Small and isolated in the Colony of Natal, Fort Napier was long treated like a temporary outpost of the expanding British Empire. Yet British troops manned this South African garrison for over seventy years. Tasked with protecting colonists, the fort became even more significant as an influence on, and reference point for, settler society. Graham Dominy's Last Outpost on the Zulu Frontier reveals the unexamined but pivotal role of Fort Napier in the peacetime public dramas of the colony. Its triumphalist colonial-themed pageantry belied colonists's worries about their own vulnerability. As Dominy shows, the cultural, political, and economic methods used by the garrison compensated for this perceived weakness. Settler elites married their daughters to soldiers to create and preserve an English-speaking oligarchy. At the same time, garrison troops formed the backbone of a consumer market that allowed colonists to form banking and property interests that consolidated their control.| Cover Title Page Copyright Contents Preface Acknowledgments Technical Notes 1. Fort Napier: A Garrison among Garrisons 2. From Whence They Came: An Overview of Queen Victoria's Army 3. Establishing an Imperial Presence: Bayside Battles, Diplomacy, Women's Revolts, and the 4. Building a Fort Plans, Impermanence, and Imperial Policies 5 Pageantry, Pioneers, Panics, and Punitive Expeditions: The Pivotal Role of the Garrison in 6. Ceremonies and Crises: The Garrison in the Established Colony, 1860s–1890s 7. Soldiers in Garrison: Discipline, Indiscipline, and Mutiny 8. The Inniskilling Fusiliers: Bandits, Brawlers, or Mutineers? 9. The Garrison and the Wider Society: Placing the "Rough and the Respectable" in the Colonial 10. "For the Colonel's Lady and Judy O'Grady Are Sisters under Their Skins": Class and Gender 11. Spending the Queen's Shilling: The Economic Influence of the Natal Garrison 12. The Garrison and the State: Changing Relationships of Power 13. Recessional: The Last of the Garrison, the Fate of the Fort, and Its Place in Folk Memories Appendix: List of Regiments in Garrison in Natal/Pietermaritzburg, 1842–1914 Notes on Sources Notes Bibliography Index | "Interesting and well-written . . . Dr. Dominy's impressive book paints a convincing picture of the social scene in Pietermaritzburg as it was influenced by the presence of the Victorian Army."—Journal of the Military History Society of Ireland
"Dominy's readable and eclectic study represents an important step forward in both military and imperial historiography; he provides an enhanced and nuanced look at the means of imperial conquest that goes far beyond more traditional emphases on worn-out themes such as technological superiority and strategic planning. . . . Ultimately, the great value of Dominy's study is its ability to highlight the importance of local actors in shaping the imperial experience."—Journal of Military History
"A noteworthy addition to South African historiography and well worth reading."—Victorian Military Society
|Graham Dominy is a Research Fellow of the University of South Africa, former National Archivist of South Africa, and former editor of Natalia: Journal of the Natal Society.