The Winds Of Change Flashcards
What happened in the years between 1947-67 with decolonisation?
-The years between 1947 and 1967 saw the dismantling of the British empire, as former colonies were granted- or won- their independence. This was not a process which affected the British alone; the empires of other European powers also came to an end, notably those of France in Asia and Africa and the Netherlands in South east Asia
-In this respect, British decolonisation was part of a wider international phenomenon
What were the reasons for decolonisation?
-The economic impact of ww2
-The changed international situation
-Emergence of powerful nationalist movements in the colonies
-Changing priorities in Europe
-Specific problems
How was the economic impact of ww2 a reason for decolonisation?
-All of the imperial powers emerged from the war economically much poorer than they entered it
-None could really afford to fight a series of prolonged colonial wars, fighting against insurgent nationalist movements who made imperial control unsustainable
How was the changed international situation a reason for decolonisation?
-The new dominant powers, the USA and USSR, were both hostile to old style European imperialism, though they arguably both created ‘Empires’ of their own in the years following the war
-Since Britain and other colonial powers were heavily dependent on the USA for defence and economic support, they were susceptible to American pressure to speed up decolonisation
How was the emergence of nationalist movements in the colonies a reason for decolonisation?
-Movements to secure independence from the European empires and establish free independence from the European empires and establish free independent states appeared in all parts of the world
-The strategies employed to secure these aims varied, but all posed a challenge to the imperial governments
How was changing priorities in Europe a reason for decolonisation?
-By the 1950s, Western Europe was experiencing a dramatic post war economic recovery, with full employment and rising living standards.
-This made it less dependant on colonial support
-The emergence of EEC from 1958 (which Britain joined in 1973) helped refocus trade within Europe itself
-As a result, from the 1950s, support for Empire, especially among powerful business interests, dwindled in all main European imperial powers
How were specific problems a reason for decolonisation?
-Neither Britain nor the other imperial powers immediately ‘gave up’ on their empires after the Second World War
-The decolonisation of India and Burma and the withdrawal from Palestine in the late 1940s came in response to specific problems in those regions, based on the belief that the benefits of holding onto these possessions were outweighed by the costs that their possession would incur
-Decisions to relinquish empire were often forced by specific developments rather than being the product of an immediate post war shift in thinking
What was the EEC?
European economic community; a free trade community originally comprising France, Germany, Belgium, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and Italy
What was the post war decolonisation in Africa?
-Britains post war imperial policy placed emphasis upon developing the African colonies so that they could contribute significantly to Britains post war economic recovery.
-British policy was enshrined in the creation of the colonial development corporation and the African colonies were earmarked for extensive development initiatives
-However, the Second World War had already accelerated the economic growth of most of the African colonies in response to the needs of the war effort and this, together with a measure of industrialisation in some colonies and the expansion of towns and cities, enabled new urban and middle class nationalist ideas and thrive and spread
What was the decolonisation in West Africa like in 1947?
-In 1947, Andrew Cohen, head of the Africa department in the colonial office in London, described the Gold Coast as the most advanced African colony in terms of the political ‘maturity of its people and their ‘fitness’ to rule themselves
-However, he did not envisage that independence for it’s people would be feasible for at least a generation, and he warned that elsewhere it would take much longer, despite the emerging African nationalist movements
What was the decolonisation on the Gold Coast?
-To some degree, British colonial administrators had anticipated during the war that the rise of an educated African elite would mean allowing some degree of African political representation. However, the British wanted any change to be gradual and managed in a way that did not impair British economic and political interests
-In 1946 the Burns constitution was drawn up in the Gold Coast. This established a legislative council of 12 British nominees and 18 elected African members
-This was a breakthrough. However, final power still remained in the hands of the British governor and a wave of unrest spread across the country, as protests against British colonial rule gathered momentum
What was the CPP?
-The convention peoples party was founded by Kwame Nkrumah in 1949 and pressurised the British administration to make sure her concessions; the Legislative council was enlarged and renamed the legislative assembly, and the number of people who could vote for it increased, but still the British Governor retained ultimate power
What did Kwame Nkrumah do?
-He was gaoled in 1950, and the CPP won 2 thirds of the seats in the legislative assembly in 1951 and it became clear to Burns that the CPP would have to be brought into government in order to bring resistance under control
-Nkrumah was therefore released and given the position of prime minister from 1952, with members of the CPP taking posts as government ministers
What happened to Nkrumah’s elected government?
-This elected government was given extensive control over internal affairs, and Nkrumah’s popularity and standing grew. In 1956, a plebiscite in the neighbouring British mandate of Togoland delivered an overwhelming vote in favour of unification with the Gold Coast
-The support for independence was such that in 1957 new elections were held on full adult suffrage. The country became fully independent on 6th March 1957 as Ghana, the name of an ancient African state on the edge of the Sahara desert
-But Nkrumah proved a divisive figure and in the years that followed he became increasingly authoritarian to hold onto power
What happened with decolonisation in Nigeria?
-There was a similar momentum to independence in Nigeria after the war, although the situation was much more complex. In 1946 the ‘Richards constitution’ was drawn up. As in the Gold Coast, the new arrangements allowed for greater African representation, but with the Governor-general and the executive council, which the governor appointed, retaining ultimate power
-The country was regionally and ethnically divided and the British took the view that any move towards an independent Nigeria should take the form of a federation of separate regional states
-Thus although an expanded legislative council was created to discuss issues affecting the whole country, three assemblies for each of the three major regions (West, East and South) were also established, to debate local matters and to advise the British governors in these regions
What happened due to greater pressure in Nigeria?
-Greater pressure for change from nationalist movements forced the British to amend the constitution. The Macpherson constitution of 1951 extended the right to vote and created a national council of ministers, answerable to a 185 seat federal House of Representatives
-This stimulated the growth of Nigerian political parties, which began to compete in elections to the new house
-However, the regions were also strengthened, with each region being allowed its own government as well as an elected assembly
-The federal House of Representatives could not over rule these regional governments. The effect was to exacerbate tensions between the different ethnicities rather than ease them
What happened with new political parties being established in Nigeria?
-New political parties were established representing different ethnic groups and regions and the British found themselves being pushed along the path of granting concessions more quickly than they had originally envisaged.
-Following further revisions of the constitution and federal elections in 1954, a government was formed consisting of three British officials together with nine ministers drawn from the various regional political parties in order to strike a balance at the national level between the different regions
-However, more power was increasingly devolved to the various regional governments and following federal elections in 1959 moves were made towards full independence for the country in October 1960
What similar happened with decolonisation in Sierra Leone amd Gambia?
-Similar tensions to Nigeria manifested themselves in Sierra Leone and Gambia and as the 1950s progressed the British concluded that independence was the best option
-Sierra Leone became independent in 1961 and Gambia in 1965
-In all cases, demands for reform compelled British colonial administrations to introduce reforms much faster than they had originally hoped or intended
What happened with decolonisation in East Africa?
-Progress towards independence was much more violent in parts of East Africa where rapid economic growth brought urbanisation, greater political consciousness, political activism, nationalism and labour disputes
-Settler colonial communities were also more common in these areas, had been responsible for decades of displacement and economic exploitation, and continued dominance
-During the years of war, the population of Nairobi in Kenya increased by a half, while the populations of Dar-es-Salaam and Mombasa both doubled and high inflation, poor housing and overcrowding which followed fuelled protests
-Initially the British saw this region as being ideal for economic development, with a view to generating large dollar earning exports
-Perhaps the greatest symbol of these aspirations was the ill fated Tanganyika Groundnut scheme of 1946
-The failure of this scheme provoked East African peasants into supporting the nationalist movements
What was the Tanganyika groundnut scheme?
-In 1946, Britain and many countries experienced a severe shortage of cooking fats. From this emerged the idea of growing in Tanganyika large quantities of groundnuts (peanuts) which could be processed into cooking oil and sold to the world economy
-The project involved massive investment in tractors, equipment and the construction of a railway to transport the crop
-However, the terrain proved too difficult to cultivate and the scheme was abandoned in 1951 having cost £49 million. Furthermore, the land was turned into an uncultivable dust bowl
What happened with the Mau Mau?
-Long simmering Kikuyu grievances at their treatment by white settlers exploded into violence, when white people sought to mechanise farming and further displace the peasant growers
-The move prompted many of the most desperate among the Kikuyu to resort to violence and led to the Mau Mau uprising between 1952 and 1956
-The British army ruthlessly crushed the rebellion and also fought a propaganda campaign against the insurgency, describing the Mau Mau as ‘dark’, ‘evil’, ‘foul’, ‘secretive’ and ‘degraded’
-The Kikuyu people were divided by the British, with the ‘loyalists’, the colonial appointed chiefs and their followers who supported the colonial government during the insurgency, receiving lavish privileges in return
-These tactics only increased the support for nationalist movements across the region, and Tanganyika was granted independence as Tanzania in 1961
-Uganda followed in 1962 and Kenya in 1963
What happened with decolonisation in Southern Africa?
-In Southern Africa, the white minority had enjoyed full control over South Africa’s internal affairs since 1931 following the granting of Dominion status by the Statute of Westminster
-This meant their increasingly divisive racial policies had become firmly entrenched. In 1948 the Afrikaner nationalist party won power, and implemented the policy of apartheid, segregating races in all walks of life.
-In practice, non white people were severely repressed and opposition to apartheid emerged, led primarily by the African National Congress
-Throughout the 1950s and 60s, the South African state responded with brutal suppression of all protests; 69 protestors were killed by the police at Sharpevill in March 1960
-International opinion became increasingly critical of South Africa, and relations with Britain grew strained. This was not just about apartheid. From 1948, South Africa had pressed, unsuccessfully, for Britain to hand over it’s remaining colonies in the region to South Africa.
-The British refused and in 1961 the South African white population voted to become a republic and to leave the commonwealth
What other colonies possessions did Britain build up near South Africa?
-Northern Rhodesia- a mineral rich (copper) province
-Southern Rhodesia-an agriculturally rich territory with a substantial white settler
-Nyasaland- relatively economically undeveloped territory
What happened with northern rhodesia, southern rhodesia and Nyasaland in ww2?
During the Second World War the administrators of these 3 territories had worked together to assist the war effort, and the British came to the view that a joint administration-effectively creating 1 consolidated colonial state- would provide an effective colonial counter weight to South Africa. Thus, the idea of a Central African Federation (CAF) of the 3 territories emerged.