Imperial Federation: Britain's Plan to Unite the Empire

In 1883, Sir John Robert Seeley published one of the most influential histories of the British Empire ever written. In it, he argued in favour of uniting the British Dominions into a single superstate, a plan later described as 'Imperial Federation'.

Though the federation would never come close to reality, it is nonetheless an interesting case study regarding the empire, and the ways British statesmen sought to grapple with the problem of an imperial domain that spread across the sea.

This video intends to be a short documentary looking at the ideas surrounding Imperial Federation, and why the plan failed.

Sources:
The Expansion of England, John Robert Seeley
The Empire Project, John Darwin
The Idea of Greater Britain: Empire and the Future of World Order, 1860-1900, Duncan Bell
Dreadnought, Robert K Massie (Used for the section on Chamberlain)

#History, #BritishEmpire, #Britain