Samuel Ajayi Crowther was probably the most prominent African involved in missionary activity in the nineteenth-century, but he was not the only one who played an important role in ‘spreading the gospel’. Who were the Africans that joined missions in the nineteenth-century? Why were mission societies initially so keen to recruit them? And what were these Africans thinking about the future of Africa?
Key words: Migration, Empire, Business, Identity, Liberty, Religion, Ideas, Role of individuals in encouraging/inhibiting change
In 1171, Henry II of England launched an invasion of Ireland. This was mainly prompted by Henry’s desire to limit the growing power of the Anglo-Norman lords who had begun to colonise south-east Ireland. This resource explores how negative stereotypes of the native Irish population were used to help justify the invasion as a civilising mission, in line with royal and papal arguments.
Key words: Empire; Identity; Migration; War; Religion; Government
After the First World War, the League of Nations created the Mandate System which transferred legal control over certain territories from defeated powers to a victorious one. When Britain was granted a Mandate for Iraq, the government turned to Gertrude Bell to help create an identity for this new country. Gertrude Bell was the first woman to gain a First Class degree in History from the University of Oxford; she was also a world-class mountaineer, adventurous traveller, best-selling author, archaeologist, photographer, and worked as a British intelligence officer during WWI.
Key words: Migration; Empire; Business; Identity; Liberty; Survival; Religion; Government; Communications; Economy; Ideas; Role of individuals in encouraging / inhibiting change
In 1957 the British colony of the Gold Coast became the independent nation of Ghana. Did Britain grant Ghanaian independence or was this the result of the actions of Ghanaian nationalists, led by Kwame Nkrumah?
Key words: Empire, Liberty, Government, Ideas, Role of individuals in encouraging change, Africa, independence, decolonisation, nationalism, Ghana, Nkrumah
Initially, the Hundred Years War was not so much a national war between England and France as a dynastic conflict between two monarchs over a particular territory. The English government therefore used various methods of communication and propoaganda to persuade the population that war was in the national interest. This resource explores those methods, in particular how propaganda was spread before the development of communications technology.
Key words: Empire; Identity; War; Religion; Ideas; Government; Communications
