ABSTRACT
British Whigs everywhere excoriated the Treaty of Utrecht, signed in April 1713 that put an end to the War of the Spanish Succession. They denounced ‘the many infamous steps that have of late been taken to the dishonoring and completely ruining our country, and the Protestant interest in Europe.’ 1 They bemoaned the ‘infamous peace’ secured with ‘as much treasure as would have finished a glorious war’. 2 Above all, they felt, the peace had been an imperial betrayal. The British and their allies had fought the war for ‘Spain and all her Indian treasures’, but had achieved little despite the famous victories at Blenheim, Ramillies and Malplaquet. 3 After Queen Anne’s death in August 1714, Whigs showered their new monarch George I with addresses, many of which not only celebrated the new king but denounced the Tory Treaty of Utrecht. 4
Why did the Whigs believe British imperial interests had been betrayed at the Treaty of Utrecht? Why did they think that a peace that had given the British Gibraltar, Minorca, Nova Scotia, St. Kitts and the lucrative asiento – the exclusive right to sell slaves to the Spanish Empire – was an imperial disaster? What is the larger significance of this vitriolic debate for our understanding of the nature and contours of the British Empire? In what sense did the Utrecht negotiations mark a turning point in the shaping of the British Empire?
