British Influence Research Articles

From the treaty of Rome to Brexit: A historiographical discourse of British influence on EU politics and economics

Relevance. Following the UK's withdrawal from the European Union in 2020, discussions continue in the UK about the feasibility of such a step. There are somewhat different assessments in society and among representatives of the official authorities of the state of the influence and role of the United Kingdom as a member of the Union on various processes in Western European countries, in particular in the political and economic spheres. The purpose of this study is to provide a historical analysis and characterization of the role and influence of the United Kingdom on the political and economic situation of the EU member states. The main scientific method used in writing this research is the comparative historical method, which allowed to identify key points, identify the nature of interaction and assess the overall results of cooperation between the United Kingdom and the European Union in the field of politics and economics through comparison and analysis. Among the main results obtained as a result of the study on the topic presented are the following: identification of key events in the common history of the United Kingdom and the European Union; study of the fundamental characteristics and features of bilateral and multilateral relations between the United Kingdom and the EU member states in the political and economic spheres; assessment of the level of influence of the United Kingdom on decision-making in the Union; forecasting the development of relations and strategic partnership between London and the EU. The results of this research and the conclusions drawn from the study of the presented issues can be used as a basis for further scientific research on this topic, as well as in areas that have a common background with this topic; in addition, in the field of diplomacy - as a classic example of the formation and development of strategic partnership of states within political institutions and associations; in secondary and higher education, as for young people studying the formation, development and activities of political associations of democratic states of the modern world.

British Revival and American Decline? Anglo-American Relations and the Persian Gulf 1979–1987

Understanding the trajectory of Anglo-American relations in the Middle East in the latter half of the twentieth century has rarely enjoyed consensus. Some have characterised it as a period of perpetual competition, with London unwilling or unable to accept its diminished status. Others, post-Suez, are more sanguine. Britain, it is argued, acted as a tutor to the United States still struggling to configure its global power with its regional interests. This article questions such assumptions. While its overt military presence across the Persian Gulf had declined by the mid-1970s, Britain had kept discreet military ties with a range of actors in the Gulf. By the early 1980s, with Washington struggling to make sense of the Iranian revolution and its wider impact across the region, Britain, now under Margaret Thatcher, proved adept at using commercial opportunities to recast and secure its strategic and economic interests across the Gulf, notably in Saudi Arabia. Thus, far from being the nadir of British influence in the Persian Gulf, the 1980s witnessed its revival.

Actor-driven institutional change in forest communities: insights from the Bakossi Landscape of Cameroon

The institutions-cum-forest use dynamics literature is growing, albeit marred by scanty evidence on actor roles in shaping the process in sub-Saharan Africa. Cameroon represents a useful “laboratory” to explore such actor-driven change processes. Recent studies have reported the change process linked to a colonial hangover in parts of Cameroon that came under French influence, suggesting the need for fresh evidence to uncover such change processes in parts of the country which came under British influence. Using the Bakossi Landscape as a case, this article (i) traces the pathways of forest-linked institutional change, (ii) estimates the role of actor groups in shaping forest-linked institutional change, and (iii) explores the determinants of forest-linked institutional change in the Bakossi Landscape. A representative sample of 116 households in 3 selected communities was performed. This was complemented by focus group discussions (n = 6) and key informant interviews (n = 10). Descriptive statistics were used to establish forest-linked institutional change, while the ordinary least square was employed to estimate the effect of actor groups and other determinants on forest-linked institutional change. The results lead us to the following conclusions: First, both forest-linked institutional structures and processes witnessed changes over the years. Second, raising the intensity of actor group processes (in-migrants, local elites, traditional leadership, timber dealership and NTFP traders) significantly decreases changes in forest-linked traditional rules, while migration, state officials and the church significantly increase changes in forest-linked institutional structure. Finally, an increase in the composite index of process-mix traditional leadership and NTFP traders decreases changes in forest-linked institutional structures. Future studies should uncover gender dimensions of changes in forest-based institutions, as well as the role of conflict actors in engendering institutional change.

Promised Lands: The British and the Ottoman Middle East by Jonathan Parry

In Promised Lands, Parry presents a fascinating, insightful, and exhaustive account of British policy regarding the Ottoman Empire during the earlier part of the nineteenth century. He provides the information necessary to understand the formation of the modern Middle East, told primarily from the British perspective. Throughout the book, Parry places the policies of the British Empire within the context of protecting the routes toward its crown jewel, its colony in India. He does so convincingly, brushing aside the general assumption of “Turcophilism” (384). As he points out, in reality, British politicians of the era, such as Richard Cobden, denounced the Turks as “crapulous barbarians” and “destructive savages” (387). Parry’s main argument revolves around the geopolitical expediency that drove the Ottoman Empire to maintain its sovereignty, while attempting to keep Russian and French interests at bay. This situation effectively ensured British influence in the region, aided by the advent of steamship technology, which negated the reliance on wind, thereby cementing British naval command of the region.The book devotes its first half to chronicling the challenges of the British political and diplomatic relationship with the Ottoman Empire, as well as other European powers, particularly France and Russia. Parry makes a conscientious effort to spell out the many considerations involved. He chronicles them with exquisite attention to detail. A character to which Parry devotes particular attention is Cladius Rich, who worked assiduously to gain influence through costly spending for the Ottoman Porte and later Arabia and Kurdistan.Moreover, Parry draws a connection between British secular and religious aspirations and visions for the region. He claims that this program parallels the domestic agenda on which the Liberal Party was founded. Spearheaded by Henry John Temple (Lord Palmerston) and George Canning, Britain supported the removal of legal distinctions between Muslims and Christians—described as “a battle to root out illiberalism in the regime”—and the Tanzimat reforms (284). Although Parry claims that British officials were generally uninterested in the promotion of Christianity in the region, he does mention the domestic pressure on behalf of the Jews in Palestine to which Palmerston acquiesced. It is helpful to see the origins of that British interest in the region, as the issue would eventually set the stage for the Balfour declaration half a century later.In the final chapters, Parry draws attention to Egypt, specifically its strategic geopolitical location. Serving as an important gateway to India, especially after the construction of the Suez Canal, Parry asserts that Egypt served as a center for additional European competition. As George Villiers (Lord Clarendon) noted, the British “only want a thoroughfare; but a thoroughfare they must have, free and unmolested” (334). Britain would eventually invade the country in 1882.This book successfully fills the gap in scholarship about the crucial time period and events that eventually set the stage for the making of the modern, twentieth-century Middle East. Although the book tends to delve deeply into specifics, particularly regarding British policy and politics of the time, Parry sees it as a work of British history, not as a history of the Middle East. Nonetheless, the thoroughness of its storytelling serves as a strong reflection of Parry’s meticulous research. Its broad and deep history is an important contribution to the field. Enriched by an impressive narration of complex historical events, Promised Lands is highly recommended.

"All Ways Open to all Men": Anthony Trollope and Mary Seacole in The Central American Transit Zones

This article focuses on two writers whose work on Panama and Nicaragua confronts Britain's supersession by the United States as the hegemonic power in Central America. Reading the nurse and memoirist Mary Seacole and the novelist and civil servant Anthony Trollope, I argue that these British subjects both understood the fate of the Empire as tied to that of the Central American transit zones, particularly the transoceanic route across Panama. They differed, however, on whom waning British influence in Central America would benefit. While Trollope saw commercial and cultural continuity in an uninterrupted Anglo-American dominance of the hemisphere, Seacole, a Black Jamaican for whom the Empire functioned as a guarantor of political status within a larger colonial framework, worried that the United States would subject the region to its regime of strict racial separation. Taken together, these accounts suggest a surprising inversion of imperial identifications: Trollope evinces an informal imperialist's disdain for official entanglements, while Seacole emphasizes that her status as a British subject entails a duty on the part of the Empire to protect the region and its people from American rapaciousness.

Purging the Lingering Shadow of Colonialism? Zimbabwe’s Third Chimurenga and the Struggle Over School Names

Drawing on a range of source material that is in public domain, chiefly newspapers and Parliamentary Debates, this article examines the efforts at renaming government schools in early 2000s in Zimbabwe, the debates surrounding the renaming and the results thereof. The renaming of schools by the Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front (ZANU-PF) government aimed at replacing names that appeared to celebrate colonialism with those that expressed Zimbabwe’s historical anti-colonial struggles. The article attempts to establish the source of this nationalist zeal—the need to purge the lingering shadow of colonialism, particularly continued British influence on Zimbabwe’s political landscape—and analyze the extent to which it was deployed. The article notes that these efforts at decolonizing school names must be understood within the broader Third Chimurenga revolutionary fervor. In doing so, the article highlights that while substantial efforts were invested in this exercise, the lingering shadow of colonialism remained, as many schools retained their colonial names. By focusing on renaming of schools, this article does not only address a neglected subject, but pulls together in one narrative the connections between the renaming of schools, anti-colonial struggles, decolonization and the post-2000 resurgent nationalism hinged on what is popularly known as the Third Chimurenga.

Science of the Twilight Empire: British Atomic Diplomacy in the Era of Decolonization

This article discusses the British version of the Atoms for Peace campaign between the mid-1950s and the mid-1960s that aimed at maintaining, reorganizing, or strengthening its ties with countries in the traditional Briton sphere of influence as a scientific diplomacy tool for enhancing its soft power. The Conference of Commonwealth Atomic Scientists and the Harwell Reactor School were consistent with this objective. Notably, the United Kingdom prioritized its geopolitical interests in its Atoms for Peace overseas campaign. Desiring to maintain the British influence in the vast region from Ankara to Karachi, the United Kingdom also founded the regional nuclear center attached to the Baghdad Pact (or CENTO in later years). For creating an attractive magnetic force attached to Britain throughout the Middle East, the UK considered a regional nuclear center necessary to demonstrate the power of science and technology in practice.

Expressly Orient? Britain’s railway-making in pre-colonial Egypt

Constructed in the 1850s with heavy British involvement, the Egyptian railway was the first to be built in a non-European Mediterranean territory. Britain – which neither financed nor owned this railway – nonetheless came to view it as a British possession. Originally envisioned as a highway for connecting the Mediterranean to the Red Sea and India, the railway became a means unto itself in Britain’s drive for a foothold in Egypt. Taking place in a period of both expanding British influence in the Mediterranean and technological innovation, this article centres on the largely overlooked interconnectivity between the railway and Britain’s march to dominance in Egypt. To secure a railway, Britain systematically undermined Ottoman sovereignty in semi-independent Egypt. Britain’s efforts ranged from gunboat diplomacy to combating Ottoman legal reform intended to limit capital punishment, which Britain saw as a prerequisite to safeguarding its interests in Egypt. Moreover, Britain de facto supported the railway’s construction through mass Egyptian forced labour. Once in operation, the railway became a social site that produced de facto colonial racial hierarchies. Combined, the article shows how, decades before the 1882 British occupation of Egypt, the railway project irrevocably contributed to Britain’s gradual colonization of Egypt.

The Game of the Italians: Football and Dual Identity in Argentina 1910-1935

"In 1934 Italy won the football World Cup with four Argentine-born players in their squad. Whilst this reflected Argentine footballing excellence during the era, it was also recognition of the close relationship between Italian and Argentine national identity born from mass immigration from Italy to Argentina at the turn of the twentieth century. Using the case study of football, this paper challenges existing assumptions surrounding national identity construction in Argentina that has largely neglected the role of dual identity amongst immigrant groups, and which has focused instead on assimilation and a discourse of the Argentine ‘melting pot’ in bringing these disparate elements into a national whole. In contrast to a concurrent narrative of nativizing Argentine football from British influence in the 1910s, this paper makes the case that it was the Italo-Argentine community that held influence in the sport, both at a playing and boardroom level over the next two decades. It will demonstrate how football afforded Italo-Argentine community the opportunity to celebrate both their Argentine and Italian identity through the example of Genoa’s 1923 tour to Argentina. Moreover, we examine how the reverse migration of footballers from Argentina to Italy from 1910 further complicated ideas of national identity. Keywords: Sport; Identity; Argentina; Migration; Ethnicity; Assimilation"

Image of India: A Study of Marianne Postan’s and Maria Graham’s Travel Accounts

From time immemorial, India has been an important place for travel. The reasons for travel to India were many, ranging from pilgrimage, trade, and conquest to exploration and diplomacy, etc. The British traveled to India basically for trade. Invigorated by the improvements in travel and expanding British influence, there was a spurt in travel by not only British men but British women as well. These women travelers traveled for many personal and political reasons. Many travel writers came to India from different parts of the world and depicted it in their own ways. The British women also depicted India in their own peculiar ways. This paper seeks to study the travel account of Marianne Postans and Maria Graham to understand the ways in which they represent India.

The Last Shah: America, Iran, and the Fall of the Pahlavi Dynasty; The Fall of Reza Shah: The Abdication, Exile, and Death of Modern Iran’s Founder

The Last Shah: America, Iran, and the Fall of the Pahlavi Dynasty; The Fall of Reza Shah: The Abdication, Exile, and Death of Modern Iran’s Founder

Review: Architecture, State Modernism and Cultural Nationalism in the Apartheid Capital

Review: <i>Architecture, State Modernism and Cultural Nationalism in the Apartheid Capital</i>

Urban Morphology of Taiping: The British Influences and Changes in Today’s Urban Structure

Urban morphology deals with the spatial structure and character of a place. It was formally established as a method in 1939. Urban morphology is one of the major branches in urban design that analyses the complexities and intricacies of human settlements’ development and transformation throughout the years. For many years, researchers and designers have been conducting morphological studies to better understand the spatial structure and other components that contribute to the transformation of a place. Taiping is not spared from morphological alterations either. As a post-colonial town in the northern part of Peninsular Malaysia, Taiping is blessed with a grid-iron plan and rich architectural styles, surrounded by lush greenery and a picturesque landscape. However, as centuries passed, Taiping experienced poor linkages, contested urban space, and an unpleasant urban fabric. This paper evaluates the urban morphology of Taiping using observational urbanism approach, focusing on the core area of Taiping. Findings revealed that Taiping has undergone dramatic, if not massive, changes from the pre-great fire tragedy until now, and the city needs to re-evaluate its development direction in order not to jeopardise its historic image and value. Hopefully, this research will raise public awareness and pave for future research on urban morphology, heritage value, and ultimately, good urban design practice for other historic cities in Malaysia.

Editor's Note

Editor's Note

Umerziehung durch rote Bibliotheken: SED-Bibliothekspolitik 1945/46 bis zum Ende der 1960er Jahre

Umerziehung durch rote Bibliotheken: SED-Bibliothekspolitik 1945/46 bis zum Ende der 1960er Jahre

Repeal, Revolution, Abolitionism: The Formation of Irish American Identity, 1840–45

Repeal, Revolution, Abolitionism:The Formation of Irish American Identity, 1840–45 Robert O'Sullivan (bio) For James Hoban of Washington, DC, a speaker at the National Repeal Convention for the Friends of Ireland in Philadelphia, Daniel O'Connell's campaign to repeal the British-Irish union of 1801 was the preeminent cause of the nineteenth century. It was also the most deserving of American humanitarian assistance in his judgment. Hoban clearly indicated that "our sympathies may be with Ireland as they were with Greece, with South America, and with the suffering Poles." Hoban expressed the hope that Ireland could become the object of the "heart throbbing which made America send a voice of encouragement to Greece [and] to South America when they were struggling to snap the bonds" that had so long confined their limbs.1 For Irish Americans in the 1840s this comparative framework was integral to the manner in which they advocated for Repeal. Comparisons with and references to the nation-building in Spanish America, Greece, and Poland were a common and even crucial component of Repeal speeches. Irish American Repealers depicted their movement as part and parcel of the global developments that had followed the post-Napoleonic Vienna settlement of 1815.2 Between 1808, with Napoleon's conquest of Spain, and the late 1820s the Spanish Empire in Latin America collapsed in the [End Page 141] face of the revolution led by the "liberator" Simón Bolívar that resulted in the emergence of numerous republics across the continent.3 From 1821 to 1829 Greece waged a protracted war of independence against the Ottoman Empire, with its independent borders finalized in 1832.4 And from 1830 to 1831 Polish nationalists initiated a failed revolution against Russian Tsardom.5 Organs of the American popular press also dedicated extensive coverage to the collapse of Spanish imperialism in Latin America. They found resonances with the story of their own republic and believed themselves to be a central inspiration for Bolívar and his followers.6 Likewise, the Greek and Polish causes gripped the popular imagination, largely though extensive coverage of these causes in these same newspapers.7 From 1840 to 1845, when O'Connell's campaign became a transatlantic phenomenon, Irish American Catholics took advantage of American interest in and remembrance of these causes. American Repealers directly compared their own movement with these momentous global events. These comparisons constituted an inventive rhetorical strategy for pressuring non-Catholic Americans into supporting Repeal. Irish Catholic Repealers sought to connect Repeal with a coherent transnational narrative of oppressed revolutionaries pushing toward national self-government and to situate Repeal at the apex of these post-Napoleonic popular-nationalist movements. Repeal speeches across the United States repeatedly drew on romanticized depictions of the virtuous revolutionary causes of Greece, Poland, and Spanish America. In holding up these heroized and celebrated visions of recent world history, Repealers could explicitly compare [End Page 142] their own cause with the others and could argue that they were worthy of association with romantic heroes like Bolivar, and that Repeal was a key feature of this new age. Repealers drew on these examples to expose the hypocrisy of Americans who had donated liberally to previous humanitarian causes, but who were too timid to do the same when it involved challenging British imperial power in Ireland and elsewhere. Repealers derided the foolishness of those who accepted the logic of British liberals who spoke of a progressive, civilizing imperialism, but who did nothing for those eight millions in the most destitute component of the Union; and they exposed the baseless paranoia of those who played into Britain's hands by raising the alarm that Repeal constituted a foreign, popish conspiracy to entrench papal rule in Ireland, strengthen global Catholicism, and undermine an Anglo-Saxon Protestant vanguard. Irish Americans, it was said, could "discern through these contemptible vaporings the power of British influence, even on the free soil of America."8 Repealers attempted to exploit emerging currents of American national identification as the global center of a new humanitarianism that would expand American values, republicanism, and antimonarchical ideals into the heartlands of the European imperial world.9 According to Repeal rhetoric...

The role of political agents and residents in Kuwait 1904-1943

The research gives a perception of the role of political residents and political agents in Kuwait and their efforts to support British interests in controlling oil resources after the British Navy switched from coal to oil in managing its ships, which required Britain to seek to acquire oil capabilities in the Arabian Gulf. Especially after it obtained the privilege of Persia (Darcy) in 1901 and due to the connection of its interests, it tried to conclude a series of agreements with the sheikhdoms of the Arab Gulf and the link between those sheikhdoms with Britain through those agreements and the matter went beyond the sheikhs’ pledge not to conclude any agreement with any country without the consent of Britain. Which established British influence for a long time, and its interests were linked to the presence of oil.

Managing and Investing in Hybrid Identities in the Globalized United Arab Emirates

ABSTRACT The United Arab Emirates have long been in contact with English. Its economy requires high rates of migration, resulting in large numbers of migrants who impact the local linguistic ecology. English acts as lingua franca and occurs in several forms, as labour is recruited from nations having experienced British or American influences. Arabic is used at home by Emiratis and Arab expatriates. However, it faces pressure from English both in education and at home, where shifts towards English occur. This study focusses on the interaction and competition between English and Arabic among university students. Qualitative results from a mixed methods survey suggest that while Arabic gets high solidarity ratings for “cultural identity,” English rates higher for “individual identity.” Status measures tend to align in both languages. Gender and citizenship had little effect, unlike self-assessed proficiency in both languages. Overall, English and Arabic are competitive in some areas, but also complementary.

History of Serampore as a Danish Trading Post, 1755–1845

Serampore, a small town of West Bengal, today virtually a suburb of Kolkata, has an unusual history and heritage as a Danish trading post/colony between 1755 and 1845. Creating a bustling, well-organised town, the Danes introduced various reforms which prepared the nineteenth-century awakening in Bengal. While the history of this Danish involvement at Serampore awaits fuller archival research, this article feeds on a range of local sources and contemporary travel accounts to discuss details of the Danish engagement in Serampore. The article also illustrates how, beyond the dominant British influence, colonial India experienced other foreign interventions that remain pertinent today, not just regarding trade but also missionary activities and some local sub-structures that have become almost invisible.

Introduction

Introduction