European Colonial Empires, 1914 (Canada became a Self-Governing Dominion in 1847, a possible model for other colonies)

THE IMPACT OF THE GREAT WAR ON THE BRITISH EMPIRE

BRITISH WOMEN gain the vote in May 1918.The LABOUR PARTY supplants the Liberals as the main rival to the Conservatives.IRELAND: Years of fighting lead to “Home Rule” for the Catholic counties in 1922. EGYPT: Mass demonstrations against British rule break out in 1919, leading to 800 deaths. In 1922 Britain declares Egypt an independent kingdom but retains control of the Suez Canal Zone.INDIA: In 1919 Gandhi and Congress launch their first campaign of satyagraha (noncooperation). The “Amritsar Massacre” of April 13, 1919, leaves at least 379 demonstrators dead and 1,100 wounded.

The Mughal Empire, 1530-1857

It achieved its greatest power in

the reigns of:

Emperor Akbar (1556-1605), a

Muslim champion of religious toleration;

Emperor Aurangzeb

(1658-1707)

But war lords gained control of

many regions thereafter…

The English Fort at Bombay, 1672.The English East India Company was founded in 1600

and acquired bases at Madras in 1639, Bombay in 1664, and Calcutta in 1696.

“Robert Clive and Mir Jafar after the Battle of Plassey, 1757”(the Company installs an ally as Nawab of Bengal)

Sepoy Grenadiers, ca. 1800. The Company recruited them from both Muslim warrior families and high-caste Hindu Brahmins and Rajputs

British dominions in

1857, on the eve of

the “Great Mutiny”

(or “Indian War of

Independence”)

Outbreak of the “Great Mutiny” of 1857:“The death of Colonel Finnis on the parade ground at Meerut”

Queen Victoria, Proclamation of November 1, 1858

“We hold ourselves bound to the natives of our Indian territories by the same obligations of duty which bind us to all our other subjects….“Firmly relying ourselves on the truth of Christianity, …we disclaim alike the right and desire to impose our convictions on any of our subjects. We declare it to be our royal will and pleasure that none be in anywise favoured, none molested or disquieted, by reason of their religious faith or observances, but that all alike shall enjoy the equal and impartial protection of the law....“And it is our further will that, so far as may be, our subjects, of whatever race or creed, be freely and impartially admitted to offices in our service, the duties of which they may be qualified, by their education, ability, and integrity, duly to discharge.”

THE MARCH OF PROGRESS:

By 1900 India had285 million people,5 million literates,

23,000 college students, and

25,000 miles of railway.But only 65 of 1,244

members of theIndian Civil Service

were Indian.

Pathan riflemen in the Second Afghan War (1878-1880)

A fundamentalist mullah drums up support for jihad on the Northwest Frontier in 1930

Afghanistan and the North-West Frontier:

The Raj faced perennial unrest among Afghan

tribesmen, especially in Waziristan

An Anglo-Indian force prepares to advance in the

Kurram Valley, 1897

British bombers patrol the Northwest

Frontier, early 1920s. Winston Churchill

promoted air power as the most cost-

effective means to quell native unrest.

Starving Indian peasants during the great famine

of 1876/77, when millions died.

Famine recurred in 1895/96 and 1899/1900

Heavy-handed measures to combat bubonic plague in Bombay in 1896/97 provoked violent riots and the

assassination of two British officials by Hindu nationalists.

Lord Curzon, Tory Viceroy (1898-1905),

who favored enlightened absolutism.

John Morley, Liberal

Secretary of State, 1905-10

Curzon repressed dissent harshly but championed Indian economic interests. Morley decentralized the administration and created elected provincial councils to promote cooperation with the Indian

middle class.

At its first meeting in Bombay, 1885, the “India National Congress” only demanded

increased participation by educated Indians in the administration

Mohandas K. Gandhi

(1869-1948), son of a prime minister

of Gujarat, as a young attorney in Johannesburg,

South Africa. He founded the Natal Indian Congress in

1894.

IN 1917 GREAT BRITAIN LED INDIANS TOBELIEVE THAT THEY WOULD RECEIVE “HOME

RULE”

Gandhi returns to India in 1915 to support the Congress campaign to become a self-governing Dominion. In August 1917 the British promise “the increasing association of Indians in every branch of the administration and the gradual development of self-governing institutions with a view to the progressive realisation of responsible government in India as part of the British Empire.” The British enact “dyarchy” in 1918/19, with 8 provincial assemblies with Indian ministers in charge of education, health, agriculture, and the budget. The viceroy still controls the central government; his governors control taxation and security in each province and appoint 1/5 of the legislators. The Indian electorate numbers only 5 million men. British Tories denounce “dyarchy” as “a kind of Bolshevism,” but the Indian Congress also rejects it.

The first Congress campaign of

noncooperation sparked violent

riots and climaxed with the Amritsar Massacre on April 13, 1919, when General Edwin

Dyer ordered his troops to fire on 10,000 peaceful demonstrators, killing 379 and

wounding 1,100.

The Satyagraha Ashram and Gandhi

at his spinning wheel

Gandhi’s “salt march” of March 1930 forced the Britishto jail 60,000 protesters. “I regard this tax to be

the most iniquitous of all from the poor man’s standpoint.”