Time’s Monster: History, Conscience and Britain’s Empire
Priya Satia’s book “Time’s Monster: History, Conscience, and Britain’s Empire” shows persuasively colonial policies that sought to reform and civilize the colonized were supported by economic exploitation. History and history were the handmaidens of British imperialism in the 19th century. Historians wrote to justify the empire and history was used by politicians and public figures to rationalize conquering acts. At that time, the idea of progress that was derived from the Enlightenment and the development of capitalism after the industrial revolution dominated the intellectual landscape. In all good conscience, well-intentioned people were convinced that it was their duty, their moral responsibility, to civilize people who had not yet experienced progress, meaning capitalist modernity. Capitalist modernity not only meant an economic system, but it denoted an entire intellectual apparatus and institutional practices. British imperialism originated as an organized system of economic exploitation through which, at the expense of conquered and colonized territories, Britain enriched itself.
