I am working on an essay about the book and is trying to connect it to the Enlightenment period.
There is the theme of Imperialism and with imperialism went religion. Written in the 19th century at the height of British colonization, this novel rings with themes of imperialism and Western influence on the world. Fix is able to chase Fogg for so long precisely because so many of the territories he ventures into are British-owned. Places like India and Hong Kong hugely display the effects of colonization; mixed in with native cultures and customs are traces of English influence. Religion was forced upon people as strong as any Western economic tradition. Today, one country having this sort of control over the world seems impossible—then, though, it was taken as normal.
