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.  

Caribbean French-African Creole and African Metaphysics

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hanétha Vété-Congolo
Keyword(s):  
African Language ◽  
The West ◽  
French Empire ◽  
African Languages ◽  
The World ◽  
The Caribbean ◽  
Per Se

The Euro-enslavement enterprise in America expanded the European geography temporarily, and, more lastingly, its culturo-linguistic and philosophical influence. The deportation of millions of Africans within that enterprise similarly extended the African presence in this part of the world, especially in the Caribbean. Africans deported by the French Empire spoke languages of the West Atlantic Mande, Kwa, or Voltaic groups. They arrived in their new and final location with their languages. However, no African language wholly survived the ordeal of enslavement in the Caribbean. This signals language as perhaps the most important political and philosophical instrument of colonization. I am therefore interested in “Pawòl,” that is, the ethical, human, and humanist responses Africans brought to their situation through language per se and African languages principally. I am also interested in the metaphysical value of “Pawòl.”

Freebooters and Free Traders: English Colonial Prize Jurisdiction in the West Indies 1655–1670

2019 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
pp. 41-70
Author(s):  
Ville Kari
Keyword(s):  
West Indies ◽  
The West ◽  
British Colonial ◽  
The Caribbean

Abstract Colonial prize courts provided two significant contributions to the English imperial efforts in the West Indies. First, they played a key role in the enforcement of the new colonial power’s own trade monopoly against foreign interlopers and smugglers. Secondly, they helped the newcomer empire to rein in the buccaneers and capers who had populated the Caribbean for decades and to re-deploy them as commissioned privateers. This paper explores in detail the emergence of the British colonial prize jurisdiction after the English conquest of Jamaica in 1655. It shows how colonial prize courts emerged organically from the English expansion in the West Indies, with powers and duties assigned incrementally to colonial administrators to address the practical needs of the growing empire in breaking the Spanish trade monopoly and establishing its own.

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.

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.

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