1. Defining the British Empire
- The red on the map: Size and structure
- Informal empire
- A trading and economic zone
- A network of networks
- A military system: Maritime power and overseas garrisons
2. The engines of imperial expansion I
- The urge to empire
- Theories of British imperial expansion
- Trade and the quest for resources
- Migration, overseas settlement, and taking possession of land
- War, strategy, and the challenges of imperial defence
3. The engines of imperial expansion II
- Knowledge and empire
- Discovery and exploration
- Exploring the explorers
- Science, technology and empire
- Religion and missionaries
- Humanitarianism, trusteeship and philanthropy
4. Phases and regions of imperial expansion
- The early empire: 1200s to 1600s
- The eighteenth-century empire
- The nineteenth-century empire
- The twentieth-century empire
5. Governing the Empire
- The role of the monarch and the Royal Family
- Offices of state and imperial proconsuls
- Colonial rule on the ground: District commissioners and the colonial civil services
- Colonial rule on the ground: The role of indigenous leaders
- Dominion self-government
6. Living in the Empire
- Race and empire
- Colonial lives
- Changing cultures
- Orientalism, culture and imperialism
7. The Empire at home
- Empire, British culture and everyday life
- Branding and marketing the Empire
- The British larder and diet
- The Empire in British politics
8. Displaying and exhibiting the Empire
- Botanical gardens
- Empire day, jubilees and military tattoos
- Museums
- Exhibitions
- Imperial London
- The British Empire Exhibition, 1924–25 and Glasgow Empire Exhibition, 1938
9. The end of empire
- Decolonisation in context
- The impact of the Second World War
- The pattern of decolonisation
- When did the British Empire actually end?
10. Legacies of empire
- The Commonwealth
- Remaining dependent territories
- Post-war immigration and multiracial Britain
- The natural world and the built environment
- Auditing the British Empire