The Great Defiance How the World took on British Empire

David Veevers

The Pakistan Development Review, 2025, vol. 64, issue 1, 73-76

Abstract: Introduction While much has been written about how the so-called superior Western civilization conquered and colonized vast regions of the world owing to their advancement in technology and mission civilisatrice, there have been few histories of the people who encountered the British with more advanced militaries, lavish courts, thriving cities, bustling trade and economies, and complex and developed cultures with extravagance lifestyles. Although James S Mill like historians praised the civilizing mission of the British Empire that came of age when J.S. Mills like historians developed disillusioned historical consciousness, the so-called backward and barbarian autochthonous people were far ahead of the British and other European nascent powers. The story of the British conquest remained a famous subject of romance historians who eulogized the British ability to conquer and subjugate different regions. However, the story of British subjection and their humility and disgrace rarely became a famous subject of study for Western historians. Although there are many stories of resistance against the British colonial forces around the globe most of them are taken from the point of view of the British perspective hereoising the British forces instead of showing the heroic defiance of the conquered. In his exuberantly lively and dazzling account of the worlds resistance towards the British Empire, The Great Defiance: How the World Took on the British Empire David Veevers tells the story of Indigenous peoples resistance in his epic book. The Great Defiance is the story of the world taking over the British Empire. While castigating the histories written eulogizing the empire where the sun never set, David Veevers sees that the defining event of the pre-modern world was not the emergence of an all-encompassing British Empire, but the great defiance of the people who found themselves in its path and their heroic struggle in resisting it often successfully.

Date: 2025
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