The Great Defiance: How the world took on the British Empire

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Veevers' writing style is a delight to behold. Each sentence is carefully crafted, effortlessly blending eloquence with accessibility. The prose carries a certain cadence, drawing readers deeper into the narrative and allowing them to visualize the grandeur and significance of historical events. Whether describing decisive battles or intimate interactions, Veevers' words evoke emotions and create a powerful connection between the reader and the subject matter. There are sections that may be difficult to read (I certainly found my anxiety levels raising at points of brutality), but it is important that these descriptions be present. Very interesting. It casts a spotlight on some of the lesser-told narratives of British colonial history.

Furthermore, unless your historic taste is literally confined to military matters, it is undeniably interesting. As military history enthusiasts, we are accustomed to that focus and there is nothing wrong with that in itself. But the broader causality of military conflict and indeed the tides of history are relevant. However provocative Veevers’ analysis is, it is well argued, thoroughly researched, and engagingly written. Courting India: England, Mughal India, and the Origins of Empire by Nandini Das (Bloomsbury, 2023). With an extraordinary depth of research and brilliant writing, Das illuminates the often-overlooked beginnings of British involvement in India from both western and Indian perspectives.

Non-Western polities are invariably described as powerful and sophisticated, which rather raises the question of why so many of them were conquered by a few thousand people from a pathetic little island. The role of local collaborators, indispensable to the establishment and maintenance of imperial rule, is notably absent. It would have spoiled the narrative. For nine long years from 1593 Ireland was ravaged by one of the largest and most brutal wars that Europe had seen for centuries. Tens of thousands of soldiers died from fighting and disease, while even more civilians died from famines instigated by English attempts to starve the population into submission. As the Elizabethan state poured money and men into Ireland, it seemed to many that the country could never be subdued. As veteran officer Nicholas Dawtry wrote in 1597, a “conquered nation” is “evermore malicious unto those that conquered them, and so will be until the world’s end”’. The methodology and perspective that Veevers has adopted means that the book is not comprehensive. It proceeds through the first 300 years of British (technically English, then British) expansion chronologically, but not exhaustively. Most of these areas have been well researched and documented before, and Veevers gives full credit to the historians concerned. In this captivating episode of Explaining History, we delve into the profound historical moments leading to the end of World War II with our special guest, acclaimed writer and historian, Evan Thomas.

Veevers admirably tries to render Irish names in their own language, but his linguistic hybrid only serves to highlight elided complexity. “Hugh Ó Néill” was Hugh O’Neill in English and Aodh Ó Néill in Irish, and the great earl’s shifts between those identities were key to his political career. Tyrone’s rebellion is cast as an attempt to “rid his country of every shred of English influence”, but even many contemporaries would have suggested that O’Neill’s conversion to “faith and fatherland” was about ruthless self-interest rather than “resistance”.

Making Empire: Ireland, Imperialism and the Early Modern World By Jane Ohlmeyer (Oxford University Press, November 2023). Based on her landmark 2021 Ford lectures at Oxford, Ohlmeyer’s forthcoming book will re-examine Ireland’s relationship with imperialism both as a colony and as an active part of empire. Christopher Kissane

At times it feels like the debates of Brexit Britain are leading Veevers to ask the wrong questions about Ireland, almost instrumentalising our complex colonial history. “How might we understand the conquest of Ireland,” he writes, “if we note the enduring success of Irish culture, even in affecting its English colonisers?” Since when have we not? Christopher Kissane is a historian and writer, and host of the Ireland’s Edge podcast. Further Reading A provocative book which will ruffle feathers...well argued, thoroughly researched, and engagingly written Andrew Mullholland, Military History Matters A deft weaving of global trade and local imperatives that is at once compelling, thought-provoking, and occasionally harrowing, The Great Defiance skillfully reorients our perspective on the received history of the earliest days of English trade and colonial ambitions and the emergent British Empire. Professor Nandini Das In addition to enthusiastic descriptions of Dahomey’s military prowess, expressed through burning down cities and enslaving its inhabitants (Agaja “was able to surround two of his palaces with walls made from skulls”) and his wealth (he gifted 40 slaves to George I and wore a lot of silk), Veevers credits Agaja with forging “a powerful kingdom capable of seizing control of the trade in enslaved people for their own benefit”. Good for him, one supposes.The many atrocities of the era are described in the most purple of prose, but they are only condemned when committed by Europeans. In a striking passage, Veevers patiently explains that when the English cut off the heads of their enemies, it was for “humiliation” and “deterrence”. When the Dahomians did it, it is matter-of-factly justified as “expressing the king’s spiritual power over the people”.

In this episode, I've had the pleasure of talking with a good friend of the podcast, Alvaro Gomez Velasco, our eyewitness on contemporary politics in Spain. We explore the recent rise of right wing populism across Europe and the growth of the Vox movement in Spain. Examining the legacy of Franco, the suppression of the Catalan independence movement and the issue of immigration, we explore the reasons for a resurgence of the right in Spain and the prospects for the left in the future.

That distinction between states and people is important. Dahomey’s “independence” from European powers, after all, was built through the brutal conquest of its neighbours, and by “seizing control of the trade in enslaved people for [its] own benefit”. Grouping a huge range of “indigenous and non-European power” together perhaps reinforces British imperial perspectives rather than undermining them: the common thread between the displaced Kalinago and the mighty Mughals is that they encountered the English. Our conversation also scrutinizes the effects of these final manoeuvres on both sides of the conflict and their broader impact on the post-war world. Additionally, we discuss the moral, ethical, and historical debates that continue to surround these events.