decolonization: the process of ending colonial rule and the establishment of new governments; the independence of nations after ww2 that were once ruled by European powers

• there was increasing European economic influence in south Asia

• at first, the Mughal Dynasty limited European influence

• by the 1800s, however, the Mughal Empire was weakening

  • dozens of small states, each headed by a ruler or maharajah, broke away from Mughal control

• as a result, the British East India Company gained greater influence in many parts of India

1857 - 1858: British Expand Control Over South Asia

• the British East India company ruled India with little interference from the British gov

• the company had its own army, led by British officers and staffed by sepoys

  • sepoys: indian soldiers

• in 1857, information spread among the sepoys that the cartridges of their new British rifles were greased with beef and pork fat

• both hindus, who consider the cow sacred, and muslims, who do not eat pork, were outraged by the news

• sepoy rebellion: some sepoys refused to accept the cartridges and were jailed by the British

  • as a result, the sepoys captured the city of Delhi

• the sepoy rebellion was a turning point in indian history

  • as a result of the rebellion, in 1858, the British government took direct command of india as a colony

  • the british also increased their “divide and rule” policy to emphasize differences between groups in order to keep control

1850 - 1911: Britain’s Relations with India

• the industrial revolution had turned Britain into the world’s workshop

  • india was a major supplier of raw materials for that workshop

  • the British considered India the brightest “jewel in the crown” as the most valuable of all of Britain’s colonies

• the British set up restrictions that prevented the Indian economy from operating on its own

  • british policies called for india to produce raw materials for British manufacturing and to buy British goods

  • indian competition with british goods were prohibited

    • for example, india had previously produced popular handloom textiles, but this industry was put out of business by imported British textiles

• india became valuable to british after they established a railroad network there

  • railroads transported raw products from the interior to the ports and manufactured goods back again

  • most of the raw materials were agricultural products produced on plantations

    • plantation crops included tea, indigo, coffee, cotton, and opium

  • the british shipped opium to China and exchanged it for tea, which they then sold in England

• cotton production in india increased when the civil war in the US cut off supplies of cotton for british textile mills

• the emphasis on cash crops, production of crops to be sold, instead of used by the people farming, resulted in a loss of self-sufficiency for many villagers

  • it also caused famine and reduced food production

• britain had the world’s third longest railroad network

  • it allowed for further british control over the economy and brought unity to the connected regions

  • there was also modern road networks, telephone, telegraph lines, dams, bridges, and irrigation canals that modernized india

• in 1885, the indian national congress and 1906 the muslim league

  • these nationalists called for self-government and were inflamed by the partition of Bengal

  • the partition of Bengal: the british divided it into a hindu section and a muslim section

• in 1911, the british took back the order and divided the province in a different way

1906 - 1942: The Indian Subcontinent Achieves Freedom

• after the world struggle against dictatorship, many leaders argued that no country should control another nation

• meanwhile, the people of colonized nations continued to press even harder for their freedom

• indian resistance to britain, intensified in 1939, when britain attacked indian forced without first consulting the colony’s elected representatives

• the indian leader, Mohandas Ghandi, made a nonviolent campaign of noncooperation with the british

• in 1942, the british tried to gain the support of the nationalists by promising governmental changes, however this did not include indian independence

• india had two main religions: hindu and muslim

  • the third religion was called sikh

• the indian national congress, Congress Party, was india’s national political party

  • most members of this party were hindu, but still had many muslim members

• in competition was the Muslim League, and organization founded in 1906 in india to protect muslim interests

  • leader of this party was Muhammad Ali Jinnah

  • he insisted that all muslims resign from the independence if it meant rule by the hindu-dominated congress party

• after ww2, britain faced war debts and couldn’t afford the expense of maintaining and governing distant colonies like india

1910 - 1986: South Africa under Apartheid

• racial conflict was the result of colonial rule

  • a small white majority ruled a large black majority

• in 1910, South Africa gained self-rule as a dominion of the british empire

• in 1912, black south Africans formed the African National Congress (ANC) to fight for their rights, they organized boycotts and strikes

  • one of these leaders was Nelson Mandela

• in 1931, it became an independent member of the british commonwealth

  • the constitution gave whites power and denied the black majority its rights

• in 1948, the National Party came to power in South Africa

  • this party promoted Afrikaner, or Dutch South African, nationalism

  • it also instituted a policy of apartheid, complete separation of the races and banned social contacts between whites and blacks

  • established segregated schools, hospitals, and neighborhoods

• in 1959, the minority government set up reserves, called homelands

  • blacks were forbidden to live in white areas

  • although blacks made up about 75% of the population, the government set aside only 13% of the land for them

• in 1976, riots over school policies broke out in the black town of Soweto

• in 1977, police beat popular protest leader, Stephen Biko, to death while he was in custody

• in 1986, the government declared a nationwide state of emergency

1914 - 1919: World War I’s Impact on India and Britain

• britain brought india into the fight

• large number of indian troops served overseas

  • in exchange, the british government declared that it would gradually increase indian participation in the british raj

  • british raj - british rule over the indian subcontinent

• the british government of india enacted a series of repressive emergency powers and they passed the Rowlatt Acts in early 1919

  • this extended the repressive wartime measures

  • it stated that political cases could be tried without juries and that people suspected of acting against the government could be jailed without a trial

1915: Gandhi Returned to India

• after Gandhi’s time in South Africa, he returned to india in 1915

• gandhi’s first major protests targeted british landlords who forced indian farmers to grow a cash crop called indigo and to sell it at a low price instead of more in-demand crops that they wanted to grow and could make more money with

• he also led protests against the british taxation of a region suffering from the effects of floods and famine

1918 - 1962: Rwanda Timeline

• 1918: the Treaty of Versailles, Rwanda-Urundi is made a League of Nations to be governed by Belgium

  • the 2 territories are ruled by two different Tutsi monarchs

  • the minority Tutsi are favored over the Hutu majority

  • the Belgians used the Tutsi minority to enforce their rule

• 1926: Belgians introduce a system of ethnic identity cards differentiating Hutus from Tutsis

  • the Belgians believed that the Tutsis in Rwanda were racially superior to the Hutus because they had more European features

  • the Belgians only allowed Tutsis to be educated and participate in the government

• 1957: PARMEHUTU (party for the emancipation of the Hutus) is formed while Rwanda is still under Belgian rule

• 1959: Hutus rebel against the Belgian colonial power and the Tutsi elite

• 1961-1962: Belgians withdraw and Rwanda and Burundi become two separate and independent nations

  • a hutu revolution in Rwanda instills a new president, Gregoire Kayibanda

1919: Amritsar Massacre

• also called Jallianwala Bagh Massacre, happened in Amritsar, India in April of 1919

• in Amritsar, news that prominent Indian leaders had been arrested sparked violent protests

• a force of several dozen troops was given the task of restoring order; among the measures taken was a ban on public gatherings

• a crowd of at least 10,000 men, women, and children gathered in an open space known as the Jallianwala Bagh, which was nearly completely enclosed by walls and had only one exit

• many had come to the city from the surrounding region to celebrate Baisakhi, a spring festival

• without warning, British troops opened fire on the crowd, reportedly shooting hundreds of rounds

1921: Gandhi is Given Leadership in the Indian National Congress

• Gandhi was given leadership of the Indian National Congress

• he reorganized the group with the goal of Swaraj (self-rule) through the use of nonviolent forms of protest

• Gandhi argued that India needed to be self-sufficient and so they would not have to not rely on the British

  • one way of doing this, he claimed, was for Indians to make their own clothes.

  • the push for Indians to give up buying British textiles and to make their own clothes was called the Homespun Movement

1930: The Salt March

• salt was being heavily taxed by british rulers and indians were jailed just by making or selling salt

• in march, gandhi set out on a 240-mile trek to the sea to gather salt

  • for 23 days, they marched and eventually reached over two miles

• soon, people all over india were making their own salt

  • the authorities responded by imprisoning over 60k indians for this illegal activity, including gandhi

1930 - 1960: Nigeria

• after the 1930s, political activities in Nigeria focused on ways to end british rule

• European intrusion promoted misogynistic ideologies and deprived women of their political and religious power that they held

• the “Women’s War” was when thousands of Igbo women organized a revolt against the policies imposed by british gov in southeastern Nigeria

• Nigeria got independence in 1960

• in the North are Hausa-Fulani, who are mostly muslim

• in the south are the Yoruba and the Igbo, who are mostly Christians, Muslims, or animists

  • the Igbo, a farming people, live to the east

  • the Yoruba, farming people with a tradition of kings, live to the west

• the Nigerians set up 3 states, one for each region and ethnic group, with a political party in each

1935 - 1937: Government Act and Elections

• The Government of India Act of 1935 was a new plan for ruling india that involved more indian participation in the government and free elections to select representatives from each province

• in 1937, the first elections took place

  • the indian national congress candidates won a majority of the provinces, while the muslim league did poorly in the elections

1940: Lahore Resolution

• in 1940, the muslim league, led by Jinnah, wrote the Lahore Resolution

  • this was a statement that demanded that india be separated into two states: one for hindus and one for muslims

• politicians like Jinnah feared that the Indian National Congress, which was dominated by hindus, would not negotiate for the best interests of the muslim population

1942 - 1946: The Quit India Movement, and Indian National Army

• in 1942, Gandhi and the Indian National Congress launched the Quit India Movement

  • this demanded immediate independence for india

  • in a speech called “Do or Die” given in 1942, Gandhi urged the masses to act as an independent nation and to not follow the orders of the british

  • large scale protests were held all over the country, and the british responded with mass detentions and arrests

• other groups of indians started to rebel against the british, such as a 1946 sailors in the Royal Indian Navy

  • they revolted against the British and refused to work, carried on violent protests, and took over ships

1946 - 1948: Partition and Bloodshed

• in august 1946, muslims and hindus were clashing in Calcutta

• partition - division of india into separate hindu and muslim nations

  • originally proposed by india’s muslims

• the northwest and eastern regions of india became pakistan

  • this is where most muslims lived

• in july 1947, the British House of Commons passed an act that granted india and pakistan independence in one month’s time

  • during this short period, everyone fought for a government position and the whole civil service was divided down

• hindus, muslims, and sikhs had to decide where to go (either india or pakistan)

• violence erupted between these religions

  • muslims killed sikhs who were moving into india

  • hindus and sikhs were killing muslims who were headed into pakistan

• Ghandi went to the indian capital of Delhi to plead for fair treatment of muslim refugees, but was killed in 1948

1947: The Partition of India

• partition of India: divide the colony into two separate and independent nations, india and pakistan

• pakistan gained independence in august of 1947 and was led by Jinnah

• india gained independence in august 1947 and was led by prime minister Nehru

• Gandhi was assassinated by a hindu extremist who felt that Gandhi had betrayed the hindu cause

1947 - 1949: The Battle For Kashmir

• muslims and hindus fought over the small region of Kashmir

  • Kashmir lay at the northern point of india next to pakistan

  • Kashmir had a majority of muslim population

• the fighting continued until the UN arranged a cease-fire in 1949

  • the cease-fire left a third of Kashmir under pakistani control and the rest under indian control

1947 - 1966: Ghana and Britain Relations

• the british colony of the Gold Coast became the first African colony south of the Sahara to achieve independence

• the leader of Ghana’s nonviolent movement was Kwame Nkrumah

• in 1947, he worked to liberate the Cold Coast from the british and organized boycotts and strikes

• when the Gold Coast gained independence in 1957, it took the name Ghana

• Kwame became Ghana’s first prime minister and president for life

• his programs for industrialization, health, and education showed good intentions but they were very expensive and strengthened opposition

  • he was often criticized for neglecting economic problems in his own country and spending too much time on Pan-African efforts

• in 1966, while Nkrumah was in China, the army and police in Ghana seized power

1948 - 1962: Nelson Mandela Arrested

• in 1962, he was arrested for conspiring to overthrow the state and sentenced to life imprisonment

• Mandela spent 27 years in prison in Robben Island for his involvement in underground armed resistance activities

1952 - 1986: Pass Laws in South Africa

• pass laws were designed to control the movement of Africans under apartheid

• in the 19th century, the new pass laws were enacted for the purpose of ensuring a reliable supply of cheap African labor for the gold and diamond mines

• in 1952, the government enacted an even more rigid law that required all African males over the age of 16 to carry a “reference book” containing personal info and employment history

• Africans were often compelled to violate the pass laws to find work to support their families

  • harassment, fines, and arrests under pass laws were a constant threat to Africans

  • protests against these humiliating laws fueled the anti-apartheid struggle and led to more than 17 mill arrests

1956: Women’s March, Pretoria

• since the early 20th century, african women actively opposed the pass laws restricting movement of africans

  • they understood that these laws would tear african families apart, where they could work and live

• women played a key role in the African National Congress in 1950s and encouraged women’s leadership

• the Federation of South African Women began organizing women and led to local demonstrations

• over 20,000 women participated in the women’s march on Pretoria, the capital, in 1956

  • one of the leaders was Frances Baard, after the women’s march, the government charged her with treason and arrested her five years later

1959 - 1981: Bantu Homelands

• the Bantustans were a small territory that the National Party set aside for Black South Africans

  • was created by the Promotion of Bantu Self-Government Act of 1959, which divided Africans into ten ethnically discrete groups, each assigned a traditional homeland

  • the homelands constituted on 13% of the land

• the Bantu Homelands Citizenship Act of 1970 declared that all africans were citizens of homelands, rather than South Africa itself

  • this was a step toward the government’s ultimate goal of having no African citizens of South Africa

  • between 1976 and 1981, 4 homelands- Transkei, Venda, Bophu, and Ciskei- were declared independent by the government, and eight million africans lost their South African citizenship

1960 - 1980s: Forced Removal in South Africa

• from 1960 to 1983, the apartheid government forcibly removed 3.5 mill black south africans in one of the largest mass removals of people in history

• people were forced to move in order to divide and control racially-separate communities at a time of growing organized resistance to apartheid in urban areas

• they had lived there for generations in what the government called “Black spots” in areas that the government had designated as part of “white” South Africa

• some entire townships were destroyed and their residents removed so they now faced long commutes to their jobs

• in the 1980s, popular resistance to removals was widespread, and government plans to remove up to two million more people were never carried out

1960: Sharpeville Massacre

• the Pan-Africanist Congress (PAC), a splinter group of the African National Congress (ANC) created in 1959

  • organized a countrywide demonstration for March 21, 1960, for the abolition of South Africa’s pass laws

  • 20,000 black people gathered near the police station at Sharpeville

  • so then the officers opened fire on them with submachine guns

• a state of emergency was declared in South Africa, more than 11,000 people were detained, and the PAC and ANC were outlawed

  • outlawed- make something illegal

1962 - 1988: International Boycotts

• in November 1962, the United Nations General Assembly passed a non-binding resolution establishing the United Nations Special Committee against apartheid

  • committee called for economic and other sanctions on South Africa; however, many nations refused to join the committee

• boycotts and divestment took the form of refusing to buy South African goods, refusing to support South African professors, and refusing to make business investments in South Africa until apartheid ended

• South Africa did not compete at Olympic Games from 1964 to 1988, as a part of the sporting boycott of South Africa during the apartheid era

1963 - 1978: Kenya Gains Independence

• the british ruled Kenya and many british settlers resisted Kenyan independence

  • they were forced to accept African self-government

• Jomo Kenyatta was a Kenyan nationalist who viewed independence as the only option for Africans

• the Mau Mau was a secret society made up of mostly native Kenyan farmers forced out of the farmlands by the British

  • the Mau Mau sought to push the white farmers into leaving the highlands

• Kenyatta claimed to have no connection to the Mau Mau but refused to condemn the organization

  • as a result, the british imprisoned him for nearly a decade

• the british granted Kenya independence in 1963

• Kenyatta became president of the new nation

  • he worked hard to unite the country’s various ethnic and language groups

  • his successor, Daniel Moi, was less successful and faced increasing opposition

1965 - 2006: Freedom and Turmoil for Congo

• one of the most exploited was the Belgian Congo

• Belgium has plundered the colony’s rich resources of rubber and copper and ruled with a harsh hand and provided the population with no social services

• Belgium granted independence in 1960 to the Congo

  • it was renamed Zaire in 1971 - 1997

• an army officer named Joseph Mobutu, later known as Mobutu Sese Seko, seized power in 1965

  • he maintained control through force, one party rule, and gifts to supporters

  • he was overthrown in 1997 by rebel leader Laurent Kabila

    • the country was then renamed again as the Democratic Republic of the Congo

    • Kabila promised a transition to democracy and free elections in 1999 but that never happened

    • Kabila’s son, Joseph Kabila, took power and began a quest for peace

    • in 2006, Joseph Kabila was elected president under a new constitution

1974 - 1976: Soweto Uprising

• when the language of Afrikaans alongside English was made required in schools in 1974, Black students began mobilizing themselves

• in June 1976, students mobilized by the South African Students Movement's Action Committee marched peacefully to demonstrate and protest against the government’s directive

  • they were met by heavily armed police who fired teargas and later live ammunition on demonstrating students

  • resulted in a widespread revolt that turned into an uprising against the government in Soweto

• images of the police firing on peacefully demonstrating students were spread around the world as South Africa’s brutality was exposed

1985 - 1986: Mandela Refused Pardon

• in January 1985 President P. W. Botha offered Nelson Mandela, leader of the banned African National Congress (ANC), conditional release from the prison sentence he had been serving since 1964

  • condition of his release was that he renounce violent protest as a means to bring about change in South Africa

  • Mandela communicated his refusal of the offer through his daughter, Zinzi Mandela, who read his statement to this effect at a rally in Soweto on 10 February 1985

• by 1986, President P.W. Botha declared a state of emergency and implemented martial law

  • over the next four years, thousands of Black people were detained or killed

1980s - 2002: Struggle for Democracy

• black south african bishop, Desmond Tutu, has led an economic campaign against apartheid

  • he asked many foreign nations to not do business with south africa

  • in response, many nations imposed trade restrictions such as banning south africa from the olympic games

• in 1989, F. W. Klerk’s goal was to transform south africa and end its isolation

  • in 1990, he legalized the ANC and also released Nelson Mandela form prison

• over the next 18 months, the South African parliament repealed apartheid laws that had segregated public facilities and land ownership

• the country needed to form a multiracial government

  • president de Klerk agreed to hold south africa’s first universal elections, in which people of all races could vote in 1994

• during the president elections between Mandela and Klerk, the Inkatha Freedom Party, the rival party to the ANC, threatened to disrupt the process

  • ANC won the majority of votes so Mandela was elected president

  • Mandela resigned in 1999, but the nation’s democratic government continued

• in 1996, south african passed a new, more democratic constitution

  • this guaranteed equal rights for all citizens

• in 1999, ANC official Thabo Mbeki won election as president but faced problems, such as high crime rate, rape, murder, unemployment, and economic downturn

  • he promoted a free market economic policy, which means no government control

  • in 2002, south africa engaged in negotiations to establish free-trade agreements with a number of countries

  • this was an attempt at opening the south african economy to foreign competition and investment, and promoting growth and employment

• one of the biggest problems south africa faced was the AIDS epidemic

  • Mbeki disputed that AIDS was caused by HIV, but his opinion caused controversy and made people dislike him

1984 - 2003: The Coldest War

• muslims and hindus fought over the giant Siachen glacier high above Kashmir

• the dividing line established by the 1949 cease-fire did not extend to the glacier because officials figured neither side would try and occupy such a frigid strip of land

• in 1984, both sides sent troops to take the glacier

• indian and pakistani soldiers shoot at each other from trenches in temperatures that reach below -70

• in 2003, pakistan and india declared a cease-fire

1989 - 1994: Bans Lifted, Mandela Released and Elected President

• 1989, F.W. de Klerk replaced P.W. Botha as president

  • F.W. de Klerk made some promises to end white domination in South Africa and relaxed some of the apartheid laws

• 1990, de Klerk lifted the ban on the ANC and other political organizations

  • de Klerk also removed the restrictions placed on Black communities since the state of emergency declared by Botha in 1986

• 1990, Mandela was finally freed at the age of 71 after being imprisoned for 27 years

  • after Mandela’s release, he pledged to continue his fight against apartheid

• 1994, first democratic elections are held and Nelson Mandela is elected president

1994: Rwanda Genocide

• Rwanda, a small country in central Africa

• population was made of 3 ethnic groups: Twa, Tutsi, and Hutu

  • Hutu and Tutsi shared the same king and were together

  • Hutu was the majority and Tutsi was the minority

  • Tutsi was favored by the Europeans to help take over Hutus

  • Tutsi was targeted in the genocide

• after the Berlin Conference, Rwanda fell under German rule but then it was transferred to Belgian control in 1919

  • it was only with the European colonialism that a racist ideology was introduced

• Belgian rule introduced identity cards and a policy of divide and rule

• Rwanda became independent in 1962

• genocide was Hutu people attacking and killing the Tutsi minority

• Hutu extremists played on the public’s deep-rooted concerns about unemployment and economic decline, laying the blame on rebel Tutsi forces, the RPF

  • they fostered fears that Tutsi exiles returning from previous genocides would grab the land from Hutus

  • Hutu extremists published the Ten Commandments in 1993, in the government-controlled papers, Kangura, calling for total rule over the Tutsi minority through Hutu power

• the tv station called Mille Collines, founded in 1993, played a central role in fostering genocide by playing on Hutus’ fear of a return of Tutsi dominance

• the message was that no Tutsi should be spared, neither young nor old', no Hutu was exempt from the task of exterminating the Tutsi people

• the Tutsis fled to neighboring countries, where they formed a guerilla army called the Rwandan Patriotic Front

  • in 1990, they invaded Rwanda and forced peace talks with Juvenal Habyarimana, the Hutu president

  • anxious to stay in power, he agreed to sign the peace treaties

• the genocide began when President Habyarimana’s plane was shot down

  • as a result of the identity cards by European colonialism, the ethnicity of people in Rwanda could easily be traced

• the Belgians had measuring tapes and calipers that weighed and measured Rwandan noses, to determine if they were Hutu or Tutsi

  • Tutsi had nobler and more naturally aristocratic dimensions than the coarse noses of Hutus

1995 - 2007: Civilian Presidents

• Obasanjo was an ethnic Yoruba from southwest Nigeria

  • he had the support of the military and worked strong, unified Nigeria

  • he attempted to draw the attention of the world to the need for debt relief

• controversial 2007 elections brought President Umaru Yar Adua to power

  • he faced problems: war, violence, corruption, poverty, famine