Law & constitutions

Topics represented

British Empire (107) · Law & constitutions (76) · Law & imperial government (61) · Resistance & colonized agency (58) · Colonization & sovereignty (47) · Decolonization & independence (33) · Slavery & coerced labor (24) · Indigenous peoples & dispossession (23) · War & conquest (22) · Self-government & Commonwealth (21) · Companies, trade & extraction (17) · Memory, reparation & restitution (15)

Records and sources

Ordered by start date. Long lives and processes may begin before the period you want to study.

1. 1807

   British abolition of the slave trade

   Britain’s 1807 law prohibited the transatlantic trade in enslaved people within the British Empire. It did not emancipate people already enslaved in the colonies, and illegal trading continued; the legal change was a limited mechanism within a broader slave system.

2. c. 1812

   Constitution of Cádiz

   The Constitution of Cádiz affirmed national sovereignty, separation of powers, and indirect male representation in the Spanish monarchy and its territories. It did not include a general declaration of rights or religious freedom, and was repealed in 1814 before later partial restorations.

3. 1814–1824

   Mexican constitutionalism: Apatzingán and federation

   The 1814 Apatzingán decree formulated an insurgent constitution that was never implemented; the 1824 federal Constitution established a federal republic. Both texts responded to wars and disputes over sovereignty, territory, and religion, not a uniform constitutional transition.

4. 1815

   Kandyan Convention transfers the kingdom to the Crown

   Kandyan chiefs and British officials deposed King Sri Vikrama Rajasinha and transferred sovereignty to the Crown, which promised to protect Buddhism and customary practices. The subsequent breach of those expectations helped drive the Uva-Wellassa uprising of 1817–1818

5. 1819–1901

   Queen Victoria

   Victoria reigned from 1837 to 1901 during the empire’s major territorial, commercial and military expansion and received the title Empress of India in 1876. Monarchy functioned as a symbol of imperial unity and racial and social hierarchy, although ministers, Parliament, companies and colonial authorities made many decisions. Her profile explains imperial political culture without attributing every war, annexation or policy to her personally

6. 1819

   Raffles negotiates a British port at Singapore

   Stamford Raffles, the East India Company, Temenggong Abdul Rahman, and Hussein Shah signed an agreement permitting a British factory. A Malay succession dispute and the strait’s location made Singapore a migration and trade hub, with negotiated sovereignty under growing imperial asymmetry

7. 1823

   Enslaved workers rebel in Demerara

   More than ten thousand enslaved people stopped work on Demerara plantations, believing planters were withholding emancipation measures. Suppression killed many participants and dozens were executed; missionary John Smith’s prosecution intensified debate in Britain. Exact death totals vary by source

8. 1823

   Peruvian Constitution of 1823

   Peru’s first Constituent Congress adopted a republican constitution with rights and duties framed for “Peruvians” and citizenship requirements. Amid war and instability, its text did not eliminate social, religious, or status exclusions and had a short life.

9. 1824–1832

   Black War, Black Line and Aboriginal survival in Tasmania

   British pastoral expansion in Van Diemen’s Land intensified a frontier war among settlers, colonial forces and Tasmanian Aboriginal peoples. In 1830 Governor George Arthur mobilized the “Black Line,” a mass operation intended to drive together and capture survivors; it failed militarily but accompanied a policy of removal and confinement. Tongerlongeter, Mannalargenna and other Aboriginal figures represent resistance, negotiation and survival against violence that cannot be narrated as the mere extension of settlement

10. 1824–1826

    The Anglo-Burmese War ends at Yandabo

    An extraordinarily costly war between the Company and the Konbaung kingdom ended with the Treaty of Yandabo. Burma ceded Arakan and Tenasserim, renounced claims to Assam and Manipur, and paid an indemnity, opening an expansion that culminated in full annexation

11. 1825–1917

    Dadabhai Naoroji

    An intellectual, merchant and leader of the Indian National Congress, Naoroji developed the “drain theory” to explain how Indian revenues and resources flowed to Britain. In 1892 he was elected to the British Parliament, where he connected imperial representation, poverty and self-government. His career between Bombay and London shows nationalism developing through statistics, print, associations and strategic use of metropolitan institutions

12. 1828–1858

    Rani Lakshmibai of Jhansi

    Lakshmibai ruled Jhansi and contested the East India Company’s annexation of her state under the doctrine of lapse. During the 1857–1858 rebellion she organized and led forces against the British, left Jhansi after its siege and died fighting near Gwalior. Indian and British memories made her an emblematic figure, but her historical importance also lies in a concrete defense of dynastic and territorial sovereignty

13. 1831

    The Baptist War shakes slave Jamaica

    A strike led by Samuel Sharpe became the largest uprising by enslaved people in British Jamaica. Troops and militias suppressed it and executed Sharpe and hundreds of participants; the precise toll is disputed. The rebellion exposed the cost of maintaining slavery and accelerated parliamentary emancipation

14. 1833–1838

    Abolition of slavery and the end of “apprenticeship”

    The 1833 Act gradually freed most enslaved people in British colonies, excluded Company territories, and paid £20 million to owners rather than the enslaved. The coercive “apprenticeship” system ended in 1838 after sustained protest

15. 1833–1838

    Slavery Abolition Act and apprenticeship regime

    The 1833 Act abolished slavery in much of the British colonies, but imposed a transitional “apprenticeship” regime and compensated owners. Full freedom arrived in 1838 for most people affected; territorial scope and material effects were uneven.

16. 1837–1839

    Rebellions in the Canadas and the Durham Report

    Armed reformers rebelled against oligarchic government in Upper and Lower Canada. Lord Durham’s report recommended responsible government, but also provincial union and assimilation of French Canadians, combining settler autonomy with cultural hierarchy

17. 1839–1842

    The Opium War imposes the Treaty of Nanking

    China’s destruction of smuggled opium preceded a war in which British naval superiority forced open treaty ports, an indemnity, and the cession of Hong Kong. The treaty inaugurated an “unequal treaty” system and used force to protect a narcotics economy tied to India

18. 1839

    Gülhane Rescript and Tanzimat

    The Gülhane Rescript began an Ottoman reform program concerning administration, taxation, conscription, and security of life, honor, and property. Its promises were not implemented uniformly and coexisted with diverse legal, confessional, and local practices.

19. 1840

    Treaty of Waitangi is signed

    Crown representatives and more than five hundred Māori rangatira signed non-equivalent Māori and English texts: especially `kawanatanga` and `tino rangatiratanga` conveyed different understandings of government and authority. The treaty remains a constitutional foundation and the basis of claims over breaches

20. 1840

    Te Tiriti o Waitangi / Treaty of Waitangi

    Māori rangatira and the British Crown signed te reo Māori and English texts that are not equivalent: “kawanatanga” and “rangatiratanga” do not map without remainder onto English “sovereignty.” Record the treaty as an agreement with contested interpretations and consequences, not an unequivocal cession or final resolution of Māori claims.

21. 1845–1872

    The New Zealand Wars contest land and sovereignty

    Crown and colonial forces fought different iwi and Māori movements in distinct campaigns rather than one continuous war. Settler expansion, disputed purchases, and land confiscations were central; resistance included the Kīngitanga, innovative fortifications, and political and religious strategies

22. 1848–1849

    European revolutions, assemblies, and constitutions of 1848–1849

    The 1848 revolutions prompted assemblies, rights projects, and constitutions across different European states. Experiences diverged: for example, the Frankfurt Constitution never took effect, and counter-revolution limited or undid many reforms.

23. 1848–1850

    Prussian constitution and electoral retrenchment

    Revolution forced a constitutional assembly in Prussia and a written constitution in December 1848; the subsequent order incorporated the three-class franchise and the 1850 Constitution. The result combined constitutional limits with a markedly unequal monarchy and franchise.

24. 1857–1858

    The 1857 Rebellion brings down Company rule

    A sepoy mutiny at Meerut spread into a heterogeneous war against the Company, centered on Delhi, Awadh, Kanpur, and Jhansi and involving figures such as Bahadur Shah Zafar, Rani Lakshmibai, Begum Hazrat Mahal, and Nana Sahib. Massacres and reprisals occurred on both sides; death totals, especially among civilians, remain uncertain

25. 1858

    The Crown replaces the Company in India

    The Government of India Act transferred the Company’s territories and functions to the Crown and created a secretary of state for India. Victoria’s proclamation promised religious toleration and respect for princes and property while consolidating a more centralized and racialized Raj

26. 1861

    Britain annexes Lagos

    Under naval pressure, Oba Dosunmu signed a treaty ceding Lagos to the Crown. British officials invoked suppression of the slave trade and commercial security while taking control of a crucial Yoruba port and opening a route inland that culminated in colonial Nigeria

27. 1865

    Morant Bay exposes post-emancipation violence

    Black protesters led by Paul Bogle attacked the courthouse after years of poverty, land scarcity, and political exclusion. Governor Edward Eyre imposed martial law; troops executed or killed hundreds and destroyed homes. British controversy pitted ideas of citizenship against racialized colonial rule

28. 1867

    Confederation creates the Dominion of Canada

    The British North America Act federated Ontario, Quebec, Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick under the Crown. The new dominion gained broad settler self-government and soon extended authority west and north without general consent from First Nations, Inuit, and Métis peoples

29. 1869–1948

    Mahatma Gandhi

    Gandhi developed forms of satyagraha in South Africa and turned them into mass campaigns against laws, taxes and British rule in India. Non-cooperation, the Salt March and Quit India mobilized millions, although other movements and leaders disputed his strategy and his positions on caste, gender and race evolved and remain debated. His assassination in 1948 came after the independence and Partition he had failed to prevent

30. 1869–1870

    Louis Riel and the Métis form a provisional government

    The transfer of Rupert’s Land to Canada, negotiated without its inhabitants, prompted Métis resistance at Red River. A provisional government led by Louis Riel negotiated the Manitoba Act, which promised land and language rights; defective implementation drove dispersal and renewed dispossession