The Brutish Empire: Four Centuries of Colonial Atrocities

The Bloody History of British Colonisation

For centuries, a small island nation cast a shadow across the world. The British Empire’s methods of expansion were often brutal, usually devastating. From Amritsar to Zululand, from the Opium Wars in China to the deliberate infection of Native Americans with smallpox and the cold-blooded treatment of the starving during the Irish Famine, Des Ekin lays bare the atrocities committed in the name of colonisation.

With many nations worldwide still grappling with the legacy of British rule, Ekin explores the justifications used to dehumanise other people and rationalise their abuse, exploitation and slaughter. In this rigorously researched and eminently readable book, Des Ekin lifts the veil on the harrowing realities of colonial rule.

Table of Contents

First … A Micro-History of the British Empire

Amritsar – The Massacre that Shocked the World

Biological Warfare

Concentration Camps

Drug Dealing for Queen and Country

Eugenics, Elitism and English Exceptionalism – A Glimpse Into the Mindset of Empire

Famine in Ireland

The G-Word: Genocide or Not?

Hunting for Human Beings

Ireland: The Test Lab of Empire

Jamaica and the Saturnalia of Slaughter

Kleptomania

Lashman – The Extraordinary John Nicholson

‘McEmpire’: – The East India Company

The New World

Omdurman and the Slaughter of the Wounded

Partition of India and the End of British Rule

Queensland: The Dark History Behind the Sunshine State

Revolt in India, 1857 – The So-called ‘Indian Mutiny’

Slavery

‘Terror Beyond the Grave’ – The Peculiar Policy of Postmortem Punishment

The ‘Unknown Continent’ and the Unbeatable Weapon

Van Diemen’s Land

‘The White Man’s Fury’ – The Waikato Atrocities in New Zealand

The Xhosa Wars

Younghusband’s Yaks, and the Invasion of Tibet

Zulus

Source Notes