Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of figures
- List of maps
- Preface: Geography and the sea
- List of abbreviations
- Introduction: Britain's island idea
- 1 Community of water
- 2 Queen of Sparta
- 3 The discipline of the sea
- 4 Ark of war
- 5 Blowing a dead coal
- 6 The British empire in Europe
- 7 The world in an island
- 8 Anti-continentalism
- 9 What continent?
- Conclusion: floating islands
- Appendix: Duck Language (1724)
- Bibliography
- Index
7 - The world in an island
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 June 2012
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of figures
- List of maps
- Preface: Geography and the sea
- List of abbreviations
- Introduction: Britain's island idea
- 1 Community of water
- 2 Queen of Sparta
- 3 The discipline of the sea
- 4 Ark of war
- 5 Blowing a dead coal
- 6 The British empire in Europe
- 7 The world in an island
- 8 Anti-continentalism
- 9 What continent?
- Conclusion: floating islands
- Appendix: Duck Language (1724)
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
We came to Aiolia Island next. Aiolos lived there,
Hippotes's son: the deathless Gods are his good friends.
The island's floating, walls are entirely around it,
Unbreakable bronze, and the smooth-faced cliff is a high one.
Homer, The Odyssey Book 10, lines 1–4They go to an Island to take special charge,
Much warmer than Britain, and ten times as large:
No customs-house duty, no freightage to pay,
And tax-free they'll live when in Botany Bay.
Ballad, Whitehall Evening Post, 19 December 1786After an Athenian tweak during the Elizabethan period, islands versus continents had enjoyed a brief early Stuart revival before the mid-century collapse of monarchy. As the revolution of 1689 and its military aftermath transformed national power, and created a British state, so this aspect of self-definition re-emerged. Now, however, the framework was not dynastic but political, military and cultural. All of these developments had national, regional, European and global contexts.
For George Savile insularity equalled circumscription:
Wee are in an island, Restrained to it by God Almighty … Happy Confinement! That hath made us free, rich, and quiet … Our Scituation hath made Greatnesse abroad by land Conquests unnaturall things to us. It is true we have made excursions and Glorious ones too … but they did not last … Admitt the English to be Gyants in Courage, yet they must not hope to succeed in making warre against Heaven, which seemeth to have enjoyned them, to acquiesce in being happy with their own Circle.
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- Information
- When the Waves Ruled BritanniaGeography and Political Identities, 1500–1800, pp. 137 - 152Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2011