ABSTRACT
The distinction has been made between two basic types of colonies established by the European imperial powers in different parts of the world. Plantation colonies were manifestly exploitation colonies par excellence, established for the sole purpose of producing one or a few staple commodities, mainly sugar, cotton, coffee and tobacco, for export to the metropolitan markets. The Colonial Office had resisted its abolition on the grounds that to do so would impair the security and hazard the interests of absentee property, and thus militate against further investment of British capital in the colony. Similarly the pro-reform Colonist newspaper argued that to think that “full, free and popular representation” meant universal adult suffrage was an utterly absurd and monstrous proposition. The success of the biracial middle-class reform movement between 1880 and 1896 ultimately signified a triumph for the principle of political equality without regard to race.
