Empire with a Vengeance

Description

Today, the use of military force to punish enemies is strictly prohibited under international law. It is also a widely accepted principle that acts of vengeance and reprisal have almost no legitimate place in warfare.

Throughout much of Western history, however, punishment and retaliation were not only important aspects of conflict, but were key justifications for waging war in the first place—particularly when it came to the defence of national honour. European empires were no exception to this rule. Throughout the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, two of the world’s most formidable powers, France and Britain, regularly framed wars of conquest and counterinsurgency using the language of justice and revenge. Whether to avenge alleged insults, punish perceived transgressions, or exact retribution for ‘crimes’ committed against the dignity and authority of Europeans, ‘honour’ was used as a legal, religious and moral rationale for violent expansion, consolidation and policing.

Based on extensive archival research in multiple languages, Empire with a Vengeance is the first comparative examination of honour and revenge in colonial policy. Showing the central importance of these seemingly archaic concepts, it offers crucial insight into the brutal dynamics of empire’s ‘civilising mission’.

Reviews

‘A powerful contribution to the history of colonial violence and warfare. This book reveals how military methods and security practices circulated across nations, linking disparate imperial experiences through the shared logics of revenge and retribution, and imposed upon colonial populations with brutality.’ — Philip W. Blood, author of War Comes to Aachen

‘Honour-based violence refers to something very different in the nineteenth-century imperial world. As Condos explains so lucidly, British and French forces committed atrocities on a surprising scale to restore offended dignity and reverse humiliation at the hands of those they considered racially inferior. Indiscriminate, exemplary reprisal killing underpinned even the most “enlightened” and purportedly civilising of colonial regimes.’ — Alan Lester, Professor of Historical Geography, University of Sussex, and editor of The Truth About Empire: Real Histories of British Colonialism

‘The meticulously documented ruthless brutalities executed by colonial empires as “acts of honour” in response to resistance and defeat dishonour and degrade the self-proclaimed civilising missions. The unscrupulous vengeance guided by an obsessive mindset to “exterminate the brutes” reveals who the barbarians really were. Condos presents another important demystification of the colonial-apologetic narratives.’ — Henning Melber, Extraordinary Professor, University of Pretoria, and author of The Long Shadow of German Colonialism

‘Condos identifies notions of honour and retribution as central to the violence that underwrote European colonialism during the nineteenth century. A genuinely pathbreaking work of comparative and trans-imperial history that should be compulsory reading for anyone seriously interested in historical questions of violence and empire.’ — Kim A. Wagner, Professor of Global and Imperial History, Queen Mary, University of London, and author of The Skull of Alum Bheg: The Life and Death of a Rebel of 1857

‘A cohesive and ambitious argument. It resonates and engages with a broad strand of global and imperial historiography that either identifies a generic colonial violence as analytically distinct or focuses on individual national instances of colonial violence to make the same point. Engagingly written.’ — Martin Thomas, Professor of Imperial History, University of Exeter, and author of The End of Empires and a World Remade

Author(s)

Mark Condos is Senior Lecturer in Imperial and Global History at King's College London, where he researches and teaches the history of the British and French Empires. He is the author of The Insecurity State: Punjab and the Making of Colonial Power in British India.