Colonial policy and administration

• • Colonial policy and administration in India, Africa and the Middle East
  • Relations with the Dominions
  • Statute of Westminster of 1931
  • British imperial defence policy
• Government of India Act, 1919

  • Viceroy remained control of major areas, such as defence and foreign affairs, and his council remained a purely appointed body
  • Required to defend its actions before the Legislative council.
• Government of India Act, 1919

  Legislative Council:

  • Lower house (Legislative assembley) of which 104 of its 144 members were to be elected
  • Upper House (Council of State) of which 34 of its 60 members were to be elected
  • Provincial councils run be elected Indian ministers took responsibility for local government, health, educations and agriculture
• Government of India Act, 1919

  • 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
• The Simon Commission, 1929 - 30

  Simon Commission did not include Indian representation, Led by John Simon and reviewed the India Act and recommended that:

  • Federal system of government be created across India, incorporating both provinces under direct British rule and the Princely states
  • The provinces to be given more power
  • Defence, internal security and foreign affairs should remain in the hands of a British Viceroy, ensuring overall British control
• Sir John Simon

  • Liberal politician who briefly served as Home Secretary during WW1.
  • Appointed head of the 1929 Indian commission because of its intelligence and integrity
• Round table conference = A meeting between all the political groups interested in a controversial question with a view to working out a commonly agreed way forward
• Round Table Conferences, 1930 and 1931

  • Opposition from the independence movement in India led to two 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 falling the salt march
  • represented the Congress Party at the second
  • No agreement was reached
  • 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
• Government of India Act, 1935

  The 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 to 35 million people
• Government of India Act, 1935

  • Act was opposed by the Congress party because it fell short to the independence enjoyed by the Dominions and because of a desire to be completely free of British rule
  • Princely states also rejected a federal India. as they wanted to maintain their independence from the rest of India
  • 1919, members of Congress controlled participation in the war
  • British therefore improved direct rule, and dealt with independence protests against the war with severe repression - especially with the arrest of independence leaders
• Government of India Act, 1935

  • 1947, white British colonial policy had failed, the independence movements had succeeded, and India became two independent states, India and Pakistan
• Colonial policy and administration in Africa

  Colonies under 'indirect' British rule

  • 1920, in Sudan the British government allotted £3 million for Gezira cotton scheme to increase cotton production. Compromised a major dam building and irrigation project
  • 1925, East Africa British government allocated £10 million for improving rail and dock facilities
  • West Africa, investments in schools and educational facilities,
  • Numerous agricultural research stations were set up in colonies across the continenet
• Colonial policy and administration in Africa

  Colonies under 'indirect' British rule

  • Colonial Development Act of 1929 earmarked £1 million of British treasury funds for development projects across the empire, including many African colonies
• Settler colonies - Southern Rhodesia

  • White population dominant
  • Took political power and won effectively self - government in 1923
  • Union of South Africa, promises made to protect the rights to ethnic minorities that had been built into the grant of Dominion status in South's Africa's internal affairs by the 1930s
  • State of Westminster (1931) gave the Dominions legislative autonomy, enable this white dominance to continue
• Settler colonies - Kenya

  • White 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
  • Dominated the legislative council and used their influence to exclude from the fertile Northern highlands both Indian settlers and the Kikuyu people
• Settler colonies - Kenya

  • White settler farmers in the region became wealthy through growing tea and coffee
  • Squeezed the Kikuyu out by taxing heavily and banning them from growing these commercial products
  • Many forced to migrate into wage economies of major cities such as Nairobi and Mombasa
• Settler colonies - Kenya

  • Produced first strings of African nationalism among Kikuyu
  • The Colonel office in London issued 'Devonshire Declaration' in 1923
  • Stressed that the interests of the Black Africans had to be respected
• Colonial policy and administration in the Middle East

  Administration of the British mandate in Palestine

  • 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
  • A civil government under British appointed High Commissioner, Herbert Samuel, set up in 1920 but reconciling the growing Jewish community with the established Palestinian Arab population
  • Many who resented and feared the newcomers, was not easy
• Colonial policy and administration in the Middle East

  Administration of the British mandate in Palestine

  • Samuel tried to bring both Arabs and Jews into elected representative bodies with influence over government policy
  • His efforts were plagued by eruptions of ethnic tension which prevented co - operation
  • Problems with landholding and religion
• Colonial policy and administration in the Middle East

  Administration of the British mandate in Palestine

  • 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
  • Enquiry in 1929, called for the Jewish policy of land acquisition to be curbed
  • another in 1921, recommended restrictions on Jewish land acquisition
  • Pro - Jewish feeling in Britain and the USA forced the government to back down
• Jewish National Fund = International organisation founded in 1901 in Switzerland at the 5th Zionist congress. Role was to buy land in Palestine for Jewish settlement
• Timeline of Palestine

  1936 - British sent 20,000 troops to Palestine to deal with Arab insurgency and attacks on Jews

  1937 - Peel Report recommended that Palestine should be partitioned into separate Arab and Jewish areas, with British remaining authority over Jerusalem and small number of holy places. Proposals opposed by Arab population

  1937 - 39 = 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
• Timeline of Palestine

  1939 - With war and fears of Italian attack on Egypt, Britain changed its policy. 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 five years
• Timeline for Palestine

  Plane was for Palestine to be declared as independent state in ten years so that restrictions on Jewish immigration would ensure that Arabs were in the majority
• Administration of British mandate in Iraq (Mesopotamia)

  • 1920, British intervened militarity through air power when widespread Muslim demonstrations against British rule in Baghdad
  • Kurds, in north of Iraq wanted independence from Iraq also rebelled
• Administration of British mandate in Iraq (Mesopotamia)

  • Cairo conference of 1921 the British meeting with limited Arab representation decided to allow for some local self government
  • While remaining full British control of military and foreign affairs
  • Anglo - Iraqi Treaty of 1922 confirmed Faisal I of Hashemite dynasty ruled Syria as King
  • Faisal was regarded as an ideal compromise candidate
  • Senior British advisers were appointed to most government departments to ensure continuing British control over Iraqi affairs,
• Administration of British mandate in Iraq (Mesopotamia)

  • While Britain controlled major military bases and had such influence over the Iraqi army, which it trained
  • Further Anglo - Iraqi Treaty in 1930 promised full consultation between the two powers on matters of foreign policy
  • These treaties it was only a small step towards the granting of full independence to Iraq in 1932
  • British still retained their influence in the area, not least in their control of the oil industry
• Statue of Westminster 1931 recognised that:

  • Certain of the Dominions should become independent nations
  • Laws passed in Britain could not be enforced in those countries whether the permission of their own parliaments
  • the Dominion countries were to be free to pass their own laws without interference from, or the approval of, Britain
• State of Westminster 1931

  • Act came into immediate effect in Canada, South Africa and the Irish Free State
  • Ratified by the parliaments of Australia and New Zealand and became law in Australia in 1942 and in New Zealand in 1947
  • Newfoundland never ratified it and reverted to Crown colony status it eventually became a province of Canada in 1949
• Imperial Defence - Three 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. Result cost of defending the empire became a much greater burden
  • 1930s, a new aggressive regimes emerged in Europe and Asia, posing a direct threat to the empire, potentially to Britain itself. Imperial Japan was seen as a danger in Asia, where its attempted conquest of Abyssinia in 1935 posed a threat to British interest in Egypt and Nazi Germany in Europe
• Imperial defence - Three key problems relating to imperial defence

  • Rise of nationalist independence movements, especially in India, made the need for military resources in case of trouble more urgent