Coercion as a means of control

Question 1

In what cases did Britain use coercion in Egypt?

Answer 1

• British tax extractors in Egypt used flogging, torture and imprisonment against Egyptians to continue to pay the bondholders’ interest despite the famine that was occuring
• Britain bombarded Egyptian rebels in Alexandria for 10 hours in 1881, killing or wounding 2000 of them

Question 2

Where and when was the Sudanese army massacred by the British?

Answer 2

• The Sudanese army was massacred at the Battle of Omdurman in September 1898 after they attempted to oppose colonial domination

Question 3

What was the response to Paul Bogle’s Morant bay rebellion in 1865?

Answer 3

• The initial militia opened gunfire on the protesters
• Following the overpowering of the militia, British soldiers hunted down the rebellions who shot and hung whoever they came across
• 439 Blacks were killed and a further 354 were killed without trial

Question 4

Who did Britain launch a punitive expedition against in Kenya in 1905? Why?

Answer 4

• The Kisii

- In order to open up the territory they occupied for White settlement

Question 5

By 1948, how many Kikuyu in Kenya were restrictd to landholding in 2000 square miles?

Answer 5

250,000

Question 6

What was Operation Anvil? How many people did this affect?

Answer 6

• It was a repressive response in April 1954 to the Mau Mau Revolt in Kenya
• 77,000 Kikuyu interned without trial and 1m Kikuyu had their homes and possessions destroyed

Question 7

When was Ndebele (in Zimbabwe) annexed with mass machine gun and artillery fire?

Answer 7

October 1893

Question 8

What did one officer order to happen in response to the Nbele’s revolt in 1895?

Answer 8

“Wipe them all out… everything black”

Question 9

How did Britain respond to the First Chimurenga (Ndebele and Shona Revolts in 1896-7)?

Answer 9

Brutally

Employed machine guns and artillery to massacre the rebels

Question 10

How were sepoy prisoners treated during the Indian Rebellion?

Answer 10

Many were exectued

Some were strapped to canons and blown from them

Question 11

Who was the British General responsible for the Amritsar Massacre in 1919? How many were killed and wounded?

Answer 11

Harry Dyer

379 killed and 1200 wounded out of the Indian protestors

Question 12

By the end of August 1848, how many men and women had been detained in Malaysia as part of a crackdown against the left?

Answer 12

4000

Question 13

By 1952, how many Chinese had been resettled in heavily guarded and repressive villages in Malaysia?

Answer 13

400,000

Question 14

How did Britain employ coercion against Jinhai port during the first opium war?

Answer 14

They bombarded the port in October 1841 before pillaging the town and raping the women in it. Over 2000 defenseless Chinese were killed

Question 15

How many Chinese were killed during a British bombardment of the northernmost Chinese fort in 1860?

Answer 15

2000

Question 16

What was the relegated status of Palestinian Arabs under British rule?

Answer 16

“Existing non-Jewish communities”

Question 17

How did police contend with a Palestinian demonstration against Jewish settlers in October 1933?

Answer 17

They opened fire on the demonstrators, killing 15

Question 18

How did the British contend with the Great Revolt of the Palestinians in 1939?

Answer 18

They crushed the rebels, killing 5000 and interning thousands more without trial

Question 19

What technology created in the 1881 supported the use of coercion as a strategy of control?

Answer 19

The Maxim gun

Question 20

What technological development in the 1920s and 1930s facilitated coercive control? Name an example from 1920

Answer 20

The development of air technology meant fewer troops were needed to deal with revolts and rebellions. In Iraq, the RAF defeated a devolt in 1920. Following this, the garrison was reduced from 23 to 2 batallions without comprimising security.

Question 21

What were the limitations of coercion as a means of control?

Answer 21

• There were limited numbers of troops i.e. only 40,000 soldiers for an area of 25% of the Earth by 1900.
• Coercion provoked opposition domestically and peripherally. There was both local outrage and protest in Britain to the Amritsar massacre in 1919 for example.

Question 22

What did the Earl of Cromer (British Consul General in Egypt 1885-1907) say regarding the use of coercion?

Answer 22

“The sword will assuredly be powerless to defend us for long”

Question 23

How many Nandi were killed by Sir James Sadler’s expedition force in Kenya in 1905? How many huts and stores were destroyed?

Answer 23

1117 of the Nandi rebels were killed and 4956 huts and stores were destroyed