Consolidation Flashcards
Change in British policy in Africa from the 1890’s
Became more assertive
Had previously established bases for strategic or trade purposes - eg. reacting to Germans/French
Expansion in West Africa
Ashantiland incorporated into the Gold Coast Colony (1902)
North Nigeria - 1900
South Nigeria - 1906
Nigeria - 1914 (1890 swap with French re Madagascar)
Expansion in East Africa
Uganda
Somaliland
Uganda
1890 - King Mwanga signs treaty with Lord Lugard, ceding powers over to the Imperial British East Africa Company, which were transferred to the Crown in 1894
Somaliland
1898 - Reinforced with administrative and military personnel, in order to limit French and Italian ambitions
Commanded Britain’s crucial access to the Indian Ocean and its colonies in the East
Expansion in South Africa
Cape Colony
1895 - Uitlanders, oppressed by Boers in the Transvaal, sought the help of Rhodes, providing an excuse for British intervention
Jameson Raid - strengthened Kruger and Boers, weakened British
Led to Second Boer War after negotiations led by Chamberlain broke down
Second Boer War
1899-1902 Boers invaded Ladysmith in Natal British poured in 40,000 imperial troops Cost Britain £250 million Led by Generals Kitchener and Roberts Ended by the Peace of Vereeniging (May), granted the Boers £3 million to restock their farms
Terms of the Peace of Vereeniging
Boers acknowledged themselves as British subjects
Boer colonies became British colonies
South Africa became a single British dominion territory in 1910
Shared characteristic of British rule in India and Egypt
Denial of the right to self-rule
Administration of India
Viceroy backed by the Indian Civil Service
‘Divide and Rule’ policy, emphasised the divisions within India
Partition of Bengal
The Morley-Minto reforms
Partition of Bengal
July 1905 Curzon Motivated by difficult administration (78m) Muslim majority in the East Hindu majority in the West Angered Hindus, led by Banerjee Led to Curzon's resignation (November) Bengal reunited in 1911
The Morley-Minto reforms - other name
The Indian Councils Act (1909)
The Indian Councils Act
1909
Viceroy Minto
Secretary of State for India Morley
Encouraged by new Liberal government
Introduced a limited programme of reforms in an attempt to appease the Bengalis
Enabled 27 Indians to be elected from provincial constituencies to the Viceroy’s Council.
Provided for greater Indian participation in government
Limited by narrow franchise and representatives sometimes handpicked by British
Who declared war on India’s behalf in 1914, without consulting India’s population or elected representatives?
Viceroy Hardinge
When did Egypt become a formal protectorate, not a ‘veiled protectorate’
1914, as a result of the declaration of war
Factors hindering British freedom of action in Egypt
The Capitulations
The Caisse de la Dette
The Mixed Courts
The Capitulations
Foreigners could claim the right to be tried in their own country’s law courts
Any new law affecting foreigners had to be approved by the governments of all countries represented in Egypt
The Caisse de la Dette
Group of European countries that controlled Egyptian finances
1/2 the country’s revenue went to paying European bond-holders
Could prevent the British Consul-General from spending Egypt’s money on matters they disapproved of
The Mixed Courts
Set up to deal with cases involving both Egyptians and Europeans
Presided over by European and Egyptian judges, who were not always supportive of the British
Entente Cordiale
1904
Signed between Britain and France
French agreed to respect Britain’s special rights in Egypt in return for British recognition over France’s special rights in Morocco
Ended the Caisse de la Dette’s control of Egyptian finances
Signalled an end to policy of ‘splendid isolation’
Evidence of increased British influence in Egypt
Britons working in Egyptian government in 1885 - 100
Britons working in Egyptian government in 1905 - 1000
Evelyn Baring
British Consul-General 1883-1907
Tasked with regularising Egyptian financial affairs
Made cutbacks to Egypt’s military and bureaucracy
Revitalised the economy by improving communications and investing in irrigation
Improved conditions for Egyptian labourers
Within ten years, cotton and sugar exports had trebled
Placed 6000 British troops within the Egyptian army to ensure that British interests were not jeopardised
Army placed under the control of Kitchener
Wary of extending educational opportunities, as it had led to nationalism in India
“Granville Doctrine” allowed Baring to dismiss Egyptian ministers who refused to accept British directives
Saw Egypt as a battleground between Christian and Muslim ideals - slave trade / forced labour
Egyptian class system
Upper classes generally benefitted from the British occupation Growing middle-class nationalist movement by the late 1890s - National Party revived in 1893
What fuelled Egypt’s growing middle-class nationalist movement
British failure to: deal with the corruption of the Khedive’s government
help Egypt’s poor
promote the Egyptian cloth-making industry, which would have provided jobs, because it would have affected the Lancashire cotton industry
Denshawai incident (1906) - 4 villagers sentenced to death
Funded by German government
Elden Gorst
Succeed Baring as Consul-General in 1907 following Denshawai incident (pigeon-shooting)
Brought more Egyptians into government positions in an attempt to weaken the Egyptian National Party
Imposed tighter regulation of the press in 1909
Used penal measures (unsuccessfully) to quell the growing nationalist movement
Herbert Kitchener
Succeeded Gorst in 1911
Tried to curb nationalist sentiment
Increased British dominance in Egypt
British declaration of a protectorate over Egpyt
November 1914
Motivated as the Ottoman Empire was on the side of the Central Powers
Most successful form of ‘native rule’
Deployed in the white, settler colonies
Had exercised some form of self-government since the 1850’s
British control largely symbolic, as Britain was not responsible for the administration nor costs of government
Semi-independent dominion status granted
Canada - 1867
Australia - 1901
New Zealand - 1907
Native policy in the colonies
Local elites used to facilitate British rule
Those prepared to uphold British interests and participate in administration may expect rewards or positions of influence
eg. Sultan Hamed, Zanzibar, 1893
Sometimes involved befriending one group against another
eg. Masai favoured in favour to the Kikuyu
Pro imperial trade
India took 20% of Britain’s total exports, worth almost £150 million, by 1914
Canada supplied 10% of Britain’s beef and 15% of its wheat flour
Total Empire trade in 1896 - £745 million
Imperial Federation League
Set up in 1884
Set up to promote closer colonial ties
Disbanded in 1893
Disbandment reflects a waning interest in the Empire’s commercial importance
Evidence of the lack of success of imperial trade
Imperial Federation League
Growth in British trade with the non-imperial world (USA)
Intra-Empire trade only £183 million
Empire blamed for holding back British industry and blunted British commercial enterprise
Evidence of growth in British trade with the non-imperial world
Empire supplied only 10% of British food by 1894
Evidence of British investment in Empire
British investment in Empire doubled between 1900 to 1913 from £2 billion to £4 billion
Colonial Loans Act (1899) and Colonial Stocks Act (1900) facilitated a number of infrastructure projects in Africa
London Colonial Conference,
1902
Convened by Joseph Chamberlain
Attended by leaders from the self-governing white settler colonies
Discussed creating closer economic ties through an imperial customs union
Created notion of ‘imperial preference’
Who resisted the notion of ‘imperial preference’, and what demonstrated the British public’s opposition to it?
Manufacturing, shipping and banking industries
Interests with free trade and wider international community
Liberal victory in the 1906 General Election
Evidence of Empire undermining imperial trade
White settler colonies imposed import tariffs
Canada had made its own trading agreements with other major countries
British goods boycotted and burned in India as part of the Swadeshi movement
Joseph Chamberlain
Secretary of State for the Colonies 1895-1903
Proposed an imperial defence and customs union
Promoted government investment in Empire
Cecil Rhodes
Prime Minister of Cape Colony from 1890
Moral imperialist
Resigned following the Jameson raid
Colonial administrators
Baring
Curzon
Milner
Viceroy Curzon
Appointed Viceroy in 1899 at they height of Conservative imperialism by PM Lord Salisbury
Created North-West Frontier Province to protect India from Russians (1901)
Oversaw re-arming of native regiments
Established commissions and legislation to improve India’s administration and agriculture
Wary of giving Indians too much responsibility
Alfred Milner
Served in Egypt (1899-92) then South Africa
Fought for the rights of Uitlanders
Negotiated the Peace of Vereeniging
Founded the Round Table movement
Supporters of imperialism in Britain
Supported at all levels of society
Public displays of support greeted the Boer War and helped the Conservatives win the ‘khaki election’ (1900)
Imperial societies
The Victoria League (1901)
The Round Table movement - founded by Alfred Milner (1909)
Promoted closer ties between Britain and its colonies
Empire Day
Started in 1902
Recognised by Parliament in 1916
Instituted by Lord Meath
1925 - 90,000 attend service at Wembley
Pro-imperial journalists
Leo Amery (The Times) Lord Beaverbrook (The Daily Express)
John Hobson
‘Imperialism’
1902
Believed that imperial expansion had been driven by a search for new markets for rich capitalists
eg. The Boer War
Emily Hobhouse
Welfare campaigner
Report led to a government enquiry into the conditions in the British concentration camps during the Boer War
26,000 died, 80% under 16
Helped tarnish the allure of imperialism and its supposed civilising missions
National efficiency
30,000 Boers held out against British forces for two and a half years
40% of British recruits from Britain had been tested and found unfit for military service
8000/1100 volunteers in Manchester turned away
Poor diet and living conditions had weakened Britain’s manpower
Concerns heightened by decline in British industrial production relative to the USA and Germany
Measures taken to improve national efficiency
1902 Education Act - opened 1000 schools and raised school standards
Modernisation of the Royal Navy - Dreadnought (1906)
Imperial College (1907) - centre of technological, medical and scientific excellence
Reforms led by David Lloyd George and Churchill
Daily Mail
1896
Alfred Harmsworth
Cheap, populist
Deliberately aimed at the lower-middle class market, sold at a low retail price
Sold over a million copies a day during the Boer War
Literature and theatre
Rudyard Kipling - ‘The White Man’s Burden’ (1899) - encourage US to colonisation of the Philippines
G.A Henty’s tales of military campaigns - “Redskin and Cowboy” (1892)
Gertrude Page’s romantic fiction - “The Rhodesian” (1912)
Gilbert and Sullivan - ‘Modern Major General’ from The Pirates of Penzance (1879)
Henry Coward’s Sheffield choir toured the Dominions - 1911
Representations of Empire
Advertisers used imperial connotations to sell products - Colman’s mustard featuring a sailor in front of the Union Jack, associating the brand with the Royal Navy
Architecture - Herbert Baker (South Africa) / Edwin Lutyens (Domestic)
Queen Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee / King George V’s coronation
Festival of Empire (1911)
Empire Games
Souvenir books and postcards
Robert Baden-Powell - Established the Boy Scout Movement in 1908, followed by the Girl Guides in 1912
Challenges in India
Growth in political opposition to British rule amongst the educated Indian professional classes
Emergence of nationalist newspapers (Kaal) - editors arrested in 1908 and publication banned by Consul General Elden Gorst
Young India organisation (1903) - revolutionary, carrying out assassination (Curzon-Wyllie in 1909), founded by Savarkar brothers
Causes of the Second Boer War
Milner demanded that the Transvaal grant voting rights to Uitlanders (June 1899) at the Bloemfontein Conference
October 1899 - Britain refuse Kruger’s ultimatum to withdraw from the borders of the Boer republics
Effects of the Second Boer War
Shook Britain’s confidence as an imperial power
Dragged on for 3 years
Involved 400,000 British troops
Cost £230 million
22,000 British killed to just 6000 Boer troops
Edward Elgar
Aimed to capture the ‘nobility of Empire’
‘Imperial March’ - Queen Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee (1897)
‘Coronation Ode’ - King Edward VII (1902)
‘The Crown of India’ - Delhi durbar (1911)
Challenges to Britain in Africa (countries)
British Somaliland
West Africa
Challenges to Britain in Africa (details)
British Somaliland - Somlali religious warlord Sayyid Hassan (The ‘Mad Mullah’) built up a force of 20,000 men, raided British from 1900
West Africa - Hut tax introduced by Colonel Cardew in 1898 led to resistance. British used ‘scorched earth’ policy
November 1898 - Chief Bai Bureh surrendered
Split of Surat
1907 Gokhale (moderate) vs Tilak (radical) Both members of the INCS Brawl broke out Congress splits
Consequences of the Second Boer War
Damaged British government (blamed by Milner)
1904 - Agreement to demands from the ‘Rand’ magnates to import Chinese labourers to work in the South African gold mines confirmed that the war was for profit
Boosted anti-imperialist sentiment
Forced Britain to drop policy of ‘splendid isolation’ as they weren’t strong enough to be militarily independent
National efficiency
British alliances made following the Second Boer War
Japan - 1902
France - 1904
Russia - 1907
