Description |
xii, 379 pages ; 23 cm |
Contents |
How the abolition of slavery changed Britain's empire -- The select committee on aborigines -- The Aborigines' Protection Society -- An empire to protect the aborigines -- The society and public opinion -- Conflict with the colonists -- Understanding the natives -- The Aborigines' Protection Society's work in the field -- Australia and the first aborigines' protectorate -- New Zealand and the Maoris -- Fiji and the Western Pacific -- The Indians of North America -- Colonising southern Africa -- For and against Leopold's Congo |
Summary |
For more than seventy years the Aborigines' Protection Society (APS) fought to protect the rights of natives living under the rule of the British Empire. Active on four continents, the APS resisted the efforts of white supremacists while defending aboriginal interests across the globe. The APS put Zulu King Cetshwayo in contact with Queen Victoria and brought Maori rebels to the banqueting hall of the Lord Mayor. The society's supporters faced dangerous pushback by the powers they challenged and were labeled Zulu-lovers and traitors by senior British Army officers and white settlers. This book tells the story of the struggle among Britain's Colonial Office, white settlers, and aborigines that determined the development of the empire in its formative years. Particularly, it describes the pivotal role of APS in limiting the claims of white settlers for the sake of native interests. Despite this victory, native protection policy actually expanded imperial rule. Focusing on examples from southern Africa, the Congo, New Zealand, Fiji, Australia, and Canada, James Heartfield shows how the arguments made by supporters of native protection policy indirectly justified colonization. Highlighting the wreckage of humanitarian imperialism today, he sets out to identify its roots in the beliefs and practices of its nineteenth-century equivalents |
Bibliography |
Includes bibliographical references (pages 357-370) and index |
Subject |
Aborigines Protection Society (Great Britain)
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Aborigines Protection Society (London, England)
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Australian Aborigines Protection Society.
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Colonization.
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Indigenous peoples -- Civil rights -- Colonies.
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Indigenous peoples -- Civil rights -- Colonies -- Great Britain.
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Indigenous peoples -- Protection.
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Indigenous peoples.
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SUBJECT |
United Kingdom -- Colonies -- History -- 19th century.
http://id.loc.gov/authorities/subjects/sh2007100239
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LC no. |
2011007061 |
ISBN |
9780231702362 (cloth : alk. paper) |
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9780231800242 (ebook) |
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