In recent weeks, the Trump Administration has ordered National Guard troops into Los Angeles and Washington, D.C, to combat violent crime and support the government’s stepped-up enforcement of immigration laws. Hailing the purported success of these missions, the president has promised to occupy Chicago; New Orleans; Memphis; Portland, Ore.; and other American cities in similar fashion.
There is a long history of using the military to police American cities. After the Civil War, for example, Union soldiers occupied the former Confederacy for more than a decade. In the 20th century, presidents from Dwight Eisenhower to George H.W. Bush deployed armed forces to enforce civil rights laws and respond to urban riots. Yet, the historical episode that most resembles the current moment goes back to just before the founding of the U.S.
Beginning in the late 1760s, King George III deployed troops to enforce British law in the face of fierce resistance from North American colonists. By the Revolutionary War’s conclusion, the king’s troops had marched through the streets of every major North American city. As the conflict wore on, British leaders sought to use troops not just as police, but to intimidate would-be rebels and re-assure the crown’s American supporters. While in most places these efforts succeeded in the short term, over time the lived realities—particularly the everyday violence—of military rule undermined support for the royal cause, dooming efforts to resuscitate the British Empire in America.
Reeling from debts accrued during the French and Indian War—which ended in 1763—and seeking to consolidate power over Britain’s overseas territories, the king’s government tightened regulations and imposed new taxes on colonial trade. As part of these reforms, the Royal Navy impounded dozens of merchant vessels for allegedly evading customs duties, enraging merchants as well as mariners, shipwrights, stevedores, and others in port cities whose…
