The Absolute Disposal of the Crown

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Padraic X. Scanlan
Keyword(s):  
Sierra Leone ◽  
Armed Forces ◽  
Napoleonic Wars ◽  
Royal Navy ◽  
The West ◽  
Age Of Revolution ◽  
Prize Money ◽  
Black Soldiers ◽  
The Caribbean ◽  
The Military

From 1810 until the Court’s powers were dramatically reduced in 1817, the Vice-Admiralty Court of Sierra Leone became the object of intense interest from the British armed forces. Royal Navy and Royal African Corps officers competed for prize money and cruising territory. More and more former slaves were enlisted into both the Royal African Corps and the West India Regiments, a group of regiments composed of black soldiers that fought principally in the Caribbean. The last Royal Navy Governor of Sierra Leone in the Age of Revolution, Edward Columbine, was replaced by Charles Maxwell, a Royal African Corps officer. Maxwell grasped the military potential of ‘captured Negroes,’ enlisting many in his regiment, and launching campaigns to attack local slave forts, a series of attacks deemed to be illegal at the end of the Napoleonic Wars.

Abolition at sea

2019 ◽  
pp. 15-40
Author(s):  
Mary Wills
Keyword(s):  
West Africa ◽  
Sierra Leone ◽  
Financial Incentives ◽  
Mortality Rates ◽  
Tropical Diseases ◽  
The West ◽  
Perceived Efficacy ◽  
Prize Money ◽  
Slave Ships ◽  
Naval Officers

This chapter introduces the work of the West Africa squadron in detaining slave ships at sea by examining the experiences of the naval officers involved in its operation. It explores the development of a British abolitionist presence in Sierra Leone and examines the evolving tactics of naval suppression, including increasing intervention (so-called ‘gunboat diplomacy’) leading to blockade of points of embarkation for slave ships and destruction of slave barracoons. Arguments over tactics contributed to feelings of futility and low morale over operational limitations and the perceived efficacy of naval abolitionist policy. Other daily struggles faced by naval personnel included ill-discipline, an inhospitable climate and the threat of contracting the deadly tropical diseases that led to unprecedented peace-time mortality rates. Officers often perceived financial incentives in the form of prize money and promotion as the only meaningful compensation for these hardships.

MANIFEST DESTINY OR CONTINUITY AGENDA: contextualising British imperial policy in the southern Caribbean before and after Vienna

2015 ◽  
Vol 12 (20) ◽  
Author(s):  
MICHAEL TOUSSAINT
Keyword(s):  
Napoleonic Wars ◽  
The West ◽  
International Context ◽  
Southern Caribbean ◽  
Before And After ◽  
Colonial Empire ◽  
British Colonial ◽  
The Caribbean ◽  
Per Se ◽  
Prime Target

Abstract: The Congress of Vienna is often discussed primarily in terms of the concerns and ambition of European nations regarding issues in Europe per se. Comparatively, primarily because of their preoccupation with the containment of Napoleonic France, the agenda of these nations with respect to the wider world has been the focus of far less and, more importantly, inadequate scholarly attention. The Caribbean remains, for example, one those areas discussed in very limited terms and treated mainly to historiographical silence. This paper attempts to part with that tradition, in an effort to place the Congress into greater historical perspective. Britain”™s emergence as the most powerful and influential European nation following the Congress makes the country a prime target to such investigation. Against the background of an understanding of Britain”™s imperial agenda in the wider international context, this paper explores the country”™s long-standing interest in the southern Caribbean and the implications for the evolution of the Congress and the development of the British colonial empire in the West Indies.Keywords: Congress of Vienna. Napoleonic Wars. Coalition Wars, Southern Caribbean. Circum- Caribbean. Britain”™s imperial agenda.  DESTINO MANIFIESTO O PROGRAMA DE CONTINUIDAD: contextualizar la polá­tica imperial británica en el Caribe sur de antes y después de Viena Resumen: El Congreso de Viena se discute principalmente   cuanto a las preocupaciones y la ambición de las naciones europeas con respecto a los problemas en Europa. Comparativamente,   debido a su preocupación con la contención de   Francia napoleónica, la agenda de estas naciones con respecto al resto del mundo ha sido el foco insuficiente de atención académica . El Caribe sigue siendo, por ejemplo, discutido limitadamente y tratado principalmente al silencio historiográfico. Este trabajo intenta desprenderse de esa tradición, en un esfuerzo para poner el Congreso en una mayor perspectiva histórica. El surgimiento de   Gran-Bretanha como la nación europea más poderosa e influyente de Europa tras el Congreso haber sido el paá­s objetivo de esta investigación. En un contexto de comprensión de la agenda imperial de Gra-Bretanha en el contexto internacional más amplio, este documento aborda interés del paá­s en sur del Caribe y las implicaciones   para el desarrollo del Congreso y del Imperio Colonial Británico en las Indias Occidentales.Palabras clave: Congreso de Viena. Coalición de Guerras. Guerras Napoleónicas. Caribe Sur. Circum ”“ Caribe. Agenda imperial de Británico.  DESTINO MANIFESTO OU PROGRAMA DE CONTINUIDADE: contextualizando a polá­tica imperial britá¢nica no sul do Caribe antes e depois de VienaResumo: O Congresso de Viena é muitas vezes discutido principalmente em termos de preocupações e ambições das nações europeias em relação a problemas na Europa. Comparativamente, principalmente por causa da preocupação do Congresso com a contenção da França Napoleônica, a agenda dessas nações em relação ao resto do mundo tem sido o foco de menos e, mais importante ainda, insuficiente atenção acadêmica. O Caribe, por exemplo, continua a ser discutido em termos muito limitados, e tratado especialmente com silêncio historiográfico. Este artigo tenta romper com essa tradição, em um esforço para colocar o Congresso em maior perspectiva histórica. O surgimento da Grã-Bretanha como a nação mais poderosa e influente da Europa após o Congresso torna o paá­s alvo dessa investigação. No contexto de um entendimento da agenda imperial da Grã-Bretanha no contexto internacional mais amplo, este documento explora interesse de longa data do paá­s no sul do Caribe e as implicações para a evolução do Congresso e o desenvolvimento do Império colonial britá¢nico nas ándias Ocidentais.Palavras-chave: Congresso de Viena. Guerras napoleônicas. Guerras de coalizão. Sul do Caribe. Circum-Caribe. Agenda imperial de Grã-Bretanha.  

Challenges to Building Coercive Institutions

2020 ◽  
pp. 93-114
Author(s):  
Erica De Bruin
Keyword(s):  
Sierra Leone ◽  
Armed Forces ◽  
The Other ◽  
Causal Mechanism ◽  
Security Force ◽  
Fidel Castro ◽  
The Creation ◽  
The Military ◽  
Coup Attempt

This chapter compares Kwame Nkrumah's failed effort to counterbalance with efforts by leaders in similar political and economic circumstances: Saskia Stevens in Sierra Leone, Fidel Castro in Cuba, and Modibo Keita in Mali. The comparison provides support for the proposed causal mechanism linking counterweight creation to coup attempts: in each case, the creation of a new counterweight generated resentment and fear about a decline in status within the regular armed forces. The comparison also helps refine the arguments developed in Chapter 1, suggesting new hypotheses about the conditions under which this resentment will result in a coup attempt. It emphasizes the other strategies of coup prevention that rulers adopt in conjunction with counterbalancing, as well as the type of security force used to counterbalance the military. The findings suggest limits to the conditions under which counterbalancing is feasible, as well as concrete steps that rulers might take to mitigate some of the risks associated with counterbalancing.

In Close Combat: Vice-Admiral Lord Horatio Nelson's Injuries in the Napoleonic Wars

2019 ◽  
Vol 85 (11) ◽  
pp. 1304-1307
Author(s):  
Benjamin T. Miller ◽  
Don K. Nakayama
Keyword(s):  
North America ◽  
Working Class ◽  
West Indies ◽  
The Arctic ◽  
Napoleonic Wars ◽  
Royal Navy ◽  
The West ◽  
East Indies

Born in Norfolk, England, on September 29, 1758, Horatio Nelson was the sixth of eleven children in a working-class family. With the help of his uncle, Maurice Suckling, a captain in the Royal Navy, Nelson began his naval career as a 13-year-old midshipman on the British battleship Raisonnable. His courage and leadership in the battle marked him for promotion, and he rose quickly from midshipman to admiral, serving in the West Indies, East Indies, North America, Europe, and even the Arctic. As his rank ascended, Nelson's consistent strategy was close engagement, an approach that led to success in combat but placed him in direct danger. Thus, Britain's greatest warrior was also her most famous patient: Nelson suffered more injuries and underwent more operations than any other flag officer in Royal Navy history. His career reached a climax off Cape Trafalgar, where he not only led the Royal Navy to victory over the combined French and Spanish fleets but also met his own death.

The Independence of Brazil and the Abolition of the Brazilian Slave Trade: Anglo-Brazilian Relations, 1822–1826

1969 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 115-147 ◽  
Author(s):  
Leslie Bethell
Keyword(s):  
Slave Trade ◽  
Forced Migration ◽  
Economic Conditions ◽  
Napoleonic Wars ◽  
Middle Passage ◽  
The West ◽  
Transatlantic Slave Trade ◽  
The Caribbean ◽  
North And South America ◽  
North And South

For 300 years, from the beginning of the sixteenth to the beginning of the nineteenth century, the transatlantic slave trade—the forced migration of Africans to work as slaves on the plantations and in the mines of British, French, Spanish, Portuguese and Dutch colonies in North and South America and the Caribbean—was carried on legally, and on an everincreasing scale, by the merchants of most Western European countries and their colonial counterparts, aided and abetted by African middlemen. On. 25 March 1807, however, after a lengthy struggle, inside and outside Parliament, it was declared illegal for British subjects (and at this point during the Napoleonic Wars at least half the trade was in British hands) to trade in slaves after 1 May 1808. During the previous twenty years there had been a marked growth of intellectual and moral revulsion against the trade (and, in particular, the horrors of the ‘middle passage’) and changing economic conditions, which to some extent reduced the importance to the British economy of the West Indian colonies for whom the trade was a major lifeline and created new interest groups unconnected with and even hostile to them, facilitated its abolition.

Military Obedience

2019 ◽  
pp. 145-153
Author(s):  
Judith N. Shklar
Keyword(s):  
Armed Forces ◽  
Napoleonic Wars ◽  
Roman Army ◽  
Military Command ◽  
Modern Warfare ◽  
The Military ◽  
Over Time

Thematically this chapter follows directly from the previous chapter. It looks at the changes in military command structures that have occurred over time, from the Roman army to the Napoleonic Wars to, finally, the modern armed forces. Shklar further discusses modern warfare and the effects it had on the structures of command and obedience. This chapter also looks at various examples of disobedience in the military.

scholarly journals Organizacja i funkcjonowanie duszpasterstwa wyznania prawosławnego w Wojsku Polskim na Zachodzie w latach 1943-1945

2020 ◽  
Vol 22 ◽  
pp. 9-15
Author(s):  
Joanna Gabriela Pyczel ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Great Britain ◽  
Spiritual Care ◽  
Selection Process ◽  
Pastoral Ministry ◽  
Armed Forces ◽  
Orthodox Church ◽  
The West ◽  
History Of ◽  
Significant Change ◽  
The Military

In 1943 significant change occurred in the history of the Orthodox military pastoral ministry in the Polish Armed Forces in the West. It was related to the appointment of a military Orthodox bishop. This function was taken over by the former Bishop of Grodno-Nowogrodek Sawa (Sovetov). He was considered to be the only hierarch of the Polish Autocephalous Orthodox Church, which remained faithful to the principles of autocephaly. His efforts to defend the independence of Polish Orthodoxy were indispensable at the time. The period during which Bishop Sawa performed the function of military Orthodox bishop in Great Britain and on the continent contributed to the development of this religion’s ministry. He rose to the tasks entrusted to him, which was appreciated by the military and political authorities. Shortly after the war, Bishop Sawa was awarded, among others, with the Gold Cross of Merit with Swords. As a military Orthodox bishop he proved himself as a zealous patriot and tireless priest who tried to provide proper spiritual care to all Polish soldiers. The purpose of the following article is to present the selection process of a military Orthodox priest in the Polish Armed Forces in the West, the circumstances in which the decision was made to appoint Bishop Sawa, his actions and the difficulties he had to overcome during his ministry.

scholarly journals Nigerian Security Forces and the Management of Internal Conflict in the Niger Delta: Challenges of Human Security and Development

2012 ◽  
Vol 1 (3) ◽  
pp. 409 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert O. Dode
Keyword(s):  
Sierra Leone ◽  
Niger Delta ◽  
Good Governance ◽  
Armed Forces ◽  
Internal Conflict ◽  
Security Forces ◽  
South West ◽  
Democratic Regimes ◽  
The Military ◽  
Stay Behind

The Nigerian Armed Forces personnel have over the years maintained a trackrecord of effective peace keeping campaigns in the world. The role Nigeria playedin especially crises ridden Sierra Leone and Liberia can not be overemphasized.Paradoxically though, this record does not seem to be playing out in their securityand crisis operations in the country. Analysts would quickly make reference toUmuechem, Odi and recently, the military bombardment of Ijaw communities inGbaramatu Kingdom in Warri South West Council of Delta State. Some studieshave shown that at the end of most of those operations, the military stay behind as“armies of occupation”. This paper therefore, raises a number of questions whichinclude: how effective and to whose benefit have measures adopted (like aerialbombardment) in the management of internal crisis by security forces in Nigeriabeen in recent times (1999-2011)? Is it not an indirect call for military interregnum,when democratic regimes authorize the rolling out of war machines by the militaryagainst the civilians? Are the military forces fully trained in surveillance and othernon-combative skills of security maintenance? This study intends to consider anumber of options available for the country to adopt and solve crisis situationswith minimal collateral damage. These options include good governance, genuinenational dialogue, adequate surveillance of the Niger Delta creeks, blocking of thesources of small and light weapons importation and sale of illegally bunkered crudeoil into the international market.

The United Kingdom: Increasingly Fractious Civil–Military Relations

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrew M. Dorman
Keyword(s):  
United Kingdom ◽  
Civil War ◽  
18Th Century ◽  
Armed Forces ◽  
Royal Navy ◽  
Civil Military Relations ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
To Come ◽  
Military Relations ◽  
The Military

Civil–military relations in the United Kingdom have traditionally not been a major issue. This is partly a reflection of its history. The U.K. mainland has not been invaded since 1066. Since the civil war in the 17th century and the union of Scotland with England at the beginning of the 18th century, there has not been a need to maintain significant land forces at home. The Royal Navy has provided the first and main line of defense. The civil war in many ways set the tone for subsequent civil–military relations. Most powers related to the armed forces have been retained under the royal prerogative, effectively in the hands of the prime minister, but Parliament has retained a degree of oversight and controls the purse strings. However, beneath this veneer there are increasing tensions between the military and political authorities as the former have sought an increasing role in policymaking, particularly in terms of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Moreover, the armed forces themselves have struggled to come to terms with adapting to the society from which they are drawn. Since the 1990s they have had to give ground on the issues of gender and sexuality, and they are increasingly criticized for their lack of diversification—an issue that they have sought to mask by recruiting from the Commonwealth.

Frelimo's Victories in Mozambique

1974 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 38-46
Author(s):  
Richard W. Leonard
Keyword(s):  
Armed Forces ◽  
Officer Corps ◽  
Military Academy ◽  
The West ◽  
The North ◽  
Military Duty ◽  
Junior Officer ◽  
Portuguese Colonialism ◽  
The Military ◽  
Commander In Chief

On May 17, 1970, Portuguese colonial forces in Mozambique numbering 50,000 and headed by the newly appointed Commander-in-Chief, General Kaulza de Arriaga launched a sweeping offensive against the areas in northern Mozambique held by FRELIMO, the Mozambique Liberation Front. Operation Gordian Knot was intended to crush the FRELIMO forces which had been operating in Mozambique since 1964. Now, four years after “Gordian Knot,” General de Arriaga has retired from the Portuguese armed forces. Following the coup that rocked Portugal on April 25 the new provisional Portuguese government has opened discussions with FRELIMO in Lusaka on the colonial problem. And FRELIMO forces are operating in strength in five districts of Mozambique—from Niassa and Cabo Delgado in the north, to Tete in the west, to Beira and Vila Pery in central Mozambique. The purpose of this article is to examine the Portuguese military defeat in Mozambique and the growing strength of FRELIMO, to look at the situation as it appears immediately following the coup in Portugal, and to briefly relate these developments to U.S. policy towards Portuguese colonialism.The most dramatic testimony of the Portuguese military failure is of course the coup in Portugal. Many accounts have noted that General Spinola's book, Portugal and the Future, which heralded the coup, made clear in its analysis that Portugal could not defeat the liberation movements militarily and that a political solution had to be sought. The signs of the erosion of Portugal's position have been evident: the feeling of “hopelessness” among Portuguese youth about the colonial wars; an estimated 100,300 draft resisters and deserters abroad added to the some one million expatriates working outside the country; an increasing tendency for troops in the field “to shy away from contact with the enemy, taking defensive stands only“; fewer than one hundred places taken in the military academy with room for four hundred; the massive discontent within the Portuguese junior officer corps about conditions of service; the growing refusal of military duty (one half of the last class called refused to report).

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