BIHT Zoom Lecture: Monday 17 November 2025, 18:30-20:00 GMT
Valerie Haye, of the British in India Historical Trust, has supplied the following details of a zoom lecture being given on Monday 17 November by Robert Ivermee:
Glorious Failure: The Forgotten Story of French Imperialism in India
Robert Ivermee
Monday 17 November 2025, 18:30-20:00 GMT (ZOOM)
‘From the reign of Louis XIV to the downfall of Napoleon, France was an aggressive imperial power in South Asia. Exploding the myth of a benign French presence, Robert Ivermee reveals how France’s Indian empire relied on war-making, conquest, opportunistic alliances, regime change and slavery to pursue its ambitions. He shows how the French deployed new ideas, like freedom and the rights of man, to build an extensive empire in India — only to see it undermined by conflict with Indian rulers, competition with other nations and fatal strategic errors.
Robert Ivermee is a historian of British and wider European colonialism in South Asia. He is Associate Professor at Sciences Po Grenoble, and the author of Glorious Failure and Hooghly.
Lectures are broadcast via Zoom and are available UK-wide and to an international audience. Lectures are recorded and uploaded to YouTube for two weeks. Links are emailed to all ticket-holders.
Tickets for this lecture cost £5. Click here to book tickets (online, by post, or by bank transfer)’.
Valerie Haye, British in India Historical Trust
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