Colonized Peoples. Letter writing was a central feature of life in Europe and its empires during the nineteenth century. Long-established as a feature of familial, commercial, and diplomatic communication in Europe, letter writing took on even greater significance within the context of empire building, and it remained absolutely foundational to imperial politics and colonial cultures into the twentieth century. Within modern imperial systems and colonial societies letter writing fulfilled four essential functions. First, it played a crucial role in imperial diplomacy and international relations. In Asia, European merchants and colonial administrators encountered local populations that possessed vibrant literary cultures and sophisticated diplomatic conventions. This development meant that Europeans had to work within these traditions in order to win trade concessions, to negotiate political relationships, and to fix commercial arrangements. In the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, leading Dutch, French, and British traders...