Restraining Sub-imperialism in Southern Rhodesia, 1889–1898

Abstract

This article examines the relations between the British government and the British South Africa Company through the 1890s. It aims to explore the ways in which the imperial government sought to restrain and control the BSAC as a sub-imperial actor with its own distinct agenda and interests. While sub-imperial actors were a useful way to claim colonial hinterlands before rival colonial powers, they could also land the government in difficult and unwanted situations. The 1895 Jameson raid scandal and the rebellions of the Ndebele and Shona in 1896–7 necessitated government intervention and limitation of company privileges. Yet, while such situations were on a whole unwanted by the government, they also proved vital pretexts to limit, control and convert sub-imperialism to the imperial and geopolitical interests of the government.