Burt A. The Evolution of the British Empire and Commonwealth From the American Revolution
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Foreword
I
HAVE
attempted
to
explain
a
subject
that is
admittedly
much too
large
and
complicated
to be
mastered
by
anyone
in
a
whole lifetime.
It be-
gan
to
intrigue
me
forty-five years
ago,
when
I was
a student
of the
late Professor
Egerton
and
lived
in
daily
contact
with
other students
drawn to
Oxford
from all
over the
empire.
It
provided
the
theme
of
my
first
book,
which
came
out as I
"went
down,"
and
it has
been
a
major
interest
ever since.
The
present
volume
begins
with
the success
of
the
American
Revolu-
tion
because
this
has
had
an enormous
and
far-reaching
effect
on
the
evolution of
the
British
Empire.
I
have
sought
to
present
this
evolution
as
an
organic
whole,
arranged
around
dominant
ideas
and
forces,
rather
than
as a collection
of
unrelated
episodes.
Personalities,
how-
ever
interesting
in
themselves,
have
been
kept
to
a
minimum;
and so
also
have
the details
of
internal
history
of
each
part
of
the
empire.
As
no
man
can
really
understand
his
own
country
until
he looks
at
it
from
the
outside,
nor
understand
another
country
until
he somehow
gets
inside
it,
I have
tried to
combine
both
views
in
this
account
of
what has
happened
to the
British
Empire
since
the thirteen
colonies
broke
away
from
it.
I
am
indebted
to so
many
scholars
and
friends
for
help
in
writing
this book
that
a list
of
them
would
fill
another.
To
all
those
who
have
read
portions
of
the
manuscript,
I
give
my special
thanks.
A.
L.
B.
University
of
Minnesota
Table
of Contents
I
THE
ERA OF
THE
AMERICAN REVOLUTION
I
How the American Revolution
Released a
British
Revolution
3
II
New
Life
in
Old
England
1 5
III
Fragments
of
Empire
25
IV
Salvaging
What Was
Left of the
American
Wreck
4
3
II
THE
FRENCH
REVOLUTIONARY
AND NAPOLEONIC
ERA
V
The
Curse
of the French
Revolution
69
VI
The
Long
French
War
80
VII
How Ireland
Nearly
Became
the
First Dominion
of
the British
Commonwealth
of Nations
95
VIII
The
Establishment
of
the British
Empire
in India
1 1
8
IX
The Colonial
Empire
during
the
Long
French War
:
(I)
The
Western
Hemisphere
132
X The
Colonial
Empire
during
the
Long
French War:
(II)
The
Eastern
Hemisphere
153
III THE
APPROACH
TO REFORM
XI
Overthrow
of the Landed
Oligarchy
1 7
3
XII
The
Rise
of the Colonial
Office and
the
Fall of
Slavery
185
XIII
The
Growth
of
Anti-Imperialism
207
IV
THE
ERA
OF
REFORM
XIV
The
Flood
of
Reforms
in
Britain
233
XV
The
British
North
American
Revolution
248
XVI
South
Africa,
a
Workshop
of Native
Policy
272
XVII
Australasia
and
Systematic
Colonization
296
XVIII
The
Tropical
Colonies
under the
Impact
of
Emancipation
and
Free
Trade
313
XIX
Reform
and
Expansion
in
India 327
V
THE MID-VICTORIAN
ERA
XX
Britain on
Top
of the
World
and
Turning
to
Democracy
341
XXI The
Birth of the
First Dominion
362
XXII Australian Gold
and Maori Wars
379
XXIII
Readjustment
in
the
Tropical
Colonies
392
XXIV
The
Failure
of
British
Policy
in South
Africa
407
XXV
The Indian
Mutiny
422
VI THE HEYDAY
OF
IMPERIALISM
XXVI The Rise
of
Modern British
Imperialism
443
XXVII More
Democracy
and the
Quest
for Social
Justice
473
XXVIII
The
Great
Imperial
Scramble
507
XXIX The
South
African
War,
1899-1902
547
XXX
The Climax of
British
Imperialism
573
XXXI The Formation of
Two New Great
Dominions:
Australia
and
South
Africa 598
XXXII
Dominion
Nationalism 622
XXXIII
Irish and Indian
Nationalism
650
VII
THE ERA
OF
WORLD WAR
XXXIV The First
World War: The
Supreme
Test
679
XXXV Nationalism in the
Dominions,
Ireland,
and
India
under
the
Impact
of the War
708
XXXVI The
Emergence
of
the British
Commonwealth
727
XXXVII
The Statute of
Westminster
and the
Shaping
of
the
Commonwealth
756
XXXVIII
India's
Advance
Toward
Dominion
Status
786
XXXIX
Commonwealth
Reactions
to
the
Coming
of the
Second
World
War
809
XL British
Participation
in
the Second
World
War
842
XLI
Less
Empire
and More
Commonwealth
884
Some
Suggestions
for
Further
Reading
919
Index
928
LIST OF
MAPS
The British
West Indies
47
Maritime
Provinces
of
British North
America,
1784
51
The British
Empire
in
IBIS
68
Ireland
97
Expansion
of
British
Rule
in
India
under the East
India
Company
119
South
African Rainfall
1 5 5
The
Beginning
of
Settlement
in Australia
165
The Settlement
of
Australia
and New
Zealand 298
The Dominion
of
Canada
366
Africa
in 191 4
509
South
Pacific
Islands
before
First World
War
532
Makya
539
Burma
543
The
Near
East
697
The
Western
Front
in
World
War
1
700
Northeast
Africa
849
Southeast
Asia
859
French
North
Africa
868
New
Guinea
873
Burma
during
World
War
11
875
Allied
Invasion,
June
1944
878
I
THE ERA
OF
THE
AMERICAN
REVOLUTION
Chapters
I. How
the American
Revolution
Released
a
British
Revolution
II.
New Life
in
Old
England
III.
Fragments
of
Empire
IV.
Salvaging
What
Was
Left
of the
American Wreck
CHAPTER I
How the
American
Revolution
Released
a
British
Revolution
THERE
is
something important
about the
American
Revolution
that
recalls
Shakespeare's
famous
comment
upon
mercy:
It
is
twice
blest;
It
blesseth him that
gives,
and
him
that
takes.
Little
did
Americans
think
that
by
wresting liberty
from Britain
they
would also
confer
it
upon
her.
Yet
this
was the
very
thing they
did. As
children
occasionally
help
their
parents
more
by
resisting
them
than
by
submitting
to
them,
so did the
thirteen
colonies
unwittingly
rescue
the
mother
country by
their
successful
revolt
against
her.
They
rescued
her
from the
stifling
clutches
of
the
king,
thereby
earning
the
gratitude
of
many
Britons
then,
and
more
since,
for the
American war
precipi-
tated a
British
revolution.
George
III had
hamstrung parliament
and
captured
the
cabinet. The
British
government
was his
government
in
fact
as
well as in
name
until the
complete
failure
of
his
policy
in
America broke his
power
in
Britain.
Though
he
continued to
reign,
he
could
no
longer
rule,
nor
could
any
of his
successors.
This was a
great
revolution,
but to
understand it we have to
glance
back at
what
had
been
happening
in the
government
of the
country.
After a
long
struggle
between
king
and
parliament,
in
which
one
king
lost
his head
and another
his
throne,
the
supremacy
of
parliament
had
been
established
at the
end of
the
previous
century.
Then the
struggle
for
power
became one
for
the
control
of
parliament,
and the
balance wavered
between
the two historic
parties,
the
Whigs
and the
Tories.
Then
also
the
cabinet
form
of
government
began
to take
shape,
not as the
result of
any
theory
but
out of
practical
necessity.
Parliament did
not
claim the
right
to choose
the
king's
ministers or
to direct their
actions.
That
was still
recognized
to be the
king's
busi-
4
CHAPTER
ONE:
ness;
but
now he
had
to be careful
how he did
it,
because
the
opposition
of
parliament
could
at
any
time
bring
the
wheels
of
government
to
a
full
stop.
To
keep
them
going
he had to have
the
continuing
support
of
a
majority
in the
legislature;
and
experience
soon
demonstrated
that
the
only way
he could
carry
on
was
by
governing
through
ministers
selected
from
the
leaders
of
that
majority.
Thus without
any specific
law
requiring
it
there
is
none
to this
day
for
the
simple
reason
that none is needed
the
executive,
instead
of
being
separated
from
the
legislature,
was embedded
in
it.
Legally
the ministers
were
responsible
to the
king,
who
appointed
them
and
invested
them
with his
powers
of
government;
but
practically
the
ministers
were
responsible
to their
fellow
members
of
parliament
for
the
way they
exercised
these
powers.
In other
words,
parliament,
through
its
principal
committee,
conducted
the
government
for
the
king.
This became
more
apparent
shortly
after
George
I,
a
German
prince,
succeeded
to the British
throne in 1714.
His
predecessors
had
regularly
presided
over
the
meetings
of the
ministers,
or
cabinet,
and
so
retained
some
personal
influence.
But the
new
king
could
not
speak
English,
and
therefore
he
early
abandoned
the
practice
of
attending
cabinet
meetings.
The
precedent
he
thus established
has
never
been
broken,
not
even
by
his
great-grandson
George
III.
The
office of
prime
minister,
the
crowning
feature of the
cabinet
system,
could not
arise until the
departure
of
the
king
left
a
vacant
sfeat
at the head
of the table.
Though
one of
the ministers then
had
to
preside,
years passed
before one
came
to
dominate
his
colleagues.
That
was
Sir
Robert
Walpole,
who
really
ruled
the
land,
for he
was the
leader
of
the
legislature
and
the effective head of the executive. He
was
the
first
prime
minister and
the
last
for a
long
time.
Strange
as it
may
seem
today,
one of
the chief accusations
that
were
hurled
at
Walpole by
the
growing
opposition
in
parliament,
which
finally
forced
his
resignation
by
an adverse
vote
in
1742,
was that
he
had
made himself
"prime
and sole minister."
Equally
strange today
appears
a
charge
that he
confidently
aimed at his
attackers to
rout
them.
It was that
their
attempt
to
remove
him,
one of
the
king's
servants,
"without so
much
as
alleging
any
particular
crime
against
him/'
constituted "one of
the
greatest
encroachments ever
made on
the
prerogative
of the Crown." Here we have
the
prime
minister
openly
denouncing
in
parliament
the first essential
principle
of cabinet
government,
and
being
himself denounced for
introducing
the
second
essential!
Clearly
the new
system
of
government
was
far
from
being