Empire of Emergency: Martial Law and the British Empire, 1700-1865

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Emergency powers are of enormous importance in the twenty-first century. Empire of Emergency aims to explain a core aspect of their development by exploring the history of martial law in the British Empire. It aims to show how martial law proliferated in British colonies after 1760, becoming a ubiquitous tool, not only for quelling colonial rebellion, but for managing disorder in difficult hinterlands in colonies as disparate as Honduras and New South Wales. Using traditional research methods and new tools of digital analysis, this project expects to enhance our understanding of the complex relationships among violence, law, humanitarianism and liberalism that underpinned British imperial ideology at a crucial time in global history.