Enlarging the British settler state of Canada: A liberal theory of government and violence

Abstract

ABSTRACT This paper examines the writings of George Brown, a leading expansionist and liberal thinker in the British settler state of Canada. Studying George Brown’s thinking as a non-canonical colonial statesman and thinker who helped appropriate Indigenous lands exposes the specific liberal ideas that authorized the enlarging of British settler states. Specifically, inquiring into Brown’s liberalism brings out a powerful liberal theory of self-government, which he adjusted to the circumstances of expanding settler states on stolen Indigenous lands. Brown’s theory of self-government overturns some of John Stuart Mill’s most influential ideas, including his proposition that the legitimacy of despotism is contingent upon it being temporary and for the improvement of the colonized. Against conservative rivals, Brown argues settler communities must self-govern locally and adopt colonial policies, including territorial appropriation from Indigenous peoples. Analysing Brown’s liberal thinking, developed from within expanding settler colonies, finally surfaces the readiness of liberal thought and practice to use physical and military force against Indigenous Peoples, especially as they resist the liberal policies of settler self-government and dispossession.