Constructing Empire: Fortifications, Politics, and Labor in an Age of Imperial Reform, 1689-1715

Historians of the British North American Colonies consider the Age of the Glorious Revolution (1689-1715) a period of imperial reform.

Often overlooked, however, is that the English--and later British--fiscal-military state expanded into the American colonies mostly through an unprecedented campaign of fortification building.

Examining the construction of these forts and other defensive works, this project explores the intersection of labor and empire in colonial America. In many ways, the fortifications were microcosms of imperial reform and provide a lens into the British government's post-Glorious Revolution attempts to construct empire in its American colonies. Early modern empires had physical manifestations—forts, wharves, customs houses, etc.—in need of construction and had to recruit or coerce enough labor to complete those projects. Metropolitan designs and goals, however, were easier to propose than implement. As these fortifications demonstrate, labor was and had to be an integral component in these imperial calculations and only furthered the negotiated reality of empire in the American colonies.