10:Wars of Empire- Conflict and Anti-colonialism in the 20th century

Question 1

what was Indonesia known as in the 17th century?

Answer 1

‘Dutch East Indies”

Question 2

Loss of Dutch Control in Indonesia?

Answer 2

1927:Ahmed Sukarno established the Indonesian Nationalist Party (PNI)
1942-45: Japanese conquest & occupation
17th August 1945: an independent Indonesian Republic was proclaimed in Jakarta

Question 3

How did Indonesia gain full independence?

Answer 3

1945-49: Dutch military effort to re-establish imperial control
-international condemnation forced dutch to recognise an independent Indonesia

Question 4

when did Indonesia become independent?

Answer 4

December 1949

Question 5

why was Malaya important to the British after 1945?

Answer 5

Malayan Rubber and tin were vital to british post-war economic recovery

Question 6

The Malayan Emergency

Answer 6

1948: a communist uprising (dominated by ethnic Chinese) been and British authorities declared a state of emergency
1950-51: 8000 insurgents conducting 500 attacks a month

Question 7

British response to the Malayan Emergency

Answer 7

they waged a successful counter-insurgency campaign
Malaya remained under British control until independence as the federation of Malaysia in 1963

Question 8

when was Indo-China colonised by the French?

Answer 8

between 1860s and 1893

Question 9

Vietnamese resistance to French rule

Answer 9

The Viet Minh (Vietnamese Independence League) established in 1941
Sept 1945: Viet Minh proclaimed an independent Vietnamese Republic

Question 10

Events In Vietnam 1946-54

Answer 10

1946-54: French tried to use force to re-establish control
Laos and Cambodia gained independence in 1953
1954: decisive defeat for French at Dien Bien Phu
1954:Geneve conference partitioned Vietnam into communist controlled north and US backed south

Question 11

position of Algeria in 1848

Answer 11

-declared part of metropolitan France
-by 20th century had a large French settler population, many born there

Question 12

events in Algeria 1954-62

Answer 12

-war between FLN and French authorities
-Charles de Gaulle became president in 1958 and began negations with FLN in 1961

Question 13

FLN

Answer 13

algerian liberation movement

Question 14

when did Algeria gain independence?

Answer 14

3 July 1962
FLN founder, Ben Bella, became president

Question 15

Palestine: Britain’s war against the Arabs

Answer 15

-rioting in 1929: deaths of 133 Jews and 116 Arabs
-1936-38 Arab revolt: widespread civil disobedience and violence in Palestine
by 1939: 10% of the Arab male population
had been killed, wounded, jailed or exiled

Question 16

events in Palestine 1939-45

Answer 16

-1939 White Paper was an abandonment of the Balfour Declaration as Britain declared that Palestine would
become an independent Arab state with a Jewish minority
-Jewish paramilitary groups (Haganah, Stern Gang, Irgun)
fought the British (often by terrorist methods) after 1945

Question 17

Events in Palestine 1946-48

Answer 17

-1946-47: British military repression of Palestinian Jews was characterized by lethal violence and antisemitic abuse
-Feb 1947:Britain handed the Palestine problem over
to the United Nations; in November, the UNGA voted to partition Palestine into Jewish and Arab states
-May 1948: the state of Israel was proclaimed; no Arab
Palestinian state emerged

Question 18

Anglo-Egyptian conflict in 1945

Answer 18

-80’000 British Troops were stationed in the Suez Canal Zone- a vital british strategic interest
-Egyptians saw it as a symbol of foreign occupation

Question 19

Anglo-Egyptian conflict in 1951

Answer 19

-Egypt unilaterally renounced the 1936 Anglo-Egyptian treaty
-1951-52:guerilla warfare between Egypt and British troops in the canal zone

Question 20

Anglo-Egyptian conflict in 1952

Answer 20

25 Jan: British Troops killed 50 Egyptian policemen in Ismailia
26 Jan: 26 died in major riots across Cairo
July revolution in Egypt got rid of new regime and a nationalist military government came to power

Question 21

What caused the Suez Crisis?

Answer 21

-26 July 1956:Egypt’s President Nasser nationalized the
Suez Canal Company
-Prime Minister Anthony Eden was unable to order an
immediate military response and British preparations for
war proceeded alongside diplomatic negotiations

Question 22

The Suez Crisis events

Answer 22

-August: proposals for international control of the Canal
were rejected by Nasser
-September: plans for a Suez Canal User’s Association
were undermined by John Foster Dulles’s declaration that
“we do not intend to shoot our way through”
-October: diplomatic progress at UN led to agreement on
‘6 Principles’ for the future management of the Canal
-22-24 October 1956: secret meetings between British,
French and Israeli officials resulted in a cynical war plot

Question 23

The Suez-Sinai war

Answer 23

-29 October: Israel invaded Egypt
-Britain and France issued an ultimatum designed to
be rejected by Egypt – it was
-31 October: Anglo-French bombing of Egypt began
-5 November: Anglo-French air and seaborne assault
on Port Said

Question 24

International response to Suez-Sinai war

Answer 24

• The Soviet Union threatened ‘rocket attacks’ against Britain, France and Israel
• The US imposed economic and diplomatic sanctions against Britain and France

Question 25

End of the Suez Sinai war

Answer 25

7 Nov: Britiain accepted a humiliating ceasefire with Nasser still in control of the Canal
-16 British soldiers and 1’600 Egyptians died

Question 26

Consequences of the Suez for Britain

Answer 26

-Britain and France suffered the exposure of their political weakness internationally
-Eden resigned on 9 Jan 1957 (a condition for the restoration of Anglo-American relations)
-it was symbolic to the decline of british power
-USA displaced Britain as the dominant western power in the Middle East

Question 27

consequence of the Suez for Egypt and the Middle East

Answer 27

• Egypts military defeat was transformed into a political victory that turned Nasser into an Arab hero and a symbol of anti-colonial resistance

Question 28

status of Cyprus at the beginning of the 20th century

Answer 28

-it became a British Protectorate in 1878
-under military occupation during WW1
-became a crow colony in 1925

Question 29

events of the Cyprus Crisis

Answer 29

-1 April 1955: EOKA (“National Organisation of
Cypriot Fighters”) began a 4 year insurgency
-371 British soldiers were killed in Cyprus
between 1956 and 1959
-16 August 1960: Cyprus became an
independent republic within the
Commonwealth

Question 30

Status of Kenya in 1920

Answer 30

The British East African Protectorate became the
crown colony of Kenya

Question 31

Events in Kenya and the Mau Mao

Answer 31

-In 1952 a secret society (the ‘Mau Mau’) began a
campaign of violent attacks against white farmers; 68
Europeans were killed between 1952 and 1954
-1959: revelations about the abuse and killings of Kenyan
prisoners at the Hola detention Camp
-11,000 Kenyans died during a state of emergency that
remained in place until 1960

Question 32

consequences of the events in Kenya

Answer 32

-it became independent in 1963
-legact of British human rights absuses during the Mau Mao uprising in Kenya

Question 33

Ireland in 1921

Answer 33

-it was partitioned
-6 northern counties of Ulster remained under British control
-there was significant levels of in-built discrimination against catholics there

Question 34

events in Ireland 1968-70

Answer 34

1968: start of a catholic-nationalist civil rights campaign
Aug 1969: riots in Derry & Belfast- Army deployed
Jan 1970: emergence of the Provisional IRA (PIRA)

Question 35

“the troubles were a triangular conflict in the 1970s to 1990s
who were they fought between?

Answer 35

British Army and state security services
Republican paramilitaries
Loyalist paramilitaries

Question 36

consequences of the troubles in Ireland

Answer 36

-over 3’000 dead before the successful negotiation of the 1998 Good Friday Agreement

Question 37

context of the Falkland Island conflict

Answer 37

• they were a source of tension between Britain and Argentina since 1830s

Question 38

Events of the Falklands Conflict

Answer 38

-2-3 April 1982: Argentina invaded and occupied the
Falklands and Britain dispatched a “task force” of 30 ships
and 6,000 troops to retake the islands
-25 April: South Georgia was recaptured
-21 May: beginning of the main British campaign to
recapture the Falkland Islands
-14 June: final Argentine surrender

Question 39

consequences of the Falklands Conflict

Answer 39

-250 British dead
-650 Argentine deaths
- Thatcher’s government presented the conflict as a reassertion of British greatness after years of imperial and national decline

Question 40

who succeeded the Tsarist Russian Empire?

Answer 40

the Soviet Union

Question 41

which was the only country that was a part of the former Russian Empire that remained independent in the Cold War?

Answer 41

Finland

Question 42

Uprisings against soviet control that were repressed

Answer 42

1953: East Germany
1956: Poland
1956: Hungary
1968: Czechoslovakia