Exporting Empire

In this book, Christopher Prior explores the personal motives and thoughts of members of the British colonial service in Africa during the first half of the twentieth century. Diaries, memoirs, reports and correspondence provide a wealth of sources for this historical study. Prior contends that personal gains, career prospects and an overall sense of individualism determined the aspirations of colonial officials. He divides his book into six thematic chapters, following the colonial officials from England to the colonies, protectorates and mandated territories in Africa: the Gold Coast, Nigeria, Uganda, Tanganyika, Sudan, the Gambia, Sierra Leone and the British Cameroons. He describes the colonial officials’ socialisation in England, their training and education for the colonial service and their roles in administering colonial change. Throughout these chapters, connections between metropolitan and local influences illustrate the tensions that colonial officials experienced with other officials and African dignitaries—a perspective which is often missing from related studies

Ancient history · Archaeology · British Empire · Colonialism · Economic history · Empire · Ethnology · Metropolitan area · Political science · Sierra leone · Sociology · State (computer science · African history and culture studies · Global Maritime and Colonial Histories · History