Last Outpost on the Zulu Frontiers: Fort Napier and the British Imperial Garrison
Graham Dominy
Abstract
Small and isolated in the Colony of Natal, Fort Napier was long treated like a temporary outpost of the expanding British Empire. Yet British troops manned this South African garrison for over seventy years. Tasked with protecting colonists, the fort became even more significant as an influence on, and reference point for, settler society. This book reveals the unexamined but pivotal role of Fort Napier in the peacetime public dramas of the colony. Its triumphalist colonial-themed pageantry belied colonists' worries about their own vulnerability. As the book shows, the cultural, political, and ... More
Small and isolated in the Colony of Natal, Fort Napier was long treated like a temporary outpost of the expanding British Empire. Yet British troops manned this South African garrison for over seventy years. Tasked with protecting colonists, the fort became even more significant as an influence on, and reference point for, settler society. This book reveals the unexamined but pivotal role of Fort Napier in the peacetime public dramas of the colony. Its triumphalist colonial-themed pageantry belied colonists' worries about their own vulnerability. As the book shows, the cultural, political, and economic methods used by the garrison compensated for this perceived weakness. Settler elites married their daughters to soldiers to create and preserve an English-speaking oligarchy. At the same time, garrison troops formed the backbone of a consumer market that allowed colonists to form banking and property interests that consolidated their control.
Keywords:
colonists,
consumer market,
Fort Napier,
British Empire,
garrison troops,
settler society,
Colony of Natal,
English-speaking oligarchy,
settler elite,
pageantry
Bibliographic Information
Print publication date: 2016 |
Print ISBN-13: 9780252040047 |
Published to Illinois Scholarship Online: April 2017 |
DOI:10.5406/illinois/9780252040047.001.0001 |