This book looks at the mainsprings of imperial expansion and illustrates
the grain of truth in J.R. Seeley's famous phrase in The Expansion of
England: 'We seem to have conquered and peopled half the world in a fit
of absence of mind.' Peter Riviere gives a vivid account of how the
British Empire at the zenith of its power was dragged reluctantly, and
with little thought and no clear policy, into a minor border dispute
with Brazil which was solved only after sending a boundary commission
and an expeditionary force.
Centred on the Indian village of Pirara on the border between northern
Brazil and British Guiana, in a remote territory in the interior, the
story of the Anglo-Brazilian border dispute reveals much about the
varied and conflicting motivations of imperial expansion. Zealous
Protestant and Catholic mission activity, attempts to end slavery, and
the overwhelming motivation to establish links and to define and control
imperial boundaries were key aspects of the dispute. This is a
beautifully written and vivid anthropological and historical narrative,
with acute analysis of imperial expansion, based upon extensive
fieldwork and Foreign Office, Colonial Office and missionary society
records.
