British Imperial Strategies in the Pacific, 1750-1900

by Samson,Jane; Samson,Jane

• ISBN13: 9780754619611
• ISBN10: 0754619613
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2003-02-28
• Publisher: Routledge

Summary

The focus of this volume is Britain's trans-Pacific empire. This began with haphazard challenges to Spanish dominion, but by the end of the 18th century, the British had established a colony in Australia and had gone to the brink of war with Spain to establish trading rights in the north Pacific. These rights led to formal colonies in Vancouver Island and British Columbia, when Britain sought to maintain a north Pacific presence despite American expansionism. In the later 19th century the international 'scramble for the Pacific' resulted in new British colonies and protectorates in the Pacific islands. The result was a complex imperial presence, created from a variety of motives and circumstances. The essays selected here take account of the wide range of economic, political and cultural factors which prompted British expansion, creating tension in Britain's imperial identity in the Pacific, and leaving Pacific peoples with a complicated and challenging legacy. Along with the important new introduction, they provide a basis for the reassessment of British imperialism in the Pacific region.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements	vii
General Editor's Preface	xi
Introduction	xv
PART ONE - EXPLORATION AND TRADE
Nootka Sound and the Beginnings of Britain's Imperialism of Free Trade	1	(28)
Alan Frost
The North West Company's `Adventure to China'	29	(24)
Barry M. Gough
Myth, Science, and Experience in the British Construction of the Pacific	53	(14)
David Mackay
English Attitudes to Indigenous Peoples of the Pacific	67	(10)
Glyndwr Williams
Licensed Curiosity: Cook's Pacific Voyages	77	(24)
Nicholas Thomas
PART TWO - COLONIES AND PROTECTORATES
The Creation of Imperial Space in the Pacific Northwest	101	(24)
Daniel Clayton
The Colonization of Vancouver Island, 1849--1858	125	(38)
Richard Somerset Mackie
The First Plans for Governing New South Wales, 1786--87	163	(20)
Alan Atkinson
'The Idle and the Drunken Won't Do There': Poverty, the New Poor Law and Nineteenth-Century Government-assisted Emigration to Australia from the United Kingdom	183	(22)
Robin Haines
The Impact of European Settlement on the Indigenous Peoples of Australia, New Zealand, and British Columbia: Some Comparative Dimensions	205	(14)
Robin Fisher
Myth, Race, and Identity in New Zealand	219	(14)
James Belich
Towards Colonial Protectorates: The Case of the Gilbert and Ellice Islands	233	(10)
Doug Munro
Stewart Firth
PART THREE - CULTURE, GENDER, AND ENVIRONMENT
The Hegemony of Laughter: Purea's Theatre	243	(22)
Greg Dening
Missionary Interest in British Expansion in the South Pacific in the Nineteenth Century	265	(18)
Niel Gunson
Imperial Benevolence: The Royal Navy and the South Pacific Labour Trade 1867-1872	283	(16)
Jane Samson
Fear of Culture: British Regulation of Indian Marriage in Post-Indenture Fiji	299	(20)
John D. Kelly
Putting Down Sisters and Wives: Tongan Women and Colonization	319	(30)
Christine Ward Gailey
Pacific Ecology and British Imperialism, 1770-1970	349	(16)
J.R. McNeill
Index	365