Book contents
- The Cambridge History of the Age of Atlantic Revolutions
- The Cambridge History of the Age of Atlantic Revolutions
- The Cambridge History of the Age of Atlantic Revolutions
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Figures
- Maps
- Contributors to Volume i
- Preface
- Introduction
- Part I Enlightenment and Culture
- Part II The British Colonies
- 5 The Revolution in British America: General Overview
- 6 The Myth of “Salutary Neglect”: Empire and Revolution in the Long Eighteenth Century
- 7 The British Atlantic on the Eve of American Independence
- 8 Cities and Citizenship in Revolution
- 9 The Other British Colonies
- 10 The Participation of France and Spain
- 11 Britain, Ireland, and the American Revolution, c. 1763–1785
- 12 A Contest of Wills: The Spectrum and Experience of Political Violence in the American Revolution
- 13 Recovering Loyalism: Opposition to the American Revolution as a Good Idea
- 14 White Women and the American Revolution
- 15 Blacks in the British Colonies
- 16 Life, Land, and Liberty: The Native Americans’ Revolution
- 17 Shaping the Constitution
- 18 Reform and Rebellion in Spanish America at the Time of the American Revolution
- 19 International Warfare and the Non-British Caribbean
- 20 Interpreting a Symbol of Progress and Regression: European Views of America’s Revolution and Early Republic, 1780–1790
- Index
9 - The Other British Colonies
from Part II - The British Colonies
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 20 October 2023
- The Cambridge History of the Age of Atlantic Revolutions
- The Cambridge History of the Age of Atlantic Revolutions
- The Cambridge History of the Age of Atlantic Revolutions
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Figures
- Maps
- Contributors to Volume i
- Preface
- Introduction
- Part I Enlightenment and Culture
- Part II The British Colonies
- 5 The Revolution in British America: General Overview
- 6 The Myth of “Salutary Neglect”: Empire and Revolution in the Long Eighteenth Century
- 7 The British Atlantic on the Eve of American Independence
- 8 Cities and Citizenship in Revolution
- 9 The Other British Colonies
- 10 The Participation of France and Spain
- 11 Britain, Ireland, and the American Revolution, c. 1763–1785
- 12 A Contest of Wills: The Spectrum and Experience of Political Violence in the American Revolution
- 13 Recovering Loyalism: Opposition to the American Revolution as a Good Idea
- 14 White Women and the American Revolution
- 15 Blacks in the British Colonies
- 16 Life, Land, and Liberty: The Native Americans’ Revolution
- 17 Shaping the Constitution
- 18 Reform and Rebellion in Spanish America at the Time of the American Revolution
- 19 International Warfare and the Non-British Caribbean
- 20 Interpreting a Symbol of Progress and Regression: European Views of America’s Revolution and Early Republic, 1780–1790
- Index
Summary
Britain had a substantial Atlantic empire during the era of the Atlantic Revolutions. Only some of their Atlantic colonies joined in the colonial rebellion that led to the creation of the United States. The end of the American Revolution signaled a new period in the history of the British Empire, but it was far from a period in which the Empire’s geographic center moved decisively to the East from the West. The British colonies in the Atlantic World that either remained or were acquired during the Atlantic Revolutions were vital parts of a changing geopolitical and economic order in which Britain solidified its global dominance in the period economic historians have termed the Great Divergence (when the West overtook the East in economic power). The British West Indies and Canada were central to the Atlantic Revolutions from the period of the Seven Years’ War until the end of slavery in the British West Indies in 1834. Expansion in the British Atlantic after 1783 showed how valuable West Indian colonies continued to be to British geopolitical and economic policies and how Canada was rapidly becoming a set of colonies that were developing into vibrant settler societies.
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- The Cambridge History of the Age of Atlantic Revolutions , pp. 248 - 268Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2023