Rebellion and Mutiny in the Mariana Islands, 1680–1690

ABSTRACT

The fledgling Spanish colony in the Marianas was rocked by seven episodes of mutiny in the 1680s, culminating in the successful takeover of the island of Guam in 1688 by a group of mutineers led by a convict captain. In the context of ongoing campaigns of Indigenous resistance to Spanish colonisation, the actions of these mutinous soldiers placed the project of empire-building in the Marianas in serious peril. The events surrounding these mutinies have often been underplayed within a historiography that focuses on the violent nature of the Spanish presence in the Marianas. Nevertheless the soldiers’ mutinies of the 1680s add another perspective to this turbulent history. The experience of mutiny raises considerable questions about the nature of loyalty among ordinary soldiers to the project of empire-building in the Pacific. It demonstrates that Spanish soldiers – and often their Filipino counterparts – had the capacity to destabilise the imperial project from within.     

第二次国内革命战争时期党的士兵运动方针评述

士兵运动工作是我军政治工作的重要组成部分,是战胜敌人、壮大自己的重要法宝。在第二次革命战争初期,党的士兵运动工作的主要任务是分化和瓦解国民党军队、支援土地革命。随着中日民族矛盾的上升,士兵运动工作的主要任务转到争取国民党军队联合抗日上来,并对抗日民族统一战线的建立起到了巨大的推动作用。     

'Not Enough Food and Too Many Military Police’: Discipline,Food, and the 23rd Reserve Battalion July – September 1917

This paper seeks to explain the underlying causes of a mutiny that the Canadian artist A.Y. Jackson took part in while stationed in the English village of Shoreham-by-Sea and serving with the 23rd Reserve Battalion. The battalion was filled with convalescents who, having been wounded at the front, were on their way back to France after a stay in ‘blighty.’ The men of the battalion lived in a world of harsh discipline, rigorous physical training and poor-quality rations. Moreover, those who commanded them tended to be ‘shirkers’ –– at least in the eyes of the men of the battalion –– who had avoided going to France, choosing instead to remain in England. A sense of the unfairness of it all pervades the reminiscences of Jackson and other members of the battalion. Officially, the ‘mutiny’ never took place, and the whole incident was swept under the rug after a few high ranking Generals and dignitaries were called in to tour the mess facilities.     

The Royal Indian Navy Mutiny of 1946: Nationalist Competition and Civil-Military Relations in Postwar India

This article argues for the importance of the Royal Indian Navy mutiny of 1946 in two key aspects of the transition towards Indian independence: civilian control over the Indian military, and a competition for power between Congress and communists that undermined Indian workers and their student allies. The article begins with an investigation of the mutiny drawing on three sources: a first-person account from a lead mutineer, a communist history of the mutiny, and the papers published in the Towards Freedom collection. In 1946 a handful of low-ranking sailors sparked a naval mutiny that ultimately involved upwards of 20,000 sailors, and then crashed into the streets of Bombay with revolutionary fervour. The Communist Party in Bombay seized upon the mutiny as an opportunity to rally the working class against the British raj, with the hope of ending British rule through revolution rather than negotiation. Yet the mutiny proved less of a harbinger of what was ending and more of a bellwether for what was to come. Congress, sensing the danger of the moment, snuffed out support for the mutiny, and insisted on a negotiated transfer of power. Congress’s action thereby set a precedent for civilian dominance over the military in post-independence India. At the same time, however, Congress betrayed the effectiveness of some of organised labour’s strongest advocates, namely the Communist Party, Bombay students and Bombay labour, thereby undermining their costly mass protest, and hobbling them in future conflicts against Indian capitalists.