Democratisation and the British Empire

ABSTRACT

This article responds to the statistically established finding in democratisation studies that British rule seems to have been good for the survival of democracy in its former empire, and that the longer a nation spent under British rule, the likelier it is to have sustained democracy since independence. This is a finding which puzzles political scientists because they think of democracy and empire as opposites. The article considers the uses made of democratic innovation by the British and the responses anti-colonial nationalists made to the offer to ‘lead them to democracy’. It places democracy and empire in a different, more complex relationship. It also considers the contribution of anti-colonial protest to the working of democracy.     

Canada and the British Empire

Britain attempted to create an informal empire in the Middle East and used the British Middle East Office to sponsor development work precisely to attain a significant influence in the region, one that would salvage a fair share of rapidly declining imperial power. Environmental initiatives, many of them focusing on forestry, composed a key element of this programme. However an informal empire did not ensue. This led the Foreign Office, and many historians, to overlook the importance of the BMEO. This article explores how the environmental reforms proposed by British advisers radically changed land use in the Middle East between 1946 and 1970, and left behind a remarkable legacy of conservation.     

Emancipation and captivity in the British Empire

ABSTRACT

The end of colonial slavery in the British empire, in 1834, was one of the landmark achievements of British imperial liberalism. Emancipation policies, however, were designed to recapture emancipated people; the end of slavery was the beginning of a new kind of captivity to global capitalism and the discipline of wage labour.     

Women and War in the British Empire

This provocation stimulates reflection on the Eurocentricity of Second World War histories and reflects on how new work can extend the boundaries of the subjects of the war. It argues that women in the British Empire were affected by the war in ways which have, thus far, been under-appreciated.     

Ornamentalism,Empire and Race: Indigenous Leaders and Honours in Australia and New Zealand

The imperial honours system, David Cannadine has argued, was a means for binding together ‘the British proconsular elite’ and ‘indigenous colonial elites’ throughout the settler colonies and dominions of the British Empire (Cannadine, David. Ornamentalism: How the British Saw Their Empire. London: Penguin, 2002). Yet in settler colonies like Australia and New Zealand indigenous populations were marginalised and often disregarded, and it was local white elites who became knights of St Michael and St George, the Bath and the British Empire. Focusing on Australia and New Zealand, this article explores the complex relationships Aboriginal and Māori leaders have had with honours during the twentieth century. Building upon Cannadine's analysis, I examine the ways in which indigenous leaders navigated the political complexities involved in the offer of an honour, and how their acceptance of awards was received by others, shedding light on how honours systems intersected with post-war struggles for indigenous rights in the former dominions.     

Grand Design on the Fringes of Empire: New Towns for British North America

There was an increasing elaboration of a town model introduced by British authorities to the new American colonies in the second half of the eighteenth century. The simplest versions, in Nova Scotia (from 1749), gave way to 'classic' Charlottetown (1768) and eventually to excesses in Ontario (ca 1790). The model and its elaboration are clarified, the circuitous route for the planning inspiration is traced, and an explanation is offered for the over-ambitious model bestowed on Ontario. Themes include late Renaissance ideas for new towns, the impact on colonial peripheries of a sophisticated imperial administration, 'landscape by committee,' and the diffusion of ideas.
Pendant la deuxième moitié du dix-huitième siècle, il y eut dans les nouvelles colonies américaines une elaboration croissante du modele urbain introduit par les autoritCs britanniques. Les expressions les plus simples de ce modirle, en Nouvelle Ecosse (de 1749), cédèrent au style « classique >> de Charlottetown (1768) et menirrent éventuellement aux excirs en Ontario (ca 1790). Nous clarifierons ce modele et son évolution; nous tracerons les multiples influences qui inspirerent cet urbanisme; et nous expliquerons le modele par trop ambitieux qui se manifesta en Ontario. Les themes de cet article incluent les idées sur les « new towns >> qui eurent cours vers la fin de la Renaissance; l'impact d'une administration impenale raffinee sur les périphéries coloniales; la fabrication « par comité>> du paysage urbain; et la diffusion des idtes.     

Gendering resistance: British colonial narratives of wartime New Zealand

In 1850s New Zealand, the British Crown forced the purchase of indigenous Maori land at Taranaki, an event that hastened the brutal land wars of the 1860s. A group of British church and government officials and their wives voiced their opposition to this land confiscation, participating in what became known as the «pamphlet war» over Taranaki. The authors compare the anti-colonial writings of a number of prominent colonial men and women, drawing out the significance of both ideological and embodied gendered differences and the discursive representations of place produced out of them. In addition to differences and similarities in genre, content, and audience, the authors highlight the significance—and spatiality—of anti-colonial Maori testimony that appeared in one of the pivotal texts.