Pax Britannica and ‘free trade and open seas’ : shifting British informal colonialism in North Africa, 1800–1860s

Abstract

This paper seeks to explore how British informal colonialism in North Africa was inseparably linked with, and indeed dependent on, their network of formally controlled imperial domains: Corfu and the Ionian Islands, Malta and Gibraltar. It also sets out to investigate the use made of this chain of colonial ports-positioned in proximity to the Maghre~as mediating trade centres/ entrepots, as military-naval stations, and as bases for the penetration and exploration of the interior of the African continent. Focus is then put on the British deployment of their naval fleet to impose rule of law and free trade, as well as to suppress any resistance from various indigenous actors. As a conclusion, both immediate and long-term effects which this imperial intrusion had on regional customary exchange patterns and the political economies of the North African regencies should become clear.