AQA British Empire

By sandymutiny

  • Indian Mutiny

    • May 1857, sepoy mutiny after introduction of cartridges coated with animal grease (pork-> upset Muslims, beef-> upset Hindus).
    • GB loses control of most of north-central India within weeks
    • complemented by civil rebellions (who saw BIC reforms as a threat to their customs, religions & institutions)
    • GB victory - most Indians had remained loyal, rebel leaders failed to collaborate
    • end ->1858

  • David Livingstone publishes “Missionary Travels in Africa”

  • Period: to

    Ch1- Development of Imperialism

  • India => Crown Colony (Raj)

    • 1858, BEIC ->GB Crown
    • Secretary of State & council of 15 ministers appointed to run Indian affairs
    • Viceroy replaced Governor-General as new leader

  • Treaty of Tientsin

    • Obliges China to open more ports in GB

  • First European discovery of Lake Tanganyika

    • by Burton & Speke

  • Speke's expedition to find source of Nile

    ->1863

  • Lagos Annexed

  • Livingstone's 3rd African Journey to find the source of the Nile

    -> 1873

  • European discovery of Diamonds in SA

    • Discovery of diamonds in Griqualand in late 1860s → southern Africa became potentially a huge economic asset
    • -> 1871, GB annexed Griqualand

  • Canada => Dominion

    • originally a Colony of settlement

  • Reform Act

    working class vote

  • Colonial Society Founded

  • Suez Canal Opened

    • Ismail Pasha (ruled Egypt 1863+) supported building the Suez (completed 1869)
      • Khedive (Govt) borrowed money unwisely → extreme debt to GB & FR

  • Royal Colonial Institute

  • Stanley finds Livingstone

  • SA Annexation of Griqualand West to Cape Colony

    • After discovery of diamonds in Griqualand 1967

  • Cape Colony => responsible government

  • Crystal Palace speech - Disraeli

    -became “Party of empire”, harnessed jingoism

  • Death of Livingstone

  • Onset of Long Depression

    • originally known as the Great Depression
    • 1870s-80s = economic depression
      • falling profits & growing unemployment → fear of scarcity of markets
    • GB belief that the country must secure export outlets by expanding Empire

  • Gold Coast => Colony

    • 1874 Gold Coast ⇒ Crown colony
      • after Ashanti war

  • Stanley's expedition for the source of the Nile

    -> 1877

  • PM Disraeli secures stake in Suez Canal

    • 1975 Disraeli purchases Khedives shares (44%) in Suez Canal Company
      • to check the spread of FR influence in Egypt

  • Queen Victoria -> Empress of India

  • Anglo-French control of Egyptian finances

    • Khedive (Govt) borrowed money unwisely → extreme debt to GB & FR
    • Egypt still goes bankrupt in 1876
    • GB & FR take over running Egypt
    • Harsh financial measures → nationalist uprising 1881

  • Brussels Conference

    • anti-slavery measures est

  • Delhi Durbar

  • Sir Bartle Frere =High Commissioner for SA

  • Annexation of Transvaal

    • 1877 Transvaal = almost bankrupt & facing Zulu attack, agreed to accept GB over lordship
      • Seemed the prelude to the formation of a South African federation.

  • Afghan War begins

    -> 1880

  • Zulu War begins

    -> 1880
    - 1879 - Zulus invade GB territory & defeat GB army at Isandlwana
    - Zulu success short-lived. GB invade & annex more territory

  • 1st Boer War begins

    -> 1881
    - 1880-91- Boer rebellion.
    - defeat GB forces at Majuba Hill
    - Gladstone opposed to imperial expansion - not prepared to fight
    - 1882 GB recognise Transvaal & Orange Free State as Self- Governing nations

  • Pretoria Convention

    • Restores Transvaal independance

  • GB defeated at Majuba Hill

    • TP in 1st Boer War

  • Mahdist Uprising in Sudan

    ->1898

  • Bombardment of Alexandria & occupation of Egypt

    • nationalist uprising 1881
      • threatens security of Suez
    • 1882, GB army defeats Egyptians at Tel-el-Kebir
      • → GB control of Egypt
    • by mid 1880s, GB took >75% of Egypts foreign trade and provided half of its imports

  • Transvaal & Orange Free State Self-Governing

    1882 GB recognise Transvaal & Orange Free State as Self- Governing nations

  • Dufferin Report (1883)

    Baring approved Dufferin Report (1883) which est a veiled protectorate

  • Indian National Congress formed

    • first modern nationalist movement to emerge in the British Empire in Asia and Africa.

  • Bechuanaland & Niger Coast Protectorates est.

  • General Gordan killed in Khartoum

    • Mahdist Uprising

  • Berlin Conference

    • discuss the partitioning of Africa, establishing rules to amicably divide resources among the Western countries at the expense of the African people
    • FR, GE, GB, and Portugal were the major players
    • organized by Otto von Bismarck
    • established principle of effective occupation
    • led to Scramble for Africa

  • Discovery of Gold in SA

  • Colonial & Indian Exhibition in South Kensington

  • GB-GE agreement over spheres of influence in E.Africa

  • Royal Niger Company recieves charter

  • 1st INC meets

  • China recognises GB control of Burma

  • Zululand => protectorate

  • IBEAC Charter

    • (Imperial British East Africa Company)

  • Sarawak, North Borneo & Brunel => Protectorates

  • Cecil Rhodes amalgamates Kimberly Diamond Companies

  • Cook Islands => Protectorate

    • near Aus & NZ

  • Imperial Exhibition in Glasgow

  • BSAC receives charter

    • (British South Africa Company)

  • Rhodesia est.

  • Part of Nyasaland => protectorate

  • Two power standard

  • Zanzibar => protectorate

  • Cecil Rhodes => PM of Cape

  • Period: to

    Ch2 - Imperial Consolidation & Liberal Rule

  • 1st Ndebele (Matabele) War begins

    -> 1894

  • Uganda => protectorate

  • Jameson Raid

  • BEA protectorate est.

    • (British East Africa)

  • Joseph Chamberlain => Colonial Secretory

  • Formation of the Federation of Malay States

  • 2nd Ndebele (Matabele) War

    -> 1897

  • Zanzibar War

  • Rhodes resigns as PM of Cape Colony

  • Victoria's Diamond Jubilee

  • Sir Alfred Milner appointed High Commissioner for SA

  • Battle of Omdurman

    • Kitchener kills 11,000 Sudanese tribesmen with machine guns
    • only 28 GB deaths
      • Daily mail - “downfall of the worst tyranny in the world”
    • Kitchener instructed to go to Dongola but went further to Khartoum

  • Fashoda Incident

    • Sept 1898, Marchand & Kitchener meet at Fashoda
    • waited for govts to resolve issue of who controlled the Sudan
      • GB forces far outweighed FR forces
      • Kitchener had a string of military conquests to confirm Egypt/GB claim
      • FR had no wish to fight a war it couldn’t win

  • Sudan formally annexed

  • Curzon => Viceroy of India

  • 2nd Boer War

    -> 1902

  • Anglo-Egyptian Condominium over Sudan

  • Final Anglo-Ashanti (Asante) War

  • Hobhouse Report

    • 1901- detailed report on conditions in GB concentration camps in Boer War
      • corroborated by Faucett Commission (Govt enquiry)
      • led to heavy criticism from Liberals, Irish, Church & continental Europe
    • tarnished allure of imperialism

  • Union of South Africa est.

  • Ashantiland incorporated into Gold Coast Protectorate

  • Tariff Reform League created - Chamberlain

    • 1903 - Chamberlain calls for closer imperial economic unity
      • protective duties should be levied on manufactured goods, safeguarding GB industry against unfair practices like “dumping”
      • no tariffs on colonial imports
    • Tariff Reform League -1903
      • most members = businessmen
      • commitment to ‘the defense & development of the industrial interests of the GB Empire’
      • split conservative party as many Conservatives remained committed to free trade

  • Partition of Bengal

  • Self-govt restored to Transvaal & Orange River Colony

  • 1906 General Election

    • Liberal party (free trade) won a landslide victory
    • GB population shows opposition to protectionism
      • not necessarily Empire

  • Port Sudan Opened

  • GB-Russian Entente

    • resolves differences over Persian spheres of Influence

  • NZ => dominion

  • INC splits

  • Baden Powell founds Boy Scout movement

  • Ghandi begins 1st non-violent resistance campaign in SA

  • Morely-Minto Reforms

    • India

  • Round Table Movement

  • Union of SA => self-governing dominion

  • Delhi Durbar marks transfer of Raj capital

  • 3rd Irish Home Rule Bill

    • Ulster Covenant
    • Signed to keep Ulster in GB

  • ANC formed in SA

  • Ireland in Crisis; Ulster volunteers formed

  • Empire day recognised by GB parliament

  • Outbreak of WW1

  • Egypt => protectorate

    • landgrab

  • Home Rule for Ireland

    • suspended for war

  • Imperial troops assemble for war

  • N. & S. Nigeria => Nigeria

  • Period: to

    Ch3 - Imperial Retreat

  • GB support for Arab homeland

    • in return for their help in fighting the Ottoman Empire

  • Gallipoli landings involving ANZACs

  • Easter Rising in Dublin

  • Home Rule League est in India

  • Balfour Declaration promises Palestine to Jews

    • promises Palestine to Jews

  • Imperial War Conferences

  • Creation of Imperial War Cabinet

  • - Sinn Fein win 1918 GB general election (Ireland)

    • Sinn Fein (extreme Irish Nationalist party) win 1918 GB general election
      • set up Irish Parliament & declared independence

  • Amritsar Massacre

  • Irish War for independence begins

    -> 1922

  • Govt of India Act

  • IRA formed

  • Ghandi => Leader of Indian Congress

  • British East Africa =>Kenya

  • Formation of National Congress of British West Africa

  • Creation of Transjordan

  • Egypt => independent

  • Irish Civil War

    -> 1924

  • Chanak Crisis (CA)

    • GB asked CA to get involved in military dispute between Turkey & Greece over a disputed territory (Chanak)
    • PM Makenzie King says he will take it to the Canadian House of Commons (which was on summer recess)
      • acting independently of GB
      • 1st time CA formally rejects GB request
    • GB too poor for repression → concession instead
      • King George granted 1st National symbol

  • Southern Policy -Sudan

    • stop northerners from dominating South
    • English = formal language
    • missionaries promoted
    • northern merchants removed
    • wearing of traditional dress banned

  • Halibut Treaty (CA)

    • treaty with USA (without GB involvement)
      • treaty =between 2 independent sovereign states

  • Imperial Conference

    • Agrees definition of Dominion status

  • Balfour Declaration

    • Dominions were ‘autonomous communities’ within the Empire
    • equal in status
    • ‘united by a common allegiance to the Crown’

  • King Byng Crisis (CA)

    • King = PM in coalition with the Progressive Party
    • election, Meighen (Conservative) wins more votes, but less seats than King
    • King stays in power in minority coalition & requests an election
    • Byng (GB appointed Governor General of CA & Vimy Ridge war hero) refuses King’s call for election & declared Meighen PM
    • Meighen minority coalition lasts 3 days
    • Meighen humiliated in polls
    • King retakes majority govt
      • people changed vote to King to spite GB

  • Great Depression

  • Colonial Development Act

  • Ghandi's salt march & disobedience campaign

  • 1st Round Table Conference

    • between GB & India -> 1932

  • GB abandons gold standard

  • Statute of Westminister

    • gives dominions constitutional autonomy
    • recognised that some dominions should be Independent nations
    • laws passed in GB couldn’t be enforced in these countries
    • Dominions free to pass own laws
    • Immediate effect in CA, SA & Irish Free State
    • required Parliamentary ratification in Aus 1942 & NZ 1947
    • Newfoundland = Crown Colony before joining CA in 1949

  • Ottawa Conference

    • est. imperial preference

  • Govt of India Act

    • offers limited local govt
    • separates Burma from India

  • Mobilisation of Dominion & Imperial forces to fight in WW2

  • Fall of Singapore, Malaya & Burma

  • Quit India movement est

  • Indian independence; partition -> Pakistan

  • Collapse of the £

  • Period: to

    Ch4 - The Winds of Change

  • Withdrawal from Palestine

  • Ceylon (Sri Lanka) & Burma => independent

  • Afrikaner Nationalist Party win power in SA

  • Ireland leaves Commonwealth

  • Communist insurgency in Malaya

    • Malayan Emergency -> 1960

  • Nkrumah => PM of Gold Coast

  • Elizabeth II => Queen

  • Mau Mau Rebellion (Kenya)

    -> 1959

  • Creation of Central African Federation

    • combining N. Rhodesia, S. Rhodesia & Nyasaland

  • Withdrawal form Sudan begins

    • completed 1956

  • GB troops removed from Egypt

    • completed in 1956

  • Zanzibar & Tanganyika => Tanzania

  • Nasser nationalises the Suez Canal -> Suez Crisis

  • Gold Coast => independent as Malaysia

  • GB Somaliland, Cyprus & Nigeria => independent

  • 'Wind of Change' Speech

    • By Macmillan
    • To South African Parliament

  • South Africa leaves Commonwealth

  • Sierra Leone, Tanganyika & GB Cameroons => independant

  • Commonwealth Immigration Act

  • Jamaica, Trinidad & Tobago, Uganda & Samoa => independent

  • Kenya & Zanzibar => Independent

  • N. Rhodesia, Nyasaland & Malta => Independent

  • Ian Smith elected premier of S. Rhodesia

  • Creation of Commonwealth Secretariat

    • in London

  • Gambia, Maldive Islands & Cook Islands => Independent

  • S. Rhodesia declares unilateral independence

    • UDI

  • Bechuanaland, Basutoland, Barbados & GB Guiana => independence

  • HMS Tiger meeting

    • Between Harold Wilson & Ian Smith
    • over future of Rhodesia

  • GB leave Aden (=> independence)

  • GB application to EEC rejected

  • Stirling devaluation