ABSTRACT
In 1953, John Gallagher and Ronald Robinson published a short, well-crafted and scandalously provocative article entitled 'The Imperialism of Free Trade'. For critics of imperialism, who saw British economic power as a force for subverting economies at the periphery, Gallagher and Robinson's swipe at free trade might well have been a source for satisfaction. Gallagher and Robinson had criticism to level at various scholars who had tried to understand the existence of the British Empire in terms of the empire being a necessity for British global trade. This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book covers informal interventions in the Sudan in the nineteenth century and in Spain in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. It examines formal imperialism, in particular the methods by which states have attempted to secure control of imperial possessions. The book explores the role of supranational organisations in the pursuit of informal imperialism.
