8. Decolonisation

• Burma


  Violent activities of Aung San’s ADPFL= Atlee agreeing to constituent assembly elections in April 1958. San’s cabinet assassinated due to factions after winning the election leading to civil war and complete rejection on Britain and the commonwealth.
• Malay Peninsula


  UMNO and the MCA were created leading to major labour strikes between 1945-1948

  June 1947 British offered a new scheme with a British Hugh commissioner overseeing everything and a Malayan legislative council. There were new problems and Britain declared a state of emergency in 1948-> Sir Henry Gurney was killed in 1951.
• Reasons for retention of empire

  • Britain wasn't under pressure from the international community
  • Less developed national/political consciousness
  • Seen as key to Britain's economic recovery
• WW2 and Nationalism


  • Atlantic Charter inspired the African educated elite
  • It caused an economic revolution in parts - urbanisation and industrialisation
  • New factories rose to fill important gaps (e.g. beer and cigarettes) and to process raw materials
  • Africans were angered by increased British control and they felt exploited
  • A great shift of feeling on questions of race - Britain's defeat by Japan and Hitler's racial theories showed the unacceptable nature of the notion of white superiority
• Reasons for Decolonisation - Nationalist Movements

  • Appeared in all parts of the world
  • Strategies varied, but all posed a challenge to imperial governments
  • Macmillan's conviction of the strength of nationalism deepened on a six week tour of Africa in 1960
  • Belgium and France were also giving up their empire - increasing others demands and making it harder to delay elsewhere
  • In 1960, 16 new African states entered the UN
  • Newly independent states pressed for independence for other colonial territories
• Changing Attitudes in Britain

  • Maintenance of empire fell down the priorities list
  • Largely among the political class who looked for the best way forward
  • By 1960, Macmillan appreciated that any action, other than a rapid devolution of power, might produce insurrection
  • Brutal suppression of colonial peoples would damage Britain's credibility in the world and be condemned by many Britons
  • Britons were increasingly indifferent to Empire and were unlikely to support new military burdens, particularly if this meant reintroduction of National Service
  • Policy makers could see no good strategic/ economic reasons for spending vase sums of money and risking the loss of thousands of lives trying to rule people who had no wish to be ruled
• Changing priorities in Europe

  • Britain was less dependent on empire and more reliant on Europe
  • By the 1950s, Western Europe experienced dramatic post-war recovery, with full employment and rising living standards making it less dependent on colonial support
  • Emergence of the European Economic Community (EEC) from 1957 (Britain joined in 1973) helped refocus trade within Europe itself
  • From the 1950s support for empire, especially business interest dwindled in all the main European imperial powers
• The Cold War


  • Imperial powers, France and Britain were no longer dominant
  • USA and the USSR were both hostile towards imperialism
  • Britain heavily depended on the USA for defence and economic support - susceptible to American pressures to speed up decolonisation
  • Worried that Africa may become a battle ground between east and west
  • Macmillan wanted to construct new democratic states which would remain in the commonwealth and be well disposed to Britain
• Economic Concerns


  • Britain couldn't afford to maintain costs of empire or to fight a series of long colonial wars to maintain the colonies
  • Colonies grew more economically viable
  • The Great Depression led to poor living conditions in Africa - growing discontent with British Rule
• Approach to Africa post WW2

  • No immediate desire to grant independence
  • Wanted to develop them economically to benefit their post-war recovery through the Colonial Development Cooperation and extensive development initiatives
• Andrew Cohen (Head of the African Department of the Colonial Office) saw the Gold Coast as the most advanced colony politically and in their fitness to rule themselves and that independence was likely but not for at least a generation
• Decolonisation was quicker in West Africa because there wasn't significant white population which complicated the process
• The rise of African elite would mean allowing some degree of African political representation
• Britain wanted to slow the process of decolonisation so it would be beneficial to Britain and not damage their prestige
• Burns Constitution 1946


  • Established a Legislative Council of 12 British nominees and 18 elected African members
  • It was a majority of elected Africans, however, the final power still remained in the hands of the British Governor
• Nationalism in the Gold Coast


  • A wave of unrest spread across the country, as protests against British colonial rule gathered momentum
  • The Convention People's Party (CPP) was founded by Kwame Nkrumah in 1949 pressurised the British administration to make further concessions
  • The CPP led a campaign of non-cooperation in January 1950 known as 'positive action'
  • There was a nationwide boycott of British goods and a general strike that paralysed the country and lasted for 21 days
  • The Legislative Council was enlarged and renamed the Legislative Assembly, and the number of people who could vote for it increased but the British Governor retained ultimate power
• Although Nkrumah was gaoled in 1950, the CPP won two thirds of the seats in the Legislative Assembly in 1951
• It became clear to Burns that the CPP would have to be brought into government in order to bring the troubles under control
• Nkrumah was released and given the position of prime minister with the members of the CPP talking posts as government ministers
• Events that led to Ghana's Independence

  • Nkrumah in gov- indigenous people could rule responsibly
  • Togoland Plebiscite - 1956, a plebiscite in the neighbouring British Mandate of Togoland delivered an overwhelming vote in favour of unification with Gold Coast
  • Full adult suffrage - 1957 elections were held on full adult suffrage which showed that the majority of people wanted independence
  • Ghana was granted independence on 6 March 1957
• Nationalism and strikes in Nigeria

  • 1945 strike of railway and government workers involving 30 000 people in Lagos alone
  • National Council of Nigeria and the Cameroons formed in 1944 under Nnamdi Azikiwe with ultimate aim of self-government
  • It was estimated that between 1945-50 over 100 000 man-days were lost to strike action
• Richards Constitution 1946


  • New arrangements allowed for greater African representation
  • The Governor-General and Executive Council (appointed by the governor) retained ultimate power
• The country was regionally, ethnically and religiously divided and there were ethnic tensions between the 3 regions of Nigeria
• Assemblies for each of the 3 regions (north, east and west) were established, to debate local matters and to advise the British governors in these regions
• • The north was 90% Muslim, the West and East were largely Christian
  • The West was close to the power in Lagos and the East was in the Niger River basin so were wealthier
• Macpherson Constitution 1951


  • Greater pressure for change from nationalist movements forced British to amend constitution
  • It extended right to vote and created a National Council of Ministers, answerable to 185-seat Federal House of Representatives
  • Each region was allowed its own government as well as an elected assembly
  • The Federal House of Representatives could not overrule reginal governments
  • The effect was to exacerbate tensions between the different ethnicities rather than ease them
  • There was a growth in political parties around these regions who began to compete in elections
• Further Reforms in Nigeria

  • There were new political parties representing different ethnic groups and regions
  • Britain were pushed for concessions more quickly than they originally envisaged
  • Further revisions of the constitution and federal elections in 1954
  • Following these, a government was formed consisting of 3 British officials and 9 ministers drawn from the various regional political parties in order to strike a balance at the national level between the different regions
  • 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
• Decolonisation in Gambia


  • After WW2 the pace of constitutional reform increased
  • It received revised constitutions in 1954, 1960 and 1962
  • Following general elections in 1962, Britain granted full internal self-government the following year
  • It achieved independence in February 1965 as a constitutional monarchy within the Commonwealth
  • Independence took longer here because of the economic viability
  • It was very small and surrounded by a French colony
• Decolonisation in Sierra Leone

  • In 1922, Britain divided Sierra Leone into a Colony and a Protectorate with different political systems
  • There were antagonisms between the two
  • In 1947, there was a heated debate when proposals were introduced to provide a single political system for them both
  • In 1951, educated protectorate leaders joined the powerful chiefs in the protectorate to form the Sierra Leone People's Party (SLPP) led by Sir Milton Margai
  • They negotiated with the British to achieve independence
  • In Nov 1951, Margai oversaw the drafting of a new constitution which united the colony and protectorate legislatures
  • In 1953, Sierra Leon was granted local ministerial powers and Margai was elected Chief Minister of Sierra Leon
  • In April 1960, Margai led a 24-member Sierra Leonean delegation at constitutional conferences that were held with the British government in negotiation for independence
  • On conclusion of the talks in London in May, it was agreed that Sierra Leon would be granted independence in April 1961
• Britain's hopes for East Africa

  • Economic development e.g. investment in Western highlands in Kenya, to make it more profitable
  • Wanted to unite the Eastern colonies to make an East African Federation which would include Tanganyika, Uganda and Kenya to make it easier to govern as it would break up nationalism by making the country more divided, to allow the small white minority in Kenya rule and also to make it stronger economically
• Nationalism in East Africa

  • During the war, the population of Nairobi in Kenya increased by half, while the populations of Dar-es-Salaam and Mombasa both doubled
  • High inflation, poor housing and overcrowding which followed fuelled protests
  • Nationalism was much more violent in parts of E. Africa
  • Rapid economic growth brought urbanisation, greater political consciousness, political activism, nationalism and labour disputes
• In 1946, Britain (and many other countries) experienced a severe shortage of cooking fats
• There was the idea of growing large quantities of groundnuts which in Tanganyika could be processed into cooking oil and sold to the world economy
• The Tanganyikan Groundnut Scheme involved a massive investment in tractors, equipment and the construction of a railway to transport the crop
• The terrain proved too difficult to cultivate and the scheme was abandoned in 1951 - after costing £49m
• The failure of the scheme provoked E African peasants into supporting nationalist movements
• Tanganyikan African Nationalist Union

  • Led by Julius Nyerere
  • It had massive support
  • Nyerere demanded self-government and threatened strikes and boycotts
• Britain was aware that Tanganyika had little economic or strategic importance
• Tanganyika was granted independence as Tanzania in 1961
• After independence, Tanganyika joined with Zanzibar to become Tanzania