16:14:25

{description}: The Canterbury Association was formed and royally chartered in 1848 under the leadership of Edward Gibbon Wakefield and John Robert Godley as an extension of the New Zealand Company. They wanted to establish a colony sponsored by the Anglican Church and thus named it after the Archbishop of Canterbury. They envisioned a city built around a cathedral and a college, modeling after Christ Church at Oxford where Godley studied. The pilgrims onboard the first four ships to Canterbury were comprised of colonists (land owners) and emigrants (laborers & servants), and they landed in the newly named "Christchurch" on December 16th 1850. The settlement was more successful due to the lower number of speculators. Christchurch is first official city in New Zealand.

{name}: Anita Wang

{section}: Thursday 4pm (Mircea)

Timestamp: 2/7/2012 16:18:14

{description}: The Galapagos Islands form a small archipelago and sit 600 miles off the west coast of Ecuador in the Pacific Ocean. Though the Spaniards were doubtfully the first to stumble upon the island, it was Fray Tomas de Berlanga who made the first recorded discovery of the islands in 1535. The first British visit came nearly 60 years later, yet it was the British who would largely make use of the spot in the immediate future. At least initially, the Britons used the islands not for its famed indigenous fauna but rather for its strategic location. As Niall Ferguson wrote in his history, Empire, some of the first traces of imperial power were sown by British pirates ransacking the gold from Spanish ships and colonies, some of which returned was returned to the Crown. These buccaneers, as they were later called, utilized the Galapagos as a hiding ground to avoid the Spanish for over a century. The aforementioned fauna, including the large whale population, which helped feed the hiding pirates, also made the island attractive to various whalers and Pacific travelers, who made such frequent visits to the island that a small post office was erected on the island of Floreana in 1800. But the islands’ most significant contribution to British history came in 1835, when a 26-year old naturalist named Charles Darwin pulled into the Galapagos aboard the H.M.S. Beagle, which was charged with surveying many different parts of the world to help the ever-expansive British trade and war effort. While on the Galapagos, Darwin famously examined and studied the island’s finches, and it was there that he formulated his theory of evolution, which fundamentally changed people’s views of animals and, ultimately, of themselves. Bobby Samuels

{name}: Bobby Samuels

{section}: Wednesday 2pm (Dzavid)

Timestamp: 2/7/2012 16:48:27

{description}: Nanny Town is the home of the Maroons, a community of escaped African slaves from the Spanish. Cudjoe, the leader of the Maroons planned multiple raids of the new British settlements of Jamaica, freeing slaves to add to their ranks. After failed attacks on the Maroons, Britain made a treaty with them in 1739, giving them control over 1,500 acres in exchange for the return of escaped slaves and end of rebellions/raids. The Maroons were the first strong example to the British of the power of a slave uprising.

{name}: Chanel Washington

{section}: Thursday 3pm (Gitanjali)

Timestamp: 2/7/2012 16:53:40

{description}: The influential orator and politician Edmund Burke attended Trinity College in Dublin in 1744. He originally anticipated a career in law but later decided to pursue his literary passions instead, dedicating his learning schedule to studying poetry, oratory, and metaphysics. While at the university, Burke's achievements included creating a debating club (called Edmund Burke's Club) as well as translating part of Virgil's _Georgic_, both achievements that contributed to Burke's reputation as a gifted speaker and writer. (This is not surprising, especially in light of his later influence in the British Parliament!) After Trinity College, Burke enrolled at Middle Temple in London with the intention of passing the English bar, but he later abandoned this plan to pursue a literary career instead.

{name}: Charlene Hong

{section}: Thursday 3pm (Gitanjali)

Timestamp: 2/7/2012 17:11:40

{description}: The Royal Pavilion, built in 1787 and greatly renovated by John Nash from 1815-1822, stands as a monument to the world wide reaches of the British Empire. It also is an excellent example of the influences on foreign cultures on popular British tastes and styles. The residence is built in a pseudo-Indian style, and decorated in a fusion of Indian and Chinese styles. In the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century, decorating in an extravagant Asian-inspired style known as chinoiserie was extremely popular, and the rooms at the Pavilion are some of the most elaborate examples of this in England. Today it remains a symbol of the wealth and power of the British Empire as well as a testament to the fascination the British had of other cultures around the world.

{name}: Lauren Tiedemann

{section}: Wednesday 4pm (Mircea)

Timestamp: 2/7/2012 17:53:09

{description}: This was the location of a major battle in the war of 1812 which resulted in a British victory, however led to the loss of General Isaac Brock. Today this is a well known park and the location of the Brock Monument.

{name}: Florian Mayr

{section}: Friday 1pm (Sakura)

Timestamp: 2/7/2012 18:43:13

{description}: Although the United Kingdom claimed sovereignty over South Georgia as early as 1775, it was not until the British Letters Patent in 1908 that South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands were annexed to the United Kingdom. South Georgia was first circumnavigated by James Cook in 1775 and was named in honor of King George III. These islands were used as a base for commercial maritime operations throughout the 19th and 20th centuries. These islands were also home to an Argentinian meteorological observatory. In 1949, a base at King Edward Point was expanded into a research facility for marine research. Argentina contested British sovereignty rights over South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands several times throughout the 20th Century, but was ultimately expelled by British influence by 1982. Today, the islands remain a British Overseas Territory, with executive power being controlled by the Queen of England and enforced by the Commissioner of the islands. However, there are no permanent inhabitants living on the islands, and 90% of its revenues come from fishing licenses.

{name}: Michael Tingley

{section}: Friday 1pm (Sakura)

Timestamp: 2/7/2012 18:50:28

{description}: This is the location of the Battle of Balaclava, fought as a part of the Crimean War, waged between the Russian Empire and an alliance of the British, French, Sardinia, and the Ottoman Empire in an effort to gain control of territories of the then failing Ottoman Empire. The war was the first that, through technological advances, such as photography and the telegraph, allowed British citizens to remain apprised of the war. This battle, in particular, is notorious for the mistaken and eventually fatal Allied cavalry charge, immortalized in the poem ""The Charge of the Light Brigade,"" by Alfred, Lord Tennyson:

{description}: 44.500607,33.600054

{name}: Wednesday 4pm (Mircea)

{section}: 2/7/2012 19:41:27

{description}: A center for British industry and trade, Liverpool became one of England’s most prosperous ports at the height of its imperial power. Liverpool’s shipyards fueled Britain’s maritime growth. Its engineers pioneered new methods for transatlantic shipping and trade into Britain’s new canals and railroads at the advent of the Industrial Revolution. Liverpool’s reach across the globe highlighted the empire’s increasing dominance as an economic power. While Liverpool moved goods across an increasingly connected empire, it also provided an avenue for the movement of people. Liverpool was a gateway for poor British subjects destined for a new life in America and a focal point for the increasingly dominant British slave trade.

{name}: Laura Reston

{section}: Wednesday 2pm (Matthew)

Timestamp: 2/7/2012 19:47:54

{description}: This is a place mark of Victoria, Australia, the place where a colonial politician for Australia named James Service whose support for the good of the British teetered on radical. In the aftermath of the New South Wales coup by William Beade Dolley, Service viewed the event as an example of the proper method of achieving Britain's goal to civilize other areas. He advocated for the formation of a Federation in 1885, the building blocks toward Australia's progression, believing his efforts to be an asset for the British. However, his gusto read differently depending on the lens used to view his actions. His colleagues on the Colonial Board thought him to be traitorous, while peer colonies saw him as a competitive example. His efforts to install a federal government in Australia, despite its colonial status, alerted Britain to the need to cater to the desires of constituents abroad; the obvious benefit being to avoid malcontent or rebellion. *Source: http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/service-james-4561

{name}: Bri Belser

{section}: Friday 12pm (Dzavid)

Timestamp: 2/7/2012 19:52:21

{description}: The Port of Valparaíso was a large British trading port, and arguably one of the most important British contact points in Chile. Chile opened this port in 1811, trading with the British. As the volume of trade grew, the British settled, building schools and sports clubs. Between 1840 and World War I, over 50,000 British settled in Chile. About 32,000 of those settled in Valparaíso, making it a virtual colony of the British.

{name}: Marina Lehner

{section}: Friday 12pm (Dzavid)

Timestamp: 2/7/2012 20:11:50

{description}: The last British colony on the American mainland, British Honduras was a territory for which the British used to extract mahogany and log-wood. The neighboring Spanish, not particularly enthusiastic that British had been attempting to settle in the region, tried to fend away the British. However, in 1754, in one of the more landmark expeditions, the 1,500 Spaniards who sought to organize inland at the city of Peten were met with fierce opposition by 250 British and were routed. Not until September 1798 did the British fully expunge Spanish forces, in what would be called the "Battle of St. George's Caye". Approximately 200 years later, the British Honduras would gain independence from the British Empire. After officially gaining independence, the British Honduras was renamed Belize. Moreover, the momentous win in the Battle of St. George's Caye was declared a national holiday for the country of Belize.

{name}: Widly Coulanges

{section}: Thursday 4pm (Mircea)

Timestamp: 2/7/2012 20:39:08

{description}: This is Elmina Castle. In 1482 this site was built and in control of by the Portuguese. It was originally used as a trading outpost by the Portuguese and was one of the largest European structures in sub-Saharan Africa (http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part1/1p260.html). It was called a "slave factory" after the some 30,000 slaves that passed through by the 18th century (http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part1/1p260.html). It was integral in the Middle Passage, and was synonymous with the "Door of No Return" through which African slaves would travel to the Americas. After being owned by the Portuguese and the Dutch, Elmina came under British rule in 1871. Elmina is a significant place in the British Empire mostly because of what it represented to the British. Land on the Gold Coast was so fervently sought after because of its trade opportunities - namely, gold, ivory, and slaves. By the time the British came in possession of Elmina Castle, one of their primary concerns was maintaining superiority to other Empires. In obtaining Elmina Castle from the Dutch, the British ensured that no other powers - namely the French - would have that access.

{name}: Caroline Trusty

{section}: Thursday 4pm (Mircea)

Timestamp: 2/7/2012 20:49:34

{description}: On January 18, 1778, English explorer James Cook made the first European contact with the inhabitants of the Hawaiian Islands. Naming the islands after his sponsor (the Earl of Sandwich), Cook opened these Polynesian islands to global trade and, of course, the British Empire. Although Cook was eventually killed by the indigenous Hawaiian during a subsequent visit, the British retained contact thanks to the efforts of General Vancouver. In an uncharacteristic move by a British imperial officer, Vancouver abstained from manipulating local conflicts to serve the British common good. As we all know, the Hawaiian Islands were annexed by the United States and gained statehood. Still, the impact of their connection with Great Britain can still be seen today upon examining the Hawaiian state-flag. It features the Union Jack in the top left corner.

{name}: Suzanna Bobadilla

{section}: Thursday 4pm (Mircea)

Timestamp: 2/7/2012 20:55:50

{description}: A major port located in southeast China, Canton stood at the heart of the British Empire’s trade with China. The Chinese Emperor had created the “Canton System” to regulate trade with the west and gave the British East India Company a monopoly on trade, so long as they only conduct trade with China at Canton (Van Dyke 2005: 3). Britain imported several goods into the harbor, such as tea, and acquired mainly fine silks and textiles from China until the early 19th century. In the early 1800s, opium – a drug from India - became one of Britain’s major imports into China (Poon 2008). The Chinese Emperor banned opium and sent Lin Zexu to govern Canton. Lin Zexu, on order of the Emperor, hoped to shut down Britain’s opium trade in Canton. The Chinese governor blockaded Canton’s waterways – effectively choking off Britain’s access to Canton – and seized 20,000 chests of British opium in 1839 (Poon 2008). This event forced a break in Britain’s policy with China because, prior to the seizure at Canton, Britain had focused on maintaining a strong economic presence in China without military intervention. Now, Britain’s informal empire, defined as land conquered by Britain through trade and influence rather than an army, in China needed to be reforged through military force. Britain responded to the seizure with her army and sparked the First Opium War (1839-1842). Britain won the war and captured Canton, freeing the British merchants who had become trapped in the harbor after Lin’s opium confiscation. After the war, Britain strengthened her economic presence in China through a series of treaties, including the Treaty of Nanjing. Through these treaties, Britain obtained the Island of Hong Kong, new ports for trade in China, and acquired “most-favored nation status” with China (Poon 2008). The opium ordeal in Canton, rather than break Britain’s profitable trade system in China, reinforced it. Britain’s response to the Canton seizure and victory in the Opium War opened the door for larger future profits in China than the crown had ever dreamed of. Works Cited: Leon, Poon. “Emergence of Modern China.” University of Maryland. http://www-chaos.umd.edu/history/modern.html#opium Van Dyke, Arthur. “The Canton Trade.” Hong Kong University Press. 2005.

{name}: Jose Antonio Bengochea

{section}: Wednesday 2pm (Matthew)

Timestamp: 2/7/2012 21:02:02

{description}: The Battle of Long Island was one of many battles comprising the American Revolutionary War. This battle, however, was the first influential battle following the colonies' signing of the Declaration of Independence, and it ultimately resulted in a British victory.

{name}: Nicole Sarvis

{section}: Friday 12pm (Dzavid)

Timestamp: 2/7/2012 21:03:36

{description}: St. Louis was still under the rule of the Spanish during the Revolutionary War. The Spanish decided to fight with the Americans, and a battle was fought at St. Louis between the Spanish and British. The Spanish held out, successfully defeating the British at another point in the war.

{name}: Elizabeth Holden

{section}: Friday 12pm (Dzavid)

Timestamp: 2/7/2012 21:07:04

{description}: One of the places that the British East India Company annexed in 1801 which was the first major annexing of an indian region by the company. Along with Rohikhand and the Doab, Gorakhpur allowed the Company to gain complete control of North-Western India, greatly increasing British power in India. Before this annexation period the British only had major control over the lower Ganges region, but this annexation period allowed them control over the upper Ganges region.

{name}: Siddarth Viswanathan

{section}: Friday 10am (Nick)

Timestamp: 2/7/2012 21:39:46

{description}: Following the tragedy of the Black Hole of Calcutta, the British wanted to retaliate against the Nawab of Bengal under Colonel Robert Clive. Fighting against some French soldiers and many native soldiers, the British were incredibly outnumbered. Robert Clive and his British soldiers won the battle by turning enemies of the Nawab into spies and allies of the British. This battle was a pivotal turning point in colonial India for the British, as it established the East India Company’s power in the region of India and marked their transition from commerce to conquering.

{name}: Theo Lederhausen

{section}: Friday 11am (Sakura)

Timestamp: 2/7/2012 22:05:13

{description}: Following the tragedy of the Black Hole of Calcutta, the British wanted to retaliate against the Nawab of Bengal under Colonel Robert Clive. Fighting against some French soldiers and many native soldiers, the British were incredibly outnumbered. Robert Clive and his British soldiers won the battle by turning enemies of the Nawab into spies and allies of the British. This battle was a pivotal turning point in colonial India for the British, as it established the East India Company’s power in the region of India and marked their transition from commerce to conquering.

{name}: Theo Lederhausen

{section}: Friday 11am (Sakura)

Timestamp: 2/7/2012 22:05:58

{description}: In 1920, Great Britain received the mandate of Iraq after the fall of the Ottoman Empire and the subsequent division of its territory. In an effort to maintain legitimacy following severe popular unrest among Iraqi citizens, the British installed King Faisal as the ostensible leader, believing that his religious heritage and high standing would placate the Iraqi population. Based in Baghdad, Faisal understood that his shaky government was dependent on British support, and he therefore signed the Anglo-Iraqi Treaty of 1922, which lasted eight years before a revised treaty was signed. This installed British advisers and ministers in various government positions, gave Britain the ultimate say in fiscal matters, and allowed British troops to be stationed in the country. In return, Britain would provide financial, military, and social aid, as well as political support for the monarchy. This treaty firmly established the terms of Britain's imperial dominion in Iraq, as the mandate in 1920 had simply given it control of the territory without extensive specification of duties.

{name}: Clare Duncan

{section}: Thursday 2pm (Gitanjali)

Timestamp: 2/7/2012 22:10:00

{description}: The naval Battle of Swally was a small battle between the British East India Company and the Portuguese that took place on November 29-30, 1612. Though small in size and length, comprising only four British galleons, four Portuguese ships, and 26 unarmed Portuguese smaller rowing vessels, the victory for the British East India Company is regarded historically as the beginning of the demise of Portugal's commercial control over India, and the start of the British East India Company's rise to dominance in India. The battle itself began because Captain Thomas Best sought to settle in the city of Surat to create a factory for the British East India Company. At the time, the Portuguese had a monopoly on trade with India, and the British were seeking to gain footing in the spice trade. The British ships settled by the nearby village of Suvali, which they mispronounced as "Swally," and were attacked by Portuguese ships. Best quickly ran three of the Portuguese galleons aground, and then began to attack the smaller barques with cannon fire. Though the Portuguese were able to get their three galleons back in the water, the Company won an important victory, and began to establish a navy in the region to protect what would become a vital commercial presence in later years.

{name}: Sam Sokolsky-Tifft

{section}: Friday 11am (Sakura)

Timestamp: 2/7/2012 22:17:42

{description}: In the beginning of the 19th century, the British East India Company began a project to determine the boundaries of British territory in India and measure certain geographical features. This project, the Great Trigonometic Survey, produced the definitive atlas of India at the time, and the tallest mountain surveyed was named after one of the leaders of the project, George Everest.

{name}: Nicholas Rogan

{section}: Friday 12pm (Dzavid)

Timestamp: 2/7/2012 22:28:26

{description}: During the Revolutionary War, the owners of a large merchant company named Panton, Leslie & Company (later named John Forbes & Company) moved from Georgia to Florida since they were supporters of the British empire. Here, they did business with mainly Indians and by 1792 had become financially unstable due mainly to large Indian debts. To solve this problem, they relieved the Indians of their debt in exchange for approximately 1,200,000 acres of land near the Apalachicola in Florida's panhandle region. This deal occurred in 1804 and became known as the Forbes Purchase. When it became clear Britain would lose Florida to the United States in the War of 1812, Forbes sold the land to a Cuban merchant to avoid having it confiscated or bought cheaply by the United States government.

{name}: Andrea Henricks

{section}: Friday 1pm (Sakura)

Timestamp: 2/7/2012 22:35:40

{description}: Three plaques were placed in the Minute Man National Historic Park, near the corner of Massachusetts Ave. and Mill St. to mark the place where Paul Revere was captured. It was early in the morning on April 19th, 1775 when Revere was riding his historic ride from Lexington to Concord to warn that the British were approaching. As mentioned in lecture, the fact that Revere never made it to Concord himself is a not so well known detail of the story. The center plaque at the capture site reads: ""At this Point, on the old Concord road as it then was, ended the midnight ride of Paul Revere. He had, at about two o'clock of the morning of April 19, 1775, the night being clear and the moon in its third quarter, got thus far on his way from Lexington to Concord, alarming the inhabitants as he went, when he and his companions, William Dawes, of Boston, and Dr. Samuel Prescott, of Concord, were suddenly halted by a British patrol, who had stationed themselves at this bend of the road. Dawes, turning back, made his escape. Prescott, clearing the stone wall, and following a path known to him through the low ground, regained the highway at a point further on, and gave the alarm at Concord. Revere tried to reach the neighboring wood, but was intercepted by a party of officers accompanying the patrol, detained and kept in arrest. Presently he was carried by the patrol back to Lexington. There released, and that morning joined Hancock and Adams. Three men of Lexington, Sanderson, Brown and Loring, stopped at an earlier hour of the night by the same patrol, were also taken back with Revere.""

{name}: Tonya Rosenblatt

{section}: Wednesday 2pm (Dzavid)

Timestamp: 2/7/2012 22:42:08

{description}: Although the British parliament officially abolished slavery in Jamaica in 1808, slaves continued to be treated as inferiors. As of 1830, they were still denied the ability to bear witness in court due to “low intelligence” and discouraged to raise families since they were “animals”. With growing anti-slavery unrest in England, slaves in Jamaica became increasingly agitated with their status and took matters into their own hands. In 1831, Samuel Sharpe organized a peaceful strike, which soon turned deadly. Upon retaliation by plantation, rebels burned the crops on Kensington estate in St. James Parish (The Christmas Rebellion) and escalated the non-violent strike into what became the largest slave rebellion in Jamaica. The resulting bloodshed prompted parliament to issue the Slavery Abolition Act of 1833, which freed all slaves in the British Empire.

{name}: Vikram Nathan

{section}: Thursday 4pm (Mircea)

Timestamp: 2/7/2012 22:51:13

{description}: Named after Charles Cornwallis, Governor-General of Bengal, this fort is located where Captain Francis Light and his crew first landed in 1786. Captain Light, acting for the British East India Company, leased the island of Penang from the Sultan of Kedah, promising military protection from Siam and Burma. This promise was not honored and after a failed attempt by the Sultan to reclaim the island in 1790, the island came under the complete control of the East India Company. The British used their presence on the island to monitor and react against French expansion in Indochina. Additionally, the island of Penang became a site of free trade in an attempt to attract those headed for Dutch trading posts in the East. The fort, originally wooden, was reconstructed in the early 1800's and fortified with cannons. The fort never once engaged in battle although its purpose was to defend against the French, pirates, and any other possible attackers. The island of Penang remained under British rule until 1957 and is currently a member of the state of Malaysia as it has been since 1963. Fort Cornwallis still remains today as a major tourist site in the northeast of Penang.

{name}: Deirdre Buckley

{section}: Friday 10am (Nick)

Timestamp: 2/7/2012 22:56:53

{description}: The Hudson's Bay Company, which still exists today as a Canadian retail corporation, was founded in 1670 on a royal charter from England, with the purpose of collecting and trading furs from the great, unsettled lands northwest of Upper Canada (today Northern Ontario). The royal charter was granted to a group of businessmen led by two French fur traders, encompassing the vast area drained by Hudson Bay. The Hudson’s Bay Company, operating using a system of trading posts and forts in northern Canada, became one of Britain’s most valuable assets in its trade war with France. Eventually, the Company’s dominance around Hudson Bay established British control over the fur trade. The company’s growing power also contributed to 1713’s Treaty of Utrecht, with which much of New France was ceded to Britain, foreshadowing Britain’s future territorial gains in North America.

{name}: Sam Gillis

{section}: Wednesday 2pm (Matthew)

Timestamp: 2/7/2012 23:07:12

{description}: Kolkata, or Calcutta, is the capital of West Bengal. It is an important commercial center of East India and its port is the oldest port in India. Once the Nawab offered the East India Company a trading license, Kolkata was transformed into an extremely fortified mercantile base by the British. It was occupied by Nawab Siraj ud-Daulah in 1756 but it was overtaken by the East India Company the next year. The British began to increase fortifications in the area after dealing with many conflicts with France, which led the Nawab of Bengal to attack. He captured Fort William and brutally killed many British prisoners of war in the Black Hole of Calcutta. A force of British troops led by Robert Clive recaptured the city the following year and Kolkata was named the capital of British India in 1772. Kolkata was the capital of British india until 1911, when it was changed to New Delhi. The city was the center of an Indian independence movement and in 1947, after India claimed its independence, Kolkata experienced relatively slow economic growth, which has begun to pick up in recent decades.

{name}: Lotus Cannon

{section}: Thursday 5pm (Anouska)

Timestamp: 2/7/2012 23:12:42

{description}: The British explorer Sir Thomas Warner landed on the island of St. Kitts (a small Caribbean island southeast of Puerto Rico) in 1624. The French also discovered the island only a few years later, and St. Kitts became a hotbed of Anglo-French competition almost immediately. This tension culminated in a scuffle between the British and the French in 1690, whereupon the British dislodged the French from nearby Charles Fort by firing cannons upon it from the top of Brimstone Hill. Shortly after this minor victory, the British built the particularly monolithic Brimstone Hill Fort over Brimstone Hill. Construction on the fort continued for another ninety years after 1690; however, the French besieged the Brimstone Hill Fort in a 1782 Revolutionary War battle and succeeded in driving the British from their hilltop fortress. The site remains excellently preserved and is perhaps the most pristine colonial British fort remaining in the Caribbean.

{name}: Joseph Booth

{section}: Wednesday 5pm (Nick)

Timestamp: 2/7/2012 23:26:42

{description}: Sir Francis Drake was an English Privateer that pioneered English naval power against the Spanish. He famously sailed into Drake's Bay along the California Coast, just north of San Francisco Bay. This voyage was part of a larger mission to pillage Spanish ships on the South American coast, in which he managed to take in over 25,000 ducats worth of silver along the Peruvian coast. Drake's Bay represents the English and eventual British exploration of the west coast of North America, which cemented later colonial holdings in Pacific Northwest (notably British Columbia and the port of Vancouver). Drake's contributions to this set up a strong tradition of British naval entrepreneurship and strength. Drake would later go on to play a decisive role in defeating the Spanish Armada in 1588, ending Spain's hopes for conquering the British Isles and giving England time to expand her colonial holdings in the Americas and emerge as the naval power of Europe, Drake's Bay however represents the beginning of series exploration beyond traditional English spheres of influence, which would go a long way in helping make England into the British Empire.

{name}: Jonathan Padilla

{section}: Wednesday 4pm (Mircea)

Timestamp: 2/7/2012 23:33:56

{description}: Fort Necessity was the spot of an incident which helped kickstart the Seven Years' War. Responding to French fort-building in the Ohio Valley, the colony of Virginia sent a small force led by George Washington to build a fort at the modern location of Pittsburgh. Upon arrival, the Virginians found the French had already constructed Fort Duquesne. This led Washington to ambush the French at Jumonville Glen, where a French diplomat was killed. Retreating from the site of the battle and expecting an attack, Washington hastily and of necessity erected a fort and, uncreatively but with admirable candor, dubbed it Fort Necessity. Ill-fortified as it was, it proved indefensible, and, despite the arrival of some British reinforcements, it had to be surrendered. The incident increased ill-will between the French and British and caused both sides to send more troops into the area. These tensions, augmented by Fort Necessity, soon broke out into the world's first true world war.

{name}: Sam Horan

{section}: Thursday 3pm (Gitanjali)

Timestamp: 2/7/2012 23:48:49

{description}: Seychelles The oldest European record of the Seychelles islands was made by the Portuguese in 1502. The English first noted them more than a century later, in 1609, and then the islands went unrecorded for 133 years. It is rumored that they were used in that intervening time by Arab pirates. It was the French who ultimately annexed them in 1744, creating secret spice plantations in the town of Mahé, which they hoped could compete with the Dutch monopoly. Indeed, in an effort to keep the plantations secret, the French set them on fire in 1778 when a ship flying a British flag appeared in the harbor. Ironically, it was a French ship in disguise. In 1794 the commander of the colony, Jean-Baptiste Queau de Quincy, surrendered to the British, who cared only about the strategic location and wanted little to do with the settlement itself. The settlement remained neutral for many years (or rather, mercenary), but after significant French infighting and British outmaneuvering, French rule in Mauritius, and subsequently Seychelles, fell. The British were nominal rulers and would send their prisoners there, but the island continued to function as French. After WWI, organizations like the Planters Association and the Taxpayers Association lobbied for independence, but it was not until 1974 that Seychelles became an independent republic as part of the British Indian Ocean Territory.

{name}: Katherine Damm

{section}: Wednesday 5pm (Nick)

Timestamp: 2/7/2012 23:55:42

{description}: In 1853, British explorer Richard Francis Burton became the first non-Muslim Westerner to complete the Hajj (the one-time pilgrimage required of all able Muslims). Burton successfully traveled through Arabia disguised as a pilgrim, having prepared himself by intensely studying the prevalent customs and practices, concealing his true identity. Burton became famous for this and other explorations he would undertake. Burton would travel not only to Arabia, but also Egypt, southern Africa, and central Asia, among other places.

{name}: Christopher Oppermann

{section}: Wednesday 3pm (Anouska)

Timestamp: 2/7/2012 23:56:18

{description}: Fort George was built after Jay's Treaty forced the British to leave Fort Niagara. During the War of 1812, the fort exchanged hands several times between the British and the Americans. Today, the fort is used as a historic military structure allowing people to see how it functioned in the 19th century.

{name}: Wilbert Rivera

{section}: Wednesday 4pm (Mircea)

Timestamp: 2/7/2012 23:56:52

{description}: Fort Rodney was constructed by Admiral George Rodney in 1778. One of the most important uses this fort received was spying on the French fleet located in Martinique. Because of the clear line of sight this fort provided, the British were able to anticipate French maneuvers and deter any of their plans. During the American War of Independence, Rodney led his fleet to a victory against the French and thus foiled a planned invasion on Jamaica.

{name}: Eduardo Lopez

{section}: Friday 10am (Nick)

Timestamp: 2/7/2012 23:59:14

{description}: Portbelo, a small port in nowadays Panama, is mentioned in Fergusson's ""Empire"" as being one of the many conquest of the famous English pirate-transformed-commercant, Henry Morgan in the Caribbean and Central America. The raids and battles in these regions in the mid 1660s were the beginning of the economic foundations of the British empire. Men like Henry Morgan, possessing the land and resources offered in these prolific space, did not only conquer territory, they cultivated it. And to put it in the words of Fergusson himself, the British Empire started its dominance by overthrowing Spanish settlements in these areas, robbing their gold and continued into building an entire economy out of the sugar to be found in places like Portobelo. From pirates to traders, the British in 1668 were creating the foundations to build a whole Empire.

{description}: 9.552508,-79.650707

{name}: Friday 10am (Nick)

{section}: 2/8/2012 0:05:22 Jardine House

Timestamp: Jardine House is the headquarters of Jardine Matheson Holdings Limited, a multinational corporation founded by Scotsmen William Jardine and James Matheson in Canton (now Guangzhou) in 1832, initially dealing in tea, cotton, and opium. After more than 20,000 crates of opium were destroyed by a Chinese official acting under directives from the Daoguang Emperor, Jardine pressured the Foreign Secretary, Lord Palmerston, to wage war on China. This resulted in a decisive British victory in the First Opium War and the cession of Hong Kong to the British in 1842. The opium trade with China increased and Jardine Matheson became the largest British trading firm in East Asia, acquiring the title “The Princely Hong”. The firm gradually expanded into shipping, insurance, real estate, and the railway industry, establishing branches in Shanghai and elsewhere and extending Britain’s sphere of influence in mainland China and beyond. Following the capture of Hong Kong by the Japanese in 1941, most of the company’s employees were interned or forced to leave Hong Kong, though most returned to work and reopened the firm’s offices almost immediately after the war ended.

{description}: -43.135567,147.8514

{name}: Wednesday 5pm (Nick)

{section}: 2/8/2012 0:12:24

{description}: Cinnamon Gardens is an area of Sri Lanka that houses Independence Hall, the National Museum, and the Town Hall. Town Hall was constructed during the time of the British Empire's dominance of Sri Lanka, in 1924. Independence Hall is a monument to Sri Lanka's independence from Britain in 1948. The National Museum commemorates Sri Lankan history, from ancient history to colonial times.

{name}: Sasanka Jinadasa

{section}: Friday 10am (Nick)

Timestamp: 2/8/2012 0:32:02

{description}:  Before the arrival of Europeans, St. Vincent was inhabited by an indigenous Carib population thought to have originated in South America. In 1719, French settlers from nearby Martinique inhabited and cultivated the island. Control of the island wavered between the French and the English until 1796, when Britain won control when it suppressed a French-supported Carib revolt. St. Vincent, like other British Caribbean possessions, had a large slave population and produced important cash crops for its wealthy planters. It is here that Edward John Eyre, appointed lieutenant-governor in 1853, moved to reduce the political power of the newly emancipated black population. Threatened by the sight of blacks in positions of power and fears for public order due to the lack of white troops on the island, he increased the powers of the executive through constitutional legislation at the expense of the electorate. This case exemplifies a shift towards greater racism in the British Empire despite recent abolitionist victories.

{name}: Ernesto Gaxha

{section}: Friday 1pm (Sakura)

Timestamp: 2/8/2012 0:41:11

{description}: The Hyde Park Barracks, built in 1819, were central to the urban vision of the colony's governor at the time, Lachlan Macquarie. Designed by Francis Howard Greenway, the Barracks are structured similarly to Jeremy Bentham's "panopticon," a penitentiary design conducive to surveillance. The Barracks housed six hundred criminals, but rather than being a "punishment block", it was a "centre for the orderly allocation of skilled convict labour" (Ferguson 86). All criminals residing there had artisan skills.

{name}: Jessica Ch'ng

{section}: Wednesday 2pm (Matthew)

Timestamp: 2/8/2012 0:43:17

{description}: As the Britain diversified the sources of its tea trade in the 19th century, the balance of British trade in China became unbalanced. As the result of the decrease in tea exports, the Qing Empire retaliated by cracking down on the illegal import of opium by British traders. In 1838, Lin Zexu was sent to Guandong province to put the Qing policy into practice. Lin was very effective, capturing many of the Chinese traders on the inside and attempting to persuade the British traders to forfeit their opium in return for tea. The British traders were hesitant however, and as a result Lin was used force to capture the remaining opium. He and his troops mixed the confiscated opium with lime and salt to destroy it. They then threw the impure opium into the ocean. Although traders still entered the market on a small scale afterwards, Lin was a prominent leader in stopping the drug trafficking with the dumping of the opium in Humen bay (reminiscent to the Boston Tea Party, I might add).

{name}: Elizabeth Pike

{section}: Wednesday 5pm (Nick)

Timestamp: 2/8/2012 0:46:45

{description}: This was the first big battle during the Second Boer War. The commanding general was Sir William Penn Symons, one of the many casualties the British suffered during this costly victory. Because the reinforcements of British soldiers were not able to occupy the passes of the Drakensberg mountains, the Boers had the opportunity to invade Natal from three different sides, something the British were determined to prevent. The Governor of Natal sent Symons to take control of forces in Glencoe, and war was declared on October 11, 1899. The Boers chose to invade the very next day. Because Glencoe was a coal-mining town, it held extreme economic significance to Britain, and was a central piece of the reason for invasion. Led by General Erasmus, the Boers attacked from the top of Talana Hill, putting the British at an inconvenient disadvantage. Suffering many casualties including their commanding general, the British eventually made their way up the hill and were granted a victory, but at a high cost of lives. This battle was only a slight reprieve before the Boer invasion of northern Natal and the British retreat into Ladysmith. source: BritishBattles.com

{name}: Brianna Goodlin

{section}: Thursday 2pm (Gitanjali)

Timestamp: 2/8/2012 0:53:40

{description}: Demerara, Guyana was one of Britain's colonies in the north of South American. It is also the site of the Demerara Rebellion, one of the last major slave revolts in the years prior to the abolition of slavery in Britain. Beginning on August 18, 1823, the Demerara Rebellion was started by Christian slaves and came to include over 10,000 slaves. The rebellion was suppressed, and a British missionary to the enslaved peoples, Rev. John Smith, was arrested for conspiracy and not informing authorities when he was made aware of the possible rebellion. He died in prison awaiting a British appeal to his death sentence. This revolt came at a crucial time during the slave debate in Britain. The revolt in combination with the subsequent death of a white missionary brought greater awareness and urgency to the abolition movement in Britain. (abolition.e2bn.org, www.guyana.org)

{name}: Meghan Laughner

{section}: Wednesday 4pm (Mircea)

Timestamp: 2/8/2012 1:39:29

{description}: It was at this location that on May 14, 1948 David Ben Gurion declared independence for Israel in a very short conference. The British Empire had controlled the territory since they acquired it from the Ottomans in WWI and passed the Balfour Declaration. After WWII a partition of Israel (then called Palestine) was to take place. The British Mandate ended and David Ben Gurion (who was to be Israel's first prime minister) made the aforementioned declaration as the last British troops were leaving Haifa.

{name}: Zach Goldberg

{section}: Wednesday 5pm (Nick)

Timestamp: 2/8/2012 1:47:45

{description}: After being occupied for a year from 1917 to 1918 by the British military and then for another two years by the Occupied Enemy Territory Administration, Palestine was governed by a civilian administration headed by High Commissioner, Herbert Samuel. One of the main causes for tension in the Palestinian Mandate was Zionist settlers, and Samuel had a very difficult time negotiating with Arab leaders about this issue. Samuel appointed Mohammad Amin al-Husayni to the position of Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, as he was the previous Mufti's half-brother. This decision, while it may have seemed reasonable to not drastically change the power dynamic in Jerusalem, lead to increased violence and anti-Zionism in Palestine. al-Husayni was an Arab nationalist and Muslim leader, and his positions on organizations, such as the Supreme Muslim Council, lead to increased violence in the region and the formation of the Palestinian Black Hand.

{name}: Rafic Melhem

{section}: Wednesday 3pm (Anouska)

Timestamp: 2/8/2012 1:53:26

{description}: The British Empire obtained a lease for the port in March of 1898 after Russia leased Port Arthur from China. The port served as one of two major Far East ports for the Royal Navy (the other being Hong Kong). The lease was stated to exist as long as the Russians occupied Port Arthur. While the port was technically a British Colony, it was treated as a settlement due to the possibility of control defaulting back to China at any time. Image: colonial flag of Weihai Garrison

{name}: Ruoyu Zhang

{section}: Wednesday 2pm (Dzavid)

Timestamp: 2/8/2012 2:15:24

{description}: The Republic of Mauritius is a country that includes a number of small islands east of Madagascar. The culture and landscape of this island nation have been indelibly affected by different empires over the course of history, beginning with the Dutch, who gave the island its name. Prior to the Dutch, the island was uninhabited, and Dutch attempts at settling it ultimately failed. In 1715, the French took control of Mauritius and established a colony based on sugar cane production. French corsairs used the island as a base for attacking British ships during the Napoleonic Wars, but the French ended up surrendering the island to the British in 1810. The British continued using the island for sugar cane production, but after the Empire abolished slavery in 1835, they had to find the workforce elsewhere. Most of it came in the form on indentured Indians, but there was also immigration from China, Madagascar, and parts of Africa, so the island's population became incredibly diverse. Mauritius finally gained its independence in 1968. Today, the languages spoken in Mauritius are English, French, and Mauritian Creole, reflecting the two empires that had once ruled it. The predominant religions (together comprising 96% of all religions represented in the republic), on the other hand, are Hinduism, Catholicism, and Islam, showing the different origins of the people of Mauritius. One of the most telling effects of European colonization of the island is the extinction of the curious Dodo bird (pictured), which was numerous when the first settlers arrived, but could not survive the colonists and their imported animals. The Dodo went extinct in the late 17th century.

{name}: Olga Zinoveva

{section}: Friday 12pm (Dzavid)

Timestamp: 2/8/2012 2:35:19

{description}: Victoria Falls is a waterfall located on the Zambezi River in Africa between Zambia and Zimbabwe. Victoria Falls is significant to the history of the British Empire because it demonstrates the empires ability to penetrate the globe, especially in regions that had previously been unexplored by Europeans.  David Livingstone, a famous imperial missionary, named Victoria Falls in honor of Queen Victoria. The fact that Victoria Falls is still widely known by its imperial name rather than its traditional name, ‘Mosi-oa-Tunya,’ is an example of the continuing legacy of the British Empire. It demonstrates the lingering effects and the indelible cultural marks of the British Empire on the regions it colonized.

{name}: Laurel McCarthy

{section}: Thursday 4pm (Mircea)

Timestamp: 2/8/2012 3:21:02

{description}: The Battle of Quiberon Bay in November 1759 marked a decisive naval victory for the British in the Seven Years’ War. Prior to the battle, the French had concocted a desperate scheme to invade England through freeing its forces from Britain’s constricting blockade. Such was a valiant attempt by the French, but instead it failed most spectacularly. Aided by a turbulent storm, a British force of 24 ships of the line – under the direction of Admiral Sir Edward Hawke – relentlessly chased the French fleet into Quiberon Bay on the southern coast of Brittany. In the ensuing onslaught, the British forces essentially decimated their rivals; a more-than-sizeable portion of the French’s 21 ships of the line had been destroyed through wreckage, fire, or capture. As a result of this turning point battle, the French fleet was never able to fully recover its devastating losses for the remainder of the war, and Britain thus solidified a naval supremacy – soon accompanied by land domination – that effectively secured its victory in the Seven Years’ War overall.

{name}: Dianna Hu

{section}: Wednesday 5pm (Nick)

Timestamp: 2/8/2012 3:52:27

{description}: The city of Savannah, Georgia, is a key historical site in the history of the British Empire. Not only was the city the site of critical historical events like the Siege of Savannah during the Revolutionary War, but Savannah’s early history also represents several key themes of the British colonization of America. The first theme that Savannah represents is the competition Britain faced with other imperial powers. Originally, the British founded Savannah and the providence of Georgia to create a ‘buffer colony’ in order to protect all territory north of the Savannah River from French and Spanish settlements in the South. Savannah also represents the Atlantic trade that emerged as a result of the British Empire’s expansion. While deerskins and other goods were exported to Europe from Savannah, British trade also transformed Savannah by shipping African Slaves to the city. These slaves, brought to Savannah in the Atlantic slave trade, were sold and worked in the marshes in Savannah--soon turning them into profitable rice fields. Later, in 1779, Savannah was the site of one of the bloodiest battles of the Revolutionary War and a decisive victory for Britain. But Savannah also represented the tension throughout the war of the varied loyalty of American colonists; Britain considered the South a stronghold because of the heavy loyalist presence, and hence developed a Southern strategy that began with conquering Savannah.

{name}: Caroline McKay

{section}: Wednesday 2pm (Matthew)

Timestamp: 2/8/2012 4:01:07

{description}: Brazil began to trade with Britain, among other foreign allies, in 1808. The two became close economic allies, and Britain contributed greatly to the development of Brazil's infrastructure. They maintained their close relationship after Brazil became independent from Portugal; in fact, Britain was a mediator while the other European power in South America negotiated the terms of independence with its former colony. Since Brazil began to trade with Britain, Britain has had a diplomatic presence in the city of Rio de Janeiro. At first, the Consul General lived there; when Brazil declared independence, a British ambassador was appointed. Eventually, Brazil's capital moved to Brasília, and the British embassy followed it. However, the consulate general is in Rio de Janeiro to this day.

{name}: Sam Moore

{section}: Thursday 2pm (Gitanjali)

Timestamp: 2/8/2012 6:46:07

{description}: Built in 1926, The Lady Grigg Indian Maternity Home and Infant Welfare Center at Nairobi embodies a couple of key - but at present unaddressed -- themes / phenomena of empire: 1) immigration w/in Empire: Often motivated by a need for increased labor force, various colonial governments organized incentive schemes to promote emigration between colonies. From 1890 to 1910, the Kenyan administration sponsored the emigration of tens of thousands of Indians to work on the Kenya-Uganda Railway. In Kenya, as in other spaces of empire, the introduction of a third race significantly complicated the imperial project along political (infrastructure!) and personal (identity!) dimensions. The LG Maternity Home and Infant Welfare Center at Nairobi is but one example of an attempt of a specific population (European women) to contribute to the national cause (by building out European-style infrastructure) while also carving out a specific identity (in this case institutionalizing the giver / receiver to uplifting/uplifted relationship between european and indian women). 2) women's bodies as symbols and sites of imperial conquest and contest: While the role(s) of women in empire is hotly debated, it is clear that the female experience of empire was decidedly different from the male. As has been pointed out in many places, language used to describe process of colonization and project of empire was (is) highly gendered: England was the ""motherland"" responsible for colonies' upbringing, new territory was ""virgin land"" until ""penetrated"", indigenous women embody ""erotic exoticism"", etc. Surprisingly, however, such discourse was riddled with contradiction and women of all races - in concept and in flesh - found themselves endowed with ambiguous imperial agency.

{description}: -1.282547,36.826172

{name}: Wednesday 2pm (Matthew)

{section}: 2/8/2012 8:06:37 The Old Summer Palace

Timestamp: The Old Summer Palace (also referred to as the Ruins of Yuanmingyuan) was built in 1709 under the reign of Emperor Kangxi from the Qing Dynasty. The Ruins are located in Beijing. An embodiment of ancient Chinese landscape gardening, it was expanded over the course of 150 years to become a large-scale private garden for each contemporary Emperor’s pleasure, until it was plundered and mostly destroyed in the year 1860 by Anglo-French Allied Forces. The destruction was an act committed during the Second Opium war, after British and French expeditionary forces reached Peking (Modern Day Beijing). The plundering and subsequent burning of the Palace was done in retaliation to the act of kidnapping and torture the Chinese Empire subjected to Henry Loch and Harry Parks, two envoys that were taken prisoner during talks with the Prince and returned two weeks later. On October 6th, French Units looted many of the treasures of the Old Summer Palace. On October 18th, Lord Elgin (the British High Commissioner to China) order the troops to burn the Palace as a method of warning the Chinese Empire that kidnapping and torture was not to be used as a bargaining tool. 3,500 British troops set the Palace on fire, killing more than 300 people trapped in the Palace, over the course of three days.

{description}: In 1828, British members of the Van Diemen’s Land Company killed thirty Aborigines in the Cape Grim Massacre, one of the events of the Black War between British colonists and the original inhabitants of Van Diemen’s Land (now known as Tasmania). Tensions had been building as a large demand for wool to be sent to textile mills in England fueled a growing settler population. Dramatic augmentations in land occupancy in the early 19th century increasingly edged the Aborigines, a hunter-gatherer people, off of their kangaroo and wallaby hunting grounds. The British put forth a Government Notice in 1826 that laid down legal conditions to fight back against the Aborigines, asserting that attackers should be treated openly as enemies. A series of attacks and retaliations between the Aborigines and the British settlers led to the Cape Grim Massacre in which the Aboriginal hunters were shot and killed, their bodies then thrown from the cliffs. No formal investigation was issued.

{name}: Tory Tarpley

{section}: Thursday 4pm (Mircea)

Timestamp: 2/8/2012 11:38:53

{description}: In a 1936 essay titled "Shooting an Elephant," George Orwell describes one memorable experience while serving the British Empire as a police officer in Moulmein, a village in lower Burma. In his account, Orwell criticizes the British Empire from the perspective of a British official trying to fulfill his duty to his nation. At one point he writes, "I perceived in this moment that when the white man turns tyrant it is his own freedom that he destroys." Orwell's essay demonstrates the ongoing struggle among British individuals to determine what an empire ought to stand for and how it can achieve those goals, if at all.

{name}: Jonathan Park

{section}: Thursday 4pm (Mircea)

Timestamp: 2/8/2012 11:58:37