Empires of Violence by Philip Dwyer

Violence was a constant on all colonial frontiers, from the British expansion into the Australian and African continents, to the expansion of the United States and the Napoleonic Empire’s many incursions into Europe. Yet how did the forms of violence perpetrated in these four corners of the world compare? Did the oppression and exploitation of colonized peoples constitute a new form of violence? Or was it the same that Europeans had always used against conquered peoples?

In this book, four experts specializing in four different regions of the world come together to interrogate the violence committed against Indigenous peoples between 1780 and 1820. Showing how violence and massacre were a tool at the disposal of the colonizer, and often used to subjugate unruly populations, they examine the changing nature of warfare and killing from both a European and Indigenous perspective. Empires of Violence shows how race, othering and fear were maintained and buoyed by violence, in spite of prevailing discourses on humanitarianism, civilization and progress.

A global study of violence on four colonial frontiers to explore the dynamics of massacre in a comparative perspective, and to re-think the past oppression and exploitation of colonized peoples.

About the Author:

Philip Dwyer is Emeritus Professor of History at University of Newcastle, Australia, and former Director of the Centre for the History of Violence.

Barbara Alice Mann is Emeritus Professor of Humanities in the Jesup Scott Honors College at the University of Toledo, USA.

Nigel Penn is Emeritus Professor of History at the University of Cape Town, South Africa.

Lyndall Ryan was Emeritus Professor of History at University of Newcastle, Australia.

30 Oct 2025
 

Empires of Violence: Massacre in a Revolutionary Age by Philip Dwyer ISBN 9781350538634