The Beginnings of English Imperialism |
| |
| Authors: | JOHN GILLINGHAM |
| |
| Institution: | JOHN GILLINGHAM is a member of the International History Department at the B E. He is currently interested in the inter-relationship between forms of conflict and socio-political systems, particularly in Europe, particularly in the 'chivalrous' centuries. He has published on German and French medieval history as well as on British. |
| |
| Abstract: | Abstract This article looks at a critical stage in the forcible anglicisation of Ireland. Scotland and Wales, and argues that the set of cultural images which provided the moral energy for English imperialism first emerged in the twelfth century, i.e. about four centuries earlier than is commonly supposed. By early twelfth century profound economic, social, military and cultural developments had so transformed England as to mean that the English and Celtic worlds were now sufficiently far apart for the differences between them to be visible to contemporaries, notably to William of Malmesbury, the first to articulate this 'significant otherness' in terms of the classical contrast between civilisation and barbarism. |
| |
| Keywords: | |
|
|
