The loss of the greater part of the British Empire in North America, along with the independence of the former thirteen colonies and the creation of a new British territorial empire in eastern India, are conventionally interpreted as unconnected events. American independence has long been seen as marking the end of a ‘first’, largely trading, Atlantic empire of white settlement, while the extension of British rule over Bengal signalled the creation of a new ‘second’ empire of rule over non-European peoples that was to spread over India and into south-east Asia and Africa during the nineteenth century. This book contests that view, arguing that both losses in America and gains in India were part of a single phase of British imperial history in the later eighteenth century. In the face of worldwide competition from France, Britain sought to consolidate her imperial possessions and maximise their contribution to her wealth and security. Policies directed to these ends seemed to threaten the autonomy of the elites in British America and drove them to resistance, for which they were able to win widespread popular support. By contrast, in Bengal in particular, the British were able to achieve accommodations with lan