Imperial Science

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss what drove the British Empire, especially in Victoria’s century. Was it science, more specifically, the science of plants, of agriculture, a scientific notion of nature and the improvement of nature? Was this seemingly rather adjacent notion - that the source of Empire can be found in Kew Gardens, Royal, Botanical, rather than in the muzzle of a gun or in the purse of a plunderer or in the consciousness of a conqueror - was science “the force that was with us?” Francis Bacon said of the Irish in 1603, “We shall reclaim them from their barbarous manners…populate plant and make civil all the provinces of that kingdom ..as we are persuaded that it is one of the chief causes for which God hath brought us to the Imperial Crown of these Kingdoms”. Centuries later, at the height of the Empire, John Stuart Mill wrote in On Liberty: “Despotism is a legitimate mode of government in dealing with barbarians, provided the end be their improvement”. But - despotism aside - was this notion of ‘improvement’ really the driving force behind the Empire? And did the British Empire have any firm basis in believing that the ‘light of pure reason’ that it brought to its colonies was any brighter than the knowledge that existed before they came? With Richard Drayton, Professor of History at the University of Virginia and author of Nature’s Government: Science, Imperial Britain and the ‘Improvement’ of the World; Maria Misra, Lecturer in Modern History and fellow of Keble College Oxford; Ziauddin Sardar, Professor of Science and Technology Policy, Middlesex University.

→ Play on BBC Sounds website

Guests

• Richard Drayton 2 episodes
  Professor of History at the University of Virginia
• Maria Misra 3 episodes
  Lecturer in Modern History and fellow of Keble College Oxford
• Ziauddin Sardar No other episodes
  Professor of Science and Technology Policy, Middlesex University

Related episodes

• Slavery and Empire
  
  17 Oct, 2002 900 History
• Cultural Imperialism
  
  27 Jun, 2002 300 Social sciences, sociology and anthropology
• The British Empire
  
  8 Nov, 2001 900 History
• Astronomy and Empire
  
  4 May, 2006 520 Astronomy
• The British Empire’s Legacy
  
  31 Dec, 1998 940 History of Europe
• The Enlightenment in Scotland
  
  5 Dec, 2002 190 Modern Western Philosophy
• The Industrial Revolution
  
  23 Dec, 2010 940 History of Europe
• Empiricism
  
  10 Jun, 2004 190 Modern Western Philosophy
• The East India Company
  
  26 Jun, 2003 380 Commerce, communications and transportation
• The Royal Society
  
  23 Mar, 2006 500 Science
• Mercantilism
  
  16 Mar, 2023 330 Economics
• Archaeology and Imperialism
  
  14 Apr, 2005 930 History of the Ancient World
• The Aristocracy
  
  19 Jun, 2003 940 History of Europe
• The Enlightenment in Britain
  
  18 Jan, 2001 940 History of Europe
• Science in the 20th century
  
  5 Nov, 1998 500 Science
• The Mughal Empire
  
  26 Feb, 2004 950 History of Asia
• The Cavendish Family in Science
  
  20 May, 2010 500 Science
• The Roman Empire’s Collapse in the 5th century
  
  18 Mar, 2004 930 History of the Ancient World
• Consequences of the Industrial Revolution
  
  30 Dec, 2010 330 Economics
• The Needham Question
  
  19 Oct, 2006 500 Science

---

Programme ID: p00547b5

Episode page: bbc.co.uk/programmes/p00547b5

Auto-category: 941.081 (British Empire - Victoria’s century)