7.7 = HOW SUCCESSFULLY DID BRITAIN DEAL WITH THE PROBLEMS OF DECOLONISATION AND THE CHANGING NATURE OF THE COMMONWEALTH?

What problems did Britain face in 1951 in its imperial policy?

- UN charter required Britain to grant independence to its colonies to assist its recovery after WWII

- British and US officials believed that the colonies could not function as independent countries until they had developed their economies and political, administrative and judicial systems

- Cyprus and Malaya contained racial and religious communities hostile to one another - fear of Civil war if Britain left hastily

- From the 1950s - non-white races challenged white supremacy and anti-British colonial nationalism developed rapidly, especially after the 1956 Suez crisis

- Forces needed to suppress anti-colonial nationalism were costly and would generate bad headlines for Britain

Why did Britain grant independence to the majority of its colonies from

1957-64?

- Impact of WWII

- Economic weakness

- Growth of colonial nationalism

- Impact of the Cold war

What was the impact of WWII on independence for the colonies?

- The humiliating surrender of Singapore to the Japanese in 1942 = white European rule was not invincible.

- British colonial administrators tried to exploit the economic resources of the Empire - food and raw materials were in short supply in Britain = This disrupted many traditional, rural societies.

- The colonies were unable to buy manufactured goods from Britain and were often prevented from buying them from elsewhere and this encouraged the rise of nationalist movements and discontent within the colonies.

- The war saw greater unrest in the major British imperial possession, India, and after 1945 there was acceleration of British withdrawal, resulting in independence for India and Pakistan in 1947.

When was India granted independence?

1947

What was the impact of Britain's economic weaknesses on the independence of the colonies?

- it became government policy to exploit the resources of the colonies even more extensively than during the war

- end of 1948 the government set up the Colonial Development Corporation and projects such as the East African Groundnut Scheme were established.

- These schemes often further disrupted colonial communities, increased the resentment of those affected and contributed to the growth of hostility to British rule

- no longer supply the colonies with the investment capital and manufactured goods they needed.

What was the impact of the growth of colonial nationalism on the independence of the colonies?

- enabled charismatic, articulate nationalist leaders to emerge who demanded immediate independence.

- They were encouraged by the success of men such as Nasser in challenging British rule

- representatives from 25 newly independent Third World nations met at Bandung in Indonesia to create the non-aligned movement and denounce European imperialism

- 1960, British Prime Minister Harold Macmillan recognised the strength of anti-colonial nationalism and told the South African parliament that 'the wind of change is blowing through this continent ...

- By the end of 1952 there was virtual civil war in Kenya between those who had benefited from colonial rule and those who thought it should be resisted, resulting in over 14,000 individuals being killed and disturbances taking until 1956 to suppress

What was the impact of the Civil war on the independence of the colonies?

- In the late 1940s and early 1950s the Americans encouraged the British to keep their colonial empire

- USA and the USSR produced anti-colonial propaganda designed to win support in Africa and Asia

- Winning the propaganda battle became ever more important as the United Nations grew in size and increasingly became a forum for non-white nations to criticise European empires.

What is the sterling area?

independent nations that would remain within the Commonwealth and the British economic sphere

What were the benefits of the Sterling area?

Benefits of the empire without the costs, difficulties and criticism, both domestic and international, that came with efforts to suppress protest against British rule.

Why did the Commonwealth fail?

not a process the British could control, and they usually found themselves handing power over to nationalist leaders they had previously imprisoned as terrorists, = Nkrumah in Ghana or Kenyatta in Kenya

What does CAF stand for?

Central African Federation

When was the CAF created?

1953

What was the aim of CAF?

unite adjacent territories into federations

Why did the federations fail?

because they made the political divisions among their members worse

What happened in Malaya?

- Britain's Malayan territories were an invaluable source of tin and rubber and had the port of Singapore

- colony was ethnically diverse

- population was approximately 45 per cent Chinese, 40 per cent Malay and 15 per cent Indian

- 1948 Malayan Chinese communists had begun an insurrection against British rule, which lasted until 1960.

- successful because the Malay community was largely Muslim and disliked the atheist communism of the Chinese.

- Britain granted independence in August 1957 to a government headed by conservative Malays.

What happened in Ghana?

- In 1948 Britain had responded to riots in the capital city - granting universal suffrage and creating an elected parliament, hoping to hand over power to Ghana's conservative nationalists.

- had to deal with the radical nationalist leader, Kwame Nkrumah, who won the elections held in 1951.

- Nkrumah appeased the British by agreeing to keep Ghana in both the Commonwealth and the British trade bloc - known as the sterling area - and to accept a federal constitution

- Ghana's independence in March 1957 appeared to be a model of ordered withdrawal because it had been achieved with a minimum of violence.

What happened in Nigeria?

- The north was Muslim, traditional and rural, whereas the south was Christian, more commercial and westernised but was also divided between two different ethnic groups - Ibo in the east and Yoruba in the west.

- Nigeria became independent in October 1960 but its ethnic tensions caused instability and, between 1967 and 1970, the country suffered a bitter and destructive civil war.

What happened in Kenya?

- Kenya was a rich source of coffee and tea and its society was divided between an Asian community, white settlers and 3 indigenous Black national groups

- In 1952, the Kikuyu, resentful of their exclusion from the land farmed by the white settlers, began a guerrilla campaign known as the Mau Mau uprising

- For four years this was savagely suppressed by the British authorities but when Macmillan became prime minister in 1957 he realised that the demand for independence was too strong to be resisted

- 1963 Kenya became independent

What happened in Cyprus?

- In April 1955 the Greek Cypriots began a terror campaign to expel the British authorities and unite the island with Greece.

- they had tied down 25,000 British troops in a bitter and fruitless campaign in which the cycle of terrorism and arbitrary British justice merely inflamed the uprising.

- In 1960 Macmillan succeeded in persuading the two communities to accept independence under a Greek president and Turkish vice-president. However, continued strife between the two communities and a Turkish invasion of the island in 1974 led to the partition of the island.

What happened in Rhodesia?

- - In Southern Rhodesia approximately 200,000 whites monopolised power over more than 3 million blacks and in November 1965 the white minority government unilaterally declared the colony independent of Britain

- Rhodesia divided opinion in Britain more than any other colonial issue. Those on the left wanted the Rhodesian regime crushed, by force if necessary. Right-wingers regarded the Rhodesian whites (most of whom had emigrated from Britain) as 'kith and kin' and recalled that some had fought for Britain in the Second World War.

- Harold Wilson (prime minister 1964-70) ruled out the use of force and hoped that British trade sanctions would strangle the Rhodesian economy. But these had little impact

- His efforts failed because Smith would not agree to majority rule, even in the distant future. Had Smith agreed to Wilson's terms, it is possible that the Commonwealth would have broken up.

- The eventual independence of Rhodesia (which became known by its ancient African name of Zimbabwe) occurred in 1980