Ce travail de thèse a pour but d’étudier le degré d’implication des Écossais dans le système esclavagiste britannique graduellement mis en place dans les colonies du Nouveau Monde à partir du XVIIe siècle. Dans la lignée de publications récentes témoignant d’un intérêt grandissant pour la question, il vise à mettre au jour un pan problématique de l’histoire écossaise, qui trouve un écho particulier dans les discussions actuelles sur l’identité nationale écossaise. Cette thèse s’attarde ainsi sur le rôle particulier joué par les Écossais dans le développement économique de la traite négrière et au sein des sociétés esclavagistes des Antilles britanniques. Ce travail de recherche s’intéresse également à l’émergence des idées abolitionnistes en Grande-Bretagne au début du XIXe siècle et à la place des Écossais dans ce grand débat sociétal. L’enjeu de cette thèse est de déterminer s’il existait une spécificité de comportement, d’idéologie, dans le rôle joué par les Écossais au sein du système esclavagiste et dans les campagnes abolitionnistes dans le contexte impérial post-Union. Cette démarche ne s’inscrit pas dans la volonté clivante de singulariser les Écossais, mais de remettre en question l’homogénéité des notions d’« esclavagisme britannique » et d’ « abolitionnisme britannique ». Selon une approche chronologique, ce travail de recherche s’organise en trois mouvements. La première partie s’articule autour de la genèse d’une idéologie impériale écossaise, s’appuyant sur une conception économique esclavagiste. La seconde partie s’attarde sur la réalité du système esclavagiste dans les colonies et la place des colons écossais tandis que la dernière partie revient sur l’apport philosophique, idéologique et politique des Écossais dans les campagnes abolitionnistes britanniques et sur leur inclusion dans un projet à l’identité britannique très affirmée. / This dissertation explores the scope of the Scottish involvement in the British slave system that was implemented in the colonies of the New World from the 17th century onwards. In the wake of recent research revealing a growing interest for this specific issue, it aims at examining a problematic aspect of Scotland’s history, shedding some new light on the current debate about national identity in Scotland. This thesis dwells on the particular role played by the Scots in the economic development of the African slave trade and their participation in slave societies in the West Indies. This research also takes interest in the emergence of abolitionist ideas in Great Britain at the beginning of the 19th century and the part Scottish people played in the national debate. The main purpose is to determine whether there existed a Scottish specificity, regarding behaviours and ideology, in the British slave system and in the British abolitionist movement within the post-Union imperial context. The intent is not to single Scottish people out but rather to question the relevance of concepts such as « British slavery » and « British abolitionism ».Adopting a chronological approach, this thesis consists of three parts. First, it revolves around the development of the Scottish imperial ideology and of a colonial economic conception based on slavery. The second part dwells on the harsh reality of the slave system in the colonies and the role Scottish colonists played in it. Finally, the thesis tackles the philosophical, ideological and political contribution of Scottish people to the British abolitionist campaigns and examines their inclusion within this British scheme.

L'évocation de l'Île Maurice fait rêver : ses couleurs « arc-en-ciel », ses plages paradisiaques et sa population accueillante sont bien connues dans le monde. L'île a été tour à tour colonie hollandaise, colonie française et colonie britannique. Aujourd'hui, elle fait toujours partie du Commonwealth, au même titre que d'autres ex-colonies, notamment l'Inde. Après presqu'un siècle et demi de domination britannique (1810-1968), Maurice est aujourd'hui une république indépendante qui souffre des maux typiques de la décolonisation et de l'ère postcoloniale. On y observe les problèmes liés à la construction identitaire, comme dans les sociétés multiethniques, sur lesquels se greffent des dysfonctionnements liés aux inégalités entre les groupes qui composent le pays. Cette thèse se propose de dépasser l'image idyllique que nous avons de cette île, pour nous concentrer sur la vie quotidienne de ses habitants, plus spécifiquement sur les relations sociales qu'entretiennent les « Créoles » avec les autres groupes en présence. Nous tentons d'identifier et d'expliquer les raisons pour lesquelles une certaine catégorie de Créoles est particulièrement touchée par la pauvreté et les discriminations, ce qui entraîne des fléaux tels que la prostitution, la drogue, l'alcoolisme, la violence domestique, le viol, les enfants des rues et les grossesses précoces. Après avoir rappelé les différentes phases de peuplement de l'Île Maurice, nous nous penchons sur les notions, parfois controversées, de « race », couleur, mondialisation, regard et perception, pour essayer de comprendre les relations assez conflictuelles entre les différentes communautés, notamment entre les Créoles et les Hindous. Nous émettons l'hypothèse selon laquelle le passé historique lié à l'esclavage, avec la déshumanisation dont ont été victimes les ancêtres d'un certain nombre de Créoles, pèse encore aujourd'hui sur leurs descendants. À travers des études de cas, des interviews et des observations, nous analysons les limites dans les relations interethniques, intergroupes et intercommunautaires, prenant en compte les particularités de chaque groupe afin de savoir dans quelle mesure certains peuvent être qualifiés d'ethnies, de communauté ou simplement de groupe. Le résultat de nos recherches sur le terrain nous montre que différentes formes de discrimination sont exercées contre les Créoles et qu'elles sont dues essentiellement au verrouillage exercé par les Hindous, les seuls véritables détenteurs des rênes politiques locales, en plus, bien entendu des riches Blancs et des riches Chinois. Nous observons cependant que les Créoles semblent enfin commencer à accepter leur identité, dans un monde postcolonial où ils s'autonomisent et se distancient d'un passé esclavagiste. / The image conveyed by Mauritius is full of fantasy with pretty rainbow colours everywhere, beaches of white sand and friendly people. The island was alternately a Dutch, a French and a British colony. It is still a member of the Commonwealth, like other former British colonies, including India. After almost one and a half century under British rules (1810-1968), Mauritius is now an independent Republic, which suffers from the typical trauma linked to decolonisation and the post-colonial era. As a result, we can spot problems linked to identity construction in multiethnic societies along with the dysfunctions related to inequalities among the groups in this country. This thesis proposes to go beyond the idyllic image that we have of this island, to focus on the daily life of its inhabitants, more specifically on the social relationships among the Creoles and between the Creoles and other groups. We try to identify and explain the reasons why a certain class of Creoles is particularly affected by poverty and discrimination, which lead to evils such as prostitution, drugs, alcoholism, domestic violence, rape, street children and teenage pregnancy. After recalling the different phases of settlement in Mauritius, we focus on some controversial concepts such as, "race", colour, globalisation, gaze and perception, to understand the rather conflicting relations among the different communities, especially between Creoles and Hindus. We hypothesise that the historical past and slavery – as well as the dehumanisation affecting Creole ancestors – are still weighing on their descendants. Through case studies, interviews and observations, we analyse the limits in inter-ethnic and inter-community relations, and attempt to define the specificities of each group to determine whether it can be considered as an ethnic group, a community or a simple social group. The results of our field research show that different forms of discrimination are exercised against the Creoles, and that they are mainly due to obstruction by the Hindus, the only true ‘owners' of local political power along with the wealthy Whites and the wealthy Chinese. However, we observe that the Creoles finally seem to accept their identity in a postcolonial world where they find empowerment and are able to distance themselves from their ancestors' slave past.

Cette thèse étudie la réception de la Question d'Orient au Royaume-Uni entre la crise orientale de1875-6 et celle de 1894-8, ainsi que son incidence sur la culture politique britannique. Preuves à l'appui, nous remettrons en cause les deux positions historiographiques prépondérantes selon lesquelles la Question d'Orient était, à l'époque pour le Royaume-Uni, une simple question diplomatique et que son incidence sur la culture politique britannique se limitait à l'affrontement entre Gladstone et Disraeli entre 1876 et 1880. Nous argumenterons, au contraire, que les influences de la Question d'Orient sur le Royaume-Uni vont bien au-delà de 1880 et sont, dans le dernier quart du dix-neuvième siècle, multiples et extrêmement complexes. Sans remettre en cause son aspect diplomatique et géopolitique, il nous faudra également considérer son incidence rhétorique,culturelle et idéologique sur la politique britannique. / This dissertation explores the reception of the Eastern Question in Britain between the 1875-6 Eastern crisis (marked by the 'Bulgarian atrocities') and that of 1894-8 (which corresponds to the episode of the 'Armenian massacres' and to its consequences), as well as the impact it had on British political culture. l will rely on contemporary evidence to question the two main historiographical positions that the Eastern Question was, at the time, just a diplomatic issue and that ~ts only impact on British political culture was the contest that opposed Disraeli and Gladstone between 1876 and 1880. Instead, it will be argued here that the impact of the Eastern Question in Britain goes well beyond 1880 and is both multi-faceted and extremely complex. Without down playing its diplomatic and geopolitical relevance, l will seek to assess its rhetorical, cultural and ideological influences on British politics.

No description available.

This work is a social and cultural history of the participation of enslaved and free Blacks in the Seven Years’ War in British America. It is, as well, an intellectual history of the impact of Blacks’ wartime actions upon conceptions of race, slavery, and imperial identity in the British Atlantic world. In addition to offering a fresh analysis of the significance of Britain’s arming of Blacks in the eighteenth century, it represents the first sustained inquiry into Blacks’ experience of this global conflict. It contends that, though their rhetoric might indicate otherwise, neither race nor enslaved status in practice prevented Britons from arming Blacks. In fact, Blacks played the most essential role in martial endeavors precisely where slavery was most fundamental to society. The exigencies of worldwide war transformed a local reliance upon black soldiers for the defense of particular colonies into an imperial dependence upon them for the security of Britain’s Atlantic empire. The events of the Seven Years’ War convinced many Britons that black soldiers were effective and even indispensable in the empire’s tropical colonies, but they also confirmed that not all Blacks could be trusted with arms. This work examines “Tacky’s revolt,” during which more than a thousand slaves exploited the wartime diffusion of Jamaica’s defensive forces to rebel, as a battle of the Seven Years’ War. The experience of insecurity and insurrection during the conflict caused some Britons to question the imperial value of the institution of slavery and to propose that Blacks be transformed from a source of vulnerability as slaves to the key to the empire’s strength in the southern Atlantic as free subjects. While martial service offered some Blacks a means to gain income, skills, a sense of satisfaction, autonomy, community, and even (though rarely) freedom, the majority of Blacks did not personally benefit from their contributions to the British war effort. Despite the pragmatic martial antislavery rhetoric that flourished postwar, in the end the British armed Blacks to perpetuate slavery, not to eradicate it, and an ever more regimented reliance upon black soldiers became a lasting legacy of the Seven Years’ War. / text

This thesis will explore how writers of nineteenth-century Irish horror fiction, namely short stories and novels, used their works to express the social, cultural, and political events of the period. My thesis will employ a New Historicist approach to discuss the effects of colonialism on the writings, as well as archetypal criticism to analyse the mythic origins of the relevant metaphors. The structuralism of Tzvetan Todorov will be used to discuss the notion of the works' appeal as supernatural or possibly realistic works. The theory of Mikhail Bakhtin is used to discuss the writers' linguistic choices because such theory focuses on how language can lead to conflicts amongst social groups. The introduction is followed by Chapter One, "Ireland as England's Fantasy." This chapter discusses Ireland's literary stereotype as a fantasyland. The chapter also gives an overview of Ireland's history of occupation and then contrasts the bucolic, magical Ireland of fiction and the bleak social conditions of much of nineteenth-century Ireland. Chapter Two, "Mythic Origins", analyses the use of myth in nineteenth-century horror stories. The chapter discusses the merging of Christianity and Celtic myth; I then discuss the early Irish belief in evil spirits in myths that eventually inspired horror literature. Chapter Three, "Church versus Big House, Unionist versus Nationalist," analyses how the conflicts of Church/Irish Catholicism vs. Big House/Anglo-Irish landlordism, proBritish Unionist vs. pro-Irish Nationalist are manifested in the tales. In this chapter, I argue that many Anglo-Irish writers present stern anti-Catholic attitudes, while both Anglo-Irish and Catholic writers use the genre as political propaganda. Yet the authors tend to display Home Rule or anti-Home Rule attitudes rather than religious loyalties in their stories. The final chapter of the thesis, "A Heteroglossia of British and Irish Linguistic and Literary Forms," deals with the use of language and national literary styles in Irish literature of this period. I discuss Bakhtin's notion of heteroglossia and its applications to the Irish novel; such a discussion because nineteenth-century Ireland was linguistically Balkanised, with Irish Gaelic, Hibemo-English, and British English all in use. This chapter is followed by a conclusion. / English / M. Lit. et Phil. (English)

This research argues that during the inter-war years in Palestine, British power was dependent upon intelligence. Intelligence was fundamental to the security of the country, since it varyingly augmented understrength force, or supported overwhelming force. Intelligence also supported policymakers as issues of governance were debated. It allowed British decision makers to avoid making a decision on self-government during the 1920s and it supported Britain’s failed attempts to introduce a constitution during the 1930s. Intelligence also was crucial to Britain’s relations with the Arab nationalist and Zionist communities. Of particular importance was Britain’s partnership and subsequent war with the Mufti of Jerusalem, Hajj Amin al-Husseini. This thesis sheds new light on the role of intelligence in British colonial policymaking, the development of the Arab-Zionist conflict, and how Britain failed to manage communal violence. This research offers a new and improved explanation of the origins, unfolding, and defeat of the Palestinian Arab rebellion. British intelligence and policymakers failed to grasp the sophistication of the Palestinian national movement until the mid-1930s, and even then, they focused on clan competition and the politics of ‘notables’. Intelligence and military records explain how British police and military struggled, but ultimately succeeded to suppress and defeat this rebellion. Victory was made possible by innovations within the intelligence and planning staffs, as well as Zionist cooperation. Intelligence shaped policy most clearly at the beginning and end of the period under examination. During 1918-20, the military government was administered by intelligence officers who guaranteed Britain’s future control in Palestine both domestically, and at the League of Nations. In 1939, British policy abandoned its traditional Zionist partners when the need to impose a solution on Palestine coincided with the opportunity, revealed by signals intelligence, to bolster and leverage the influence of ‘Abdul ‘Aziz ibn Sa’ud over the Arab national movement.

This thesis is focused on the analysis of constitutional relations between the mother country and its Dominions. The constitutional problems along with foreign and economic policy formed one of the most significant and interesting chapters in British imperial history. The thesis analysed the formation of the first Dominions, the question of the constitutional position of the Dominions, a gradual change of the then used imperial terminology (the term British Empire vs. the term Commonwealth), and a working of system of Colonial (Imperial) Conferences in connection with the significance of the second influential imperial institution - the Imperial Defence Committee. The thesis deals with establishment of the Imperial War Cabinet, and organising the Imperial War Conference. A constitutional resolution was adopted that once and for all rejected the vision of the federalisation of the Empire and launched post-war discussions on the modification of constitutional relations between individual autonomous countries of the Commonwealth, which culminated during the Imperial Conference of 1921. The circumstances and discussions that accompanied the Chanak Incident, the Lausanne Conference, the British- Japanese alliance, the Imperial Conference of 1923, the Geneva Protocol and the Locarno Pact, all were...

Diplomová práce Politicko-geografické aspekty transformace Britského impéria na Společenství národů Abstract The masterʼs degree thesis "From British Empire to Commonwealth of Nations: Political and Geographical Aspects of the Transformation" deals with gradual transformation of the British Empire, one of the biggest colonial empires of all time, into Commonwealth of Nations, i. e. into a loose association of the United Kingdom and its former Dominions and colonies. The masterʼs degree thesis aims to profoundly analyze all the substantial aspects of this complicated process, namely in broader (above all in political-geographical, historical and legal) relations. The initial historical chapter describes the origins and the following territorial expansion of the British Empire. The second chapter concentrates on different types of administrative units that existed within the British Empire; a special emphasis is given to Dominions whose creation marked the beginning of the disintegrative tendencies within the Empire. The third part of the thesis examines the key period of the transformation of the British Empire into a looser association of states, which means the events of the first half of the twentieth century, when couple of crucial documents amending the character of the British Empire were adopted. The...

No description available.