Unfinished Empire: The Global Expansion of Britain by John Darwin

Author:John Darwin [Darwin, John]
Language: eng
Format: azw3, mobi, epub
ISBN: 9781846146718
Publisher: Allen Lane
Published: 2012-09-06T04:00:00+00:00

SETTLER REBELLIONS

Of all the rebellions they faced, British governments had reason to fear those of settlers the most. This was partly at least because in such cases their own political and military tactics were bound to attract close and often highly critical scrutiny at home as well as overseas. It was, after all, a characteristic of most settler societies that they had many connections in Britain and many friends and supporters there. Information was readily sent by rebellious colonials to feed the government’s critics. It was bound to be harder for the government or party in power to preserve a unified front in British opinion – although failing to do so would lend obvious encouragement to the rebels themselves. The contrast with non-settler rebels was obvious and sharp. They rarely had political allies to take up their cause, or the contacts through which to put their case in the press. It was always much easier to portray their actions and aims in the worst possible light, to highlight their ‘savagery’ and deny the existence of any genuine grievance. This had the added advantage that, however brutal the methods used to suppress such insurgents, they were less likely to attract much attention at home, and even less likely to evoke critical comment.

It went deeper than that. Imperial authority over settler societies was inherently fragile, from almost their very beginnings – unless (like the whites in the West Indies) they had special reasons to be loyal. It had to be based not so much on collaboration as on explicit consent, usually by some form of representative body. There was no ‘right’ to levy taxation of the kind the British inherited in India, and, from quite early on, a convention that colonial laws would be vetoed only in exceptional circumstances. The governor as the agent of the imperial centre commanded few local resources and saw his patronage trimmed back by jealous assemblies. If he asserted himself he would face an ideological blizzard against infringing the rights of free-born Englishmen and the unsubtle suggestion that he harboured despotic ambitions. Worse still, his settler subjects possessed a disturbing capacity to mobilize quickly for political action. Newspapers and other print forms such as pamphlets and handbills could rally opinion. The every-day institutions of colonial life – juries, township meetings, even race meetings – allowed local opinion to organize, solidify and signal its strength. Above all, and here the contrast with most non-settler peoples was particularly stark, settler societies were invariably armed and their local militias often embodied both a political and a military unit.

These were all excellent reasons for the imperial government in London to follow a policy of what Edmund Burke famously called ‘salutary neglect’. But it was not always possible, let alone wise, to follow this sagacious advice. Firstly, few issues aroused more passionate feeling in settler societies than access to land, not least because its speculative purchase and re-sale were usually the main source of wealth for the settler elite. They were sure to resent any attempt to control their territorial advance.

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