European Empires from Conquest to Collapse, 1815-1960

New edition of a trail-blazing history of imperial warfare

European Empires from Conquest to Collapse is a vivid anticolonial reckoning with the history of imperial warfare. Global in scope, it deftly surveys the fighting forces and military engagements of the Great Powers, from the British in India to the scramble for Africa. Victor Kiernan lays bare the doctrines and realities of colonial fighting, dispelling official legends. Europe often boasted that colonialism was ‘civilised’, but the facts show it could be barbaric. Kiernan traces how guerrilla insurgency against colonial oppression developed into one of the most sophisticated branches of the art of war.