England's Internal Colonies

In "England's Internal Colonies", Mark Netzloff examines how the literature and discursive practices of English colonialism emerged as an extension of internal colonialist ventures in regions of England, Scotland, and Ireland. Netzloff argues that England's internal and overseas colonies were linked together as a result of a perceived crisis concerning the social position of England's labouring poor, an expanding underclass which found itself at the center of both the anxieties and aspirations of colonial projects. Through an analysis of texts by Shakespeare, Jonson, Heywood, Speed, and others, Netzloff discusses the interconnections between class and colonialism in relation to such topics as piracy, vagrancy, colonial labour practices, mercantilism and early modern capitalism, the status of gypsies, and the colonization of the Anglo-Scottish borders and Ulster.