Civilize

Abstract: The word "civilize" signified military domination, along with legal, political, cultural, and, increasingly, economic imperialism, first in Ireland, then in the English Atlantic world and, by the later nineteenth century, across the British empire in Asia and Africa. The change in usage from the 1570s reflects an important shift in the nature of the English mission in Ireland, from one of humanist inspired reform and "civility" to more aggressive policies grounded in outright conquest, colonization, and commercialization. This essay surveys the bloody, complex, and contested landscape within which the meaning of the word "civilize," along with the ideas associated with it, evolved.