Thesis advisor: Prasannan Parthasarathi / This dissertation examines the impact of the 1857 Indian rebellion on the British Empire. The uprising began as a mutiny of troops in the north Indian town of Meerut on May 10, 1857, but quickly widened into a massive civil rebellion. For nearly eighteen months much of northern India was up in arms against British power. While scholars have long known that the 1857 rebellion was an imperial crisis, there has been little analysis of its impact outside Britain and India. My work departs from this historiographical tradition to explore the repercussions of 1857 in Jamaica, Ireland, New Zealand, and the Cape Colony in South Africa. The shockwaves of the uprising were felt immediately in each of these colonies. From Ireland to New Zealand, colonial administrators and Britons organized military, financial, and spiritual assistance for British efforts in India. And, much of this support was offered without mediation by London officials. Even after the rebellion had been suppressed, the violence of 1857 continued to have lasting effect. The fears generated by the uprising transformed how the British understood their relationship with the colonized and gave rise to an imperial policy dependent on the greater exercise of force. In the wake of the rebellion, many colonial officials expressed concern that the events in India might be replicated elsewhere. As colonial conflicts erupted in violence throughout the 1860s, many Britons understood the later crises in light of the 1857 Indian rebellion. In response, colonial officials around the Empire used force to maintain British control and hegemony. By studying four colonial sites, this dissertation moves beyond the traditional core-periphery model and points to the dense connections that knit together the British Empire. This study is also unique in its approach. Rather than examine each case study individually, I adopt an integrated method of analysis. This framework allows me to not only provide insight into the broad impact of the Indian rebellion, but also shed light on the functioning of the British Empire in the nineteenth century. London was not always at the center of activity. In response to 1857, Britons throughout the Empire debated methods of counter insurgency, military recruiting, and colonial governance. Colonial officials actively sought to utilize imperial connections, applying the lessons learned in one region to the problems surfacing in another. Methods of rule in the British Empire were developed neither in one location nor by one individual and the flows of information from one colony to another played a crucial role in shaping imperial policy. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2011. / Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: History.

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The probability of militant group splintering is a relatively rare phenomenon that exponentially increases with the introduction of a peace process and associated negotiations (Duursma and Fliervoet, 2021). Militant groups that do splinter hold the potential for increased violence that can spoil negotiations, prolong conflict, incite more citizens to join militant causes, and erode the credibility of the state (Stedman, 1997; Duursma and Fliervoet, 2021; Rudloff and Findley, 2016; Cronin, 2011). Negotiations inherently require some type of concession from one or more parties involved, and for militant groups, they often require modifying components of or entire ideological objectives. This research explores intergroup dynamics surrounding militant ideological modifications made during negotiations that lead to splintering. The author examines ideological modification across three militant groups identified through an empirical case selection process: Al-Fatah, the FARC, and the PKK. Diagnostic evidence resulting from congruence procedures coupled with theory-building process tracing allowed for the inference of 'militant perceived ideological betrayal' acting as a sufficient causal mechanism that connects negotiations to militant splintering. This dissertation examined intergroup dynamics surrounding ideological modifications, when militants perceive modifications as concessions, and the relative importance of group enforcement measures meant to maintain militant cohesion. Findings provide important evidence related to the relational nature of militant ideology, and raise credible questions surrounding ideological devotion by hardliners depending upon the framing of changes and their legitimacy, and if said changes occur in the face of an adversary or on the militant group's own accord. / Doctor of Philosophy / Militant splintering is a relatively rare phenomenon that increases with the introduction of a peace process and associated negotiations (Duursma and Fliervoet, 2021). Militant groups that do splinter hold the potential for increased violence that can spoil negotiations, prolong conflict, incite more citizens to join militant causes, and erode the credibility of the state (Stedman, 1997; Duursma and Fliervoet, 2021; Rudloff and Findley, 2016; Cronin, 2011). Negotiations include various concessions from one or more parties involved, and for militant groups they often require modifying components of or entire key ideological objectives. This research explores intergroup dynamics surrounding militant ideological modification during negotiations that lead to splintering. The author examines changes in militant ideology across three groups identified through an empirical case selection process: Al-Fatah, the FARC, and the PKK. Diagnostic evidence resulting from qualitative case and within-case comparison allowed for the inference of a causal mechanism 'militant perceived ideological betrayal' connecting negotiations to militant splintering. This research project examined the intergroup dynamics surrounding when militants change ideological objectives or orientation, when militants perceive these changes as concessions, and the relative importance of group enforcement measures meant to maintain group cohesion. Findings provide important evidence related to the relational nature of militant ideology, and raise credible questions surrounding ideological devotion by hardliners depending upon the framing of changes and their associated legitimacy, and whether said changes occur in the face of an adversary or on the militant group's own accord.

The Northwest Rebellion, in comparison to other North American civil wars, was short-lived and geographically contained, but for the people who lived through it, the residents of the Saskatchewan district, 1885 was a real and a frightening ordeal. By exploring micro-relations at the individual, family and community levels, and focusing on the connections between residents and ways that they related to each other, a portrait of the region emerges that reveals that Euro-Canadians and Aboriginals were linked to each other in many, and often subtle ways before the uprising. Drawing on personal papers, government and Hudson's Bay Company records, and oral histories, this study shows that race and gender were determining factors in how white, First Nations, Metis and mixed-blood men and women experienced both the conflict itself and its aftennath. Furthermore, its impact on residents' lives and society in the Saskatchewan territory was considerable and the effects long-lasting. Barriers, both physical and social, were created and solidified, and, although groups were still linked by the same family ties that bound them before the spring of 1885, the ways that they viewed each other changed after the rebellion. Mistrust and hostility that had not existed before, or that had been repressed, broke the bonds that connected racial groups, and sometimes families. The new order in Saskatchewan was one in which Euro-Canadians held power, and Aboriginals were second-class citizens barred from mainstream society. The rebellion accelerated white domination of the region, and acted as a catalyst for the racial divisions evident in Saskatchewan in the twentieth century.

The Northwest Rebellion, in comparison to other North American civil wars, was short-lived and geographically contained, but for the people who lived through it, the residents of the Saskatchewan district, 1885 was a real and a frightening ordeal. By exploring micro-relations at the individual, family and community levels, and focusing on the connections between residents and ways that they related to each other, a portrait of the region emerges that reveals that Euro-Canadians and Aboriginals were linked to each other in many, and often subtle ways before the uprising. Drawing on personal papers, government and Hudson's Bay Company records, and oral histories, this study shows that race and gender were determining factors in how white, First Nations, Metis and mixed-blood men and women experienced both the conflict itself and its aftennath. Furthermore, its impact on residents' lives and society in the Saskatchewan territory was considerable and the effects long-lasting. Barriers, both physical and social, were created and solidified, and, although groups were still linked by the same family ties that bound them before the spring of 1885, the ways that they viewed each other changed after the rebellion. Mistrust and hostility that had not existed before, or that had been repressed, broke the bonds that connected racial groups, and sometimes families. The new order in Saskatchewan was one in which Euro-Canadians held power, and Aboriginals were second-class citizens barred from mainstream society. The rebellion accelerated white domination of the region, and acted as a catalyst for the racial divisions evident in Saskatchewan in the twentieth century.

This thesis investigates some social factors that instigated Bengal’s peasants to revolt against theBritish colonial raj repeatedly. The majority of peasant rebellions of Bengal have been examinedfrom the view of political economy, where the general perspective is that peasants revolted becauseof economic exploitations by planters, landlords, and other classes. However, this study argues forextending beyond the political-economic view, and for the importance of also bringing in overallsocial conditions in the examination of peasant rebellions. From these perspectives, this studyexamines a single case, the Indigo rebellion of Bengal, in relation to colonial policy, institutionalarrangements and peasants’ social condition.Archival data, Indigo commission report of 1860, books, academic articles, political drama, etc.,have been used as data sources for the study. To get a personal experience of the indigo rebellion,I have traveled to some districts where the indigo rebellion occurred and discussed with thepeasants to find some oral history. By applying the case study research method, I have analyzedthe data with the thematic analysis method. Commercialization of agriculture, moral economy, andexpansion of the market economy theory has been applied to analyze the data.This study finds that colonial policy and institutional arrangement created conditions to exploit thepeasants’ labor and wealth. The first significant change brought in Bengal by colonial power wasthe change in land ownership. Because of the Permanent Settlement Act, land became a productof money-making in the colonial state. The second significant effect of colonial rule is the changeof agricultural mode of production. The study also shows the commercialization of agriculture thattransformed the traditional method of agriculture, shifted the entire ‘production risk’ on thepeasants’ shoulders, and created insecurity of peasants’ subsistence. Thus, this study indicates thatBengal’s peasants repeatedly revolted because of colonial institutional arrangements andextractive land, economic, social, and indigo production policies that made peasant life miserable

Any military body which is essentially an irregularly raised volunteer force presents certain peculiar problems of recruitment, discipline and organisation. The resources available to a regular army to secure enlistment, discipline and supplies, were, because of its very nature, denied to the Jacobite army of 1745/6. The methods, however, by which the problems of recruitment, discipline and finance were solved by the rebel army were often to play a decisive part in the fate of the rebellion as a whole. Problems of local recruitment, and the availability of small parties of men to enforce recruiting or levy money, were often to affect the fortunes of the rebel army operating at a distance of several counties. In one sense such local activities remained isolated from the main strategy, for local recruitment was apparently much less affected by the varying fortunes of the main force than might have been expected. It is difficult to trace a discernible pattern between important military successes or reverses and local recruitment. Local recruitment, for instance, was affected primarily by the presence locally of the main force rather than by the news of military actions elsewhere. The major actions of the campaign do not appear to have had a decisive effect on recruitment, even in their own immediate neighbourhood. From, for instance, the St. Andrews district, out of a total of forty-four rebel recruits in the official "List of Persons concerned in the Rebellion," only five joined after the Jacobite victory of Prestonpans. Again, from Haddington, an area which one would also expect to reflect the action at Prestonpans, out of fifty-nine recruits, only ten joined after that battle. These statistics alone, of course, are not conclusive. The lists of named adherents are not exhaustive and precise details of time of adherence are not given in all cases. The figures do, however, serve to suggest that the factors which explain local recruitment. are complex rather than simple. Such factors are examined separately in relation to each geographical area.

In the second and first centuries BCE a series of three large-scale slave revolts erupted in Sicily and central Italy, each of which ravaged wide swathes of territory and were suppressed only after serious loss of life. These slave rebellions, which were unprecedented in Roman experience to that point, provoked horrified reactions from most ancient authors. Modern scholars have generally treated the late-Republican uprisings as isolated events, the unexpected consequence of military expansion. A focus on the label "slave," however, instead of on the social and economic roles of the specific rebels, has compartmentalized studies of the slave wars, allowing discussion only within the confines of Roman slavery studies. Since the rebel armies in each war were composed principally of agricultural laborers, a profitable comparison can be drawn from peasant uprisings and other manifestations of collective violence that occurred in throughout the Roman world. This study offers a new context for analyzing the slave wars, which re-integrates them into the broader sweep of Roman history and understands them as one manifestation of a broader pattern of social and cultural transformation.

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This dissertation traces the course of Jewish history in the kingdom of Castile from the late-thirteenth century to the Toledo riots of 1449. It shows that the security afforded to Jews through their protection by the Crown, and the high-office gained by Jewish royal administrators and tax-farmers, permitted a crossing of cultural boundaries by Jews, rarely seen elsewhere in Europe. Economic reliance underpinned royal protection; a fresh examination of taxation registers shows the extent of the Crown's dependence upon the substantial revenues provided by the communities. These revenues, however, were considerably diminished in the course of the fourteenth century as a consequence of the war of Trastámaran succession. The Castilian and Hebrew records indicate that the integration of the Jewish court elite conferred privilege but was also dangerous for the individuals involved. Rabbinical correspondence reflects fears of secular learning and apostasy, fears confirmed by the conversion of influential Jewish scholars. These converts soon became supporters of the friars' mission to the Jews in the fourteenth century. Though their efforts had little initial success, some voluntary conversions did occur even before the mass riots of 1391. A few such individuals showed how thoroughly they integrated into Christian society, acquiring wealth and property through marital alliances following their conversion. The many forced baptisms that occurred in the riots of 1391, were followed by a further wave of conversion in the early fifteenth century owing much to the preaching of Vincent Ferrer, and his insistence on the segregation of Jews. This study portrays the social pressures, even within a permissive cultural environment in late medieval Castile, pressures which led to the emergence of New Christians. Their contested identity was central to the Toledo rebellion of 1449 which marked a new and ominous chapter in faith relations in the Peninsula.