imperial diseases

Noun

imperial disease (plural imperial diseases)

1. A disease that arises from colonial exploration and causes significant harm to an empire, especially the British Empire.
   • He served with distinction in both the South African War and the Great War, and during the last eight years he was Director of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, whose concern is with “Imperial diseases,” as he called them, as well as the more domestic.1931, United Empire - Volume 22, page 112
2. (broadly) A failing to which an empire is prone.
   • ...in July 1807 we may discern the growth of a singular British imperial disease: Russophobia.1991, Anthony Verrier, Francis Younghusband and the great game, page 10
3. A communicable disease that is spread to indigenous people by conquering imperial forces.
   • Despite these and other strengths, however, the Iroquois became weakened throughout the seventeenth and into the early eighteenth centuries as they faced several ordeals: “first came massive depopulation from imperial diseases; next, a slide into economic dependence on trade with Europeans; then...1994, The Southern Historian - Volumes 15-16, page 158