colonial policy 1947 - 1967 Flashcards
cyprus
reason for conflict - 30,000 troops sent to fight eoka but the world was against britain. more difficult guerilla war than malaya - less popular support for britain
1954 - 1960
british reponse - oil seen as last bastion in middle east so strategically import to britain. eoka movement led by archbishop makarios - wanted a union with greece
outcome - republic of cyprus declared in 1960 - tensions between turks in the north and greeks in the south. civil war and partition of cyprus
suez crisis
british policy in egypt had focused on keeping control of the suez canal for many years.
1922 - britain was forced to give egypt its independence, as long as ‘foreign’ interests were protected in egypt.
1924 - zaghlul became egypt’s first prime minister.
as part of the agreement, britain retained troops by the suez canal, protecting their shipping route to india
1952 - nasser overthrew king farouk of egypt and took power in egypt and in 1956, he announced that he would nationalise the suez canal. keeping with international law, nasser committed to paying the british for their shareholding in the canal (an amount reported to be £28.3 million for britain’s 44% stake in the canal).
nasser planned to use the canal’s revenue to build the aswan dam (which britain had just withdrawn funding for) to improve egypt’s irrigation and farming infrastructure. britain wanted to maintain its business interests
prime minister, anthony eden, believed nasser to be the ‘hitler’ of the middle east but did not act straight away since he was waiting for a moral figleaf
1956 protocol of sevres - israel would attack egypt on 29th october and on the following day, britain and france would demand that both sides cease fighting and withdraw troops from the vicinity of the canal. this would be followed by a franco british invasion of the canal zone on 31st october to ‘defend’ it
united nations denounced the attack. labour’s gaitskeel condemned eden fiercely - public opinion was divided. by november, 53% still supported the government
consequences of the suez crisis
never again would the british government seek to act alone in imperial or international affairs without the approval the usa
suggested to nationalist movements seeking independence that if they pushed harder the british could be forced to surrender. made britain’s task of containing independence movements increasingly difficult
called into question the whole credibility plans to hold onto formal africa and elsewhere and encouraged british politicians to accept that it was best to accede nationalist demands for independence sooner rather than later
dispelled the notion that britain could manage and control its retreat from empire that would keep british power intact
the influence of the usa on colonial policy
the usa wanted britain to be strong to resist communist advances
america turned a blind eye to the post war reimposition of british control
britain were dependent on the marshall plan - $3.3 billion
nato - relied on nuclear weapons for defence
april 1963 - kennedy and macmillan signed the polaris sales agreement in which the usa agreed to supply britain with polaris ballistic missiles for use in royal navy submarines
seato - formed in 1954. brought together australia, france, new zealand, pakistan, the philippines, thailand, britain and the usa in the wake of the korean war and acknowledged the need for an american led protective alliance . threatened relationship with australia and new zealand
de gaulle didn’t want britain to be part of the eec
the commonwealth
founded in 1920 as an exclusive club of white dominions enjoying a high degree of domestic self rule
implication of the british commonwealth status was that they were theoretically equal with britain
implicit understanding of the sovereignty of the monarch changed and came to see the commonwealth as a way of surrendering the costs of formal imperial control whilst maintaining informal ties which would help protect britain’s global economic interests and influence
ireland withdrew in 1949
the last country to join was barbados in november 1966
gave britain prestige without the costs
