Category Archives: Imperial History

Brexit, a Splendid Isolation? Why Britain Should Remain in the European Union

Posted on 09/06/2016 by J.F. Gjersø

Standing on the side-lines of Britain’s ongoing EU referendum debate makes for a peculiar and a rather worrying spectacle. It is probably the single most important political decision this country will make in a generation; a decision that will echo … Continue reading →

Posted in Contemporary History, Imperial History | Tagged , , | 3 Comments

Eunuchs for the Sultan of Zanzibar

Posted on 31/08/2014 by J.F. Gjersø

In the autumn of 1884 the British Consul at Zanzibar reported to the Liberal Foreign Secretary Earl Granville that the Sultan Barghash had imported ten slave-women and nine boy eunuchs to his harem. Although a violation of the Anti-Slave Trade … Continue reading →

Posted in Imperial History | Tagged , , , , | 1 Comment

Israel – The Last of the Settler Colonies

Posted on 16/08/2014 by J.F. Gjersø

Rewind the clock more or less than a century and you will find a world teeming with settler colonies engaged in battle with ‘unruly natives.’ Today only one remains; Israel is the last of a dying breed, the last of … Continue reading →

Posted in Imperial History | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | 3 Comments

Vice-Consul Haggard’s Report

Posted on 21/12/2011 by J.F. Gjersø

Sir John Kirk, the British Consul to the Sultan of Zanzibar, received in 1884 a report from his Vice-Consul John G. (Jack) Haggard. The brother of Victorian writer H. Rider Haggard  had summarised his adventurous journey from his station on … Continue reading →

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