The British Army in the West Indies: Society and the Military in the Revolutionary Age

Abstract

This social and political history depicts a military community being shaped and defined in an era of revolutionary change: the French Revolution and the Napoleonic wars at the end of the 18th century. Within the framework of war and society, Roger Buckley presents a detailed picture of the British West Indies army in the Caribbean theatre, especially the manner in which the garrison affected, and was itself affected by, the Caribbean social, political and economic landscape. This examination of the community or the British Army in the West Indies draws on archives in Europe, North America and the West Indies, archaeological evidence from West Indian military sites, and previously unpublished contemporary drawings of garrison life. Buckley expands the scope of military history to encompass the complex linkages of the diverse military population to the surrounding environment and society. He draws comparisons with French, Dutch and Danish colonial military experiences and surveys a broad range of little-studied aspects of garrison life - from the topographical and ecological bases of colonial warfare, to military justice, to army women and children, to deviant sexual behaviour, to the military as an agent of social reform.