Garrison World: Redcoat Soldiers in New Zealand and across the British Empire | Charlotte Macdonald

The pivotal year of 1870 brought down the curtain on the redcoat garrison world at both the metropolitan and colonial ends of the empire . . . In fewer than forty years, less than a lifetime, Aotearoa had gone from being a Māori world in which rangatira dominated, to a colony in which the settler state was in control of the economy, politics and people’s social destiny. Garrison World explores the lives of soldiers, sailors and their families stationed in Aotearoa New Zealand and across the British empire in the nineteenth century. Spanning the decades from 1840 to 1870, this major new history from Charlotte Macdonald places the New Zealand Wars within the wider framework of imperial power. It shows how conflict and resistance throughout the empire, from rebellion in India to the Morant Bay uprising in Jamaica, were connected to the colonial project in New Zealand. At the centre of this history are the thousands who served in the British military – from rank-and-file soldiers and bluejackets drawn from working-class Britain and Ireland, to officers from elite backgrounds who purchased their commissions. Their presence in New Zealand was vital to the imposition of imperial control, both during times of war and in the intervening years when the garrison underpinned a fragile settler economy and society. Through rich archival detail and personal accounts, Garrison World traces the structures, experiences and legacies of military occupation. Acknowledging the impact on Māori communities and whenua, the book offers a critical and unflinching account of how imperial authority was imposed – and often violently asserted. This is a compelling and significant contribution to understanding the reordering of power that shaped Aotearoa in the nineteenth century.

‘Garrison World brings together the histories of soldiers, wars and physical violence with the appropriation of land and attacks on Indigenous culture so vital to settlement and colonisation. A story of the exercise of power, vividly told in part through the lives of the “redcoats”, those foot soldiers who provided the binding threads of imperial power.’Catherine Hall, Emerita Professor of History, Chair of the Centre for the Study of the Legacies of British Slavery, University College London ‘Charlotte Macdonald deploys formidable scholarship, lucid writing and pertinent images to create a spell-binding exploration of the intersecting lives of soldiers and civilians during the New Zealand wars. The result is a magnificently well-informed, readable and enthralling book.’Atholl Anderson, Emeritus Professor, Australian National University; Adjunct Professor, Ngāi Tahu Research Centre, Te Whare Wānanga o Waitaha— University of Canterbury ‘A large number of imperial soldiers and sailors were stationed in New Zealand in the mid-nineteenth century, but beyond their involvement in fighting, their wider impact has remained little understood – until now. Garrison World brings this history to light through impeccable scholarship and dazzling insight. An essential work for anyone interested in understanding our past.’Vincent O’Malley, historian and author of The Great War for New Zealand: Waikato 1800–2000 ‘Richly illustrated and elegantly written, Garrison World is a pleasure to read. It offers a social history of the British army that looks beyond battles, focusing on the everyday lives and worldviews of soldiers and sailors. By tracing their role in New Zealand, India and Jamaica, the book reveals the deep interconnectedness of conquest, settlement and imperial power.’Sekhar Bandyopadhyay, Emeritus Professor of History, Te Herenga Waka— Victoria University of Wellington ‘A compelling account of the soldiers and sailors who were the cutting edge of British colonialism. This richly peopled history immerses the reader in the lives of these military men and illuminates how they reshaped New Zealand, with enduring consequences. It offers a critical new vantage point on our colonial past.’Tony Ballantyne, Professor of History, Ōtākou Whakaihu Waka—University of Otago