How successfully did Britain deal with decolonisation and the Commonwealth? Flashcards
What problems did Britain face in its imperial policy?
The UN Charter required Britain to grant independence to its colonies, but Britain needed the economic resources of its colonies to assist its recovery after WW2
The non-white races of the world challenged white supremacy and anti-British colonial nationalism
The forces needed to suppress nationalism were costly and would generate material for the anti-colonial propaganda of the USSR and China
What did British officials believe and what was feared?
The colonies couldn’t function as independent countries until they had developed their economies and built up their political, administrative, and judicial systems. Premature independence would make the colonies vulnerable to communist take-over
That colonies containing hostile racial and religious communities would descend into civil war
Why did Britain wind up its empire?
Impact of WW2
Britain’s economic weakness
The growth of colonial nationalism
Impact of the Cold War
What demonstrated that European rule wasn’t invincible?
The surrender of Singapore to the Japanese in 1942 and the collapse of the French and Dutch empires in the Far East
What did colonial administrators try to do during the war and what was the impact?
Exploit the economic resources of the empire which disrupted many traditional, rural societies
Farmers in Kenya resented having to sell their crops to the government at a fixed price
What did India see?
Unrest and an acceleration of British withdrawal
What were the colonies unable to do and what did this encourage?
Buy manufactured goods from Britain and were prevented from buying them elsewhere
The rise of nationalist movements and discontent within the colonies
What did the seriousness of British post-war economic weakness lead to?
It becoming government policy to exploit the resources of the colonies even more extensively than during the war
What was set up in 1948 and what was the impact?
The Colonial Development Corporation and the East African Groundnut Scheme
Disrupted colonial communities, increased the resentment of those affected, and contributed to the growth of hostility to the British war
What did economic weakness also mean?
Britain could no longer supply the colonies with the investment capital and manufactured goods they need
What did the growth of resentment of British rule enable?
Charismatic, articulate, nationalist leaders to emerge who demanded immediate independence
Where were their leaders educated and what were they encouraged by?
Usually, the West, where they studied democratic ideals as well as communist anti-colonial theories
The success of men such as Nasser in challenging British rule
What happened in 1955?
Representatives from 25 newly independent countries with developing economies met in Indonesia to create the non-aligned movement and denounce European imperialism
What happened in 1960?
Macmillan recognised the strength of anti-colonial nationalism when touring Africa and told the South African parliament that ‘the wind of change is blowing through this continent … this growth of national consciousness is a political fact’
Where had this ‘wind of change’ already been seen?
In the Gold Coast (Ghana) where the Convention’s People Party had organised the campaign for independence
In Tanganyika, where the Tanganyika African National Union had insisted that the government of the country must be African
However what was the case in some countries?
The resistance to colonialism was violent
By the end of 1952, there was a civil war in Kenya between those who had benefited from colonial rule and those who thought it should be resisted, resulting in over 14,000 individuals being killed and disturbances taking until 1956 to suppress
What had America done in the late 1940s and early 1950s?
Encouraged Britain to keep their colonial empire, especially in Africa, because they believed that newly independent nations would be too weak to resist communist influence
What did the US and the USSR produce and why?
Anti-colonial propaganda designed to win support in Africa and Asia
Britain struggled to control anti-colonial protests in places such as Egypt and Cyprus
What became more important and why?
Winning the propaganda battle as the UN grew in size and increasingly became a forum for non-white nations to criticise European empires
What did Britain hope?
That if they initiated political reform in their colonies they could turn them into independent nations that would remain within the Commonwealth and the sterling area
What would this give?
Britain the benefits of empire without the costs, difficulties, and criticism, that came with efforts to suppress protest against British rule
However what did they find themselves doing?
Handing power over to nationalist leaders they had previously imprisoned as terrorists, such as Kwame Nkrumah in Ghana or Jomo Kenyatta in Kenya
What did the Conservatives attempt to do and why?
Unite adjacent territories into federations in a bid to make smaller and weaker colonies economically and politically stronger
What happened in 1953, 1958, and 1963?
1953: The Central African Foundation was established
1958: A similar policy was adopted for the West Indies
1963: A similar policy for Britain’s collection of small territories and protectorates in the Arabian Peninsula
What was the impact of the policy?
It wasn’t successful and all three federations were short-lived because they made the political divisions among their members worse
Why was the CAF not successful?
The black African population, especially of Rhodesia and Nyasaland, saw it as the first step in their abandonment by Britain to permanent white minority rule
By 1960 what convinced the government that the CAF had no future?
The strength of nationalist protest and unrest in Northern Rhodesia and Nyasaland
What did Malayan territories provide?
An invaluable source of tin and rubber and a port of strategic importance
What was the problem in Malay?
The colony was ethnically diverse: 45% Chinese, 40% Malay, and 15% Indian
What happened in 1948 and what was the result?
Malayan Chinese communists had begun an insurrection against British rule, which lasted until 1960
Why was the war successful?
It involved 40,000 British and Commonwealth troops
The Malay community was largely Muslim and disliked the atheist communism of the Chinese people
What happened in August 1957?
Britain granted independence to a government headed by conservative Malay leaders
What happened in 1948 in Ghana?
Britain had responded to riots in Accra by granting universal suffrage and creating an elected parliament, hoping to hand over power to Ghana’s conservative nationalists
Instead, what did they have to deal with in Ghana?
The radical nationalist leader, Kwame Nkrumah, who won the elections held in 1951
What did Nkrumah do?
Appeased Britain by agreeing to keep Ghana in both the Commonwealth and the sterling area and to accept a federal constitution, which devolved some power to the ethnically diverse central and northern regions of the country where he had little support
When was Ghana granted independence and what did it appear to be?
March 1957
A model of ordered withdrawal because it had been achieved with a minimum of violence
What made him controversial and what happened in 1966?
His socialist policies, his active support for black liberation elsewhere in Africa, and his authoritarian rule
He was overthrown by a military coup
What was marked in Nigeria and why?
Regional differences
The north was Muslim, traditional and rural, whereas the south was Christian, more commercial, and westernised, but was also divided between two different ethnic groups - Igbo in the east and Yoruba in the west
What did Britain impose and what did they do?
A federal constitution
Handed over power to a coalition representing the north and Igbo
What happened in October 1960 but what was the consequence?
Nigeria became independent
Ethnic tensions caused instability and the country suffered a bitter and destructive civil war
What was Kenya a rich source of?
Coffee and tea
What was Kenyan society?
Divided between an Asian community which dominated the commercial life of the colony, white settlers who farmed the most productive land, and three indigenous black national groups - Kikuyu, Masai, and Luo
What happened in 1952?
The Kikuyu people, resentful of their exclusion from the land farmed by the white settlers, began a guerrilla campaign known as the Mau Mau uprising
What happened before Macmillan became PM but what did he realise in 1957?
The uprising was savagely suppressed by the British authorities
That the demand for independence was too strong to be resisted
What happened in December 1963 and what was the problem?
Kenya became independent
Some of the country’s difficulties stemmed from the failure of the British colonial authorities to tackle the racial divisions and from the haste with which they withdrew
What happened in April 1955?
The Greek Cypriot people began a terror campaign to expel the British authorities and unite the island with Greece and had tied down 25,000 British troops in a bitter and fruitless campaign
What inflamed the uprising?
The cycle of terrorism and arbitrary British justice
The cycle of terrorism and arbitrary British justice
The strategic importance of the island as a military base in the eastern Mediterranean
20% of the Cypriot population was Turkish and opposed to union with Greece
What happened in 1960?
Macmillan succeeded in persuading the two communities to accept independence under a Greek president and Turkish vice president
What led to the partition of the island?
Continued strife between the two communities and a Turkish invasion of the island
What was the situation in Southern Rhodesia?
200k white people monopolised power over more than 3 million black people
What happened in November 1965?
The white minority government unilaterally declared the colony independent of Britain
Why could London not accept this?
Risked destroying the Commonwealth and facing the wrath of the United Nations, both dominated by newly independent non-white nations
Why did this divide opinion in Britain?
The left wanted the Rhodesian regime crushed, by force if necessary
Right-wingers regarded the Rhodesian white population as ‘kith and kin’ and recalled that some had fought for Britain in WW2
What did Wilson rule out and what did he hope?
The use of force
That British trade sanctions would strangle the Rhodesian economy
What were the consequences of the sanctions?
Had little impact
What risky decision did Wilson try to make and what was the outcome?
Settle with the Rhodesian leader, Ian Smith
His efforts failed because Smith would not agree to majority rule - if Smith had agreed to Wilson’s terms, it is possible that the Commonwealth would have broken up
What happened in 1980 and why?
Rhodesia was granted independence
Pressure from South Africa and the USA rather than from British policy
What did the Commonwealth become?
A diverse and multi-racial association;
The white-ruled nations retained important economic and strategic ties to Britain
India, Pakistan, and Ceylon established a precedent by joining as republics and recognising the British monarch as the head of the Commonwealth
Commonwealth troops fought alongside Britain and America during the Korean War
How did the Commonwealth survive?
Mandela decided to rejoin the Commonwealth in 1994, suggesting that it remained a viable institution
In 1995 Mozambique and Cameroon joined with no historic ties to Britain
What did the 1971 Singapore Declaration do and how was this enforced?
Condemned racial prejudice, and emphasised members’ commitment to democratic values, international peace, equal rights, and freedom of the individual
Nigeria’s membership was suspended between 1995 and 1999 for violating them
