Demobilised Soldiers, Small Holdings Colonies and the Compulsory Acquisition of Land after World War One: Scotland and Canada

2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 176-187
Author(s):  
Barbara Arneil
Keyword(s):  
Indigenous Peoples ◽  
Land Reform ◽  
Reform Movement ◽  
World War ◽  
Land Settlement ◽  
World War One ◽  
Colonization Process ◽  
Demobilized Soldiers ◽  
Settler Colonization ◽  
Negative Impacts

This article compares the Small Holdings Colonies Acts (1916 and 1918) for demobilized WWI soldiers in Britain upon which the Land Settlement (Scotland) Act of 1919 was established; and similar small holdings colonies for demobilized soldiers in Canada with a particular focus on provisions for the state to engage in compulsory acquisition of land for this purpose. My research shows in the Highlands and Islands of Scotland, colonies and compulsory acquisition of land under the 1919 Act were part of a larger land reform movement (breaking up large estates) and represent progressive advances for traditional occupants – the crofters and tenant farmers – to have rights over their own lands. In Canada, on the other hand, domestic colonies for British soldiers served to displace indigenous peoples from their reserves already vastly diminished compared to traditional territories. The compulsory acquisition of land through surrenders from reserves compounded the problem. As such colonies in Canada had negative impacts on indigenous peoples as part of an ongoing settler colonization process. Thus I show that small holdings colonies particularly when combined with compulsory acquisition of land work in opposite directions normatively and materially in each country.

From Soldier to Peasant? The Land Settlement Scheme in East Sussex, 1919—1939

1998 ◽  
Vol 30 (3) ◽  
pp. 439-462
Author(s):  
Carol A. Lockwood
Keyword(s):  
First World War ◽  
Coalition Government ◽  
World War ◽  
Land Settlement ◽  
City Life ◽  
The First World War ◽  
Demobilized Soldiers ◽  
The Government ◽  
Post War ◽  
First World

The English rural myth suggested that being close to the rhythms of nature, as opposed to being immersed in the irritations and pollution of city life, would create a settled, healthy, content, and loyal population. By the inter-war period the rural myth depicted an appealing image of self-sufficient, independent peasants living an uncomplicated lifestyle based on agricultural pursuits. In the aftermath of the First World War this picture of a golden countryside was popular and admired by social reformers, members of the government, and the general public. The coalition government incorporated this myth into its post-war social legislation and created in 1919 a land settlement scheme for newly demobilized soldiers aimed at establishing a new base of smallholding agricultural workers to populate the countryside. The myth may have been appealing, but it turned out to be economically not self-sustaining and politically it got little more than lip service. A myth cannot be attained through mere legislation. This article examines the land settlement scheme in East Sussex during the inter-war period and argues that even in an area seemingly well-suited to such a program, the scheme was neither practical nor successful in its attempt to put the myth into practice.

scholarly journals The Garden Suburb of Lindenlea, Ottawa

2013 ◽  
Vol 19 (3) ◽  
pp. 151-165 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jill Delaney
Keyword(s):  
Social Welfare ◽  
Low Income ◽  
Early Period ◽  
Subsidized Housing ◽  
Reform Movement ◽  
World War ◽  
Urban Reform ◽  
World War One ◽  
Low Income Housing

The garden suburb of Lindenlea in Ottawa was designed by Thomas Adams and built by the Ottawa Housing commission to provide a model of low-income housing to municipalities across Canada in the post-World War One period. The planning of the suburb and the design of its houses reveal many of the ideological premises of the urban reform movement in Canada, and of the federal government's attitude toward publicly subsidized housing, in this early period of social welfare. Modern theories of rationalization, efficiency, and standardization, combined with late Victorian notions about physical, social and moral health, to produce housing designs that were technologically modern yet ideologically traditional.

‘The Clach’: Alexander Mackenzie and the Land Question in the Late-Nineteenth Century Highlands and Islands

2017 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 68-86 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ben Thomas
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Land Reform ◽  
Reform Movement ◽  
Late Nineteenth Century ◽  
Pragmatic Approach ◽  
Early Experiences ◽  
Late Nineteenth ◽  
Land Question

This article uses the career and writings of the Highland land reformer Alexander Mackenzie, to shed new light on the evolution of Highland land reform in the years leading up to the Crofters' Act of 1886. Mackenzie's output as a writer and journalist shows that his early experiences of living and working on the land are vital to understanding his approach to the land question, and led him to focus not on abstract or ideal principles but on building popular consensus to secure the most pressing reforms. This moderate and pragmatic approach was not universally popular though, especially among Mackenzie's more radical reformist contemporaries. The tensions these disagreements created are symptomatic of the problems that beset the ‘Crofting Community’ in the 1880s and ‘90s: problems that would eventually cause the land reform movement to split. Nevertheless, Mackenzie's influence on the Crofters’ War was huge, and deserves greater scholarly recognition.

Antipodean Aftershocks: Group Settlement of Hebridean and non-Hebridean Britons in Western Australia following World War One

2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 188-203
Author(s):  
Roy Jones ◽  
Tod Jones
Keyword(s):  
New Zealand ◽  
British Empire ◽  
Western Australia ◽  
The Sun ◽  
World War ◽  
World War One ◽  
A Site

In the speech in which the phrase ‘land fit for heroes’ was coined, Lloyd George proclaimed ‘(l)et us make victory the motive power to link the old land up in such measure that it will be nearer the sunshine than ever before … it will lift those who have been living in the dark places to a plateau where they will get the rays of the sun’. This speech conflated the issues of the ‘debt of honour’ and the provision of land to those who had served. These ideals had ramifications throughout the British Empire. Here we proffer two Antipodean examples: the national Soldier Settlement Scheme in New Zealand and the Imperial Group Settlement of British migrants in Western Australia and, specifically, the fate and the legacy of a Group of Gaelic speaking Outer Hebrideans who relocated to a site which is now in the outer fringes of metropolitan Perth.

Roads and Railway Lines in Serbia after the Balkan Wars

2016 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 175
Author(s):  
Miloš Jagodić
Keyword(s):  
Balkan Peninsula ◽  
World War ◽  
World War One ◽  
Balkan Wars ◽  
The World

This paper deals with Kingdom of Serbia’s plans on roads and railways construction in the regions annexed 1913, after the Balkan Wars. Plans are presented in detail, as well as achievements until 1915, when the country was occupied by enemy forces in the World War One. It is shown that plans for future roads and railways network were made according to the changed geopolitical conditions in the Balkan Peninsula, created as the consequence of the Balkan Wars 1912-1913. The paper draws mainly on unpublished archival sources of Serbian origin.

Tautai

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Patricia O'Brien
Keyword(s):  
New Zealand ◽  
British Empire ◽  
League Of Nations ◽  
Late Nineteenth Century ◽  
World War ◽  
World War One ◽  
Indigenous Resistance ◽  
World Government ◽  
Pacific History ◽  
The World

This is a biography of Ta’isi O. F. Nelson, the Sāmoan nationalist leader who fought New Zealand, the British Empire and the League of Nations between the world wars. It is a richly layered history that weaves a personal and Pacific history with one that illuminates the global crisis of empire after World War One. Ta’isi’s story weaves Sweden with deep histories of Sāmoa that in the late nineteenth century became deeply inflected with colonial machinations of Germany, Britain, New Zealand and the U. S.. After Sāmoa was made a mandate of the League of Nations in 1921, the workings and aspirations of that newly minted form of world government came to bear on the island nation and Ta’isi and his fellow Sāmoan tested the League’s powers through their relentless non-violent campaign for justice. Ta’isi was Sāmoa’s leading businessman who was blamed for the on-going agitation in Sāmoa; for his trouble he was subjected to two periods of exile, humiliation and a concerted campaign intent on his financial ruin. Using many new sources, this book tells Ta’isi’s untold story, providing fresh and intriguing new aspects to the global story of indigenous resistance in the twentieth century.

Migrant Fiction

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
C. L. Innes
Keyword(s):  
Professional Training ◽  
Second World War ◽  
World War ◽  
World War One ◽  
Large Numbers ◽  
British And Irish Literature ◽  
Commonwealth Of Nations ◽  
British Commonwealth ◽  
British Commonwealth Of Nations ◽  
Second World

This chapter discusses migrant fiction in British and Irish literature. The end of the Second World War and the closing stages of the British empire brought significant changes, making more complex the ambivalent attitudes of the British towards the peoples of what now became (in 1948) the British Commonwealth of Nations. As it was gradually acknowledged that the expatriate professional and administrative classes in the former empire would be replaced by indigenous persons, increasingly large numbers were sent from the colonies to acquire the British professional training and higher education often required for an appointment in their home countries. It is in this context that migrant fiction, both by and about immigrant communities, was created in Britain in the decades immediately following the Second World War. One response to the disorientation experienced in Britain was to recreate the community back home, to rediscover and understand what one had left.

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