The Psychology of Colonial Violence

Abstract

This chapter is a study of the psychology of colonial violence. It focuses on settler colonial violence against Indigenous peoples in the early nineteenth century in the new colonies of the British Empire in the southern seas. The common image of the settlers as a self-confident imperial vanguard, ignores the fear and insecurity that marked their experience on these colonial frontiers. They saw themselves surrounded by unknown and unpredictable dangers, and the nature of their violence reflected this more than an imperial hubris. The chapter also asks the question: how was colonial violence explained and presented in the image of the British Empire as a liberal empire and in the stories that came to be told about national identities in countries like Australia?