Gaming Empire in Children's British Board Games 1836-1860

<p>Over a century before Monopoly invited child players to bankrupt one another with merry ruthlessness a lively and profitable board game industry thrived in Britain from the 1750s onward thanks to publishers like John Wallis John Betts and William Spooner. As part of the new wave of materials catering to the developing mass market of child consumers the games steadily acquainted future upper- and middle-class empire builders (even the royal family themselves) with the strategies of imperial rule: cultivating trading engaging in conflict displaying and competing. In their parlors these players learned the techniques of successful colonial management by playing games such as Spooner’s <i>A Voyage of Discovery </i>or Betts’ <i>A Tour of the British Colonies and Foreign Possessions</i>. These games shaped ideologies about nation race and imperial duty challenging the portrait of Britons as absent-minded imperialists. Considered on a continuum with children’s geography primers and adventure tales these games offer a new way to historicize the Victorians Britain and Empire itself. The archival research conducted here illustrates the changing disciplinary landscape of children’s literature/culture studies as well as nineteenth-century imperial studies by situating the games at the intersection of material and literary culture. </p><p></p>