Impact on the Periphery and Metropole

Question 1

Social impacts - consistent disregard for life

Answer 1

• Era of Free Trade: 1866 Orissa Famine - Governor General of Bengal refused to divert grain away from exports resulting in 1 million deaths
• Inter-War Years: mishandling of the 1929 Western Wall Incident - failure to de-escalate religious conflict between the Arabs and Jews led to the death of 116 Arabs mostly caused by the British soldiers sent to intervene
• Decolonisation Period: Inhumane treatment of prisoners at Hola Camp - in 1959 11 prisoners were clubbed to death by British guards

Question 2

Social impacts - investment in living standards

Answer 2

• Free Trade: Universities were set up in Bombay, Madras, and Calcutta in 1857 while elite schools e.g. Rajkumar College were set up to produce ‘Westernised Oriental Gentlemen’
• New Imperialism: Aswan Dam opened in 1902 and enabled year round cultivation in 500,000 acres of former desert
• Decolonisation: 1962 One Million Acre Scheme settled 35,000 families

Question 3

Economic impacts - English benefit at natives’ expense

Answer 3

• Free Trade: The EIC reversed India’s trading position exporting raw materials e.g. cotton, opium instead of finished products like textiles
• New Imperialism: Khedive Isma’il accrued £70 million in debt - mostly to European bondholders
• Inter-War Years: 1934 Native Grown Coffee Rules meant Kenyans couldn’t grow coffee without a permit

Question 4

Economic impacts - benefited periphery

Answer 4

• Free Trade: Trade with India increased: the value of exports to India were only £23 million in 1855, but by 1910 they were worth £137 million
• New Imperialism: By 1918 Britian were paying the Arabs £220,00 a month in gold to fight the Ottomans
• Decolonisation: Swynnerton Plan resulted in the value of output from small-holdings rose from £5.2 million in 1955 to £14 million in 1964

Question 5

Political impacts

Answer 5

• New Imperialism: All Egyptian government ministers had the ‘support’ of British adviser - if they resisted the advice they could be dismissed
• Inter-War Years: Britain’s 1922 draft constitution for Palestine was boycotted as despite being the majority on the legislative council, Arabs weren’t given right to advise on matters concerning Zionists
• Decolonisation: 1962 Second Lancaster House Conference negotiated a framework of self-governance so by the May 1963 elections Kenyatta became prime minister under a constitution that gave Kenya self-government

Question 6

Ideological underpinnings

Answer 6

• Era of Free Trade: Orientalism - believed that the British culture was superior and imperialism was a ‘civilising’ mission
• New Imperialism: Continued to think that the natives in the periphery were inferior but had less faith that they would able to become civilised due to rebellions and rejection of the imposition of British culture across the empire - Kipling’s ‘White Man’s Burden’ (1899) ideology
• Era of Decolonisation: People liked the benefits of empire but not the people from it - Carribean migrants during the Windrush faced racism and discrimination

Question 7

Political/upper class attitudes to empire

Answer 7

• Era of Free Trade: Supported it - saw imperialism as a civilising mission and source of adventure - game hunting and sexual experimentation e.g. interracial marriages
• Inter-War Years: Continued support due to economic benefits - trade with empire minimised economic hardships as Europe and USA began to trade less with Britain as they manufactured their own goods
• Era of Decolonisation: As loss of empire became inevitable, imperial nostalgia became a large part of upper class culture e.g 1954 ‘Last Night of the Proms’ established the traditional of playing patriotic british music like Arne’s ‘Rule, Brittania!’

Question 8

Working class attitudes - pattern of indifference

Answer 8

• Era of Free Trade: Indifferent to empire due to lack of knowledge - only 60% were literate and information on empire was in books and newspapers
• New Imperialism: Beatrice Webb recorded in her diary that there was “imperialism in the air” at Queen Victoria’s 1897 Diamond Jubilee as “all classes” were drunk with “hysterical loyalty”
• Era of Decolonisation: Labour won a surprise victory in the 1945 election even though the Conservatives had led Britiain through WW2. Labour campaigned to ‘win the peace’ by focusing on domestic issues rather than empire - suggests this mattered more to the WC

Question 9

Middle class attitudes - trend of supportive

Answer 9

• Era of Free Trade: Rarely mentioned in mid-Victorian popculture e.g. Dickens and Austen barely mention it in their works which appealed to a mostly MC readership
• New Imperialism: MC were quite ambivalent towards empire - the orchestral works of Elgar which promoted imperialism were generally seen as vulgar and the British Academy often rejected art works of imperial battlescenes in favour of traditional paintings of landscapes and female nudity
• Era of Decolonisation: By 1960 there were over 500 Indian restaurants and multiple Chinese restaurants - at the time eating out was a luxury. MC women also able to wear jewellery with diamonds taken from the periphery