ABSTRACT
In reassessing Anglo-America, historians must recognize the fact of empire embodied in the governors-general and applied through garrison government. In the garrisoned provinces of Britain and America the party of authority had succeeded with the aid of imperially ambitious, but not authoritarian, councilor-administrators. In 1585 Tudor governors and garrisons sailed overseas once more as Spain replaced France in English enmity. And all around the Atlantic circuit of the English empire, town government reflected Netherlands garrison practices and obeyed the orders of Netherlands veterans. While executive authority shrank overseas, a centralizing reaction against the social disintegration and political factionalization of civil war strengthened the institutions of garrison government in England. Merchant-bankers, clothiers, manufacturers, recruiters, and farmers all stood to profit from garrison government. Basing empire in conquest, Oliver Cromwell’s legions had massacred Irish urban garrisons and “pacified” the Irish countryside with fire and sword.
