8. Imperial and Colonial Policy Flashcards
Administration of India?
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
Viceroy Curzon’s administration of India (1899-1905)
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
Viceroy Minto’s administration of India (1905-1910)
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
Viceroy Hardinge (1910-1916)
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
Egyptian administration
‘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
Evelyn Baring’s administration of Egypt (1883-1907)
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
Egyptian Nationalist opposition
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.
Sir Eldon Gorst’s administration of Egypt (1907-1911)
Tried to impose censorship of the press in 1909 and failed
- Germans funding anti-British sentiment
Kitcheners administration of Egypt (1911-1914)
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
When were the dominions given their status?
Canada - 1867
Australia - 1901
New Zealand - 1907
South African states united in 1910
Dominion status meant that rule over these countries became symbolic
Native policy in India?
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
How was native policy used with the Bantu in Africa?
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.
Britain’s movement away from ‘Splendid Isolationism’
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
Britain’s fears over Russia
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
Britain and France in North Africa
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
