Events

22 April 2010

The settler revolution

Seminar

From 1815, with start-dates varying across frontier regions, European long-range settlement changed pace and character. It speeded up, shattering non-European tribal societies that had survived European contact for generations, and began to drag in masses of technology and money, as well as migrants. Previously, ‘normal’ settlement had taken a century or two to create substantial cities; this new explosive form of settlement created great settler cities in a couple of decades. The prime beneficiaries of explosive settlement were English-speakers - in the US West and in what became the British dominions of Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa. What caused this ‘settler revolution’ and why did it favour English-speakers? This paper contests the view that rational choice and/or growth-friendly institutions were the key factors. It summarizes an alternative explanation, emphasizing ideology and technology, offered in my recent book, Replenishing the Earth; The Settler Revolution and the Rise of the Anglo-world, 1783-1939.

Organisation:

Department of History, University of Auckland.