Island History, not the Story of Islands: The Case of St Helena

Abstract

This article makes distinctions between stories of islands and island history, between descriptions of individual islands and the subject matter of Island Studies. St Helena is used as the case study, not during its days on the global stage as the prison for Napoleon, but earlier, when it was a revictualing station for East India Company ships returning from the Orient. Events and stories on St Helena during this period are seen to be part of a much wider historical setting of global trade and nascent imperialism. International contestation played a role, too, with the island changing hands twice in 1673 when the Dutch conquerors were displaced by the English navy. Following recapture, the earlier attempts of the East India Company to establish a utopian society on their island were abandoned and a harsh regime imposed, which was met with sedition, mutiny and a slave rebellion. The article concludes with a discussion of the growing realisation of the significance of St Helena and other islands to the study of imperial history.