Imperalism Challenged Flashcards
What was the economic impact of ww1 on Brtitain?
Ww1 was economically exhausting for Britain. As well as costing the lives of almost a million Britons and 200,000 soldiers from across the Empire, the war was extremely expensive, requiring the whole economy to be placed on a war footing. Huge amounts of public finances were directed towards the war effort, leaving Britain in severe debt
-Much of Britain’s capital investment overseas has been wiped out
-The pound sterling had to be removed from the gold standard for the duration, because gold reserves ran so low
What was the gold standard like after the war?
Since it’s foundation in 1694 the Bank of England had issued notes promising to pay the bearer a sum of money. For much of its history the promise could be made good by the Bank paying out gold in exchange for it’s notes. The link with gold helped to maintain the value of the notes and its suspension of this ‘gold standard’ in wartime was considered a measure of last resort
What was the impact of ww1 on Britain’s industries?
-It had severe consequences for some of Britain’s most important export industries. Production for the war was prioritised over making goods for export to traditional overseas markets, and this meant that Britain’s competitors were able to win markets traditionally dominated by British exports
-Nit all of these overseas markets were won back after ww1. Britain’s traditional industries, such as textiles, shipbuilding, coal, iron and steel, which created income to pay for running and defending the empire, experienced great difficulties between the wars as they faced new overseas competition, for example from the Japanese in textile production
What happened with Britain’s financial sector after ww1?
-The banks and financial institutions, which generated profits from lending money overseas were suffering. The result was that the economic burden of the Empire grew, as Britain’s ability to pay for it diminished
-This problem was intensified in the 1930s by the Great Depression, which saw a collapse of international trade and markets for British industrial exports. A financial crisis in 1931 forced the country off the gold standard again
-This in turn reduced earnings from overseas investments. However, the Empire offered economic compensations as well as problems
What was the economic impact of Ww1 on India?
-India contributed almost £146 million to the war effort, and the country experienced inflation and shortages during the war as a result. War, however, also brought longer term changes which were not entirely damaging.
-In 1914 two thirds of India’s imports came from Britain, but this started to fall- initially because of wartime disruption to trade, but in the longer term because of the growing strength of foreign competition. India’s own economy partly benefited from this; Indian manufacturers began to capture more of the domestic market
-After the war, desperate for revenue to help bolster their control in the face of the rising nationalist movement, the British placed high taxes on Indian imports, rising from 11% in 1917 to 25% in 1931
-The effect was to give Indian Industry protection against its competitors, and it grew accordingly
What was the economic impact of ww1 on Canada?
-Canada benefited from the war, emerging as an industrial power. As in India, British manufacturers lost ground here
-Indeed, increasingly Canada looked to its southern neighbour, the USA, for investment and markets as the inter war period progressed
What was the economic impact of ww1 on Australia and New Zealand?
Australia and New Zealand, as exporters of food, relied heavily on the British market, and consequently were hit hard by the disruption of trade caused by the war
What were the two distinct phases British policy towards imperial trade went through in the inter war period?
-In the 1920s, Britain tried to recreate the economic system which had existed before 1914. Thus Britain returned to the gold standard in 1925, in order to stabilise its international trade. One exception to this policy was the colonial development act of 1929, which provided treasury funds to support colonial development projects
-In the aftermath of the Great Depression a much greater emphasis was placed on the importance of the Empire for British commerce and imports from the Empire increased. Britain was again forced to abandon the gold standard in 1931 but trade with the Empire in sterling proved a great asset
What happened with British exports between the wars?
-Exports to the Empire included a wide variety of commodities, but historically cotton textiles had always figured prominently, especially to the markets of Asia and India. Significantly, in the inter war period, these began to fall as tough competition from Japan and other emerging industrial economies began to be encountered
-Nonetheless, at least until the 1930s, the Empire remained important for cotton textile exports, as it did for a range of other industrial products at a time of tough competition, particularly from the USA
-As world trade shrank, imperialists, such as Lord Beaverbrook, the newspaper magnate, again argued for a return of the idea of ‘imperial prefernce’, ending Britain’s historic policy of free trade
-This met with opposition from the Dominions which wished to protect their own growing industries and eventually a compromise was reached at the Ottawa conference of 1932
What was agreed at the Ottawa conference of 1932?
-The British introduced a general 10% tex on all imports but the Crown colonies were exempted
-Britain and the dominions gave each other’s exports preferential treatment in their own markets
This reinforced the important role of the Empire in supplying foodstuffs and raw materials to Britain. The following tables convey the importance of the Empire as a source of crucial imports between 1913 and 1934
Was Imperial trade uniform?
-Imperial trade was not uniform- certain parts of the Empire increased their commercial links more than others. The dominions became both an increasingly important market for British exports and a more significant supplier of imports
-However, while India largely remained an important supplier of tea and jute, and grew in importance in supplying raw cotton, it absorbed fewer British exports, as key Indian and Asian markets such as cotton textiles were won first by the Japanese and subsequently by emerging Indian cotton textile producers
What was the value of imperial trade and commerce?
-Some dominions, particularly Australia and New Zealand, experienced serious economic problems in the inter war period. The cost of their imports from Britain outstripped the income from their exports.
-Both countries ran up debts with Britain although, as the smaller country, developing more slowly than its neighbour, New Zealand suffered less than Australia
-Imperial preference became especially important for these countries when international trade turned down sharply in the 1930s
-Other British colonies in Asia and Africa also suffered as a result of the collapse of world trade in the 1930s
-Burma and Malaya were especially hard hit. Malaya relied on exports of tin and rubber; Burma on exports of rice
-African colonies too, which produced food or raw materials, saw tumbling prices in the 1930s
-Incomes fell bringing poverty and even starvation and fuelling dissatisfaction with colonial rule
What was the value of imperial trade and commerce for Empire?
-Some dominions, particularly Australia and New Zealand, experienced serious economic problems in the inter war period. The cost of their imports from Britain outstripped the income from their exports. Both countries ran up debts with Britain although, as the smaller country, developing more slowly than its neighbour, New Zealand suffered less than Australia
-Imperial prefernce became especially important for these countries when international trade turned down sharply in the 1930s
-Other British colonies in Asia and Africa also suffered as a result of the collapse of world trade in the 1930s
-Burma and Malaya were especially hard hit. Malaya relied on exports of tin and rubber; Burma on exports of rice
-African colonies too, which produced food or raw materials, saw tumbling prices in the 1930s. Incomes fell bringing poverty and even starvation and fuelling dissatisfaction with colonial rule
What was the economic impact of the Second World War?
-The Second World War hit Britain even harder than the first. The British economy, Whig had to be geared entirely to war in the years 1939 to 1945, entered the war in a far weaker condition than it had done in 1914 and major defeats in the West and East and Southeast Asia in the first 3 years of war proved cripplingly expensive
-Ww2 had a severe and dramatic impact upon British trade
How did ww2 have a severe impact on British trade?
-German U boat attacks on British sea traffic were devastating especially in the early years of the war. Overall Britain lost 11.7 million tons of shipping in the war, or about 54% of the country’s merchant fleet strength at the beginning of the war
-The loss of major colonies in Southeast Asia to the Japanese from 1942 disrupted trade and cut off supplies of vital raw materials such as rubber from Malaya
-The diversion of industrial production to producing weapons of war meant that less was produced for export. The British tried to reduce imports, by campaigns to increase home production and food rationing, but Britain’s balance of trade was heavily in deficit during the war
-A third of Britain’s overseas assets (investments in businesses) were sold to pay for the war. Britain borrowed from the USA from 1941 in the form of Lend-lease, and emerged from thr war in massive debts
-Britain increased its dependence on Empire for imports. There was considerable investment by colonial government, for example in Africa, to help increase the supply of foodstuffs and raw materials
-Colonial reserves held in Britain (the so called ‘sterling balances’) were used to help Britain pay for the war effort
How was Britain’s post war position made worse?
-Britain’s post war position was made worse when, in late August 1945, the USA ended lend-lease, largely because it was not prepared to support a revived British empire financially
-John Maynard Keynes negotiated a massive US loan (approx £900 million) in 1945, but the conditions were tough; the pound sterling had to be made freely convertible to dollars by the spring of 1947
What was the sterling crisis of spring 1947?
-Free convertibility would require the Bank of England to be able to exchange sterling for dollars, at a fixed rate. The US dollar loan was supposed to enable Britain to build sufficient reserves to do this by 1947
-However, Britain almost ran out of its dollar reserves within 6 weeks (largely because of imperial demands) and had to suspend free convertibility. It revealed how weak the British economy had become
What did Britain face after ww2?
-Britain faced a dilemma. The costs of re establishing its world power, which had been challenged by the wartime Japanese occupation in the East and emergent nationalism in countries such as India, threatened to exceed the potential economic or political benefits
-Consequently a dual approach emerged. Where the costs of controlling a colony massively outstripped its imperial control was abandoned. However, where colonies were regarded as of economic benefit to Britain, a new emphasis was placed on colonial economic development
-The rubber and tin industry of Malaya which could command major international markets, for example, received heavy government investment since it was hoped that this would earn large amounts of foreign currency (especially dollars) and benefit Britain’s international trading position
What did the colonial development and welfar act of 1940 do?
It formed the foundation for the new approach after ww2. This:
-Wrote off some colonial debts
-Provided colonial grants or loans up to £5 million per year
A further colonial development and welfare act of 1945:
-Increased the aid available to colonies to £120 million over 10 years
-Required each colony to produce a ten year development plan showing how it would use such funds
What were Gandhi’s campaigns?
-He campaigned against racism and segregation, championing the civil rights of Indians who had settled in the area and challenging both the British, and from 1910, the dominant Afrikaners (the descendants of the Boers)
-In 1915, he returned to India, where he became president of the Indian National Congress and began to immerse himself in political affairs. He travelled the country, supporting popular protests against British rule, wearing Indian dress as a symbol of his commitment to Indian culture and industry
-In 1917 to 1918 he championed the downtrodden indigo workers of the state of Bihar, and mediated in a textile industry dispute in Ahmedabad as well as a dispute over land taxes in Gujarat
-However, it was only after the 1919 Amritsar massacare that his national campaigns for full Indian independence began
What were Gandhi’s campaigns after the Amritsar massacare in 1919?
-He helped organise the non co-operation movement of 1920, the civil disobedience movement of 1930-31 and 1932-34 and the Quit India movement of 1942
-He was clear about the importance of political non violence, but vague about his goals (other than his desire to remove the British so that India could control its own future development)
-He was imprisoned by the British on several occasions, including almost 2 years during ww2
-Although his goal of independence was achieved in 1947, he strongly opposed the partition of India and offended some Hindu and Muslim nationalists who felt his attitude was too moderate and idealistic
-He was assasinated in 1948 by a militant Hindu nationalist who accused him of showing a bias for Muslims
What were Gandhi’s beliefs?
-In accordance with his strong Hindu religious convictions, Gandhi favoured peaceful resistance to British rule, based on the principles of satyagraha
-Gandhi preached harmonious relations between Hindus and Muslims, arguing that tolerance between the 2 communities should be cemented with equal rights for both religions in an independent India. Gandhi rejected divisions among Hindus based on the caste system. In particular he argued fiercely against discrimination against ‘untouchables’ (the Dalit community), and campaigned for equality for all
-Gandhi wanted an independent India which built on its spiritual and social traditions. He wanted India to remain predominantly agricultural and rural, and to reject the industrialisation and urbanisation which characterised western development
What was Gandhi’s importance?
-Gandhi’s reputation was as a moral as well as a political leader. He reconciled Western ideas about democracy with the notion of a distinctive Indian culture and national identity, based on the principles of Hinduism, religious tolerance and a vision of a traditional rural India
-This offered the benefits of Western liberalism without endangering the character of Indian society and values
-His methods made it difficult for the British to respond. The British liked to see themselves as a liberal, peaceful, democratic and fair minded people, committed to the well being of the colonial peoples they ruled
-Non violent resistance proved effective in hurting British economic interests; in response the British used violent repression to break up demonstrations and imprison nationalist leaders
-This was embarrassing for the British internationally, as it demonstrated that imperial rule ultimately rested not on peaceful and benign methods, but on the exercise of ruthless might
What was the role of colonial administrators?
-Colonial administrators faced a tough job both in the years of war and in the difficult inter war period. They were charged to collect taxes and maintain stability and order in the face of growing nationalist movements seeking, at least, more representation, or, as in the case of India, full independence from colonial rule
How did administration respond to the changed circumstances at both imperial and colonial levels?
-In 1925 the colonial office was split into 2 departments; the dominions office, with its own Secretary of State, and the colonial office itself
-This meant that three cabinet members were responsible to parliament for the good governance of the commonwealth and empire: the Secretary of State for the colonies, the Secretary of State for India and the Secretary of State for the dominions
What were beneath the 3 Secretaries of State across empire?
-Beneath the 3 Secretaries of State were the permanent officials at Whitehall, and below them, spreading across the empire, the administrative services which backed up and exercised imperial power.
-The dominions recruited and appointed their own civil services, but the British crown still continued to appoint the governor generals
-However, after the statute of Westminster of 1931 when the dominions became autonomous, the Governor General in the dominions ceased to be an imperial official and instead became merely the representative of the crown
What happened to the colonial services in 1930?
-The colonial services were unified in 1930, so that individuals were no longer appointed directly to Individual colonial governments.
-The quality of recruits generally improved, particularly in Africa, where the future of colonial government looked assured. The bulk of administrators continued to be recruited from similar, if not the same, public schools and the traditional universities
-Pay varied enormously. The Governor of Nigeria in 1922, for example could expect a salary of £8250 per annum, whereas a cadet starting work in Kenya earned approx. £200 per annum.
-The colonial office appointments handbook spoke of the qualities looked for: single mindedness and purpose
-Administrators were expected to be honest, responsible and industrious, but in practice they could also be smug and narrow minded, even if the white racial attitudes that had characterised nineteenth century administrators had been somewhat softened by the 1920s and 1930s
-Lord Lugard of Nigeria was in no doubt as to the quality of these administrators, claiming in 1922 that the public schools ‘have produced English gentlemen with an almost passionate conception of playing the game’
What did changes in imperial administration reflect?
-Changes in imperial administration reflected, in part, the developing idea that colonial administration in those areas of the empire considered less developed, principally in Africa, should be a form of ‘trusteeship’; administrators were there to protect the interests of indigenous populations, foster the colony’s economic growth and ‘nurture’ it towards greater self rule, that nonetheless remained far out of sight from the British viewpoint
-In 1927 a white paper written by the colonial secretary, Leo Amery, argued in favour of ‘trusteeship’ with colonists and promoting their interests and a Royal commission under Sir Edward Hilton Young in 1929 ruled out self government and federation in East Africa in favour of a policy of ‘trusteeship’
-In 1931 Lord passfield went a step further and argued in favour of a ‘dual mandate’ to reconcile African interests
What did colonial development schemes usually mean?
-Colonial development schemes usually meant bringing young and ambitious western educated indigenous elites into positions of authority- whether as clerks, managers civil servants or members of representative institutions
-These urbanised, westernised middle classes often formed the pool from which anti colonial nationalist leaders were drawn as independence movements gained momentum after the second world war
Who were the more prominent administrators in India between 1914 and 1947?
-Edwin Montagu
-Sir Harry Haig
-Lord Linlithgow
Who was Edwin Montagu?
-He was a Secretary of State for India from 1917 to 1922. Together with Lord Chelmsford, who served as viceroy of India from 1916 to 1921, he was responsible for reforms which led to the government of India act of 1919, which gave Indians a limited degree of political representation and control of some aspects of affairs within India itself, subject to the over riding authority of the British
Who was Sir Harry Haig?
-He was a lifelong colonial administrator in India, following his appointment as a member of the viceroy’s executive council in 1932
-Haig was, in many ways, an example of an emergent colonial administrator who was coming to terms with the idea, albeit reluctantly, of Indians as partners in empire
-He was, however, an opponent of Gandhi’s campaign for Indian independence, describing Gandhi as a ‘menace’
Who was Lord Linlithgow?
-He served as viceroy of India from 1935 to 1943. His 7 year tenure was the longest in the history of the Raj, during which he promoted the further enfranchisement of Indians in the government of India act of 1935
-He believed that further reform would weaken the more radical elements of nationalism and give rise to ‘more responsible’ Indian politicians, who would see the wisdom of working with the British towards the longer term goal of self government
-His appeal for unity on the outbreak of the Second World War brought a promise of greater rights in the governance of India for the Indian people; but this was rejected by most Indian politicians
-He was an implacable opponent of Gandhi and ordered the Indian civil disobedience campaign to be suppressed
-While he was praised in Britain, Indians blamed him for the division and lack of economic development in their country, and his reluctance to press Britain for aid during the 1943 Bengal famine, which killed up to 3 million people
Who were other influential administrators?
-Sir Donald Cameron
-William Hailey
-Sir Philip Mitchell
-Sir Charles Arden Clarke
-Sir Andrew Cohen
-Sir Ralph Furse
Who was Sir Donald Cameron?
-He was, unusually for someone who rose high in colonial service, the son of a sugar planter from British Guiana, who did not attend university, but began his career as a clerk at the inland revenue.
-His career took him from the post of assistant colonial secretary in Mauritius and southern Nigeria to chief secretary, governor of Tanganyika and governor of Nigeria
-His advancement came partly as a result of his close contacts with Lord Lugard, whom he greatly admired, and he is a good example of an administrator who believed in the ‘trusteeship’ principle
-In Nigeria, he promoted exports of ground nuts and palm oil oil and in Tanganyika, the building of harbours and railways
-He sought to advance the colonies economically and supported the entry of indigenous peoples into the civil service but he favoured a gradual path to more self rule
Who was William Hailey?
He was a typical public school/ Oxford administrator who had a long career in the civil service of the Raj
-He was a key participant in the conferences leading to the 1935 government of India act and officially retired in 1936. However, he travelled over 20,000 miles for the royal institute of international affairs to produce ‘an African survey’ in 1938 which was so comprehensive that it proved a highly influential study for future British policy, even after the Second World War
Who was Sir Philip Mitchell?
He was another typical administrator of the inter war years. After St Paul’s school and Oxford his first posting was in Nyasaland in 1912. He subsequently served in Tanganyika becoming secretary of native affairs there and chief secretary.
-From here he went to Uganda where he fulfilled the ‘trusteeship principle’ by extending Makerere college and working to create a more educated African elite
-His next posting was as governor of Fiji but in 1944 he returned to Africa as governor of Kenyan
Who was Charles Arden Clarke?
-His career was typical of that of many who rose to prominence in colonial service
-He was born to a missionary family in India, educated at the Rossall school (where colonial service was promoted) and entered colonial service in 1920
-He served as a district officer in Northern Nigeria and as resident commissioner in Lagos in 1937 and Basutoland, 1942
-He went to Sarawak in 1946, eventually moving to the Gold Coast after the war and presiding over the first British African colony to gain independence in 1957
Who was Sir Andrew Cohen?
-He was another public school/Oxbrigde administrator whose interests were in Africa, although he served in Malta during the second world war
-He had considerable sympathy for the plight of the indigenous African peoples and was one of the earliest to understand the need for decolonisation
-He cultivated contacts with African nationalists and when appointed assistant under Secretary of State for the colonial office in 1947, found himself in a position to influence steps towards greater independence
Who was Sir Ralph Furse?
-He was not an administrator himself, but he was responsible for improving the recruitment and training of administrators. He was responsible for the 1930 reform of appointments to colonial service and became the director of recruitment in a new personnel division in 1931
-His reforms helped establish a standard system of recruitment and training and have led to his being called the ‘father of the modern colonial service’
-By the time of his retirement in 1948, he had considerably improved the quality of those in colonial service
How did the government promote empire?
-Through mass communication and social organisation, the British population was bombarded by imperial imagery, much of it officially supported by the British government, who were keen to encourage trade with the Empire
-The Empire marketing board, set up in 1926 following the efforts of Leo Amery, the Secretary of State for colonies and dominions, promoted the consumption in Britain of items produced in the empire through posters and advertising campaigns
-The board became even more active in the 1930s, when, following the onset of the Great Depression, international trade declined drastically and the empire became even more important to the British economy. It’s iconic imagery was often racist and chauvinist in tone and content, positioning Britain and Britons at the top of racial and social hierarchies, and as responsible for the economic and moral ‘improvement’ of the colonies
How were exhibitions a way of government promotion of empire?
-Exhibitions were staged, such as the Wembley exhibition of 1924 to which the British government contributed half of the £2.2 million cost. A 0.3 square mile site was purchased at Wembley, North London, and on its pavilions advertising every country in the Empire and a fun fair erected
-There was also a sports stadium, which became the permanent legacy of the exhibition. The exhibition was intended to give visitors an experience of the British Empire ‘in miniature’.
-Peoples from around the Empire were also displayed in ‘ethnic villages’ designed to recreate the ‘traditional’ lives and crafts of pre colonial peoples
-Over 17 million visitors attended in 1924 and another 9 million in 1925, its final year. Another empire exhibition in Glasgow in 1938 also proved to be a great success, attracting 12 million and offering a chance to boost the Scottish economy after the depression
How did the BBC promote empire?
-The bbc, established in 1923, under its first director general, John Reith, took a strong pro imperial stance and covered as many major imperial events, exhibitions and public celebrations as possible
-In particular there were Christmas broadcasts from 1932 which included not only the kings speech, but also various items about the empire
How was the Empire promoted in education?
-The Empire also maintained an important presence in education. It formed a focal point for the teaching of geography, history and literature in schools, drawing for the last on the poetry and writing of such pro imperial writers as Rudyard Kipling
-The historical study of empire became established in universities, with special professorships in imperial history being created such as the vere harmsworth chair at Cambridge
-The universities played an especially important part in training colonial servants, as exemplified by the role of London’s university’s school of oriental and African studies, founded in 1917
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How was Empire promoted in literature and film?
-Official and institutional sources of imperial awareness were surpassed by popular culture representations of empire in literature and film. Children’s literature in particular celebrated empire and the books of G.A Henty remained popular
-The emergence of the cinema as mass entertainment was another source of imperial culture. Such feature films as Sanders of the river and the flour feathers used the empire as an exotic backdrop for adventure, signalling to the public that the Empire was a place of excitement and the playing out of stories of adventure and bravery
How was empire promoted in music?
-Some composers continued to vaunt the imperial theme. At the 1924 empire exhibition, the composer Edward Elgar conducted mass choirs in the singing of ‘Land hope and glory’ and a new eight song ‘Pageant of Empire’ and ‘Empire March’ were performed
-This, however, marked the end of his prolific career as a composer of imperial music. Elgar died in 1934. Noel Coward’s 1931 song, ‘Mad dogs and Englishmen’, may have adopted an imperial note, but it was more gently self mocking of British ideas about themselves and empire
How did commercial advertising promote empire?
-Commercial advertising from private companies had long used imperial motifs to promote products, and it continued to so in the years between 1914 and 1947
-Large traders within the Empire such as the co-operative wholesale society celebrated their global and imperial links in their advertising, especially in the CWS’s supply of such products as tea, with packets containing collectible cards illustrating places in Empire
How else was empire promoted?
-There was also informal links which people had in their everyday lives; relatives who had emigrated to Australia or elsewhere;former missionaries who spoke in church about their experiences in the empire, or relatives who had served in the army or navy, bringing them into direct contact with the empire
-These also played a part in disseminating both knowledge and fantasy of the British empire
Where were the representations of empire?
-Between 1914 and 1947, changes in the mass media increased the ways in which empire could be represented to people in Britain; through films and the BBC, for example
-There were also some changes in the messages conveyed as explicit jingoism lost its attraction after the horrors of the First World War
-The empire was presented in Britain more as a family of nations led by the British: a place of peace and co operation, but with firmly paternalistic overtones
-White British administrators continued to be portrayed as beneficiary and superior, and non European cultures as ‘primitive’ or ‘exotic’
How was ‘Empire day’ a representation of Empire?
-Empire day celebrations sought to create a sense of belonging to this family of nations, owing allegiance to the same monarch. For this reason, Empire Day was celebrated (on Queen Victoria’s bday) not just in Britain, but right across the Empire, with participants often wearing their national dress or other costumes representing the different colonies in the empire
-During the early stages of the Second World War, it was believed to be important to promote positive images of empire, given the importance of the Empire and commonwealth to the war effort
-Ministry of information films such as the 49th parallel and West Indies calling stressed the need for tolerance and understanding of other ethnicities in the empire
What was representing otherness with imperial masculinity?
-For the British, empire was largely a male enterprise. Imperialism both fed from and inspired an idealised view of British masculinity. The men who ruled the empire were expected to be brave, selfless, unemotional, rational and authoritative, and to embody the natural ‘superiority’ of the British ‘race’
-The phrase ‘keeping a stiff upper lip’, meaning the ability not to reveal any emotion in the face of danger, was first popularised in the 1870s and captured the spirit of the ideal imperial man
-These gendered expectations were disseminated in Britain through various means, for example children’s literature, cinema and advertising and especially via the system of make only public schools from which the vast majority of colonial administrators came
-As with all other aspects of colonial society, ideas of masculinity were heavily radicalised. The ideal imperial man outlined here was, above all, white, and men from the places ruled over by the empire (for example India) were often portrayed as ‘effeminate’
What was the extent of imperialist ideals?
-The fact that there was a great deal of pro imperial propaganda is not of itself proof that it had an influence over the people who consumed it. Indeed, some argue that such strenuous efforts were undertaken to promote empire precisely because so few of the mass of the population were either aware of, or interested in it
-The impact of imperialism was probably affected also by the different social groups and classes to which people belonged. Not all shared the same values and outlook, nor had the same degree of contact with the Empire
-This makes it difficult to talk about a singular British popular culture of empire, because the British population was so diverse
-Nonetheless, historians now largely agree that empire had a huge impact on British life, identity and culture in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries- with important legacies in Britain today
How was there protest and conflict with Indigenous peoples?
-The years between 1914 and 1947 saw a number of protests across the empire, marking the growing strength of nationalist movements and, to some extent, Britain’s failure to address issues that had arisen before 1914
-Some marginal concessions to representation had been granted in India before the First World War, but in Africa, very little had been done to create effective administrations or realise the economic potential of the colonial territories, least of all for the benefit of the local people
-Elsewhere, too, the ingredients for conflict were not far below the surface
What were relations like with indigenous peoples in Ireland?
-In the last days of peace in Europe, the British government was already facing the prospect of civil war in Ireland. A religious divide between the 6 predominantly Protestant counties of the north and the rest of the country, which was majority catholic, was threatening to wreck the 1912/13 home rule bill granting Irish self government
-In March 1914, British soldiers at the Curran in Kildare refused to take action to enforce home rule on the hostile north
-Conflict occurred as both sides armed themselves: the ‘ulster volunteers’ versus the ‘national volunteers’ in the south
-There were 3 deaths and many casualties in July 1914 and home rule had to be suspended for the duration of the war
What happened with relation to indigenous peoples in Ireland during the war?
-Protest escalated during the war and a southern pro independence organisation, sin Fein (‘We ourselves’), organised an unsuccessful rising in Dublin during Easter 1916, which was severely repressed. In 1919, the frustrations caused by the delays to Irish Home rule led members of Sinn Fein, who won a majority of the Irish seats at Westminster in the 1918 general election, to establish an Irish assembly in Dublin
-They declared an Irish republic and their Irish republic army (IRA) began a guerrilla war against he British, who reinforced the royal irish constabulary with the ‘black and tans- to oppose them’
When did conflict in Ireland end?
-The conflict ended in 1921 with the signing of the Anglo-Irish treaty, which created the Irish free state, as a self governing dominion within the British empire. The 6 northern counties promptly used their legal right to ‘opt out’
-However, the conflict was not over since Eamon de Valera, one of the principles Irish leaders, refused to accept the treaty- partly because the Irish free state was not a republic and partly because it involved splitting the country
-This brought a further Irish civil war, which ended in 1923 with the defeat of Valera and the republicans. Southern Ireland was subsequently treated as a dominion, gaining equality of status in the 1931 statute of Westminster
-Valera was still not satisfied, however, and his protest continued. He refused to attend the imperial conference of 1937 and drew up a new constitution which effectively turned Ireland into a republic- Eire.
-Eire adopted a position of neutrality in the Second World War and in 1948 separated itself entirely from the rest of Britain in the Republic of Ireland act
-The Irish had certainly shown that British imperialism could be successfully challenged
What happened with conflict with India after ww1?
-There was also conflict in India both during and in the aftermath of the First World War. Although the mainstream political leadership in India was overwhelmingly loyal, sending men and money, there was anti British outbursts in Bengal and Punjab
-Moreover the expatriate Indian population, particularly in the USA, Canada and Germany, headed by the Ghadar party, tried to encourage uprisings in India, with Irish republican, German and Turkish help
-A number of these failed attempts were made to provoke mutiny in the British Indian army
-These included the 1915 Ghadar conspiracy and the Singapore mutiny- a 7 day mutiny of Indian sepoys against the British in Singapore
When was there further protest in India?
-Further protest was evoked when the 1919 government of India Act failed to satisfy the nationalist demands for independence and fear of further uprisings led to the recommendations of the 1919 Rowland Acts, which allowed for political cases to be tried without juries and provided for the internment of suspects without trial
-This produced a state of extreme tension, particularly in the punjab region
When did conflict come to a head in India?
-Conflict came to a head in the 1919 Amritsar massacare in the Punjab, after rioting had brought British deaths and the near breakdown of civil order in the region. British army troops, commanded by Brigadier General Reginald Dyer, fired indiscriminately into a crowd containing a mixture of Indians, who had gathered to protest at against the arrest of 2 nationalist leaders, and Sikh pilgrims, who had gathered in the public gardens of Jallianwallah Bath adjacent to a sacred site, the golden Temple, in order to celebrate Sikh new year
What was the reaction to the Amritsar massacre?
-This bloodbath provoked a huge reaction; Indian congress politicians claimed that the way the British had dealt with the protest, by shooting into the crowds, showed that the British possessed no moral authority to rule
-The action also galvanised Gandhi’s non co operation movement of 1920-22
Where was there further conflict in India?
-Further conflict occurred in the Chauri Chaura incident of 1922, in the Gorakhpur district of the United province. Here, violence erupted among a large group of protestors participating in the non cooperation movement and the police opened fire
-The demonstrators attacked and set fire to a police station, and 3 civilians and 23 policemen were killed. The Indian National Congress called for an end to the non-cooperation movement on the national level as a direct result of this incident
What happened with conflict in India after the Chauri Chaura incident in 1922?
-Outbreaks of conflict and protest continued for a further 25 years, erupting in what was to become an increasingly political campaign for independence. Thanks to Gandhi’s belief in non violence, the conflict was probably less bloody than it might otherwise have been, but not all advocates for independence believed in non violence
-The Muslim league, which had been founded in 1906, became more militant in the 1930s, for example. Non violent campaigning, however, was relatively easily contained by the British although in the aftermath of the Second World War, the situation in India became grave
-A wave of violence swept the country as Hindus and Muslims, long polarised by Britain’s divide and rule policies, fought for ascendancy and rejected the British offer of Dominion status, as put forward by Stafford Cripps in 1942
-India finally received its independence in 1947 amidst scenes of mounting communal violence. 400,000 died during the conflict that had led to partition
What was the Quit India movement, 1942?
-The All India Congress proclaimed a mass campaign of civil disobedience in 1942 demanding ‘an orderly British withdrawl’ from India. The British responded by imprisoning almost the entire INC leadership until 1945
-Sporadic small scale violence took place around the country but the campaign failed because of the heavy handed suppression, its weak coordination and the lack of a clear cut programme of action
What was protest like in the Middle East? (Egypt and Sudan)
-In Egypt there was a countrywide revolution by Egyptians and Sudanese against the British occupation in 1919, after the British exiled the nationalist leader Saad Zaghlul and other members of his party
-There was widespread civil disobedience, rioting, demonstrations and strikes encompassing all classes of society- men, women, Muslim and Christian
-There were attacks on British military bases, civilian facilities and personnel, in which Egyptian villages were burnt and railways destroyed
-At least 800 Egyptians were killed and 1,600 wounded. Following the British ‘Milner report’. Egypt gained independence in 1922, but relations remained strained.
-Britain refused to recognise full Egyptian sovereignty over Sudan, or to withdraw all of its forces. Even after a further treaty in 1936, Britain retained troops in the Suez area
What was protest like in the Middle East? (Palestine)
-There were tensions also in Palestine and these escalated in the 1930s as more Jews, fleeting Nazism, entered the country
-Arab protests mounted and the inter racial violence increased as the Jews armed themselves and formed the Haganah
-More militant Jewish nationalists formed secret units such as the stern gang, which waged open war on both the British and Arabs
-By 1945 there was open conflict between the 2 communities which the British proved unable to control
-In 1947, the British announced their departure, leaving it to the United Nations to sort out the troubles
What is colonial identity?
-It is almost impossible to define ‘colonial identity’, since it is not something tangible that can be clearly identified or measured but it is an abstract concept; even its existence is subject to question
-The term suggests that, among peoples who has for decades or more been subject to British imperial rule, there emerged a clear sense of being ‘a colonial’
-Of course, colonisation affected the way peoples saw themselves and the world, both geographically and culturally. The British colonisers had adopted deliberate policies, often aimed at ‘civilising’ those they were colonising
-British/European ideals- religious, cultural, and social- and British economic demands were forced upon indigenous peoples to various degrees
-Some of those peoples cooperated, perhaps collaborating in the hope of benefiting from new opportunities, whilst others resisted,member really accepting a foreign culture imposed through overwhelming power
What were the developments of nationalist movements in the inter war years?
-During the inter war years, Britain faced nationalist movements right the Empire- Irish, Greek, Turkish, Arab, Egyptian, Persian, Afghan, Indian, Chinese and West African
-Education, economic development and the spread of communications had all helped foster new ideas about nation, race and religion. Ww1 had also helped to undermine the imperial idea
-The external pressures on European empires encouraged a sense of national identity and liberation from rule by internal nationalist movements, with connections between them emerging among Ireland, India and colonies in Africa
-Nationalists and anti imperialists believed the future lay with Independent nations states in Asia and Africa, just as much as in Europe
What was Indian nationalism like after ww1?
-The Indian Congress movement, which was already well established before ww1, grew in the post war years, in reaction to Britain’s failure to offer the Indians a satisfactory constitutional arrangement in 1918
-After 1918, the movement fell under the leadership of Gandhi, who guided it towards peaceful protest and civil disobedience, for example boycotting elections in the 1920s
-Increasingly prominent, however, was Jawarharlal Nehru, a fellow lawyer who became a close ally and friend, although the 2 leaders’ views on India’s future were very different; Nehru sought modernisation and industrialisation, Gandhi an agricultural, rural based society
-Nehru also diverged from Gandhi over his support for the British during the Second World War and he was only reluctantly pulled into Gandhi’s ‘Quit India’ campaign from 1942
Who was Jawaharlal Nehru?
-He was the son of a wealthy Brahmin lawyer. Educated in Britain, he returned to India in 1912 and joined the Indian National Congress in 1919, becoming a strong ally of Gandhi
-He was elected as the INC president in 1928 and imprisoned during the anti salt tax campaign
-Re elected as president in 1936, he supported Britain in 1939, although he gave reluctant support to Gandhi’s 1942 ‘Quit India’ campaign and was consequently imprisoned until 1945
-He again became president in 1946 and India’s first PM in 1947 at independence. He died in office
Where Gandhi’s views accepted by all Indians?
-Gandhi’s views were far from universally accepted by all Indian nationalists. The Dalit leader, the British educated lawyer De B.R Ambedkar, for example, criticised Gandhi’s refusal to reject the caste system completely, even though Gandhi did call for equality between the castes
-There were also divisions over strategies and tactics. Nehru’s rival for the leadership of the congress party in the 1930s, Subhas Chandra Bose, wanted the INC to adopt a more militant line
-In 1939, Bose allied himself with Britain’s enemies, Germany and Japan, and, in 1943, formed the Indian national army
Who was Subhas Chandra Bose?
-He was an Indian congress politician. He was president in 1938 and 1939 but broke with congress leadership over support for the British in 1939
-He was placed under house arrest by the British but escaped and fled to Germany. In 1943, in Japanese held Sumatra, he established the Indian national army in Japanese held Sumatra
-He intended to lead the forces to free India but he died in a Japanese plane crash in August 1945
What other group also promoted nationalism in India?
-Whilst the congress party was overwhelmingly Hindu in support, a second nationalist group, the All India Muslim league, also promoted nationalism in the inter war years
-Originally formed in 1906 and working in co operation with congress, it had been relegated to junior partner in the nationalist struggle
-However, under Muhammad Ali Jinnah’s leadership it grew more vociferous in its representation of India’s substantial Muslim minority
-Jinnah disagreed with Gandhi’s tactics and campaigned for the establishment of safeguards for the Muslims in the movement for independence
Who was Muhammad Ali Jinnah?
-He was a prominent member of the congress party and an active member of the Muslim league which he led from 1913
-Initially he favoured Hindu Muslim political co-operation, but he resigned from the congress party in 1920, disagreeing with the policy of non violent protest, and by 1940 was arguing for a separate Muslim state
-Following his efforts to create Pakistan, he was appointed as the country’s first Governor General in 1947
What was suggested in India in 1930?
-In 1930, Dr Muhammad Iqbal, a European educated Muslim poet and philosopher from the Punjab, suggested that a Muslim nation state might be fashioned from the north west India states of Punjab, the North west Frontier province, Sind and Baluchistan
-The Muslim nationalist Choudrh Rahmat Ali proposed the name ‘Pakistan’ in 1933
-However, the league was not initially United in its desire for partition and Jinnah rejected the idea of an independent Pakistan until 1940
-Thus Indian nationalism, in spite of its shared goal to oust the British, was far from a United force and sharply divided on what an independent India should look like, and how this should be achieved
What was nationalism like in West Africa?
-In west Africa, the colonies of Nigeria, Gambia, Sierra Leone and the Gold Coast had legislative councils by 1914, but their powers were limited and African representation minimal
-This prompted a group of political activists from all these territories to hold a meeting in Accra to found the national congress of west Africa in 1919
-These activists were dominated by the educated elite in the Gold coast, and the movement was supported by the swelling numbers of the black middle class lawyers, teachers and doctors, many of whom were European educated
What did Britain do about nationalism in West Africa?
-The congress’s demands for greater representation were initially ignored. However, some concessions were wrested from Britain in the 1920s, although the nationalists were outnumbered by appointed (not elected) African chiefs from the interior of the colonies on the legislative councils
-Nevertheless, with the spread of education, and as colonial administrators decided to try to win local support for the Empire by increasing new employment opportunities, a new, young and even more radical group of nationalist leaders emerged in the 1930s
What was set up in West Africa in 1925?
-The West African Students union (WASU), founded in 1925 helped bring together students from various West African countries studying in London, and, at a time of politics, flux in Europe and growing nationalism in India, inspired greater radicalism among its members
-Among them were men such as Nnamdi Azikiwe and Kwame Nkrumah from the Gold Coast, both of whom would emerge as significant post war nationalist figures
What did ww2 do for nationalism in West Africa?
-The Second World War accelerated these trends, as it brought faster economic development to the west African colonies, and in 1945, a Pan African congress was convened in Manchester, England which called for the ‘autonomy and independence’ of black Africa
What was nationalism like in East Africa?
-Harry Thuku developed the first East African political protest movements. He was initially involved in the formation of the Young Kikuyu, a non militant organisation set up to recover Kikuyu lands that had been lost when Kenya became a British crown colony in 1920
-In 1921, he went on to found the East African association, a larger and more representative organisation
-Jomo Kenyatta joined in 1922 and the movement gradually broadened into a campaign for African rights and representation
-The Second World War has a profoundly radicalising effect and Thuku helped establish the Kenya African study union, which, in 1946, became, the Kenya African Union
-In 1947 Jomo Kenyatta became its president and it played a crucial role in the post war decolonisation
What was the impact of the First World War?
-In 1914, world peace was shattered by the outbreak of war between the 2 alliance systems: Britain, France, Russia and (from 1915) Italy, against Germany, Austria-Hungary and Turkey. Britain declared war on behalf of the whole empire but most British leaders believed that the ear would be short and would end with rapid victory or a negotiated settlement
-They anticipated that the fighting would be done by the British themselves, with limited help from the Empire
-In practice, the colonies sent approx. 2.5 million men to fight for the Empire between 1914 and 1918, supporting the 5 million men from the British isles.
-Britain not only called upon Indian and African troops, commanded by British generals, but was also supported by troops from the dominions which were allowed to control their own armed forces
-The empire also supplied Britain with vital raw materials and food, which played a major part in ultimate British victory in 1918
What did victory in ww1 with the help of Empire bring?
-This brought a move towards joint decision making, to meet pressure from colonial leaders who wanted some say in the direction Britain was taking their troops.
-The presidents of the dominions and nominated representatives from the Indian colonial administration joined the war cabinet in London in 1917
-This ‘imperial war cabinet’ seemed to symbolise the union of the British empire in war; but it held only 2 sessions, mostly represented white and elite opinion, and the British still dominated proceedings
What was imperial preference?
In 1916, Asquith was replaced as PM by David Lloyd George as the head of a wartime coalition government. Under Lloyd George a far greater effort was put into the use of resources of manpower and materials from the empire. ‘Imperial preference’ was introduced for suppliers and schemes for future imperial self sufficiency discussed
What was the colonial involvement in ww2 and it’s impact in Southeast Asia?
-In early 1942, Japan seized the major European imperial possessions in Southeast Asia. Most devastating for Britain was the loss of Singapore in February 1942. This was Britains main military naval base in the region and its loss brought the largest surrender of British troops in history
-The Japanese seized Hong Kong, overran Malaya and Burma, and by the summer of 1942 seemed poised to attack India itself
-An attempted Japanese invasion of India in 1944, was, however, narrowly averted and thereafter British and allied forces were able to roll back the Japanese conquests in the region
What did the success of Japan towards the end of ww2 do for Southeast Asia?
The success of the Japanese ended the myth of ‘white invincibility’ and gave new confidence to independence movements across south east Asia
-30,000 Indian troops that had been captured by the Japanese in Singapore joined the Indian national army (INA) which aimed to rid India and Asia of the British. The INA, led from 1943 by Subhas Chandra Bose, fought against the British in Burma and elsewhere
-In Burma, the independence leader Aung Sun, under the guidance of the Japanese, formed the Burma independence army. This also fought against the British
What was the colonial involvement in North Africa in ww2 and what was the impact?
-North Africa became an important battleground between Britain and its enemies, the Italians and Germans. Britain was desperate to preserve its influence in Egypt and access to suez and oil in the Middle East but the Germans came close to dislodging the British and were only driven back at the battle of El Alamein in November 1942
-Both the Egyptians and Palestinians recognised this opportunity to fight for independence from British control
What happened with British withdrawal from India and the Middle East after ww2?
Although Britain emerged from war victorious, in 1945, circumstances had changed
-Britain’s economic position had been severely weakened
-The first majority labour government was elected to power in 1945 under clement Attlee. Traditionally labour politicians had always been more sceptical than the conservatives about Empire, particularly questioning the morality of conquering other countries
-Independence movements had grown stronger, particularly in India and the Middle East
What was the post war labour government 1945-51?
In the post war elections of July 1945 the Labour Party under clement Attlee won a landslide victory with a majority of 145. The result was a shock to the conservatives under Winston Churchill; particularly questioning the morality of conquering other countries
-Independence movements had grown stronger, particularly in India and the Middle East
What happened with Indian nationalism in the inter war years?
-Indian nationalism had become increasingly vociferous and popular in the 1920s and 1930s. Nationalist demands for self government after the sacrifices of the First World War had resulted in the government of India act, 1919, which allowed a limited system of self government for India, based on the sharing of powers between Indian ministers and the British viceroy
-This arrangement had been intended to satisfy the demands for greater Indian representation among the more ‘moderate’ nationalists, by presenting the reforms as a step towards full dominion status for India
Why were Britain concerned about India in the inter war years and what did they do about it?
-The British were deeply concerned that these reforms (GOI Act 1919) might strengthen nationalist aspirations for faster change. As a result, they adopted what was effectively a ‘twin track’ strategy:
-A combination of reforms and a determination to make them work, combined with a clear signal that any resort by the nationalists to create mass resistance would be dealt with ruthlessly
-This second, tougher strand was enshrined in the passage of the Rowlatt act of 1919, which gave the authorities harsh powers to arrest and imprison anyone who protested against British rules
-These 2 measures formed a ‘carrot and stick’ approach to containing demands for Indian equity with the dominions
What was the effect of the Rowlatt act?
-In the short term, the Rowlatt act proved to be counterproductive, producing much resistance and tragic results, including the Amritsar massacre of April 1919
-Nationalism grew but negotiations on moves towards Dominion status for India, at the round table conferences in London in the early 1930s, failed
-Despite attempts at appeasement by the British, including increasing the numbers of Indians eligible to vote and strengthening the elected provincial assemblies in the government of India act, 1935, the weight of nationalist opinion still favoured complete Indian independence
What did the British do in India in the 1930s?
-During the 1930s, the British increasingly turned to their former policy of ‘divide and rule’, exploiting the growing divisions within the nationalist movement:
-The all India Muslim league, led by Muhammad Ali Jinnah, argued for Muslim rights, and ultimately a separate, independent Muslim state: Pakistan
-The Hindu congress movement, led by Mahatma Gandhi desired a United Indian state
-Although Gandhi preached Hindu Muslim unity, the Muslims viewed Hindu leaders with suspicion. The British favoured the Muslim league, arguing that there was a case for Muslim ‘homeland’ within a federal India
-They suggested that the divisions between Hindus and Muslims proved the necessity of continued British rule, since the alternative was likely to be a bloody Hindu Muslim civil war
What happened with India and the Second World War between 1939 and 1942?
-The nationalists suspended their protests in 1939 and supported the British war effort
-However, British defeats in Southeast Asia in 1942 emboldened the Hindu congress, which demanded immediate reforms
-British anxieties were multiplied by the emergence of the Indian national army (INA). The British adopted a policy of repression, imprisoning congress leaders and blatantly leaning in favour of the Muslim league
What happened with India and the Second World War after 1942?
-In March 1942 the British PM, winston Churchill, who had long been hostile to Indian nationalism and aware of the vulnerability of the British empire in Asia, sent sir Stafford cripps, a labour member of the wartime coalition government, to promise the Indians full dominion status
-However, this was not enough. In august 1942, Gandhi and the other congress leaders launched a ‘Quit India’ campaign, calling for the British to leave India entirely. Gandhi and others were arrested and spent the rest of the war in prison
Why did Britain withdraw from India after ww2?
The labour govt. of 1945 concluded that it was no longer feasible or desirable to keep fighting for India and decided to accept Indian independence as soon as possible. This was for a number of reasons:
-They feared that if they tried to keep India, there would be widespread violent resistance, which would stretch military resources to the limit
-The activities of the INA and the strength of pro independence feeling meant that the Indian national army might not be reliable and large numbers of British troops might have to be deployed: a move that would be expensive
-India was no longer the great market for British cotton exports it had once been, so the cost of holding onto it would massively outstrip any economic benefits, especially given the costs of maintaining order against internal resistance
What happened in India after British withdrawal after ww2?
-In 1947 the government sent a new viceroy, Lord Louis Mountbatten, with instructions to bring about Indian independence as soon as possible, and no later than June 1948
-In April-may 1947 it was decided that India would be partitioned: independence for Pakistan as well as India would be granted by 15th August 1947
-This deadline was met, but at the cost of extreme violence between Muslims and Hindus as millions of people of both faiths fled their homeland for the security of the country in which their own co religionists would dominate
-At least a million people died in the violence, leaving a legacy of bitterness between Pakistan and India
-Thus British attempts to keep India in the Empire by a mixture of limited concessions of democracy and repression, had failed, and even the grant of independence proved a violent fiasco
What happened in Burma after ww2?
-The years up to 1947 also saw the first steps towards decolonisation in Burma, a region occupied by the Japanese during the Second World War. The forces of the Anti Facist organisation (AFO) had initially supported the Japanese against the British during the war
-Nevertheless, they had belatedly come to accept, in 1944, that a British/allied victory would be more likely to win Burmese independence, and switched sides
-However, the restoration of the British Governor, Sir Reginald Dorman smith, who believed that the physical reconstruction of Burma should precede any political change, turned the AFO into a resistance force, under the new name, the Anti Facist peoples freedom league (AFPFL)
What happened in Burma I’m the years 1945 and 1946?
-Lord Mountbatten, allied commander in Southeast Asia, recognised the strength of support for Aung San. In September 1945, he agreed that the Burma national army would be incorporated into a new army for the country, thereby effectively recognising Aung San as a legitimate leader in the post war politics of Burma
-In September 1946, mounting civil disobedience and the increasing ungovernability of the country prompted the replacement of sir Reginald Dorman-Smith with the more liberal I
Sir Hubert Rance, who not only admitted Aung San onto the ruling executive council, but virtually placed him in charge of it
-By December 1946 Clement Attlee, the British Pm, confirmed that his government was not able, nor willing, to commit sufficient troops to impose British authority
-Burma would finally become independent in 1948
What happened in the Middle East after ww2?
-The war left the British under acute pressure in Palestine. Since the 1930s Nazi repression of European Jews, culminating in the Holocaust, had led to massive increases in the numbers of Jewish people wanting to migrate to Palestine
-By the end of the Second World War in 1945, there was a vast number of stateless Jewish refugees
-Arab Jewish relations were deteriorating so rapidly that the British were keen to limit the scale of Jewish immigration into Palestine, in an effort to dampen down the conflict
What were the 2 major problems for Britain in the Middle East after ww2?
-President Truman and the weight of American and international opinion favoured Jewish settlement in Palestine, because of the way the Jews had been treated by the Nazis. However, while Britain needed American economic aid and international support, it also wanted to retain allies (among Arab leaders) in the Middle East because of its need for oil from the region
-There were outbreaks of Jewish terrorism inside Palestine against British troops. The British faced the prospect of having to police a country in violent turmoil at a time when their resources were stretched to the limit
What were the 3 possible solutions for the British in the ME after ww2?
-A unitary state- as favoured by Arab leaders who, as the majority, wanted to be able to dominate; this was unacceptable to the Jewish leadership
-Provincial autonomy in which Palestine would be divided into smaller provincial areas, each with a measure of self control, but ultimately led by a nationally elected government. The Jewish leaders rejected this also, as it would still lead to Arab rule
-The partition of Palestine into separate Jewish and Arab states; this was the only solution the Jewish leaders would support, but it was not acceptable to Arab leaders
What did the British do in 1947 in regards to the ME?
-Faced with deadlock, in February 1947 the British government referred the question to the United nation’s. The UN favoured partition, largely because of pressure from the USA
-So as not to alienate the Arab world, the British decided, in September 1947, that they would withdraw from Palestine by May 1948, and hand over control to a UN commission
What happened under the government of India act, 1919?
Under this act
-The Viceroy retained control of major areas, such as defence and foreign affairs, and his council remained a purely appointed body, but it was required to defend its actions before the legislative council
-The legislative council was split into
-A lower house (the legislative assembly), of which 104 of its 144 members were to be elected
-An upper house (the council of state), of which 34 of its 60 members were to be elected
-Provincial councils run by elected Indian ministers took responsibility for local government, health, education and agriculture
What did the British regard the Govt. Of India act 1919 as?
-The British regarded the reforms as a concession to critics of British rule in the Indian congress and hoped that the reforms- which the British viewed as a first step towards a system of dominion self government- would weaken popular support for them
What was the Simon commission, 1929-30?
-The Simon Commission did not include Indian representation. Led by Sir John Simon, it reviewed the India act and recommended that:
-A federal system of government be created across India, incorporating both provinces under direct British rule and the princely states
-The provinces be given more power
-Defence, internal security and foreign affairs should remain in the hands of a British viceroy, ensuring overall British control
What were the round table conferences, 1930 and 1931?
-Opposition from the independence movement in India led to 2 special ‘Round table conferences’ in London in 1930 and 1931. Gandhi, the independence leader, was unable, to attend the first as he had been imprisoned following the salt March, but he represented the congress party at the second
-However, no agreement was reached. The British rejected self governing dominion status for India due to their prejudice about the competence of non white leaders and peoples as well as concern for India’s strategic and economic importance to Britain
What did the government of India act, 1935 do?
This act created a federation of India by:
-Making the provinces completely self governing (although provincial governors were still to be appointed by the British, and the viceroy could suspend self government in emergencies)
-Expanding the franchise from 7 million to 35 million people
What was the reaction to the government of India act, 1935?
-The act was opposed by the congress party because it fell short of the independence enjoyed by the dominions and because of a desire to be completely free of British rule
-The princely states also rejected a federal India, as they wanted to maintain their independence from the rest of India
-In 1939, members of Congress controlled ministries in the provinces resigned from office, in opposition to Indian participation in the war. The British therefore imposed direct rule, and dealt with independence protests against the war with severe repression- especially the arrest of independence leaders
What had happened in India by 1947?
By 1947, it was clear that while British colonial policy had failed the independence movements had succeeded, and India had become 2 independent states, India and Pakistan
What 2 categories did Britain’s African colonies fall into?
-Colonies which were ruled ‘indirectly’ by the British through existing local rulers. This included most colonies in West Africa, as well as Tanganyika, Uganda, Nyasaland and Northern Rhodesia. From 1919 the strategy of indirect rule was extended to the League of Nations mandates, notably British Togoland, British Cameroon, Tanganyika and South West Africa
-Colonies where substantial numbers of Europeans had settled, and where the British ruled directly through their own officials, with some political representation for the white settler population only. These included southern Rhodesia and Kenya. The union of South Africa was the most established example of a settler colony and had enjoyed Dominion status since 1910
What were African colonies under ‘indirect British rule’?
-British colonial policy stressed the promotion of the colonies’ economic and social development, in order to increase their economic value to the empire, improving the living standards of the local populations, and consolidate the empire in the face of post war independence movements. There were several notable initiatives in East and West Africa:
-In the Sudan, in 1920, the British government allotted £3 million for the Gezira cotton scheme to increase cotton production. It compromised a major dam building and irrigation project
-In East Africa, in 1925, the British government allocated £10 million for improving rail and dock failicities
-In West Africa, there was investment in schools and educational facilities
-Numerous agricultural research stations were set up in colonies across the continent
What were the effects of the initiatives in colonies under ‘indirect’ British rule?
-The initiatives were much more limited than it might appear. All of the African colonies were expected to be self financing, which meant that major projects had to be mainly funded by taxes collected locally from African people, themselves thereby forced into wage economics as colonial workers
-The colonial developments act of 1929 earmarked £1 million of British treasury funds for development projects across the empire, including many African colonies. However, like many other parts of the British empire, African colonies also suffered from the global impact of the Great Depression of the 1930s
-Economic problems, combined with the limited imperial development policy, was expressed in a wave of strikes by African workers, such as the copper mines of Northern Rhodesia
What were the settler colonies?
-While settlers in Kenya put pressure on the British government to give Kenya a degree of self government in 1920. Power was given to the 20-30,000 strong white settler community, who dominated the legislative council and used their influence to exclude from the fertile northern highlands both Indian settlers and the Kikuyu peoples, for whom this was a traditional homeland
-The white settler farmers in the region became wealthy through growing tea and coffee, and squeezed the Kikuyu out by taxing them heavily and banning them from growing these commercial products
-Many were forced to migrate into the wage economics of the major cities such as Nairobi and Mombasa
What was the administration of the British mandate in Palestine?
-The task of the British colonial administration was to ensure that Palestine’s strategic importance as a buffer against potential threats to the Suez Canal was maintained with a British military presence, and that the internal stability of the country was maintained
-This was no easy task given the financial strains imposed on the British and colonial governments by ww1 and its aftermath
-A civil government under a British appointed high commissioner, Herbert Samuel, was set up in 1920 but reconciling growing Jewish community with the established Palestinian Arab population, many of whom resented and feared the newcomers, was not easy
-A complicating factor was disagreement between the government in London, which tended to be more pro Jewish, and the British authorities in Palestine, who were more sympathetic to the Arab population
What did Herbert Samuel try and do with Palestine?
-Samuel tried to bring both Arabs and Jews into elected representative bodies with influence over government policy, but his efforts were plagued by eruptions of ethnic tension which prevented co operation
-As well as religious division, there were problems over landholding. Most Palestinian Arabs were poor farmers, renting land from absentee landowners. When wealthier Jewish settlers began to buy up land, often with the help of the Jewish national fund, growing numbers of Palestinian Arabs were evicted from their farms
-An enquiry in 1929 called for the Jewish policy of land acquisition to be curbed and another, in 1931, recommended restrictions on Jewish land acquisition
-However, pro Jewish feeling in Britain and the USA forced the government to back down
What happened from 1933 with Nazi persecution in Germany creating further challenges for the British administrators?
-1936- The British sent 20,000 troops to Palestine to deal with Arab insurgency and the attacks on Jews
-1937- The peel report recommended that Palestine should be partitioned into separate Arab and Jewish areas, with the British retaining authority over Jerusalem and a small number of Holy places. These proposals were opposed by the Arab population
-1937-39- The British adopted a policy of repression to deal with escalating violence: 25,000 British troops were sent to the region, over 9000 Arabs were arrested and 100 were hanged
-1939- With war imminent and fears of an Italian attack on Egypt, Britain changed its policy. It called instead for a Palestinian state in which Jews currently living in the country would enjoy the right to a ‘national homeland’
-1939- Jewish immigration was restricted to 15,000 per year for 5 years. (The plan was for Palestine to be declared an independent state in 10 years, so that restrictions on Jewish immigration would ensure that Arabs were in the majority)
What happened with the administration of the British mandate in Iraq (Mesopotamia)
-In Mesopotamia, the same issues of curbing the costs of administration by managing internal conflicts between ethnic groups shaped colonial policy
-In 1920, the British intervened militarily (largely through air power) when widespread Muslim demonstrations against British rule in Baghdad turned into a full scale revolt
-The Kurds, in the North of Iraq, who wanted independence from Iraq, also rebelled
What happened at the Cairo conference?
-At the Cairo conference of 1921, the British, meeting with a limited Arab representation, decided to allow for some local self government, whilst retaining full British control of military and foreign affairs
-The Anglo Iraqi treaty of 1922 confirmed Faisal I, as King
-Senior British advisers were nevertheless appointed to most government departments to ensure continuing British control over Iraqi affairs, while Britain controlled major military bases and had much influence over the Iraqi army, which it trained
What was agreed in the Anglo Iraqi treaty in 1930?
-A further Anglo-Iraqi treaty in 1930 promised full consultation between the 2 powers on matters of foreign policy. From these treaties it was only a small step towards the granting of full independence to Iraq in 1932
-However, the British still retained their influence in the area, not least their control of the oil industry
What emerged out of British concerns about the strength of feeling in the dominions?
-Out of these concerns emerged the commonwealth. By joining a British ‘commonwealth of nations’, the dominions and other colonies could gradually become fully independent nations, but still retain a ‘special relationship with Britian’
-The concept was based on the free association of equal nations, involving economic and political co operation through a range of international institutions and loyalty to the British monarch
-The idea was given substance in the Balfour declaration of 1926. The result of a meeting of the British and dominion PM’s at a special imperial conference
What did the Statute of Westminster 1931 recognise?
-Certain of the dominions should become independent nations
-Laws passed in Britain could not be enforced in those countries without the permission of their own parliaments
-The dominion countries were free to pass their own laws without interference from, or the approval of, Britain
What were the 3 key problems relating to imperial defence?
-Britain was in severe economic difficulties during the inter war years. Key industries lost out in international markets, and Britain was badly hit by the Great Depression of the 1930s. As a result the costs of defending the Empire became a much greater burden
-In the 1930s, new aggressive regimes emerged in Europe and Asia, posing a direct threat to the Empire, and potentially to Britain itself. Imperial Japan was seen as a danger in Asia; Facist Italy in Africa, where its attempted conquest of Abyssinia in 1935 posed a threat to British interests in Egypt and Nazi Germany in Europe
-The rise of nationalists independence movements, especially in India, made the need for military resources in case of trouble more urgent
What view did Britain have to take with imperial defence?
-The British had to take a geopolitical view. They had to prioritise, balancing the costs and military demands of defending an extensive global empire against needs in Europe and at home
-In the 1920s and early 1930s there was a mistaken faith that the League of Nations could provide the security in international affairs that the British needed; but by the mid 1930s it was clear that this was not so
What policy did British governments therefore adopt with imperial defence?
-British governments therefore adopted a policy of appeasement in some parts of the world, in order to allow the deployment of resources to other areas.
-This meant seeking to diffuse tensions with Nazi Germany and Facist Italy by allowing them to get much of what they wanted in terms of territorial demands in Europe, thereby allowing British forces to be strengthened against a possible attack on the Empire in Asia from Japan.
-Thus Britain modernised the Indian army, and continued with a longstanding project to build up Singapore as a formidable naval base
-Britain spent £25 million on this in the inter war years, believing it would deter the Japanese from aggression against the British empire
What happened in the end with the policy of appeasement?
-Neville Chamberlin badly underestimated the scale of ambition in Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy. As a result, Britain eventually went to war against Germany when it invaded Poland in September 1939
-Once this happened British policy in Asia also unravelled.
-The Japanese attacked Singapore in February 1942, when Britain was at war in Europe and too overstretched to reinforce Singapore adequately
-Britain’s imperial defence policy thus proved to be a failure
