Socialization after Empire: The Colonial Legacy of British Military Training

• In Event: Historical Legacies for Anti-Immigrant Attitudes, Warfare and Nationalism

Abstract

Within state military organizations, it is common practice to assign pools of junior officers of one military to join another military for part or the entirety of their military education. In the lead up to independence, some British colonial territories also sent military officers to the UK for military training. In some cases, this practice continued after the territory gained its independence. In this paper, we examine the variation in this practice and its consequences for state formation processes in the newly independent territory. We argue that the officers sent to the UK for training were socialized into British military culture, resulting in a transferral of norms and values from the UK to the newly independent state. We explore the mechanism through which these officers- socialized into norms of professionalism and exposed to cosmopolitan ideas- became norm entrepreneurs within their own particular military organizations upon return. Because the officers trained in the UK constituted a military elite and came to occupy key positions within the military hierarchy, they were able to diffuse these norms throughout their military apparatus. In particular, we examine the extent to which former British colonies vary in their levels of military professionalization and their adoption of progressive values as they relate to the integration of previously excluded groups. We examine our argument using new archival data from the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst in order to measure the number of officer cadets from throughout the empire who were trained there. This paper seeks to understand how colonial legacies and the transferral of norms and values has had long-term impacts on the development of the military.

Authors

• Kristine Eck, Uppsala University

• Chiara Ruffa, Uppsala University