ABSTRACT
The new British empire of the first decades of the nineteenth century complemented features of a revivified conservative regime at home. War against the French or against indigenous opponents of British expansion, Maratha, Burmese, Sinhalese, Malay or Xhosa, could justify much. In Malta the British had the great advantage that they had been invited in by the notables of the island in 1799 as Napoleon's power in the Mediterranean weakened. The British element in the administration was expanded. British cultural policy in the Mediterranean also yields examples which illuminate more general imperial themes. Equally important, the British fostered subordinate forms of nationalism within the empire. The British government was 'to carry civilisation, opulence and industry into every quarter of the globe'. An informal hierarchy also emerged among Europeans, with the British at the top, the Dutch burghers below, followed by the Portuguese Asians or Topases.
