Imperial governance and colonial administration: a comparative history of Jamaica and Saint Domingue, 1713-1789

Giannatos, C. (2026) Imperial governance and colonial administration: a comparative history of Jamaica and Saint Domingue, 1713-1789. PhD thesis, University of Reading. doi: 10.48683/1926.00130934

Abstract/Summary

This thesis examines the nature of imperial authority and the manifestation of empire in the eighteenth-century Caribbean through a comparative study of Jamaica and Saint Domingue. It argues that empire in the Caribbean was not simply imposed by metropolitan governments, but was produced through ongoing negotiation between imperial institutions, colonial elites, and local social and economic conditions. Focusing on the period from 1713 to approximately 1789, the thesis demonstrates that authority was contingent, adaptive, and shaped by practice rather than by fixed metropolitan design. The study adopts a comparative and entangled imperial approach, analysing British and French colonial systems alongside one another to situate Jamaica and Saint Domingue within a shared Atlantic context. By examining the two colonies in parallel, the thesis moves beyond nationally bounded interpretations of empire and highlights how similar challenges were addressed across different imperial frameworks. This approach also reveals the extent to which colonial governance was shaped by common environmental pressures, strategic concerns, and patterns of interaction. Rather than privileging either metropolitan intention or colonial resistance, the study focuses on the processes through which authority was negotiated on the ground. The thesis is structured around four thematic chapters. The first examines legal and administrative institutions, showing how colonial governance emerged through adaptation and compromise. The second analyses warfare, defence, and privateering, arguing that colonial security depended on a hybrid military order shaped by fiscal and strategic negotiation. The third explores commerce and smuggling, demonstrating that illicit and semi-legal trade was central to colonial economies and imperial governance. The final chapter considers intellectual perceptions of empire, situating colonial debates within wider eighteenth-century discussions of authority and governance. By integrating institutional, military, commercial, and intellectual analysis, this thesis argues that imperial authority in the Caribbean was the product of co-production rather than unilateral control. The comparative study of Jamaica and Saint Domingue offers a framework for understanding empire as a negotiated and dynamic process.

Item Type	Thesis (PhD)
URI	https://centaur.reading.ac.uk/id/eprint/130934
Identification Number/DOI	10.48683/1926.00130934
Divisions	Arts, Humanities and Social Science > School of Humanities > History
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