Empire Loyalists: Histories of Rebellion and Collaboration in the British Empire

This is a project about the history of British imperialism over more than two centuries, from the American war of independence in the late eighteenth century to the last wars of decolonisation at the end of the twentieth century. Its theme is collaboration - the history of the alliances, affiliations and co-options that made empire what it was. Without collaboration there would have been no British empire - loyalty to Britain was as much a part of the story of empire as were the more commonly studied themes of resistance and rebellion.

Empire loyalism is at its heart a very British concept. The notion of loyalism in the eighteenth century had acquired a very definite meaning by the time Britain emerged as an imperial power in the aftermath of the Seven Years' War. Forged in the fires of the threat of continental invasion, the Reformation, the Civil War, the Restoration and the Acts of Union, loyalism entwined Protestantism, monarchism and patriotism into a coherent set of values centred upon notions of liberty. In the face of Catholic and republican challenges from home and overseas, loyalism defined what it meant to be British on the eve of empire. Taken abroad with the outflows of the British settlers, administrators and soldiers, loyalism as a means to claim imperial citizenship spread first to Ireland and then to North America, India, Australasia before finally reaching Africa at the end of the 19th century.

This project will then study the export of that idea, its subsequent transformation within the empire and, most importantly, those that appropriated it as a means to mediate the relationship between the imperial power and within newly subjugated societies. It was not so much that the British Empire made the modern world, but instead that the colonised part of the world made Britain the pre-eminent modern imperial power. The study of collaboration thus forms a critical component of the 'new imperial history' advocated by Cooper and Stoller, among others. In keeping with that project, collaboration should be understood as the 'convergence of interests,' albeit under unequal terms of exchange.

As a strategy of collaboration, loyalism allowed its adherents, ranging from white settlers through to black slaves, to shape the nature of the imperial experience and thus the empire itself. The problem of definition of imperialism derives from the constant mutation of empires. Principal agents in that process are the collaborators upon whom imperial powers rely to establish and maintain rule. By determining the extent to which imperial powers need rely upon consent or coercion in order to extract the acquiescence of colonized peoples, collaborators mould the nature of the everyday experience of imperialism. Within the British Empire, loyalism thus became a means by which individuals and groups could lay claim to positions that allowed them to enact the mutation of imperial rule, or at least mediate that process. The rewards for such activities were greatest at moments of imperial instability; the rise and fall of British global power and crisis points along that path. At moments of armed resistance to British imperialism, the worth of collaborators increased exponentially and with it the reciprocal benefits too.

This research will focus upon those critical moments of armed revolt and conflict. Whether during the American Revolution, the Indian Rebellion, the Anglo-Boer War or the Ulster Troubles, the value of loyalism to both the collaborators and to Britain reached a peak. Such events have of course most commonly been explored from the perspective of resistors, embedded in histories of nationalism and anti-imperial struggle. This project will invert that orthodoxy, to consider empire's rise and fall from the perspective of its collaborators - those who stood at the very heart of imperial endeavour, and who defined most completely what it meant to be part of the British Empire.

The proposed research has two aims for its impact agenda; a workshop for policy-makers and stimulation of wider public debate. Both are set out in greater detail in the accompanying impact statement.

Empire and Exit-Strategies workshop
Building on the past experience of impact activities by both investigators, the project includes a workshop discussing Britain's colonial conflicts as precedents for some of the challenges facing contemporary policy-makers in the matter of exit-strategies from conflicts. Such issues are a matter of great current concern in both political and military circles in Britain and the United States. Britain's imperial history raises two important questions for current policy-makers. First, the British precedent forces us to think of how exit-strategies are not simply matters of organised and dignified retreats, but rather ways by which state-building projects and the protection of interests can be sustained after the departure of foreign forces. Second, debate of imperial exit-strategies raises the question of post-conflict immigration of former allies to the external force and the questions of citizenship that rise.

Following a model already successfully used by Branch, the workshop will consist of academics from across the humanities and social sciences in discussion with military and government representatives. The aim of the workshop will be to explore the suppositions and contradictions of contemporary policy alongside a more general discussion of historical precedents for current conflicts, including Iraq, Afghanistan and Somalia. The workshop will be hosted by Warwick's Institute of Advanced Study. Representatives of Britain's Foreign and Commonwealth Office and Department for International Development will be invited. Individuals working at the U.S. war colleges and various military research institutes will also be invited together with key influential figures within current military thinking. Relevant individuals from the Council of Foreign Relations and the Center for Strategic and International Studies will also be invited.

Wider public engagement
Dissemination plans for the project include making outputs as widely available as possible. A contract for a cheaply and widely distributed monograph based on the project has been agreed with Oxford University Press. Other accessible outlets for project outputs will also be sought, including magazines such as History Today and BBC Radio.

Further impact activities aimed at disseminating and discussing research findings with communities and organisations directly concerned, such as the Orange Order, will be organised during the life of the project. The political sensitivity of the subject of loyalism means that any effort to define such activities prior to the project starting is unwise. Instead, alternative funding for impact activities to be held in the specific research locations will be sought as opportunities arise.