Patriots for Empire: Unionism, Imperialism, and Scottish Colonial Administrators in the British Atlantic, 1698-1776

Bates, Zachary Adam

Patriots for Empire: Unionism, Imperialism, and Scottish Colonial Administrators in the British Atlantic, 1698-1776

dc.contributor.advisor	MacMillan, Kenneth Richard
dc.contributor.author	Bates, Zachary Adam
dc.contributor.committeemember	Campbell, Lyndsay
dc.contributor.committeemember	Spangler, Jewel
dc.contributor.committeemember	Sigler, David
dc.contributor.committeemember	Stanwood, Owen
dc.date	2023-06
dc.date.accessioned	2023-05-03T14:38:41Z
dc.date.available	2023-05-03T14:38:41Z
dc.date.issued	2023-04-25
dc.description.abstract	This study expands on understandings of the first British Empire by integrating several Scottish colonial administrators who served in Britain’s North American colonies into its intellectual and political history. It argues that these officials manifested, modified, and maintained a Scoto-British view of the British Empire that developed as a result of the Glorious Revolution in 1688 – which established Britain as a polity ruled by Parliamentary sovereignty – and the Act of Union in 1707 – which forged England and Scotland into a united kingdom. Their intent was to extend their understanding of the revolution and union settlement throughout the British Atlantic empire, and they took great interest in extending Britain’s North American colonial possessions westward and conquering islands in the Caribbean. However, they encountered a colonial understanding of these same events that empowered assemblies and colonial institutions to challenge royal authority, and they expressed concern that the colonies were becoming more republican and would potentially become independent. By the 1720s, many of these officials began to contribute tracts and advice to the Board of Trade, often recommending stricter oversight of the colonies and reforms in their governance, such as direct taxation or Parliamentary intervention; and by the 1730s, they also began to construct a British history that celebrated a progressive vision of Britain’s past that focused on the expansion of liberty, the mixing of different races (Britons, Saxons, Danes, Romans, and others), Britain’s overseas possessions, and continued westward expansion. The Scoto-British view of the empire became increasingly untenable in the 1750s and 1760s due to colonial opposition, and it eventually dissolved with the dismemberment of much of Britain’s North American colonies. Yet, the Scoto-British vision of the empire – based on unionism and imperialism – lingered in the vision of Alexander Hamilton and in the imaginations of several nineteenth-century adherents of Manifest Destiny and in the idea of America as a melting pot. This study fills a gap in the study of the British Empire by reintegrating this view, and it suggests that many of the concepts normally attributed to American exceptionalism had their origins in a larger, British history.
dc.identifier.citation	Bates, Z. A. (2023). Patriots for empire: unionism, imperialism, and Scottish colonial administrators in the British Atlantic, 1698-1776 (Doctoral thesis, University of Calgary, Calgary, Canada). Retrieved from https://prism.ucalgary.ca.
dc.identifier.uri	http://hdl.handle.net/1880/116150
dc.identifier.uri	https://dx.doi.org/10.11575/PRISM/dspace/40995
dc.language.iso	en
dc.publisher.faculty	Graduate Studies
dc.publisher.institution	University of Calgary
dc.rights	University of Calgary graduate students retain copyright ownership and moral rights for their thesis. You may use this material in any way that is permitted by the Copyright Act or through licensing that has been assigned to the document. For uses that are not allowable under copyright legislation or licensing, you are required to seek permission.
dc.subject	British Empire
dc.subject	Colonial America
dc.subject	Scotland
dc.subject	Political Thought
dc.subject	Intellectual History
dc.subject.classification	History--European
dc.subject.classification	History--United States
dc.title	Patriots for Empire: Unionism, Imperialism, and Scottish Colonial Administrators in the British Atlantic, 1698-1776
dc.type	doctoral thesis
thesis.degree.discipline	History
thesis.degree.grantor	University of Calgary
thesis.degree.name	Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
ucalgary.thesis.accesssetbystudent	I require a thesis withhold – I need to delay the release of my thesis due to a patent application, and other reasons outlined in the link above. I have/will need to submit a thesis withhold application.