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The Great Defiance: How the world took on the British Empire

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These are ingredients in the mix though, rather than the central concern of Veevers. His is a multifaceted analysis, equally interested in the commercial, political, and social drivers of the events he describes. This makes for a rounder, perhaps more thoughtful overview than a strictly military history would provide. The methodology and perspective that Veevers has adopted means that the book is not comprehensive. It proceeds through the first 300 years of British (technically English, then British) expansion chronologically, but not exhaustively. Most of these areas have been well researched and documented before, and Veevers gives full credit to the historians concerned. Of course, this is not what the book is about: its organising theme is the early British Empire. Those other players – Portugal, France, Spain, Holland, and so forth – inevitably feature heavily. Yet perhaps for reasons of space, Veevers does not offer us much by way of comparative analysis here.

Christopher Kissane is a historian and writer, and host of the Ireland’s Edge podcast. Further Reading

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For provocative it surely is. Inherently so, in that the argument being made is radical, setting out to challenge much of what has come before. There can be little to quibble with here unless one takes the view that Veevers’ analysis is badly flawed. Emotional content Works of history are sometimes criticised for being insufficiently forthcoming in their arguments. No such criticism will be levelled against David Veevers’ The Great Defiance: How the World Took On the British Empire. His second book is as provocative as it is wide-ranging. Bouncing from Ireland to India, from the Caribbean Sea to the Sea of Japan, it tells the story of how the English, later the British, were resisted and evaded, outflanked and outplayed, by the peoples, kingdoms, and empires which they encountered between 1500 and 1800. In "The Great Defiance: Unveiling the Epic Saga of the British Empire," author David Veevers has masterfully penned a non-fiction masterpiece that immerses readers in a world of captivating exploration, exceptional resilience, and awe-inspiring historical significance. With meticulous research and a gift for storytelling, Veevers has crafted a literary gem that effortlessly combines insightful analysis with an irresistible narrative drive, making it nearly impossible to put down. For nine long years from 1593 Ireland was ravaged by one of the largest and most brutal wars that Europe had seen for centuries. Tens of thousands of soldiers died from fighting and disease, while even more civilians died from famines instigated by English attempts to starve the population into submission. As the Elizabethan state poured money and men into Ireland, it seemed to many that the country could never be subdued. As veteran officer Nicholas Dawtry wrote in 1597, a “conquered nation” is “evermore malicious unto those that conquered them, and so will be until the world’s end”’. Laugh Your Way Through History with 'The Great Defiance' by David Veevers - A Comedy of Errors, Liberal Guilt, and Historical Hilarity!"

The “success” of early resistance to English imperialism, he argues, was in large part due to the weakness of the English state and its colonial entities. With “the Glorious Revolution” and the act of union with Scotland, Britain gained the “political and religious stability, and fiscal and commercial effectiveness” to more effectively project its strength globally. If I am writing this in English, it is partly because generations of Britons took the view that “there is no land unhabitable nor sea innavigable” and sailed forth from these islands to trade and to conquer. This does not mean that the experiences of the non-Western world should be ignored, far from it. To the extent that Veevers has tried to make an unfamiliar part of their histories more accessible to a lay audience, he is to be commended.This approach does mean that some aspects of the early British imperial story are absent. The American Revolution is the most obvious of these and, indeed, there is barely any coverage of the history of the colonies on the north-eastern seaboard. Mentions are in passing, and only insofar as the region has a bearing on the rest of the narrative. Veevers expertly weaves together a tapestry of historical accounts, personal anecdotes, and vivid descriptions, bringing to life the triumphs, struggles, and complexities of this colossal empire. The level of detail and thoroughness of research is truly commendable, underscoring Veevers' commitment to unearthing the untold stories that have shaped the British Empire's legacy.

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