Abstract

The essay deals with the notion of «universal history» that is inherent in the influential approach to the transition towards global modernity developed by Christopher Bayly - a key figure in the New World History movement. It aims at understanding the earlier influences that led Bayly to widening his horizon from precolonial and colonial India to the study of global interactions. To this end, it pays special attention to the complex etiological model advanced in Bayly's writings about the making of British domination in Asia, which attempts to reconcile a reevaluation of the role played by indigenous actors with a renewed emphasis on the impact of the Empire as a factor of globalization.