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This work seeks to explore the impact that imperial goods had on the development of the British identity during the eighteenth century. It is the author´s contention that the expanding Empire was of central importance to Hanoverian Britain and it was by engaging with its consumer goods, and the resultant mentalities that they introduced, that Britons experienced their imperial reality. By using a wide variety of source and exploring how the Empire influenced Britain´s politics, laws, commerce, domestic composition, public consciousness, and art the continuity of experience is clear and undeniable Britons were inviting the Empire into their lives and becoming increasingly influenced by it. Moreover, this work seeks to bring together the historical fields of Empire, identity and consumption to demonstrate that Hanoverian Britain can only be fully understood if all three fields are considered in tandem.

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Elise Guest holds Bachelors and Masters degrees in History from the University of Ottawa. She currently lives in Ottawa.

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