ABSTRACT
The 1850s make a good starting point for an analysis of the development of the tropical empire, because they were the critical decade during which vital decisions had to be taken as to whether it was worth retaining tropical colonies at all, since the process of granting responsible government to the settlement colonies was in full swing. The economic difficulties experienced by the West Indies after the final ending of slavery in 1838, the high costs (both in money and lives) of maintaining the navy’s anti-slave trade patrols off the West African coast, and the generally disease-laden and unpromising aspect of tropical areas, made many people in Britain feel that the retention of tropical colonies (let alone their expansion) was a foolish and costly enterprise. Disraeli’s famous comment in 1852 about the colonies being a ‘millstone around our necks’ captured this mood, but in the event it proved to be only a passing phase. 1 Despite much agonising Britain did not give up its tropical colonies. On the contrary it began a process – slow and hesitating at first – of gradually expanding them, so that by 1885, (even before the scramble for Africa) the size of the tropical empire was very considerably greater than it had been in 1850. 2 The reasons for this were varied and complex and will be considered in more detail for each region in due course.
