Industrial Revolution In England Research Articles

White privilege and professionalization: a decolonial and critical feminist perspective on professional nursing

This article offers a critical perspective linking invisibility with the political foundations of the dominant, Eurocentric model of modern nursing. Using critical feminist and decolonial feminist frameworks, this paper begins by analyzing gendered, reproductive labor in the centuries leading up to the industrial revolution in Britain and Europe and how the current dominant model of nursing was developed. The second part of the paper suggests a critical link between white supremacy, colonial violence and the professionalization of nursing work. Finally this paper calls on nursing scholarship to move beyond the narrow definition of nursing within the professional framework to include people who have done and continue to do the work of nursing despite being denied the title because of segregation and colonial violence.      

History of Handloom Industry in Assam with special reference to Sualkuchi

The Handloom Industry plays a vital role in the socio – economic structure of Assam in terms of providing employment and production of clothes. At the same time preserve and propagate the rich cultural heritage of Assam. Weaving in Assam is as old as human civilization itself and the art of weaving are being passed from one generation to the next. The existence of high-quality weaving skill and production of fine textiles is well documented in great epics like Mahabharata and ancient treatise like Arthashastra1of Kautilya (Choudhry, 1987). Chinese traveler Hiuen Tsang also gives rich description of existence of high-quality weaving products and their general liking of the Royal family and the nobility. Writing is the early 19th century, before the British annexed Assam, Francis Hamilton2 has given an accurate account of the state of weaving in Assam (Sarma, 2012). This Industry was directly patronized by the state, so much so that queens established weaving schools in the palace, to teach the art of weaving to the daughters of the noble widows and other female members of the household of executed prisoners were also employed by the art for spinning and weaving as a means of subsistence. The neo – vaishnavite movement of the Shri Sankardev was an equally potent force in the development in the art of weaving, especially of figured cloth. After annexation of Assam by the British3, the Handloom industry declined rapidly particularly in cities. Another British policy of de – industrialization of Assam, instead of export of cotton clothes and silk products, Assam became export of raw cotton and cocoon to fuel the Industrial Revolution in Britain. Despite, dwindling of textile weaving like all other arts with the fall of the Ahom rule, it never became extinct as many other branches of Assamese art. It is still a living art as much in demand as it had been in the medieval period (Goswami, 2012)

That Unexpected Margin of Capital

Abstract For many years, a weapon in the armory of those advocating for Eric Williams’s thesis that the profits from slavery helped finance the Industrial Revolution in Britain has been a speech made by Winston Churchill making that very point. Williams himself referred to the speech in 1942, as did George Padmore in 1953, but neither provided chapter and verse. Subsequently, a whole raft of commentators has followed suit, but always only via a reference to Williams or Padmore. This research note provides the original date and context for Churchill’s words.

That Unexpected Margin of Capital

Abstract For many years, a weapon in the armory of those advocating for Eric Williams’s thesis that the profits from slavery helped finance the Industrial Revolution in Britain has been a speech made by Winston Churchill making that very point. Williams himself referred to the speech in 1942, as did George Padmore in 1953, but neither provided chapter and verse. Subsequently, a whole raft of commentators has followed suit, but always only via a reference to Williams or Padmore. This research note provides the original date and context for Churchill’s words.

Babel; or The Necessity of Violence: An Arcane History of the Oxford Translators' Revolution by R. F. Kuang

Reviewed by: Babel; or The Necessity of Violence: An Arcane History of the Oxford Translators' Revolution by R. F. Kuang Rachel S. Cordasco R. F. KUANG Babel; or The Necessity of Violence: An Arcane History of the Oxford Translators' Revolution New York. Harper Voyager. 2022. 560 pages. GIVEN THE SUBTITLE of this alternate-history novel about language, translation, colonialism, and war, one would be forgiven for spending most of one's time analyzing each of the novel's events to gauge whether or not said violence will indeed be necessary. It is this kind of leading (or perhaps distracting) element that mars what is otherwise a unique, if not wholly convincing, take on what the Industrial Revolution in Britain would have wrought had silver, rather than steam and other technologies, driven innovation. In R. F. Kuang's take on early nineteenth-century England, translators, rather than inventors, are the major force behind industrial innovations, with bridges, factories, banks, carriages, and more operating at beyond-peak efficiency thanks to pairs of silver bars activated by language. For example, a silver bar with the Chinese word wuxing ("formless, shapeless, incorporeal") engraved on one side and the English word invisible on the other could be activated if both words are spoken aloud by someone fluent in both languages—thus the speaker would be able to hide from view for several minutes. Throughout England, such bars are buried in gardens to facilitate growth and beauty, installed in bridges to strengthen them, placed in boats to expedite travel, all to improve British lives. Of course, upperclass Britons reap many more of the benefits of silver than the working class and poor, many of whom were thrown out of jobs as the Industrial Revolution passed them by. Into this world of translation and silver come four Oxford students (Robin, Ramy, Victoire, and Letty) who have been admitted to the prestigious translation program at a tower called Babel. Within this structure, professors and students work on using ancient and modern languages to plumb the depths of "match-pairs" to keep industry humming. [End Page 85] Wealthy and powerful, thanks to this magical silver, Britain has amped up its colonial program by the 1830s, focusing especially on China, due to its silver. As Robin and his friends eventually learn, China's resistance to Britain's pursuit of its silver through opium trafficking (Kuang's reference to the Opium Wars of the mid-nineteenth century) will eventually lead to war, which Britain will likely win. Robin, Ramy, and Victoire are especially concerned because they see themselves as pawns in this colonial game, used for their fluency in Chinese, Arabic, Kreyol, and other languages. As natives of China and India, Robin and Ramy resent how differently they are treated by white Britons (Victoire, as a black Frenchwoman, feels the same). Robin soon meets a half-brother he never knew he had—one who works for a clandestine organization that siphons off Babel translators to work against the British colonial program. Griffin insists that violent resistance is the answer and eventually steers Robin to the same conclusion, one that will (as Robin admits) disproportionately hurt lower- and middle-class Britons who won't be able to escape their cities once sanitation collapses, bridges fall, and food can no longer find its way to markets. The goal, though, is to stop Britain's secret planned invasion of China—planned, that is, by the heads of Babel and not the British government (think India and the British East India Company). Babel is creative in its exploration of the power of language and how translators can be used both to bring the people of the world together and to exploit other countries in pursuit of colonialist domination. Nonetheless, the novel often becomes bogged down in discussions about exploitation and injustice that would be better communicated by a more dynamic plot. The footnotes that Kuang includes are interesting asides, except when they, once again, tell instead of show. Ultimately, Babel offers an intriguing take on an Industrial Revolution driven by silver and language, and its fluid mix of actual and fictional history make it a compelling read. Rachel S. Cordasco Madison, Wisconsin Copyright © 2023 World...

David McKitterick. Readers in a Revolution: Bibliographical Change in the Nineteenth Century

This deeply researched and engaging book from David McKitterick is very much a continuation of his previous book The Invention of Rare Books: Private Interest and Public Memory, 1600–1840 (Cambridge, 2020). McKitterick’s focus segues in Readers in a Revolution: Bibliographical Change in the Nineteenth Century to ensuing developments in attitudes and access to old books during the period, with particular attention to England and France between the 1830s and 1890s. Book historians have focused on changes to the materiality of the book during this period, stemming from technological innovations that impacted its production, dissemination, and accessibility to readers. The socio-cultural impact of the Industrial Revolution in Britain in particular underlies this study. While McKitterick spends some time on shifts in literacy, changes in available leisure time for the working classes, and the cultural pursuits made possible by the public libraries movement and increased opening hours for museums and galleries, his focus here is the acquisition of books, particularly those classified as rare, amongst the great variety of collectors in mid-nineteenth-century Britain.

THE ROLE OF COOPERATIVE SOCIETY IN IMPROVING FARMERS LIVELIHOOD IN NIGER STATE, NIGERIA

The cooperative was formed as a result of human sufferings and degradation during the industrial revolution in England. The social impact of the revolution was pronounced and largely felt by the common man who needed to improve their conditions of living that had deteriorated to an inhuman standard. The study is set out to describe socio economics characteristics of the cooperators and the various cooperative societies as well as the role cooperative society play in improving the livelihood of cooperators in the study area. The study was conducted in Lapai Local Government area of Niger State. Purposive selection of five villages: Eshi, Kuchi, Gulu, Ebbo, and Puzhi was due to the predominant of cooperative societies in these villages. A total of 90 respondents were randomly selected from sampled communities. Primary and Secondary data were used with the aid of a structured interview scheduled. Data collected were analyzed using the descriptive statistics, Likert-type scale and binary logistic regression model.  The result revealed that majority of the respondents 77.8% are within the age of ≤60, married and literate with farming experience of about 30 years. More than half 64% of the respondents belonged to a cooperative society with mean years of about 8. Majority of the cooperators 81% belonged to producer cooperative society. The strong bargaining power has a mean score of 3.14 which is greater than the neutral point and is therefore accepted.

When the Air Became Important: A Social History of the New England and Lancashire Textile Industries by Janet Greenlees

Reviewed by: When the Air Became Important: A Social History of the New England and Lancashire Textile Industries by Janet Greenlees David Rosner Janet Greenlees. When the Air Became Important: A Social History of the New England and Lancashire Textile Industries. Critical Issues in Health and Medicine. New Brunswick, N.J.: Rutgers University Press, 2019. xiv + 250 pp. Ill. $50.95 (978-0-8135-8796-7). In the early 1840s Charles Dickens, perhaps the singular English author giving voice to the horrifying realities of lower class urban life in England, toured the United States to understand the new republic and the people who had broken away from Empire only a few decades before. He made a special stop in Lowell, Massachusetts, one of the new textile mills organized to process the cotton that the slave-based South was pouring into the world economy. He was deeply aware of the importance of the cotton to the textile industry as it was the backbone of the industrial revolution in England where working people drawn to Manchester, Lancaster, Leeds and other cities were suffering from low wages and horrifying living conditions in what William Blake had dubbed “satanic mills.” What Dickens found in Lowell was a world apart from that he observed in the English mill towns. Dickens expected a dispirited workforce living in similar horrid conditions. Yet, in Lowell, the mills he observed were remarkably clean and tidy. “The rooms in which they worked, were as well ordered as themselves. In the windows of some, there were green plants, which were trained to shade the glass; in all, there was as much fresh air, cleanliness, and comfort, as the nature of the occupation would possibly admit of.” The young women who worked there appeared healthy and happy. “Out of so large a number of females, many of whom were only then just verging upon womanhood, it may be reasonably supposed that some were delicate and fragile in appearance: no doubt there were.” But he was at a loss to find them. “I solemnly declare, that from all the crowd I saw in the different factories that day, I cannot recall or separate one young face that gave me a painful impression; not one young girl whom, assuming it to be a matter of necessity that she should gain her daily bread by the labour of her hands, I would have removed from those works if I had had the power.”1 By the turn of the twentieth century, the halcyon days of happy workers and clean, tidy workplaces and living quarters were gone in the New England mill [End Page 165] towns, as they were in the British textile industry as well. By the time of the famous Lawrence textile strike of women made famous by the poem put to song, “Bread and Roses,” the towns were among the most unhealthful in the country. Fall River, Massachusetts had “gained the infamous distinction of having the highest death rate of any northern U.S. city, surpassing that of New York City and the Lancaster mill towns” of northern England. Chief among the diseases and causes of death in these once-salubrious towns was consumption, a collection of symptoms that were sometimes caused by the tubercle bacillus and, in some industrial sites, seen to be caused by the dust laden air created by a host of new water and steam-powered devices that produced huge amounts of dust in confined spaces that workers breathed in. Water driven looms, steam-powered drills and chippers, lung diseases of various forms came to dominate the lives and deaths of workers in textile mills, mines, quarries, foundries, steel mills, brick factories, and a host of other worksites central to the emerging industrial, urbanizing society. Silicosis in the quarries and foundries, asbestosis in the growing auto and brake industries, construction and insulation trades, and, most relevant to Greenlees’s story, byssinosis in the textile mills began to seep into medical and politicians’ consciousness. Heat and humidity in plants driven by coals, steam, electricity, oil and various forms of power, all contributed to a singularly unhealthful work environment. When the Air Became Important traces the history of consciousness of disease...

Demographic Transition and the Industrial Revolution in England: Inverse Rural and Urban Processes

We present a model of 19th Century population change in England & Wales. The model highlights contrasting demographic and economic processes in rural and urban sectors as core explanations for rural to urban migration, stemming from labor surpluses in the former and labor shortages in the latter. This massive migration transformed the geographic distribution of the population, in tandem with the economic transformation caused by the Industrial Revolution. We argue that demographic literature on historical population processes in England & Wales in the 19th Century has paid insufficient attention to the role of internal migration.

Debat Pemikiran dan Pergulatan Filsafat Moderen

The configuration of the development of modern philanthropy has a long and tumultuous history, emerging as a symbol of the thesis and antithesis, resistance and struggle, rebellion and counter-aggression and rejection of what is past and traditional. In modern times a philosophy emerged from various schools emerged. Basically the overall pattern of modern philosophy takes on the color of Greek philosophical Sufism. The development of human thought in the Middle Ages gave rise to thoughts oriented to the advancement of technology (modern philosophy), this was marked by the emergence of the Renaissance. In this century, science experienced rapid progress which led to the industrial revolution in England with the results of fame by modern philosophers. The Renaissance is a time of rebirth of classical Greek and Roman civilization. The concept of history at this time refers to periods of indivualism, the rise of antique culture, discoveries of the world and humans, as a period opposed to the medieval period. This era is also a refinement of art, expertise, and knowledge that is manifested in a versatile genius. Figures from this school are Nicholas Copernicus, Francis Bacon, Tycho Brahe. Johannes Keppler, Gallileo Galilei, Isaac Newton, and Joseph Black. Rationalism is the flow that has the view that knowledge is obtained by rational processes, namely through reasoning, knowledge can be achieved naturally can be used by humans, namely reason (ratio) and experience (empiri) also legitimately and correctly. The philosophers of this genre are Rene Decartes, Barunch Spinoza, and Gottfried Wilhelm von Leibniz. In addition to the two schools above, there is a school of empiricism which has an opinion contrary to Rationalism. They were of the view that knowledge was obtained from empirical experience, the leaders of this sect were Thomas Hobbes and John Locke.

Multi-hazard susceptibility assessment using analytic hierarchy process: the Derwent Valley Mills UNESCO World Heritage Site case study (United Kingdom)

Many of the UNESCO World Heritage Sites face geological threats which could have negative effects on the value, integrity and accessibility of their heritage assets. A relevant example is the Derwent Valley Mills UNESCO World Heritage site, one of the key sites of Britain's industrial revolution of the 18th century and located along the Derwent River Valley. Individual susceptibility scenarios of natural hazards in the area like collapsible deposits, compressible ground, debris flow, landslide, running sands, shrink-swell, soluble rock and flooding (both riverine and groundwater) are available, but a comprehensive product able to support disaster mitigation measurement and land planning still does not exist. On this basis, a multi-hazard susceptibility analysis was completed with the added benefit of reducing the complexity and providing a methodological framework for multi-hazard estimation. The analysis was completed in a GIS environment through an Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) multicriteria decision-making process. Since the AHP method is affected by a user selection bias, a quantitative Relative significance index was derived to rank the AHP factors during the susceptibility estimation. This index suggests that flooding is the principal natural hazard for the Derwent Valley Mills UNESCO World Heritage site. The multi-hazard susceptibility map also indicates that most of the areas where the mills are located are subject to significant susceptibility to natural hazards.

Lemon Juice Catalysed Green Synthesis of Triazole Based Schiff Base, Its Physico-Chemical & Spectral Characterisation and Determination of its Binding Stoichiometry with Cu2+ ion

Abstract: In the recent years Environmental Pollution has emerged as a major challenge for human society. Since the start of Industrial Revolution in England, the amount of chemical waste and toxic substances are increasing exponentially in the environment. The traditional synthesis of chemical substances is accompanied by use of large amount of energy, harmful solvents and release of toxic substances in environment. The green synthesis aims to minimise the release and use of harmful toxic material in synthesis. In the present paper we have prepared a triazole derivative, 4-[(E)-Benzylideneamino]-5-methyl-2,4- dihydro-3H-1,2,4-triazole-3-thione through green synthetic route. The reaction was catalysed by lemon juice and it was carried out in solvent-free condition through mechano-chemical stirring method. The physico-chemical properties were studied. The FT-IR spectral analysis confirmed the structure of Schiff base. The stoichiometry of binding with Cu2+ was determined through Method of Continuous Variation. The Schiff base- metal ratio was found to be 1:1. Keywords: Green Synthesis, Mechano-Chemical Stirring Method, Triazole, Schiff Base, Lemon Juice, Physico-Chemical Properties, Job’s Plot, Stoichiometry of Binding.

Understanding De Certeau's Concepts of Strategy and Tactics in Relation to the Educational Policy Analysis

Due to the Industrial Revolution in Britain, the spread of production and consumption paved the way for consumption, especially excessive and luxury consumption, ceasing to be the privilege of aristocrats and other upper social classes. With the development of modern capitalism, the bourgeoisie/middle classes, which started to rise in the West, especially in America and Europe alongside the aristocracy in many spaces, began to utilize consumption and objects of consumption as a manifestation of their own class differences and privileges just like the aristocracy did. Many nineteenth century sociologists, notably Weber, Simmel, and Veblen, approached this process “positively” with great hopes. However, by the twentieth century, French sociologists, especially Lefebvre and members of the Frankfurt School, were pessimistic to modern consumer society and consumer culture. This pessimistic approach, as can be seen in the example of the Frankfurt school, described the prevalence of mass production and consumption in the modern era as the “end/death of the individual”. Contrary to this pessimistic view, de Certeau proposes that consumers who are considered to be passive spontaneously transform any kind of products and production objects imposed on them by the dominant order and/or capitalist system into artistic forms by means of (different) ways of using and reproducing those objects in everyday life. Certeau elaborates the ways of action and production created by the consumer against the “strategies” of the system in daily life as “tactics” of the user/consumer. Therefore, this study aims to reveal Certeau’s original approach to modern consumer society and to try to explore his views on this subject through his two basic concepts, namely “strategy” and “tactics”. This study also tries to illustrate that De Certeau’s analysis of modern consumption culture and his concepts of strategy and tactics offer new perspectives to those who are working on education policies.

A Sociological Study On Construction Workers (With Special Reference to Chitradurga District)

India is a largest growing economies in the world. There are several sectors helps to the expansion of economic growth. Among these sectors construction industry is the main field which leads to the spread of economic activities. Eighteenth century witnessed industrial revolution in England. The term industrialization refers the process which assists to the expansion of economic condition of any Informal or unorganized sector. In India nearly 273 million workers engaged in construction Industry in which 92 % of them are working in unorganized sectors. Undoubtedly the process of industrialization helps every nation for the economic development, simultaneously creates various social problems. Considering the fact, the present study aims to find out the socio- economic condition of construction workers with a sociological point of view in Chitradurga district. Because the construction workers facing perilous condition and leading vulnerable life. Health hazards, economic instability, seasoned job are the main problems of these workers. Nonetheless, the present study tries to explain the difficulty of construction workers in a sociological background.

Are the identified collections of immature skeletons dating from the Industrial Revolution good references for paleoauxological studies? Cases studies from England & France

ObjectiveSkeletal collections of immature individuals identified by age and sex serve as reference material for studying development in past populations. Several of these collections were established during the Industrial Revolution (IR), a period known for its difficult living conditions in industrial cities. We question if these collections represent useful comparisons from which to explore the natural history of human growth. MaterialsImmature individuals from two skeletal collections contemporaneous to the IR period were studied: 71 children from the Spitalfields (UK) and 108 from the Strasbourg (F) collections. Among them we selected mandibles of individuals aged from 0 to 30 months, representing 32 and 52 individuals, respectively. MethodsWe scored the dental development of first and second left deciduous molars according to (Moorrees et al., 1963) stages, from X-rays (Spitalfields) or CT-scans (Strasbourg) data and compared it with the modern reference pattern from the Lewis Growth Records by covariance analysis (ANCOVA). ResultsStatistical differences exist in the dental development timeline between the 3 samples. This mainly concerns a delay in the root formation in IR samples that related to post-natal living conditions. ConclusionsThe delay in dental development timeline suggests that growth processes were impacted during IR in England and France, probably due to stressful living conditions. Significancekeletal collections dating from the IR period in Europe might be not the most appropriate referencesl for studying the natural history of human growth. LimitationsThis study focus on dental development only. Suggestions for further researchExploring the skeletal growth pattern in other skeletal collections, pre or post-dating the IR, is advised.

On the Promotion of Aristocratic Government to the First Industrial Revolution in England

On the Promotion of Aristocratic Government to the First Industrial Revolution in England

19세기 영국 퀘이커교도의 비즈니스 성공요인과 그 윤리

This study aims to examine the roles of Quaker tradesmen and entrepreneurs in the developments of the Industrial Revolution in Britain and the success factors and ethics of Quakers’ Business activities. How the Quaker took the lead the front line of the Industrial Revolution? What brought Quakers into various fields of commerce and industrial world? Quaker was derived from puritanism since the Civil War in England but Quaker believers had been at odds with other protestant sects. Because Quakers thought that Everyone was equal before God and they denied the official authorities including the King and the religious leaders. Therefore Quakers were regarded as the dangerous group that threatened the social order. From the 1660s, The Commonwealth of England and the constitutional monarchy kept prohibited Quakers from advancing the official position of the political circles and the social professions and the admission into any university and college. So Quakers could not have advanced into the various business circles and industrial world. Quakers had been striven to calling faithfully and concentrated on their trading and managing their business efficiently during 18~19th centuries. Finally, they contributed to establish the development of modern capitalism in Britain as the outstanding forerunners or manufacturers or tradesmen that were engaged in manufacturing industries during the 18th~19th century. Above all, Quakers had managed to their company honestly and put in business practice truthfully following codes of conduct of Quakerism for equality, peace, truth and simple life. As a result, Quaker companies like the Cadbury Co. of Birmingham and the Rowntree Co. of York got a good reputation of ‘good companies and good employers’ by the contemporary and some scholars of today. Some Quaker entrepreneurs and reformers tried to remove parts of social problems caused by the Industrial developments. They tried to improve their labourer’s poor life by improving the working conditions and they established collaborative relations by recognizing their labourers as collaborators. Nowadays, the Business activities of Quaker tradesmen and companies are termed in ‘Quakernomics that had features of Ethical capitalism’ by Mike King. The result of this study highlights the religious life of preserving the religious spirituality of Quakers, the presence of competent businessmen pursued new technology and innovation, Quaker’s enterprise culture and system for labourers differentiated from other companies and especially the network power of the religious society of Friend based on Quaker relationship etc. as the real factors of Quakers’ business success. (Kyungpook National University / minerva10@hanmail.net)

Eric Williams and William Forbes: copper, colonial markets, and commercial capitalism†

AbstractEric Williams placed the Caribbean centre stage in discussions of Britain's industrial revolution and historians are increasingly persuaded by his intuition that the Atlantic trading system, underpinned by enslaved labour, played a major role. Early critics focused discussion on the profits of the slave trade but his thesis was broader, and more sophisticated, than they acknowledged. It left room for linkages of many kinds and it is now time to take a broader look at the connections between the rise of merchant capitalism, in which slavery played a central role, and British economic growth. This study looks at one small, fast‐growing industry, wrought copper, largely through the lens of William Forbes, a London smith. Quantitative data from output and trade records are combined with Forbes's business records to show how the demands of sugar cultivation, a particularly concentrated form of agro‐industrial activity, stimulated the development of a supply network which chained thousands of workers in Cornwall, South Wales, Bristol, and London to enslaved labour in the fields and factories of the Caribbean. Market opportunities allowed Forbes to amass great wealth but also directed investment, innovation, and the accumulation of skills that shaped Britain's particular path to industrial revolution.

Is there any relationship between child labour, crime rates and country income per capita?

Child labour exists in varying degrees in virtually all countries aspiring to reach high income status. The prevalence of child labour and associated criminal activities have been portrayed in the 19th century novels of Charles Dickens, perhaps most vividly in the character ‘Fagin’ in the novel ‘Oliver Twist’. It seems clear that the early years of the industrial revolution in Britain gave rise to demand for increased child labour and also provided fertile ground for criminal activities. However, it is also evident from the experience of the high-income countries that the hallowed peaks of the development process witness an end to such activities representing the dark side of income creation. This paper examines whether there is a definite relationship between country income per capita and the prevalence of crime and child labour. The presumption is that as incomes grow there is an increase in the use of child labour as well as in crime, with a tapering- off after a certain income level. This paper presents evidence for such an inverted ‘U’ relationship between child labour and income per capita as well as between the crime index and income. These findings may also throw some light on the puzzle of the sudden fall in U.S crime rates in the 1990s.

How the Old World Ended: The Anglo-Dutch-American Revolution, 1500–1800 by Jonathan Scott, and: Borderless Empire: Dutch Guiana in the Atlantic World, 1750–1800 by Bram Hoonhout

Reviewed by: How the Old World Ended: The Anglo-Dutch-American Revolution, 1500–1800 by Jonathan Scott, and: Borderless Empire: Dutch Guiana in the Atlantic World, 1750–1800 by Bram Hoonhout Evan Haefeli (bio) How the Old World Ended: The Anglo-Dutch-American Revolution, 1500–1800 jonathan scott Yale University Press, 2019 392 pp. Borderless Empire: Dutch Guiana in the Atlantic World, 1750–1800 bram hoonhout University of Georgia Press, 2020 272 pp. Between the sixteenth and early nineteenth centuries, Anglo-Dutch relations played a decisive role in the creation of the Anglo-American Atlantic world. It was an ambivalent relationship, beginning with the sixteenth-century Dutch revolt against their Spanish Hapsburg monarchs, a revolt prompted in large part by the rise of Reformed Protestantism within the Low Countries. In general, the British benefited from this relationship more than the Dutch. Politically, this connection produced an Anglo-Dutch alliance against the Roman Catholic empires first of Spain and then of France. That alliance led to involvement with each other's domestic politics, which led to the marriage of the Dutch Prince William of Orange to the English Princess Mary Stuart and culminated with the two becoming King William and Queen Anne of Britain and its colonies in 1689, providing a degree of political stability that Britain's indigenous dynasty could not. Religiously, the affinity between Dutch Reformed Protestantism and British Protestants allowed the original Dutch [End Page 588] rebels to find shelter in England. After they created the comparatively tolerant Dutch Republic, English dissidents, like the Separatists who eventually founded the colony of Plymouth as well as the royalists driven out by the revolution of the 1640s and 1650s, found refuge in Holland. Economically, the English followed the path to global trade pioneered by the vibrant shipping industry of the Republic. Emulation was part of this relationship, but mostly it involved an aggressive takeover of Dutch trade and territory. They seized from the Dutch New Netherland in North America, the lands in South America and Africa that became Guyana and South Africa, as well as parts of Asia, not least the island of Sri Lanka. By the early nineteenth century the British were far wealthier and more powerful at home and overseas thanks to what they were able to take from the Dutch. However, this was not a purely parasitic relationship. The Dutch may have gotten the short end of the stick, but at least they survived—and a number of them got quite rich. Without British support it is likely that the Dutch would have lost their independence to either the Spanish or the French. Both countries conquered and controlled the Republic at various points between the sixteenth and early nineteenth centuries. When revolutionary French armies overran Holland, Britain sheltered the aristocratic House of Orange and then ensured that it was restored to its homeland as a monarchy, creating the dynasty that still presides over the Netherlands. The two books considered here capture different aspects of this saga, reminding us that neither the British nor the Dutch made it to modernity on their own. Jonathan Scott's wide-ranging synthesis attributes Britain's Industrial Revolution, the event that put an end to the "Old World," to the dynamic of competition and interchange between these neighbors across the North Sea. He pulls in North America to a certain extent, but most colonial issues, like slavery, are marginal to his narrative. They cannot be avoided if one looks farther south, to the Caribbean, however, and slavery is central to Bram Hoonhout's monographic study. Drawing on the scant available sources, he has pieced together a compelling history of the largely overlooked case of the Dutch South American plantation colonies along the Demerara and Essequibo Rivers that, together with those along the Berbice, became British Guyana after 1814. These works appear at an opportune time for reevaluating the Anglo-Dutch relationship and its contribution to modern life. Scholarship on the Dutch role in the Atlantic world has increased substantially over the past [End Page 589] two decades, and increasingly that work is appearing in English, opening up a world otherwise isolated from Anglophones by one of the leastknown Western European languages (for...