Christian Missionaries & the State in the Third World

The fact that many of the leaders in the Third World were educated by Christian missionaries is a decisive factor in world politics today. This book puts together examples of how Christian missionaries contributed to the construction, destruction and reconstruction of state structures in Africa and the Caribbean. They worked through educational activity, and attempts at healing and trade, as well as by preaching, prayer and other sacramental endeavours. In the nineteenth century after the abolition of the slave trade the character of the states encountered on both sides of the Atlantic were of critical importance. This was whether missionaries were African, Americans or Europeans, whatever their social origin or status and whether they were slave or free.