Book Review: How Historians and Intellectuals Justified the British Empire's Conquest Priya Satia shows persuasively in her book 'Time's Monster: History, Conscience and Britain's Empire' that the Empire's economic exploitation was buttressed by policies that sought to reform and civilise the colonised. The British Union Jack. Photo: Reuters History31/Jan/2021 In the 19th century, history and history writing were handmaidens of British imperialism. Historians wrote to justify empire; politicians and public figures used history to rationalise acts of conquest. Dominating the intellectual landscape at that time was the idea of progress which was derived from the Enlightenment and from the development of capitalism subsequent to the Industrial Revolution.