Becoming Imperial Agents: British Experiences of “Stop-Off” Locations Encountered en route to the Indian Subcontinent, 1757–1835

Abstract: This article will consider how Britons travelling to South Asia experienced stop-offs at Madeira, Rio de Janeiro, the Cape and Johanna Island. Time in these spaces forced them to interact with communities of majority racial “Others,” consider how foreign empires controlled subject populations, and confront how their minds and bodies would fare in foreign environments, triggering new reflections on how they would survive and rule in India. It will reorient our understanding of imperial identity formation, revealing that these individuals experienced a series of revelations and enactments during stop-offs which precipitated their transformation from prospective to active imperial agent before their arrival in India.