International records / OpenAlex research

The Church and empire

“We seem, as it were, to have conquered and peopled half the world in a fit of absence of mind,” John Seeley wrote in 1883. Seeley sensed that loss of a large portion of North America and the enhancement of India's importance constituted a decisive new phase of empire. He understood that empire involved the expansion of one people to encompass others in patterns of trade and cultural influence. Seeley wondered whether colonial experience could acquire a unified character and mistakenly dismissed the influence of nationalism in most of Britain's possessions. Despite his awareness of the new pha…