It is fifty years since my engagement with the British empire and world history began, and so this volume is something of a celebration; it is also my swansong.

Whatever else historians may claim to do, they are likely to be students of human nature. Indeed, for Hume, the chief value of history is discovery of the principles of human nature: ‘Human Nature is the only science of man.’ Two aspects of this have long fascinated me: how people arrive at decisions, and how they manage sexuality. As fields of intellectual inquiry, these are not quite so disparate as they might seem, at least not if we view them as the twin axes around which much of active life revolves. Both can be observed playing out on the imperial stage at their most complex and contentious. Understanding the British empire needs – among other things, of course – engagement with the realities of government decision-making as it related to overseas territories, and scrutiny of sexualities expressed in the context of other communities and other traditions.

These two aspects of empire underpin many of the six themes which form the backbone of this set of essays: geopolitical and economic dynamics, religion, bureaucracy, individual agency, sexuality, and historiography. Each of these contributes, I believe, to a better appreciation of the nature of the imperial system.