The Restructuring of the British Empire and the Colonization of Australia, 1832–8

Analysing a comprehensive shift in the governance of the British Empire in the mid 1830s, this article introduces the context for the following three articles in the Feature, ‘Legacies of Slave Ownership’. This shift included the abolition of slavery in the Caribbean, upon which these articles concentrate, but also the restructuring of the East India Company. A reformed British parliament introduced transitions in the western and eastern halves of the Empire in a concentrated burst of legislation between 1833 and 1838. While vested interests were protected, not least by facilitating a surge in the colonization of Australia, the transition produced the template of a liberal Empire.