Um das Jahr 1890 gab es in Großbritannien keine Lehrstühle, Vorlesungen und keine Lehrveranstaltungen, die sich mit imperialer Geschichte, Geografie, Wirtschaftsgeschichte oder internationalen Beziehungen beschäftigten. Dies änderte sich im Laufe der nächsten drei Jahrzehnte. Diese Dissertation analysiert diese Entwicklung. Ich wollte verstehen, was diese Entwicklungen angeregt hat und wollte nachprüfen, wer hinter diesen Änderungen stand. Die wichtigste Erkenntnis ist, dass in allen vier Fällen die Begründer der Fachbereiche die wichtigsten Elemente der Weltanschauung teilten. Zuallererst, ohne Ausnahme, handelten sie, weil sie überzeugt waren, dass das Imperium sich in Richtung des Zusammenbruchs seiner Macht bewegte. Diese Arbeit argumentiert, dass diese Unsicherheit die Suche nach neuen Formen der Erkenntnis begünstigte. Was ist möglich zu bemerken ist, erstens, sorgten sich diese Pioniere in erster Linie um die Zukunft und handelten an späterer Stelle als wissenschaftliche Erneuerer. Zweitens führe ich aus, dass viele Pioniere der Fachbereichen in mehr als nur einer Disziplin agierten. Anders gesagt, die Schaffung von neuem Wissen war wichtiger als jeder besondere Fachbereich. Drittens verfolgten diese neuen Fachbereiche das Ziel praktisches Wissen zu erzeugen, das von Staatsmännern genutzt werden konnte. Zuletzt, weil die Schlussfolgerungen dieser neuen Fachbereiche eine große Reichweite benötigten, mussten ihre Pioniere ein großes Publikum erreichen. Als darauffolgende Konsequenz waren diese neuen Fachbereiche nicht innerhalb der Mauern der Universitäten verschlossen. Der Drang danach, weite Massen zu erreichen, war einer der Hauptgründe, warum es zu einer Institutionalisierung kam. In allen vier Fallbeispielen zeige ich, wie genau diese wahrnehmbaren Schwierigkeiten den zeitlichen und geographischen Umfang dieser neuen Fachbereiche vorbestimmt haben, ebenso wie ihre thematischen Vorlieben. / Around 1890 there were no university chairs, no lectures, and no courses dealing with imperial history, geography, economic history or international relations in Great Britain. Over the course of the next three decades this changed. This dissertation analyses this evolution. I attempted to understand what provoked these developments and I inquired who stood behind these changes. Most importantly, comparison points that in all four instances disciplinary innovators shared the key convictions. Above all, without exception, they acted because they were convinced that the Empire is heading towards the collapse of its powers. The argument of the thesis is that the uncertain future gave rise to the quest for the new kind of knowledge. What is possible to notice is, in the first place, that the pioneers firstly started to worry about the future, and only later acted as scientific innovators. In the second place, I point that many disciplinary pioneers were acting in more than a single discipline. In other words, the creation of a new kind of a knowledge was more important than any specific area of studies. Third, the new disciplines ought to produce practical knowledge that could be used by statesmen. Lastly, because conclusions of these new disciplines needed to be disseminated, the pioneers had to reach wide audiences. As a consequence of this, the new disciplines were not confined within walls of universities. This desire to reach the masses is the key reason why institutionalisation happened. In all four case studies I demonstrate how exactly these perceived problems predetermined the chronological and geographical scope of the new disciplines, together with their thematic predilections.

This work presents a study of shipbuilding and timber management in the Royal Dockyards in the period 1750 – 1850, focusing on an archaeological investigation of ship timber marks. The first chapter outlines the concept of timber marking in shipbuilding contexts, stressing the multi-disciplinary approach to the study highlighted in the available archaeological and documentary evidence by which the practice of timber marking can be understood. Chapter two outlines the background to timber marking in the Georgian era and the development of the practice within the broader advances made in shipbuilding, technology and design prior to the end of the 17th century. Chapter three outlines the developments in shipbuilding and the introduction of systems to control and standardise the management of timber in the Royal Dockyards in the 18th century. In the latter half of the 18th century we will see the attempts of naval reformers to develop these systems of timber management and pave the way for the sweeping changes made at the beginning of the 19th century. Chapter four highlights these changes with the introduction of the Timber Masters and looks at the nature of timber management and the marking of timbers as identified in documentary sources. This evidence lays the foundation for the understanding of timber marking in the 19th century as witnessed in the archaeological record. The remaining chapters present the much more extensive archaeological evidence for timber marking among several high profile assemblages. The main assemblages presented in Chapters 5 to 9 show the diversity of timber marking practices and how they relate to the working processes of the Royal Dockyards. The research offers new insights into the understanding of shipbuilding and the management of timber in the Royal Dockyards between 1750 and 1850 and explores the possibilities for further avenues of study.

The thesis challenges popular generalisations about the trades, occupations and locations to which pauper apprentices were consigned, shining the spotlight away from the familiar narrative of factory children, onto the fate of their destitute peers in port towns. A comparative investigation of Liverpool, Bristol and Southampton, it adopts a deliberately broad definition of the term pauper apprenticeship in its multi-sourced approach, using 1710 Poor Law and charity apprenticeship records and previously unexamined New Poor Law and charity correspondence to provide new insight into the chronology, mechanisms and experience of pauper apprenticeship. Not all port children were shipped out. Significantly more children than has hitherto been acknowledged were placed in traditional occupations, the dominant form of apprenticeship for port children. The survival and entrenchment of this type of work is striking, as are the locations in which children were placed; nearly half of those bound to traditional trades remained within the vicinity of the port. The thesis also sheds new light on a largely overlooked aspect of pauper apprenticeship, the binding of boys into the Merchant service. Furthermore, the availability of sea apprenticeships as well as traditional placements caused some children to be shipped in to the ports for apprenticeships. Of those who were still shipped out to the factories, the evidence shows that far from dying out, as previously thought, the practice of batch apprenticeship persisted under the New Poor Law. The most significant finding of the thesis is the survival and endurance of pauper apprenticeship as an institution involving both Poor Law and charity children. Poor children were still being apprenticed late into the third quarter of the nineteenth century. Pauper apprenticeship is shown to have been a robust, resilient and resurgent institution. The evidence from port towns offers significant revision to the existing historiography of pauper apprenticeship.

The reclamation and analysis of women's experiences within three Nonconformist denominations is the focus of this thesis. The first chapter places each denomination in its social and theological context, and describes its governing structures. The bulk of the thesis is devoted to situating women within this context and examining the ways in which women sought representation within male-dominated governing structures. Chapter two examines the conflict between Friends' egalitarian theology and women's lack of governing power. Although women Friends gained access to the governing body of the Society, the issue of equality remained problematic. The chapter finishes with a discussion of the Society's split over women's suffrage. The Baptist Zenana Mission is the focus of the third chapter. Zenana missionaries claimed spiritual and imperial authority over "native" women and used the languages of separate spheres to carve out a vocation for single women in keeping with denominational norms. In so doing, they marginalised the work done by missionary wives. The fourth chapter begins with an examination of the life and theology of Catherine Booth, whose contribution to the Salvation Army is often neglected. Catherine advocated women's ministry in terms that validated both "women's work for women" and public preaching. This chapter looks at the appeal of officership for women, especially the empowering experiences of salvation and holiness, and charts the growth of the Women's Social Work. Despite the Army's egalitarian theology, conflict was felt by women officers who struggled to combine corps and family duties. The final chapter briefly examines idealised representations of women to conclude that their defining power, while significant, was by no means hegemonic.