Dr Andrew Mackillop (University of Glasgow): ‘Corporation, Province, and Empire: Ulster and the English East India Company, c.1700-c.1820‘

Thursday 5 December, 6pm-7.30pm. In-person in 27 University Square 01/003, Queen’s University Belfast and online via Teams.

Abstract: Ulster’s relationship with British imperialism is arguably one of the better understood aspects of Ireland’s long and complex involvement with English and British imperialism. Yet this is a history which is noticeably uneven, with certain periods and geographies garnering more attention than others. Compared to understandings of the era of ‘plantation’, mass transatlantic migration from c.1700 to c.1850s, or the Victorian and Edwardian phases of conspicuous military and industrial participation in Britain’s world system, the role of Ulster in the English East India Company’s trade and expansion in early modern Asia remains relatively underexplored. The paper charts the chronology and character of Ulster networks inside the London-based corporation which until 1813 controlled half of Britain’s global empire. It also reflects on the implications of these transhemispheric connections for assessing Ulster’s place in Ireland and in the British Empire during the long eighteenth century.

Image: George Romney, ‘Colonel Jacob Camac (1783)’ © American National Gallery of Art

RECORDING AT: USIHS seminar_ Andrew Mackillop-20241205_180359-Meeting Recording.mp4

REGISTER AT: https://www.eventbrite.ie/e/andrew-mackillop-ulster-and-the-english-east-india-company-c1700-1820-tickets-1088535311419?aff=oddtdtcreator