The Cinnamon Isle - Sri Lanka as a Utopia in the Travel Accounts of 19th-Century British Colonialists

19th-century European colonial expansion generated a genre of texts by explorers, travellers, and administrators. This article focuses on books on the island of Sri Lanka by British colonialists in the 1820s to 1850s. They contributed to the creation of a discourse of utopia of progress through two themes: transforming the island and transforming the population. The article analyses how these themes are expressed in the texts, how they define the colonial Other and imagine a future for the colony as a utopia; an England with a better climate and ideal surroundings for Europeans to start life afresh.