Browsing by Author "David Gilmartin, Committee Chair"

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Dixie Gentlemanly Capitalism: Studies in British Finance of the Confederacy
(2004-05-02) Weisel, Michael Lloyd; David Gilmartin, Committee Chair
The purpose of this work is to explore the culture of the South's ties into international finance by examining the South's financial relationships with British merchant banking and agricultural factoring houses, using the theory of 'gentlemanly capitalism' put forward by Professors Cain and Hopkins. By utilizing diplomatic correspondence, political speeches, and newspaper editorials along with the extant business records of London and Liverpool merchant banking houses Fraser, Trenholm & Company and Alexander Collie & Company, I show that 'gentlemanly capitalism' provides a theoretical framework allowing comparative analysis for business and economic development in the Atlantic world between the United States and Great Britain. My thesis also explores both the financial transactions and the underlying relationships between the South and Great Britain. This analysis is accomplished by utilizing primary source correspondence, diplomatic messages, political speeches, memoirs, and newspaper accounts to try and gain a perspective of both Great Britain and the Confederacy's sense of place in the world structure at the commencement of hostilities. Although these perceptions changed as the vagaries of war presented some harsh realities, there is a sense of presumed order between the South and Great Britain. Correspondence between British and Southern politicians and businessmen illustrates the South's notion of producing agricultural exports (cotton) for Great Britain, with the explicit presumption that the proceeds will be used by the South to purchase finished manufactured goods from Britain. This is the classic definition of British mercantile imperialism with the mother country providing the finished goods, while the colony or economic trading partner provides the raw materials. The importance of this work lies in the conclusion that suggests a vision of the Confederacy and South apart from what the United States might have been or in fact became. Southern leadership was anxious to embrace Britain's post war view of the Confederacy's place in the world order. During the war, British gentlemanly capitalists supported and conducted business with the Confederacy because of their cultural affinity, long term free market view and vision for a post war United States with the South firmly ensconced within the British imperial sphere.
From empire to Empire: Benjamin Disraeli and the formalization of the British Imperial Social Structure
(2006-11-08) Underwood, Jonathan Allen; Joe A. Mobley, Committee Member; David Gilmartin, Committee Chair; Owen J.M. Kalinga, Committee Member
Throughout the last century British Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli's influence and reputation as an imperialist has been praised, demonized, and denied. Though always a target of considerable political criticism, Disraeli's advancement and, some might even say, invention of British imperial nationalism was celebrated by contemporary politicians, academics, and the general population who considered him "inextricably entwined" with the notion of empire. However, twentieth century historiography largely downplayed and discounted Disraeli's influence on late nineteenth century imperial British expansion by focusing not on imperialism as an ideology, but as a phenomenon of economics and power; aligning its genesis with the Industrial Revolution, and the socio-economic theories of Adam Smith, Karl Marx, and John Atkinson Hobson. But, since the publication of Edward Said's Orientalism in 1978, which reevaluated the cultural and social relationships between the East and the West, Disraeli's impact on Britain's colonial century has yet again come to the forefront of imperial British historiography. Disraeli's rhetoric and political acumen regarding Britain's eastern empire directly (through the proclamation of Victoria's title Empress of India in 1876) and indirectly (through his assertion of Conservative Principles at the Crystal Palace in 1872) established a significant hierarchical social structure and consciousness that still pervades British culture today.
A Passage from India: The East Indian Indenture Experience in Trinidad 1845-1885
(2008-10-29) Persad, Rajesh Surendra; Clifford Griffin, Committee Member; Richard Slatta, Committee Member; David Gilmartin, Committee Chair
The purpose of this research has been to analyze the social relationships that developed during the formative years of East Indian indenture system in the Trinidad. This work is an attempt to explore how the East Indian indentured immigrants in Trinidad individually and collectively navigated through the experience of servitude to form a collective identity and become established in a foreign land as they evolved from transient laborers to permanent settlers. Without the Indian laborers the sugar industry and the islandâ€™s prosperity faced ruin while the perceived prosperity of the Indians inspired resentment. Caught between the worlds of freedom and unfreedom, the Indians sought to establish themselves within Trinidadâ€™s society.