The business of settlement: Land companies and colonization in the British Empire, ca. 1800-1850
Item
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Title
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The business of settlement: Land companies and colonization in the British Empire, ca. 1800-1850
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Identifier
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d_2009_2013:d699a09edc28:11459
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identifier
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11867
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Creator
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Wahl, Cheryl M.,
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Contributor
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Timothy Alborn
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Date
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2012
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Language
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English
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Publisher
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City University of New York.
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Subject
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European history | Economic history | British Empire | Gentlemanly Capitalists | Land Companies | Race | Settlement
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Abstract
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When analyzed in a comparative fashion, rather than an understanding of British policy as a mass of "apparent inconsistencies which seem to defy coherent analysis,"1 imperial policy clarifies and displays an evolution as it reflected changes based on knowledge gained from the colonies themselves and highlights domestic legal, social, and political changes. Imperial policy failed to "design an international regime that would make the world safe for the monarchial, propertied, gentlemanly orders" by the end of the 1830s.2 A study of land companies demonstrates the significance of the gentlemanly capitalists and the importance of the relationship of these men with the Home Government in the creation and implementation of imperial policy, specifically the Anglicization policy. A study of the three land companies allows a view of foreign investment before the bubble burst with a study of the Canada Company, after it burst but while a sense of optimism existed towards land companies with a discussion of BALC, and long after the optimism toward land companies died with an analysis of the New Zealand Company. As a new domestic environment arose, which included strict interpretation of contract and law and greater regulation of overseas investments, the Government changed along with this new state of affairs. The land companies, however, sought to ignore the changing domestic atmosphere and to maintain privileges typically associated with gentlemanly status. The failure of the Anglicization policy post 1837 accelerated the "ungentlemanly" nature of the relationship between the Home government and gentlemanly capitalists. The inability of the British government and land companies to institute English traditions through assimilation at the periphery had implications on a global scale. As the Anglicization policy failed, ideas regarding the inferiority of imperial subjects emerged. The construction of races of non-British colonial occupants created not only racism within the colonies, but also created pre-conditions for ready acceptance of racial inferiority associated with Social Darwinism in the second half of the century.;1John Galbraith, "Myths of the 'Little England' Era, The American Historical Review, Volume 67, Issue 1, 1961, 34-48. Quote on page 48.;2P.J. Cain & A. G. Hopkins, British Imperialism, 1688-2000, 2nd edition (London; New York, Longman, 2001), 98.
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Type
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dissertation
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Source
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2009_2013.csv
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degree
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Ph.D.
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Program
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History
