throughout why a British World could conceptually materialise across strong networks of people and ideology, but why wider imperial federation and citizenship remained elusive. Creating an menace ‘Asian’ In the nineteenth century, about 50 million Europeans, 50 million Chinese and 30 million Indians migrated globally. Adam McKeown has calculated that, of these, almost 750,000 Chinese and 1.5 million Indians were formally indentured to European employers for use in their colonies. Indentured labourers, or were first used in the Dutch East Indies in ‘coolies’, the 1600s. In the British colonies, it was only following the 1833 abolition of slavery that plantation owners’ looked to Asia’s sizeable and impoverished populations there. By as shipping became more organised, cheaper and speedier, indentured labour was also adopted in places without a history of slavery. Small numbers of Pacific islanders and Chinese were imported into New South Wales between 1848 and 1852, to replace convict labour and assist the European wool industry. Natal too began an Indian indenture scheme in the 1860s as one of their first acts as a self-governing colony. This labour assisted colonial businesses so European settlers initially accepted it as a commodity necessary for economic success when the climate allegedly did not allow for to do physical labour or in ‘whites’ places which were sparsely populated. While most of this indentured labour was at first uncontroversial, Asian ‘free’ migration (especially Chinese) to the self-governing colonies increased dramatically from about mid-century. is a slight misnomer; but essentially meant they operated their own ‘Free’ loan systems to organise and control migration, outside the direct control of Europeans. Indentured labourers too could become once their period of service had ended, and ‘free’ increasing numbers chose to do so. Likewise, migrants tended to follow their ‘free’ indentured fellow nationals, regularly working as traders or artisans either servicing ‘coolie’
throughout why a British World could conceptually materialise across strong networks of people and ideology, but why wider imperial federation and citizenship remained elusive. Creating an ‘Asian’ menace In the nineteenth century, about 50 million Europeans, 50 million Chinese and 30 million Indians migrated globally. Adam McKeown has calculated that, of these, almost 750,000 Chinese and 1.5 million Indians were formally indentured to European employers for use in their colonies. Indentured labourers, or ‘coolies’, were first used in the Dutch East Indies in the 1600s. In the British colonies, it was only following the 1833 abolition of slavery that plantation owners’ looked to Asia’s sizeable and impoverished populations there. By as shipping became more organised, cheaper and speedier, indentured labour was also adopted in places without a history of slavery. Small numbers of Pacific islanders and Chinese were imported into New South Wales between 1848 and 1852, to replace convict labour and assist the European wool industry. Natal too began an Indian indenture scheme in the 1860s as one of their first acts as a self-governing colony. This labour assisted colonial businesses so European settlers initially accepted it as a commodity necessary for economic success when the climate allegedly did not allow for ‘whites’ to do physical labour or in places which were sparsely populated. While most of this indentured labour was at first uncontroversial, ‘free’ Asian migration (especially Chinese) to the self-governing colonies increased dramatically from about mid-century. ‘Free’ is a slight misnomer; but essentially meant they operated their own loan systems to organise and control migration, outside the direct control of Europeans. Indentured labourers too could become ‘free’ once their period of service had ended, and increasing numbers chose to do so. Likewise, ‘free’ migrants tended to follow their indentured fellow nationals, regularly working as traders or artisans either servicing ‘coolie’
Chap6%20Brightfinal.docx