紀要論文

紀要論文

text

アジア太平洋論叢. 2025, 27(1), p. 15-28

英語

text

2025-03-30

https://doi.org/10.32312/transasiapacific.27.1_15

論説

During the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, the British West Indies faced intense pressure for reforms. The political upheavals of the French Revolution in Europe and the Haitian Revolution in the Caribbean strongly required the elites of the British government and the British West Indies to take action to secure their territory and social stability of home and the colonies. The French colonies abolished slavery under the revolutionary government, which deeply concerned the elites in the British West Indies. They were keen on maintaining social order and the economic system based on slavery, as the colonies had an unusual social structure in which a few white elites governed a large population of enslaved black or coloured individuals. This paper reconsiders the relationship between the British home and its West Indies between the 1790s and the 1800s. It focuses on two key reforms implemented by the British government during this time: the gradual abolition of the slave trade and the recruitment of black soldiers in the West Indies regiments. While previous research has emphasized the conflict between the British government and the interests of the West Indian colonies, this study shows that the elites in the West Indies maintained relatively positive relations with the home government despite their strong opposition to arming the black population. Although the recruitment of black soldiers was a strategic military move from the perspective of the British government, this move was deeply controversial for the colonial elites in the West Indies. They regarded it as a potential threat of uprisings among the enslaved population and as potentially destabilizing for a society built on the subjugation of enslaved Africans. However, the strong opposition from local colonial elites should be understood more nuancedly. The policymakers in recruiting black soldiers also promoted the gradual abolition of the slave trade. They did not intend to damage the West Indies society but tried to keep the prosperity of the British West Indies as much as possible. The case study of the upheaval of black soldiers in British Dominica illustrates that the metropolitan and the colonial governments maintained cooperation despite the conflict between them. By examining the process and results of establishing the West Indies regiment and the gradual abolition of the slave trade, this paper illustrates how the British government introduced new policies while maintaining relations between the home and the colonies. Despite significant opposition from the colonies and the British government's policy failure to the uprising of black soldiers, home-colonial relations were kept in a complex and often contentious way during the period.

This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

100866

1790 ‒ 1800 年代イギリス領西インド植民地における黒人兵登用問題 : 本国・植民地関係に着目して

森井, 一真

大阪大学グローバルイニシアティブ機構

英語

2025-03-30

アジア太平洋論叢

27

1

15

28

https://doi.org/10.32312/transasiapacific.27.1_15

https://hdl.handle.net/11094/100866