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Kingdom and Colony: Ireland in the Atlantic World, 1560 - 1800
159 pages, Hardcover
First published June 1, 1988
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January 19, 2020
Canny’s collection of talks makes the case that Ireland, for the two and a half centuries from 1560 to 1800, existed as an English colony, with three major similarities to the American cases: 1) both the Irish and American cases were interested in the advancement of true Protestant religion through the conversion of natives; 2) both were interested in reforming indigenous groups’ “barbarous customs” and replacing them with civil standards; and 3) both were intended to benefit the metropole economically.
The establishment of nucleated settlements of Englishmen in the 16th century who would serve to both reform the traditional Catholic customs of the natives and provide an example of civil society was premised on the idea that reformation required a full upheaval of Irish society. By the end of the 16th century, Ireland was no longer conceived of as a commonwealth to be governed, but a colony to be reformed by English settlement.
Over the first few decades of the 17th century, these New English settlers (contrasted with the Old English who had come over in the 12th century) mixed culturally, economically, and socially with the native Irish. Failure to reform the Irish agrarian economy to a manufacturing-centered model a la England further undermined attempts at reforming the colony. Instead what emerged was a hybridized culture, with English political and social systems mixing with Irish economics, language, and life ways. Canny sees the war in Ireland from 1641-1652 as an attempt to secure for native Irish the status of kingdom, equal to England and Scotland.
The Irish colony only really came to an end with the “passage to maturity” of the New English in Ireland circa 1691. Successful quelling of native rebellions gave the New English confidence in their colonial project, and caused them to reevaluate their dependent relationship on the English metropole. Over the course of the 18th century this process led to the emergence of Ireland as an equal kingdom, rather than a subservient colony. Thus the colonizers assisted in the rise of Irish nationalism.
Canny covers a lot of different ground in this work, but his main conceit here as elsewhere is that early modern Ireland should be considered as the earliest example of the English colonial enterprise in the Atlantic, and that discussions of English colonial administration and theory during this period should include Ireland. He makes a compelling case on this front. Yet I wonder to what extent the impetuses he ascribes to Irish colonization (spread of religion, civil society, British benefit) is true of the American case. He appears to define the overseas project in terms of the relations with natives, which I’m not sure accurately reflects how most colonial Americans thought about their own projects. This more than anything else results in the modest rating. The work is a bit light on citations (to be expected of lectures) and drags a lot in the third chapter, but it works as a fine primer to the “global turn” in British Imperial studies.
In conversation with: “American Colonies” by Taylor, “The Expansion of Elizabethan England” by Rowse, “Peripheries and Center” by Greene
The establishment of nucleated settlements of Englishmen in the 16th century who would serve to both reform the traditional Catholic customs of the natives and provide an example of civil society was premised on the idea that reformation required a full upheaval of Irish society. By the end of the 16th century, Ireland was no longer conceived of as a commonwealth to be governed, but a colony to be reformed by English settlement.
Over the first few decades of the 17th century, these New English settlers (contrasted with the Old English who had come over in the 12th century) mixed culturally, economically, and socially with the native Irish. Failure to reform the Irish agrarian economy to a manufacturing-centered model a la England further undermined attempts at reforming the colony. Instead what emerged was a hybridized culture, with English political and social systems mixing with Irish economics, language, and life ways. Canny sees the war in Ireland from 1641-1652 as an attempt to secure for native Irish the status of kingdom, equal to England and Scotland.
The Irish colony only really came to an end with the “passage to maturity” of the New English in Ireland circa 1691. Successful quelling of native rebellions gave the New English confidence in their colonial project, and caused them to reevaluate their dependent relationship on the English metropole. Over the course of the 18th century this process led to the emergence of Ireland as an equal kingdom, rather than a subservient colony. Thus the colonizers assisted in the rise of Irish nationalism.
Canny covers a lot of different ground in this work, but his main conceit here as elsewhere is that early modern Ireland should be considered as the earliest example of the English colonial enterprise in the Atlantic, and that discussions of English colonial administration and theory during this period should include Ireland. He makes a compelling case on this front. Yet I wonder to what extent the impetuses he ascribes to Irish colonization (spread of religion, civil society, British benefit) is true of the American case. He appears to define the overseas project in terms of the relations with natives, which I’m not sure accurately reflects how most colonial Americans thought about their own projects. This more than anything else results in the modest rating. The work is a bit light on citations (to be expected of lectures) and drags a lot in the third chapter, but it works as a fine primer to the “global turn” in British Imperial studies.
In conversation with: “American Colonies” by Taylor, “The Expansion of Elizabethan England” by Rowse, “Peripheries and Center” by Greene
Displaying 1 of 1 review