Freemasonry across Empires
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1558/jrff.v5i1.23977Keywords:
freemasonry, empire, imperialism, Britain, France, Netherlands, DenmarkAbstract
Examining British imperial freemasonry in light of the French, Dutch, and Danish colonial empires, this article argues that freemasonry and European imperialism developed a complex symbiosis during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. It traces brotherhood’s spread through these empires, the mechanisms of its expansion abroad, and its role in colonial societies. Though there were some differences across these empires, freemasonry and colonial regimes developed a mutually beneficial relationship. Arguing that empires must be a central unit of analysis in the historical examination of freemasonry, the article concludes with a discussion of questions and topics requiring further research.
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Suret-Canale, Jean. French Colonialism in Tropical Africa 1900–1945. New York: Pica Press, 1971.
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Butterfield, Paul. Centenary: The First 100 Years of English Freemasonry in the Transvaal 1878–1978. Johannesburg: Ernest Stanton Publishers, 1978.
Campos, Michelle. ‘Freemasonry in Ottoman Palestine’. Jerusalem Quarterly 22–23 (Fall 2004–Spring 2005): 37–62.
Campos, Michelle. Ottoman Brothers: Muslims, Christians, and Jews in Early Twentieth-Century Palestine (Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 2011).
Casely-Hayford, Augustus and Richard Rathbone. ‘Politics, Families and Freemasonry in the Colonial Gold Coast’, in Peoples and Empires in African History: Essays in Memory of Michael Crowder, eds J.F.A. de Ajayi and J.D.Y. Peel. London: Longman, 1992, 143–60.
Cole, Juan. Colonialism and Revolution in the Middle East: Social and Cultural Origins of Egypt’s ‘Urabi Movement. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1993.
Cooper, A.A. The Freemasons of South Africa. Cape Town: Human & Rousseau, 1986.
Daughton, James P. An Empire Divided: Religion, Republicanism, and the Making of French Colonialism. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2006. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195305302.001.0001
Deschamps, Simon. ‘Freemasonry and the Indian Parsi Community: A Late Meeting on the Level’. Journal for Research into Freemasonry and Fraternalism 3.1 (2012): 60–71.
Dumont, Paul. ‘Freemasonry in Turkey: a By-product of Western Penetration’. European Review 13.3 (2005): 481–93.
Fozdar, Vahid. ‘Imperial Brothers, Imperial Partners: Indian Freemasons, Race, Kinship, and Networking in the British Empire and Beyond’, in Decentering Empire: Britain, India and the Transcolonial World, eds Dane Kennedy and Durba Ghosh. Hyderabad: Orient Longman, 2006.
Fozdar, Vahid. ‘“That Great Primeval and Fundamental Religion”: The Transformation of Freemasonry into a British Imperial Cult’. Journal of World History 22.3 (September 2011): 493–525.
Gould, Robert F. The History of Freemasonry: Its Antiquities, Symbols, Constitutions, etc. vol. V. London: Caxton Publishing Company, 1886.
Gould, Robert F. Military Lodges: The Apron and the Sword or Freemasonry under Arms. London: Gale and Polden, 1899.
Karpiel, Frank. ‘Freemasonry, Colonialism, and Indigenous Elites’. Paper presented at ‘Interactions: Regional Studies, Global Processes, and Historical Analysis, Library of Congress, Washington DC, February 28–March 3, 2001’.
<http://www.historycooperative.org/proceedings/interactions/karpiel.html> (13 May 2009).
Kroon, Andréa A., ‘De invloed van Nederlandse vrijmetselaren op de handelsbetrekkingen met Azië in de 18de en 19de eeuw’, in Vrijmetselarij in Nederland. Een kennismaking met de wetenschappelijke studie van een ‘geheim’ genootschap, ed. Andréa A. Kroon. Den Haag: Stichting OVN, 2003, 59–70.
McClellan, James E. Colonialism and Science: Saint Domingue and the Old Regime. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1992.
Nicholls, David. From Dessalines to Duvalier: Race, Colour, and National Independence in Haiti. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 1996.
Rebold, Emmanual, et al. A General History of Freemasonry in Europe. Whitefish, MT: Kessinger Publishing, 1997 (1860).
Re?vauger, Ce?cile. Noirs et francs-mac?ons. Paris: E?ditions Mac?onniques de France, 2007.
—‘Freemasonry in Barbados, Trinidad, and Grenada: British or Homemade?’ Journal for Research into Freemasonry and Fraternalism 1.1 (2010): 79–91.
Schumacher, John M. ‘Philippine Masonry to 1890’. Asian Studies 4.2 (August 1966): 328–41.
Stevens, Theo H. Vrijmetselarij en samenleving in Nederlands-Indië en Indonesië. Uitgeverrij Verloren, 1994.
Suret-Canale, Jean. French Colonialism in Tropical Africa 1900–1945. New York: Pica Press, 1971.
Van der Veur, Paul. Freemasonry in Indonesia from Radermacher to Soekanto, 1762–1961. Athens, OH: Ohio University Center for International Studies, 1976.
Wauthier, Claude. ‘A Strange Inheritance: Africa’s Freemasons’, Le Monde Diplomatique (English edition), September 1997. <http://mondediplo.com/1997/09/masons> (12 May 2009).
Published
2015-12-29
Issue
Section
Articles
How to Cite
Harland-Jacobs, J. L. (2015). Freemasonry across Empires. Journal for Research into Freemasonry and Fraternalism, 5(1), 14-29. https://doi.org/10.1558/jrff.v5i1.23977
