'Empire of things': Material culture and the Americanization of Australia, 1850--1890

The dissertation, entitled "'Empire of Things': Material Culture and the Americanization of Australia, 1850-1890" focuses on American economic and cultural expansion in the Australian colonies in the nineteenth century. My research suggests that the Australian colonies served as a site, often overlooked by historians, for American experiments with economic expansion in this era, framed by converging but uncoordinated impulses of commercial culture, political philosophy and technological innovation.; The dissertation is divided into two sections: the first explores the background of American interest in Australia, particularly perceptions of parallel development and potential political similarities. I then look at the creation of American commercial networks in the colonies, and the ways in which these supported economic growth and extended American political and cultural influence. In the second part of the dissertation, I focus on manufactured goods exported by the United States to Australia in the period 1850-1890. These case-studies highlight three areas of major influence: goods within the transport and communication sectors; agricultural and industrial equipment and tools; and consumer goods. The dissertation concludes with an analysis of the Anglo-American relationship as the two countries negotiated overlapping political and economic influence in the Australian colonies.; 'Empire of Things' considers the meeting place between notions of Americanization and nineteenth-century imperialism, and places this analysis within a context of transnational histories.