The Killing Age

The Killing Age

Ch17.1. Canton, China

Canton, in China, became the most important gateway in the so-called opening of China to the West. Through Canton flowed massive amounts of tea, opium and other commodities, including weapons.

back to images & maps Ch17.1. Canton, China Canton, China, ca. 1760, British Library. By the middle of the eighteenth century, Canton (Guangzhou) had become the most important port connecting China and the West. Large quantities of goods moved in and out of the city: Chinese tea, silk, porcelain, American silver, and increasingly large amounts […]

Ch16.1 Indian Famine Victims

Asia suffered massive famines across the second half of the nineteenth century in the age of European imperial expansion. This illustration depicts Indian famine victims.

back to images & maps Ch16.1 Indian Famine Victims Indian Famine Victims Famines—that is the lack of food that results in widespread mortality—capture the headlines though the public sometimes grows weary of and feels helpless before these catastrophes. In fact, reporting on famines goes back centuries and especially during the nineteenth century. The spread of […]

Ch15.3. The spirit mediums Nehanda and Kabugi

This is a photograph of two of the religious prophets who led the massive rebellion in what was then Southern Rhodesia in the closing years of the nineteenth century. Both were hanged and buried in an unmarked grave.

back to images & maps Ch15.3. The spirit mediums Nehanda and Kabugi The spirit mediums Nehanda and Kabugi, Southern Rhodesia, 1897. Spirit mediums once played a vital role in Shona society. Royal ancestors (mhondoro) living in animals such as lions would travel and possess individuals, just as other ancestors also possessed the living. Mhondoro spirits, […]

Ch15.2. Treaty form, Imperial British East Africa Company

Killing Age Alt-Text Killing Age Alt-Text 100% 10 C34 Much of Africa was conquered by private companies. Officials like Lugard (later Lord), employed by the British East Africa Company, used a standard form by which African leaders ostensibly recognized foreign rule. Much of Africa was conquered by private companies. Officials like Lugard (later Lord), employed by the British East Africa Company, used a standard form by which African leaders ostensibly recognized foreign rule.

back to images & maps Ch15.2. Treaty form, Imperial British East Africa Company Treaty form, Imperial British East Africa Company, 1880s. Royal Geographical Society. Imagine Frederick Lugard invading East Africa’s interior with a bunch of forms in his satchel, cajoling and forcing African leaders to cede their sovereignty to the company. This is how nineteenth […]

Ch15.1. “Ruins on one side of Grand Square Alexandria”

This illustration depicts the aftermath of the British bombing of Alexandria, Egypt, a crucial moment in the rise of formal empire on the African continent.

back to images & maps Ch15.1. “Ruins on one side of Grand Square Alexandria” “Ruins on one side of Grand Square Alexandria,” 1882, by Lieutenant Francis Henry Boyer. National Royal Navy Museum. The British bombardment and invasion of Alexandria was one of the most cataclysmic events in modern Egyptian history, and the culmination of developments […]

Ch13.1. Early trains on the Liverpool and Manchester line

An illustration of the first train connecting Liverpool to Manchester. Trains utterly transformed the world, including its sonic spaces.

back to images & maps Ch13.1. Early trains on the Liverpool and Manchester line Ch13.1. Early trains on the Liverpool and Manchester line, 1831. Science Museum Group. This illustration is dated less than one year after the line’s opening. Very soon the trains were carrying people and a bewildering array of goods and animals between […]

Ch12.1. “The Stacking Room”

India produced vast amounts of opium for export. Large quantitites headed to China under the British East India Company.

back to images & maps Ch12.1. “The Stacking Room” “The Stacking Room,” 1882. British Library. Opium made the British vast sums of money. Indian opium became a global commodity in the nineteenth century, spreading everywhere from San Francisco to Europe and, especially, across China. The opium plant produces drugs such as morphine and codeine and, […]

Ch11.2. Quarry Hill (Quarry Bank Mill) Factory

One of England's largest textile factories, Quarry Hill had direct connections to slavery in the Caribbean.

back to images & maps Ch11.2. Quarry Hill (Quarry Bank Mill) Factory Quarry Hill (Quarry Bank Mill) Factory. One of England’s largest factories, Quarry Hill was devoted to the mass production of cloth. Like many textile mills, the factory originally ran using water and only later transitioned to coal. And like many factories, Quarry Hill […]

Ch11.1 Denbigh Plantation

This painting of the Denbigh Plantation in Jamaica helps us understand the connections between slavery and Great Britain's industrial revolution. The plantation was owned by the powerful Pennant family.

back to images & maps Ch11.1 Denbigh Plantation Ch11.1 Denbigh Plantation, Jamaica, artist unknown. By permission of Richard Douglas Pennant. In this painting, enslaved people are harvesting sugar cane and carting it to the boiling room. The bucolic scene belies the extraordinary brutality of slavery. Not only were enslaved people beaten, raped, and tortured, the […]

Ch10.2. Bison bones

This mountain of bison bones were being prepared for processing at one of America's largest nineteenth century factories in Detroit, Michigan.

back to images & maps Ch10.2. Bison bones Ch10.2. Bison bones. Rougeville, Michigan, 1892. Detroit Public Library. Bones were big business, especially bison bones in the closing years of the nineteenth century. Today it is hard to imagine that for a time bones littered the American Plains for as far as the eye could see. […]