A Turn to Empire : The Rise of Imperial Liberalism in Britain and France

A dramatic shift in British and French ideas about empire unfolded in the sixty years straddling the turn of the nineteenth century. As Jennifer Pitts shows in A Turn to Empire , Adam Smith, Edmund Burke, and Jeremy Bentham were among many at the start of this period to criticize European empires as unjust as well as politically and economically disastrous for the conquering nations. By the mid-nineteenth century, however, the most prominent British and French liberal thinkers, including John Stuart Mill and Alexis de Tocqueville, vigorously supported the conquest of non-European peoples. Pitts explains that this reflected a rise in civilizational self-confidence, as theories of human progress became more triumphalist, less nuanced, and less tolerant of cultural difference. At the same time, imperial expansion abroad came to be seen as a political project that might assist the emergence of stable liberal democracies within Europe. Pitts shows that liberal thinkers usually celebrated for respecting not only human equality and liberty but also pluralism supported an inegalitarian and decidedly nonhumanitarian international politics. Yet such moments represent not a necessary feature of liberal thought but a striking departure from views shared by precisely those late-eighteenth-century thinkers whom Mill and Tocqueville saw as their forebears. Fluently written, A Turn to Empire offers a novel assessment of modern political thought and international justice, and an illuminating perspective on continuing debates over empire, intervention, and liberal political commitments. Contents 8 Acknowledgments 10 Abbreviations 14 Chapter 1: Introduction 17 Liberalism, Pluralism, and Empire 19 Scope and Summary 23 Historical Contexts 27 PART 1: CRITICS OF EMPIRE 39 Chapter 2: Adam Smith on Societal Development and Colonial Rule 41 The Causes and Complexity of Development in Smith’s Thought 43 Progress, Rationality, and the Early Social Stages 50 Moral Progress and Commercial Society 57 Moral Philosophy and Cross-Cultural Judgments 59 Smith’s Critique of Colonies 68 Chapter 3: Edmund Burke’s Peculiar Universalism 75 The Exclusions of Empire 75 Systematic Oppression in India 79 Moral Imagination: Empire and Social Criticism 87 Geographical Morality and Burke’s Universalism 93 The Politics of Exclusion in Ireland 101 Burke as a Theorist of Nationality 112 PART 2: UTILITARIANS AND THE TURN TO EMPIRE IN BRITAIN 117 Chapter 4: Jeremy Bentham: Legislator of the World? 119 Utilitarians and the British Empire 119 Bentham’s Critique of Colonial Rule 123 A Rereading of Bentham’s Work on India 131 Chapter 5: James and John Stuart Mill: The Development of Imperial Liberalism in Britain 139 James Mill: An Uneasy Alliance of Utilitarianism and Conjectural History 139 J. S. Mill: Character and the Revision of the Benthamite Tradition 149 Nationality and Progressive Despotism 154 Civilizing Backward Societies: India and Ireland 162 Colonial Reform and the Governor Eyre Episode 166 Conclusion 176 PART 3: LIBERALS AND THE TURN TO EMPIRE IN FRANCE 179 Chapter 6: The Liberal Volte-Face in France 181 Shifting Political Contexts: Britain, France, and Imperial Projects 181 Condorcet: Progress and the Roots of the Mission Civilisatrice 184 Constant and the Distrust of Empire 189 Desjobert and the Marginalization of Anti-imperialism 201 Tocqueville’s Sociology of Democracy and the Question of European Expansion 205 Expansion and Exclusion in America 212 Chapter 7: Tocqueville and the Algeria Question 220 Tocqueville as an Architect of French Algeria 220 From Assimilation to Domination: Tocqueville’s Early Colonial Vision 223 The British Empire as Rival and Model 235 Slavery in the French Empire 242 Universal Rights, Nation Building, and Progress 246 Chapter 8: Conclusion 256 Eighteenth-Century Criticism of Empire 258 Democracy and Liberal Anxieties in the Nineteenth Century 263 Late Liberal Misgivings about Imperial Injustice 270 Notes 275 Bibliography 359 Index 379 A 379 B 379 C 382 D 384 E 384 F 385 G 385 H 386 I 386 J 387 K 387 L 388 M 388 N 391 O 391 P 391 Q 392 R 392 S 393 T 395 U 397 V 397 W 397 Z 398 By the mid-nineteenth century, the most prominent British and French liberal thinkers vigorously supported the conquest of non-European people. This work explains that this reflected a rise in civilizational self-confidence, as theories of human progress became more triumphalist, less nuanced, and less tolerant of cultural difference. A dramatic shift in British and French ideas about empire unfolded in the sixty years straddling the turn of the nineteenth century. As Jennifer Pitts shows in "A Turn to Empire", Adam Smith, Edmund Burke, and Jeremy Bentham were among many at the start of this period to criticize European empires as unjust, as well as politically and economically disastrous for the conquering nations. By the mid-nineteenth century, however, the most prominent British and French liberal thinkers, including John Stuart Mill and Alexis de Tocqueville, vigorously supported the conquest of non-European people. Pitts explains that this reflected a rise in civilizational self-confidence, as theories of human progress became more triumphalist, less nuanced, and less tolerant of cultural difference. At the same time, imperial expansion abroad came to be seen as a political project that might assist the emergence of stable liberal democracies within Europe. Pitts shows that liberal thinkers usually celebrated for respecting not only human equality and liberty but also pluralism supported an inegalitarian and decidedly nonhumanitarian international politics "A dramatic shift in British and French ideas about empire unfolded in the sixty years straddling the turn of the nineteenth century. As Jennifer Pitts shows in A Turn to Empire, Adam Smith, Edmund Burke, and Jeremy Bentham were among many at the start of this period to criticize European empires as unjust as well as politically and economically disastrous for the conquering nations. By the mid-nineteenth century, however, the most prominent British and French liberal thinkers, including John Stuart Mill and Alexis de Tocqueville, vigorously supported the conquest of non-European peoples. Pitts explains that this reflected a rise in civilizational self-confidence, as theories of human progress became more triumphalist, less nuanced, and less tolerant of cultural difference. At the same time, imperial expansion abroad came to be seen as a political project that might assist the emergence of stable liberal democracies within Europe." "A Turn to Empire, offers an assessment of modern political thought and international justice, and an illuminating perspective on continuing debates over empire, intervention, and liberal political commitments."--Jacket Critics Of Empire. Adam Smith On Societal Development And Colonial Rule ; Edmund Burke's Peculiar Universalism -- Utilitarians And The Turn To Empire In Britainches Jeremy Bentham : Legislator Of The World? ; James And John Stuart Mill : The Development Of Imperial Liberalism In Britain -- Liberals And The Turn To Empire In France. The Liberal Volte-face In France ; Tocqueville And The Algeria Question. Jennifer Pitts. Includes Bibliographical References (p. [343]-362) And Index. IN THE CLOSING YEARS of the eighteenth century, a critical challenge to European imperial conquest and rule was launched by many of the most innovative thinkers of the day, including Adam Smith, Bentham, Burke, Kant, Diderot, and Condorcet.