3 - Empire and Independence c.1776–c.1825

Summary

Chapter 3 analyzes the many attempts to reconcile notions of empire with proliferating claims to independence during the Age of Revolutions, arguing that such claims and their relative success were precarious and contingent on the ideological context at hand, and rarely if ever translated into a demise of empires or imperial forms of rule. Claims to independence during this period are best understood in the context of emergent norms of international legal recognition, and against the backdrop of the competing visions of empire that animated global great power rivalries in the aftermath of the Napoleonic Wars. When seen from this perspective, the rise of independent states in the Americas looks less like a successful revolt against empire and an expansion of international society into a new continent but more like a continuation of empire with indirect means in a world defined by the interconnectedness of nominally sovereign states.