Incorporating the King's New Subjects: Accommodation and Anti‐Catholicism in the British Empire, 1763–1815

Abstract

Concerned at its broadest level with the question of how empires manage religious diversity, this article explores the incorporation of Roman Catholics into the British Empire between the 1760s and the 1820s. It examines British attitudes and policies toward Catholics in Minorca, Canada, Grenada, Trinidad, and Malta, demonstrating that while both anti‐Catholicism and accommodation were evident, the trend was toward accepting and even supporting the practice and institutions of Roman Catholicism. Accommodation emerged as an important strategy of imperial governance as the empire underwent expansion and shifted toward forms of direct colonial rule in the early nineteenth century.