(8) Imperial and colonial policy Flashcards
1
Q
Administration of India?
A
- Viceroy still head
- Backed by Indian Civil Service, mostly all White British from Oxford or Cambridge
- Administrative elite kept small due to pay and pension being so high
- Education prevailing (Indians to read and write English)
- Kept a policy of ‘divide and rule’ and maintained the divisions
- Educated Indians allowed in provincial council in 1892 and 1909 reforms
2
Q
Viceroy Curzon’s administration of India (1899-1905)
A
- Had to deal with nationalist stirrings from the Indian National Congress (Est. 1885) = They criticised British trading agreements and how it crushed local industry, heavy industry, heavy taxation due to well paid administrators.
- Further pressure came from ‘The Servants of India Society’
- Curzon made changes in the ‘Civil Service’ to make it more efficient
- Founded Imperial Cadet Corps 1901 - Native princes and elite figures training and ‘special’ officer commissions
- reformed the universities, police and lowered taxes
- Adopted the gold standard for the currency
- In 1905 he tried to partition Bengal into a Muslim province in the east and Hindu province in the West
- Faced large opposition, Hindu elite owned property in the East which they rented to Muslim peasants
- strikes, protests and boycotts of British made goods
- Split the Congress further between the moderates and extremists
3
Q
Viceroy Minto’s administration of India (1905-1910)
A
- Had to deal with the fall-out of Curzon’s attempted partition of Bengal
- With backing from the Liberal government 1906 and Secretary of State John Morely he introduced reforms in 1909
- Indian councils act 1909 allowed 27 Indians to be elected to the Viceroy’s council = greater participation from Indians however the election was limited and sometimes they were chosen by British
- 1910 reform saw the enlargement of the provincial councils, 135 Indian could secure seats now
4
Q
Viceroy Hardinge (1910-1916)
A
- Used King George V visit in 1911 to reunite Bengal
- Moved Indian capital from Calcutta to Dehli to undermine the Hindu stronghold groups
- George V was the only monarch to visit the Raj and his Durbar was held in 1911 at the cost of £2 million
- Hardinge declared war on India’s behalf in August 1914
5
Q
Egyptian administration
A
- ‘veiled protectorate’ until 1914 then a formal protectorate
- Under military occupation which was supposed to be temporary
- Had problems with The Capitulations which slowed down law-making
- The Caisse de la Dette controlled Egypts finances which made it hard for Britain to control (proven when Russia and France stopped Evelyn Baring using Egyptian funds to finance the conquest of Sudan)
- Mixed courts - Egyptian judges not always supportive of the British
- French interest in Egypt was a problem until Fashoda Incident 1898 brought them closer together and they signed an Entente Cordiale in 1904
- Evelyn Baring acted as ‘advisor’ to Khedive between 1883 and 1907
- Egyptian Advisory Council of Laws ministers all had a British ‘advisor’
- Number of Britons working in Egypt went from 100 in 1885 to 1000 in 1905
6
Q
Evelyn Baring’s administration of Egypt (1883-1907)
A
- Baring cut spending on military and beurcracy due to £70 million debt accused by Khedive
- Also improved communications and investing in irrigation schemes
- Improved conditions for Egyptian labourers and introduced better sanitation and health services
- Within ten years exports of cotton and sugar had trebled and the population had risen from seven to ten million
- Placed 6000 British troops in Egypt
- Army placed under command of Kitchener
- People given little education to stop nationalism
- Until 1909 New University founded to help supplement the University of Cairo
- Saw the opening of the Aswan Dam in 1902 - £2 million (friends of Lord Cromer) - irrigated half a million acres of former desert
- Increase in tourism - Thomas Cook and Son became the largest employer - 1900 - popular to ‘winter’ in Egypt
7
Q
Egyptian Nationalist opposition
A
- Nationalist party formed in 1881 was revived in 1893 as a secret society
- Middle class and educated Egyptians
- Cromer ignored them but employed a Nationalist Saad Pasha as Minister for Education
- The Denshawai incident 1906led to uproar in the press against the British after 52 villagers were arrested, four of whom were convicted and killed, an egyptian policeman was given 50 lashes and two years imprisonment after British Officers were shooting pigeons for sport which angered the locals and led to the death of an officer fleeing the scene.
8
Q
Sir Eldon Gorst’s administration of Egypt (1907-1911)
A
- Tried to impose censorship of the press in 1909 and failed
- Germans funding anti-British sentiment
9
Q
Kitcheners administration of Egypt (1911-1914)
A
- 1913 a new Legislative Assembly took over
- 66 elected members
- 17 appointed nominees
- Leading up to the First World War and with the Ottoman Empire on the side of the Central Powers, Britain made Egypt a protectorate November 1914
10
Q
When were the dominions given their status?
A
Canada - 1867 Australia - 1901 New Zealand - 1907 South African states united in 1910 Dominion status meant that rule over these countries became symbolic
11
Q
Native policy in India?
A
Power kept in the hands of a select few to keep a divide between the educated elite and the uneducated mass
Number of Indians in the Civil Service only grew from 30 in 1890 to 70 in 1914
12
Q
How was native policy used with the Bantu in Africa?
A
Britain supported the groups they favoured, such as rewarding the Masai with cattle and tokens of office in preference to the Kikuyu.
Lord Lugard was dependent on trusted chiefs to exercise governance within Uganda.
13
Q
Britain’s movement away from ‘Splendid Isolationism’
A
- Started at the end of the Napoleonic Wars 1815
- Empire rested on the strength of the navy
- Second Boer War 1899-1902, change to concentrate army strength
- Germany made an alliance with Austria-Hungary in 1870
- Italy joined this alliance in 1882
- Military agreements between France and Russia emerged in 1892 followed by a formal alliance in 1894
14
Q
Britain’s fears over Russia
A
Near Afghanistan, moved 300,000 troops in military manoeuvres February 1900 compared to 100,000 British troops in India
Russian Naval presence in Toulon in Mediterranean
Since 1892 French and Russian agreement the Russian threat in the Mediterranean made Britain worry about the Suez Canal
Worry about India
15
Q
Britain and France in North Africa
A
Fashoda Incident
- French expedition at the head waters of the Nile under Major Marchand
- Kitchener and Marchard kept pressing their claims to the land accusing each other of trespassing
- Press exaggerated the situation claiming that France and Britain were at the brink of war
- French leave peacefully due to internal problems and the threat of Kitcheners Egyptian army in the Sudan
- 1899 agreement for French to stay out of the Nile Valley
