Colonial science and military service: The West India Regiments and circum-Atlantic networks of knowledge, c.1815- c.1900

本博士主要研究西印度团（WIR）在19世纪大英帝国的环大西洋殖民科学项目中的作用，特别是探索、植物学和民族学。它位于科学史、帝国史和军事史的交汇处，它还寻求为学术收藏和学术知识的“去殖民化”做出贡献。这是因为wir在大英帝国的历史上占有独特的地位，因为他们几乎完全由非洲人后裔组成。英国在革命战争和拿破仑战争（1792-1815）期间首次建立了WIRs。他们在整个加勒比地区服役，包括英属洪都拉斯（伯利兹）和英属圭亚那（圭亚那）的大陆飞地。从19世纪20年代开始，他们也被部署在塞拉利昂、冈比亚、黄金海岸（加纳）、拉各斯和西非的其他地方。在鼎盛时期有12个，1888年之后只剩下一个由两个营组成的WIR。第三个营驻扎在南大西洋的圣赫勒拿岛，从1897年到1902年短暂存在。最后一个团于1927年解散。最初，wir的普通成员主要由从奴隶贩子那里买来的非洲人组成。当英国结束正式参与跨大西洋奴隶贸易时，“新兵”来自被皇家海军抓获的外国船只，这是其镇压活动的一部分。19世纪30年代，奴隶制在英属西印度群岛正式结束后，随着当地志愿者的加入，这些军团越来越多地成为非洲裔加勒比人，尽管仍有来自西非的新兵。尽管他们是少数民族，但wir是英国军队的常规组成部分，像其他步兵团一样，武装，领工资，配给制和穿制服（直到1858年）。他们有白人军官，主要是英国人，尽管在委员会制度改革之前，加入wir的成本更低，这意味着他们吸引了社会经济地位较低的军官，他们通常通过军事生涯和参与殖民地科学项目来寻求个人晋升。

This PhD focuses on the role of the West India Regiments (WIR) in projects of circum-Atlantic colonial science, particularlyexploration, botany and ethnology, in the nineteenth-century British Empire. Sitting at the interface of histories of science,empire and the military, it also seeks to contribute to the 'decolonisation' of scholarly collections and academic knowledge. This is because the WIRs occupy a unique place in the history of British Empire in that they were almost entirely comprisedof men of African descent.Britain first established the WIRs during the Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars (1792-1815). They served across theCaribbean, including in the continental enclaves of British Honduras (Belize) and British Guiana (Guyana). From the1820s, they were also deployed at Sierra Leone, the Gambia, the Gold Coast (Ghana), Lagos and elsewhere in WestAfrica. Numbering twelve at their peak, only a single WIR comprising two battalions remained after 1888. A third battalionbased in the South Atlantic island of St Helena briefly existed from 1897 to 1902. The final regiment was disbanded in1927.Initially, the WIRs' rank-and-file largely comprised of African men purchased from slave traders. When Britain ended itsformal involvement in the trans-Atlantic slave trade, 'recruits' came from foreign vessels captured by the Royal Navy as partof its suppression activities. After slavery was formally ended in the British West Indies in the 1830s, the regimentsbecame increasingly African-Caribbean as local volunteers enlisted, although there were still enrolments from West Africa.Despite their ethnic make-up, the WIRs were a regular part of the British army, armed, paid, rationed and uniformed (until1858) like other foot regiments. They had white, mainly British, officers, although prior to the reform of the commissionsystem, it was cheaper to join the WIRs, which meant they attracted officers of lower socio-economic status, often seekingpersonal advancement through a military career - and through participation in projects of colonial science.