Networks

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stephen Conway
Keyword(s):  
British Empire ◽  
Economic Potential ◽  
Long Distance ◽  
Contractual Arrangements ◽  
American Colonies ◽  
The North ◽  
Official Policy ◽  
European Engagement ◽  
Private Actors

This chapter turns to the role of private actors in facilitating the various forms of European engagement with the British Empire. Long-distance and transnational networks undoubtedly played a key role, sometimes underpinning types of continental European involvement of which ministers and officials in London, and state servants in imperial sites, disapproved, and wished to discourage or even stop. But private actors did not always work to undermine the efforts of British governments to preserve an exclusionary empire. Their independent activities could dovetail neatly with official policy. Landowners and employers in the colonies wanted to promote settlement to secure more tenants and more labour. British governments wanted to see the North American colonies settled so that their economic potential could be realized and their security improved. On some occasions, private actors even worked directly with state officials to facilitate foreign participation in the empire through contractual arrangements to secure settlers or soldiers.

Building a New Imperial State: The Strategic Foundations of Separation of Powers in America

2017 ◽  
Vol 111 (4) ◽  
pp. 668-685 ◽  
Author(s):  
SEAN GAILMARD
Keyword(s):  
Economic Development ◽  
British Empire ◽  
Separation Of Powers ◽  
Institutional Development ◽  
Institutional Choice ◽  
Rent Extraction ◽  
American Colonies ◽  
Distinct Factor ◽  
Imperial State

Separation of powers existed in the British Empire of North America long before the U.S. Constitution of 1789, yet little is known about the strategic foundations of this institutional choice. In this article, I argue that separation of powers helps an imperial crown mitigate an agency problem with its colonial governor. Governors may extract more rents from colonial settlers than the imperial crown prefers. This lowers the Crown’s rents and inhibits economic development by settlers. Separation of powers within colonies allows settlers to restrain the governor’s rent extraction. If returns to settler investment are moderately high, this restraint is necessary for colonial economic development and ultimately benefits the Crown. Historical evidence from the American colonies and the first British Empire is consistent with the model. This article highlights the role of agency problems as a distinct factor in New World institutional development, and in a sovereign’s incentives to create liberal institutions.

The Allure of the Exotic: Reexamining the Use of Local and Distant Pipestone Quarries in Ohio Hopewell Pipe Caches

2013 ◽  
Vol 78 (1) ◽  
pp. 48-67 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thomas E. Emerson ◽  
Kenneth B. Farnsworth ◽  
Sarah U. Wisseman ◽  
Randall E. Hughes
Keyword(s):  
Near Infrared ◽  
Interaction Model ◽  
Raw Material ◽  
Spatial Distance ◽  
Spiritual Power ◽  
Long Distance ◽  
The North ◽  
Ohio Hopewell ◽  
Made In

AbstractMary W. Helms’s observation that spatial distance often correlates with spiritual power has become an axiom in interpreting the role of exotic materials in societies. This is especially evident in explanations of the North American Hopewell Interaction Sphere. The circulation and accumulation of exotic materials in massive mortuary caches peaked during the Hopewell era (100 B.C. to A.D. 300). The premise that Hopewell smoking pipes were made in Ohio, primarily of local raw material, and circulated to foreign locations was an integral part of this interaction model. In this study we demonstrate, primarily using reflectance near-infrared spectroscopy (NIS), that early Hopewell Tremper Mound pipe raw-material acquisition focused on exotic pipestones from Illinois and Minnesota. By contrast, later Mound City cache pipes were almost exclusively made from local limestone and pipestone. The discovery of this shift in preference for and/or access to different quarry sources by Ohio Hopewell societies provides new perspectives on early Hopewell development and long-distance interaction.

The Resurgence of Colonial Anglicanism: the Colonial Bishoprics Fund, 1840–1

2008 ◽  
Vol 44 ◽  
pp. 196-213
Author(s):  
Rowan Strong
Keyword(s):  
British Empire ◽  
Church Of England ◽  
Local Leadership ◽  
Political Situation ◽  
American Colonies ◽  
The North ◽  
Or Groups ◽  
Institutional Dimension ◽  
British State ◽  
The Church

Revival and resurgence is not simply something that happens to individuals or groups of persons; it is a phenomenon that, takes place within organized communities, institutions, and societies. The Church has existed in history as an organized society of believers, and this institutional dimension of Christianity has frequently shaped Christian history and the influence of Christianity on wider society for better and worse. Indeed, it could be argued that this is the dimension of Christianity which has been most influential historically. However, in the case of the Church of England in the British Empire its organized influence as a Church was seriously curtailed by its restricted and partial institutional existence throughout the eighteenth century in the North American colonies. There it existed without a bishop to provide local leadership and an effective counterweight to local lay elites. When that situation reversed and the British state began to support colonial bishoprics after the loss of the thirteen colonies in the new United States of America, the Church of England remained largely at the mercy of fluctuating political agendas to supply colonial bishops with sufficient legality and infrastructure. However, in the early 1840s the Church of England underwent a resurgence in the British Empire as a consequence of developing a new response to its metropolitan political situation, which initiated a revival in its colonial engagement.

scholarly journals Origin of Sovereignty and Boundaries of Royal Prerogative in Tory Political Controversy in Great Britain in Last Third of 18th Century

2021 ◽  
pp. 324-341
Author(s):  
V. V. Klochkov ◽  
V. S. Nazarova
Keyword(s):  
Great Britain ◽  
Political Ideology ◽  
Special Kind ◽  
American Colonies ◽  
The North ◽  
Integral Role ◽  
The Stability ◽  
First Time ◽  
George Iii

The discourse on the nature and boundaries of royal sovereignty, which unfolded with the coming to power of George III in Great Britain, is considered. The key features and changes in the constitutional views of the Tories that took shape in the 60—90s of the 18th century are examined in the article. The relevance of the study lies in determining the nature and role of the discourse under study in the formation of a new Tory identity, concentrating on the integral role of the monarch. The novelty of the research lies in the emphasis on the religious component of this discourse, as well as in the use of church sermons as a special kind of source. At the same time, some excerpts of sermons are introduced into scientific circulation for the first time. It is emphasized that during the period under study, the Tory party did not have a political ideology, and the current policy was influenced by fears about the stability of the English constitution associated with the events in the North American colonies. The validity of the cautious approaches of the supporters of the critical direction in modern British historiography to the assessment of Tory identity in the last third of the 18th century is shown. The author’s assessment of how Toryism of the 60—90s of the 18th century reinterprets the experience of the “old Tories”, combining traditional respect for the royal prerogative with the recognition of the rights and privileges of parliament. 

Predation, Seigneurial Tenure, and Development in French Colonial America

2020 ◽  
Vol 44 (4) ◽  
pp. 747-770 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vincent Geloso
Keyword(s):  
North American ◽  
Colonial America ◽  
French Empire ◽  
American Colonies ◽  
The North ◽  
French Colonial

AbstractThere is substantial debate over the colonial origins of divergence within the Americas. In this debate, the French Empire has been largely ignored even though, until 1760, it included Canada. This article uses recent empirical advances in our knowledge of the colonial Canadian economy to introduce the role of French institutions—most notably the institution of seigneurial tenure—into the debate on the colonial origins of divergence. It argues that the institution of seigneurial tenure in Canada when it was under French rule (up to 1760) had predatory features that help to explain why Canada was the poorest of the North American colonies.

scholarly journals Migration, social policy, and power in historical perspective

2019 ◽  
Vol 19 (3) ◽  
pp. 266-274
Author(s):  
Martin Seeleib-Kaiser
Keyword(s):  
Social Policy ◽  
North America ◽  
British Empire ◽  
Power Relations ◽  
Historical Perspective ◽  
The Other ◽  
Freedom Of Movement ◽  
The North ◽  
And Migration

Migration and social policy have become fiercely contested issues in Europe and North America. In this article, I highlight how mobility and migration, on one hand, and social policy, on the other hand, have historically been closely interwoven and shaped by power relations. It is argued that European states actively assisted their poor to leave ‘home’ and settle in far-away places. I will elaborate some of the tensions between freedom of movement and the role of social policy in the North German Confederation ( Norddeutscher Bund [NDB]) and the British Empire. Finally, it is argued that many of the current challenges and issues associated with migration and social policy in Europe are historically not unique.

Trevor Burnard, Planters, Merchants, and Slaves: Plantation Societies in British America, 1650–1820

2015 ◽  
Vol 5 (3) ◽  
pp. 271-310
Author(s):  
Carla Gardina Pestana (review) ◽  
Pieter Emmer (review) ◽  
James Robertson (review) ◽  
Trevor Burnard (response)
Keyword(s):  
British Empire ◽  
White Men ◽  
Racial Hatred ◽  
British America ◽  
American Colonies ◽  
Role Of Religion ◽  
The Impact ◽  
University Of Chicago Press ◽  
Plantation System

This book forum focuses on Trevor Burnard’s book, Planters, Merchants, and Slaves: Plantation Societies in British America, 1650–1820 (University of Chicago Press, 2015). In his book, Burnard argues that white men did not choose to develop and maintain the plantation system out of virulent racism or sadism, but rather out of economic logic. While plantations required racial divisions to exist, their successes were always measured in gold, rather than skin or blood. Burnard argues that the best example of plantations functioning as intended is not those found in the fractious and poor North American colonies, but those in their booming and integrated commercial hub, Jamaica. Ranging over nearly two centuries, from Guyana to the Chesapeake, the book provides many new insights and offers a revisionary interpretation of the connection between slavery and the American Revolution. The three reviewers in general praise the empirical research that underpins the book but challenge some of the conclusions. They also draw attention to a few points that, in their opinion, the author underemphasized or where he could have expanded his argument, for instance the role of support from the British Empire to the plantation system and the role of religion in shaping attitudes to slavery and the plantation system. In his response, Burnard argues against some of the criticism, such as the impact of the fear of slave revolts. In particular, Burnard stresses that his understanding of slavery in the colonial period of American history is that of an outsider to American politics. As such, he argues, his book does not speak to contemporary concerns about rising evidence of racial hatred.

Barracks

Quarters ◽  
2019 ◽  
pp. 50-88
Author(s):  
John Gilbert McCurdy
Keyword(s):  
British Empire ◽  
French And Indian War ◽  
American Colonies ◽  
The North ◽  
Military Geography ◽  
History Of ◽  
Ancient Times ◽  
Indian War ◽  
The Military ◽  
American Cities

This chapter explores the alternative quarters the American colonists sought for the North American Establishment, describing how massive barracks arose in the four largest American cities and several smaller towns in 1756-58. Following a history of barracks since ancient times, it explains the effects that barracks had on urban locales, colonists, and soldiers, as well as what happened in places that did not have barracks. The conclusion of the French and Indian War brought Canada, Florida, and the backcountry into the British Empire, which raised new questions about quartering as few of these places had barracks. Although the removal of the British army from the American colonies emptied the urban barracks, events like the Paxton Boys raids of 1763-64 put control of the military infrastructure at odds with the military geography of the colonies.

Governance through Documents: The Board of Trade, Its Archive, and the Imperial Constitution of the Eighteenth-Century British Atlantic World

2020 ◽  
Vol 59 (2) ◽  
pp. 264-290
Author(s):  
Asheesh Kapur Siddique
Keyword(s):  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
British Empire ◽  
American Revolution ◽  
Atlantic World ◽  
British Atlantic ◽  
American Colonies ◽  
British Atlantic World ◽  
Long Eighteenth Century ◽  
British State

AbstractThis article examines the role of documents, their circulation, and their archivization in the enactment of the imperial constitution of the British Empire in the Atlantic world during the long eighteenth century. It focuses on the Board of Trade's dispatch of “Instructions” and “Queries” to governors in the American colonies, arguing that it was through the circulation of these documents and the use of archives that the board sought to enforce constitutional norms of bureaucratic conduct and the authority of central institutions of imperial administration. In the absence of a singular, codified written constitution, the British state relied upon a variety of different kinds of documents to forge the imperial Atlantic into a governed space. The article concludes by pointing to the continuing centrality of documents and archives to the bureaucratic manifestation of the imperial constitution in the immediate aftermath of the American Revolution.

The Battle for the Migrants

2012 ◽  
Author(s):  
Torsten Feys
Keyword(s):  
Contextual Information ◽  
The United States ◽  
Long Distance ◽  
Political Factors ◽  
The North ◽  
Mass Migration ◽  
The Social ◽  
And Migration ◽  
Agent Networks

This book approaches the well-documented study of European mass migration to the United States of America from the viewpoint of mass migration as a business venture. The overall purpose is to demonstrate that maritime and migration histories are interlinked and dependent on a deeper understanding of the social, economic, and political factors at work in the nineteenth century Atlantic community. It centres on both the evolution of the port of Rotterdam as a migration gateway, and the crucial role of the Holland-America line as a regulator of the North American passenger trade. The first part of the book explores the simultaneous rise of transatlantic mass migration and long-distance steamshipping between 1830 to 1870. The second part, divided into five chapters, explores how mass migration became a big business between 1870 and 1914, and scrutinises how steamship companies organised and provided initiatives for transoceanic migration, plus the role of shipping agents and agent-networks, and how passenger services were constructed within transatlantic networks. Over the course of the text it becomes increasingly clear that by approaching mass migration as a trade issue, the role of steamship companies in the facilitation of transatlantic migration is rendered both intrinsic and pivotal. It consists of an introduction containing contextual information, two sections providing historical overviews, five chapters exploring different aspects of the shipping industry’s response to mass migration, conclusion, bibliography, and six appendices of passenger, destination, agent, and advertising statistics.

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