While Britain was not the only imperial nation, its extraordinary application and exploitation of maritime power ensured the British engagement with the world was unique in terms of its range, size and intricacy. Yet these relationships were constantly challenged and adapted. The period between the end of the Seven Years War and the abolition of British colonial slavery witnessed a fundamental change in the scale and nature of this interaction. This was not an isolated phenomenon, but rather part of a transformative series of simultaneous and interlinked global pressures, crises, and revolutions that foreshadowed the birth of the modern world. This turbulent age – characterised by contradictory and competing forces of revolution and reaction, ‘liberty’ and imperialism, war and peace, and enlightenment and enslavement – served to reconfigure the nexus of power within the British Empire and its wider maritime world.

These lectures have been organized jointly by the National Maritime Museum’s Centre for Imperial & Maritime Studies and the Institute of Historical Research. They will draw on path-breaking research by leading scholars to explore the significance and complexities of Britain’s maritime world in this key period through a series of thematic discussions, comparing similar and contrasting contemporary movements and events. The resulting analysis will highlight diverse perspectives, place issues and debates into broader contexts, set new research agendas, and demonstrate the essential interconnectedness of empire, the sea and global history.

A series of lectures at the Beveridge Hall, Senate House, University of London – Tuesdays and Thursdays, 3, 5, 10, 12, 17, 19, 24 and 26 October 2006