http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/authors/3830/thanapat-pekanan Inquiries Journal provides undergraduate and graduate students around the world a platform for the wide dissemination of academic work over a range of core disciplines. en-us Wed, 19 Aug 2026 18:38:45 -0400 Wed, 19 Aug 2026 18:38:45 -0400 http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/1437/how-important-is-the-notion-of-the-civilising-mission-to-our-understanding-of-british-imperialism-before-1939 By Thanapat Pekanan - The ‘civilising mission' is a broad ideology that combines four main ideals; Enlightenment ideals, Christian / Evangelical ideas of pre-destination, racist ideas about white superiority and Liberalism. All these ideals have had a significant role in our understanding of British imperialism before 1939. Due to the limitations of this essay, I will focus on two of the most relevant and important aspects of the ‘civilising mission': racism and Liberalism. This essay proceeds in three parts. The first section demonstrates how important racism was in influencing the understanding of British... Wed, 24 Aug 2016 12:00 EDT http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/1437/how-important-is-the-notion-of-the-civilising-mission-to-our-understanding-of-british-imperialism-before-1939