Chapter 31 806—817

Sub-Saharan Africa, 1900–1945

Colonial Africa: Economic and Social Changes
-Outside of Algeria, Kenya, and South Africa, few Europeans lived in Africa.
 Nigeria pop: 20M; ruled by 386 British officials and by 8,000 policemen and
military, of whom 150 were European
-European presence dominated the African economy and developed Africa as an
exporter of raw material
 brought benefit to Europeans but to very few Africans
-European companies dominated wholesale commerce while immigrant from other
countries handled much of the retail trade

-Africans were forced to work in European-owned mines and plantations under harsh
conditions for little or no pay.
-In the 1920s, when the govt. of the F Equatorial Africa built railroad from Brazaville to
Atlantic Coast, it drafted 127,000 men to carve a roadbed across mts. and rain forests
 For lack of food, clothing and medical care, 20,000 men died, an average of 64
deaths per mile rack

-Colonialism provided little modern health care, and many colonial policies worsened
public health
 Migrants to cities, mines and plantations and soldiers moving from post to post
spread syphilis, gonorrhea, tuberculosis, and malaria. Sleeping sickness and
smallpox epidemics raged throughout Central Africa
-Until 1930s colonial govts realized the neg consequences of their labor policies and
invested in ag. development and health care for Africans
 Cities reached pops of more than 100,000 inhabitants 50 years later.
 Africans migrated to cities bc they offered hope of jobs and excitement and
the chance to become wealthy
 Migrations damaged family life of those involved since men had to
leave women in the countryside to farm and raise children
-Colonialism also undermined the African family, and gave rise to large cities in which
Africans experienced racial discrimination.

Religious and Political Changes

-During the colonial period many Africans turned toward Christianity or Islam.
-Missionaries introduced Christianity (except in Ethiopia, where it was indigenous). Islam
spread through the influence and example of African traders.
 Christianity’s major attraction: mission schools (taught craft skills and basic
literacy). These schools educated new elite and adapted Western political ideas.
Spread in coastal regions of W. and S. Africa
 Islam also emphasized literacy and was less disruptive of traditional African
customs such as polygamy. Spread inland from the E. African coast and the
southward from the Sahel toward the W. African coast

-The contrast between the liberal ideas imparted by Western education and the realities
of racial discrimination under colonial rule contributed to the rise of nationalism.
Chapter 31 806—817
-Early nationalist leaders and movements such as Blaise Diagne in Senegal—agitated
for African participation and fair treatment in the French army—, J. E. Casely Hayford—
in 1920s began organizing movement for greater autonomy in British W. Africa—, the
African National Congress in South Africa—founded in S. Africa by W. educated
lawyers and journalists in 1909 to defend the interests of Africans—, and Pan-Africanists
like W.E.B. Dubois and Marcus Garvey from America —advocated unity of African
peoples around the world—had little influence until after World War II, when Africans who
had served in the Allied war effort came back with new, radical ideas.

-WWII brought increased labor force, inflation and requisitions of raw materials.
-Also brought hope
 During campaign to oust Italians from Ethiopia, emperor Haile Selassie led his
own troops into his capital Addis Ababa and reclaimed his title
-A million Africans served as soldiers in Burma, N. Africa and Europe where many
became aware of Africa’s role in helping the allied war effort
-Changes after WWII
 Building of cities, railroads, and other enterprises brought Africa into the global
economy, often at great human cost

The Indian Independence Movement, 1905–1947

The Land and the People
-Despite periodic famines due to drought, India’s fertile land allowed the Indian
population to increase from 250 million in 1900 to 389 million in 1941.
-Population growth brought environmental pressure, deforestation, and a declining
amount of farm land per family.

-Indian society was divided into many classes:

 Peasants—great majority, paid rents to landowners, interests to the village
moneylender, and taxes to the govt and had little left to improve their land or
raise their standard of living
 Wealthy property owners—protected by govt, from village moneylenders to
princes and maharajahs who owned huge tracts of land
 Urban craftsmen, traders, and workers—mostly poor
-The people of India spoke many different languages; English became the common
medium of communication of the Western-educated middle class as a result British rule
and increasing trade and travel

-The majority of Indians practiced Hinduism

 Subdivided into hundreds of cats affiliated with a particular occupation
 Discouraged intermarriage and other social interactions among the casted and
with people who were not Hindus
-Muslims constituted one-quarter of the people of India and formed a majority in the
northwest and in eastern Bengal
 Felt discriminated against both British and Hindus

British Rule and Indian Nationalism

Chapter 31 806—817
-Colonial India was ruled by a viceroy and administered by the Indian Civil Service. The
few thousand members of the Civil Service—formed one of the most honest and efficient
bureaucracies of all time— manipulated the introduction of technology into India in order
to protect the Indian people from the dangers of industrialization, to prevent the
development of radical politics, and to maximize the benefits to Britain and to
themselves.
 Encouraged railroads, harbors, telegraphs and other communication techs, as well
as irrigation and plantations, bc they increased India’s foreign trade and
strengthened British control
 Discouraged cotton and steel industries and limited the training of Indian
engineers in order to spare India the social and political upheavals that had
accompanied the Industrial Rev.

-At the turn of the century, the majority of Indians accepted British rule, but the racism
and discrimination of the Europeans—offended those who learned English and absorbed
English ideas of freedom an representative govt and then discovered that thinly
disguised racial quotas excluded them from the Indian Civil Service, the officer corps and
the prestigious country clubs— had inspired a group of Hindus to establish a political
organization called the Indian National Congress in 1885.
 Petitioned the govt for access to the higher administrative positions and for a voice
in official decisions, but had little influence outside intellectual circles
-1905—Viceroy Lord Curzon divided the province of Bengal to improve the efficiency
of its administration
 Angered Indians and millions of uneducated Hindu Bengalis, who suddenly found
themselves outnumbered by Muslims in East Bengal
-Muslims, fearful of Hindu dominance, founded the All-India Muslim League in 1906
 Govt responded by granting Indians a limited franchise based on wealth
-1911—British transferred the capital of India from Calcutta to Delhi

-The British resisted the idea that India could or should industrialize, but Pramatha
Nath Bose of the Indian Geological Service and Jamseji Tata, a Bombay textile
magnate, established India’s first steel mill in Jamshedpur in 1911. Jamshedpur became
a powerful symbol of Indian national pride.
-During WWI, Indians supported the British enthusiastically
-In 1918 and 1919 several incidents contributed to an increase in tensions between the
British and the Indian people. These incidents included a too-vague promise of self-
government, the influenza epidemic of 1918–1919—broke out among soldiers in the war
zone of N. France; within few months it spread to every country on earth and killed over
20M people, and the incident in which General Reginald Dyer ordered his troops to fire
into a crowd of 10,000 demonstrators, killing at least 379 and wounding 1200

Mahatma Gandhi and Militant Nonviolence

-Mohandas K. (Mahatma) Gandhi (1869–1948) was an English-educated lawyer who
practiced in South Africa before returning to India and joining the Indian National
Congress during World War I. Gandhi’s political ideas included ahimsa (nonviolence) and
satyagraha (the search for truth). He refused to countenance violence among his
followers, and several times he called off demonstrations when they turned violent.
-Gandhi dressed and lived simply; his affinity for the poor, the illiterate, and the outcasts
—whom he called harijan “children of God”— made him able to transform the cause of
Chapter 31 806—817
Indian independence from an elite movement to a mass movement with a quasi-religious
aura.
-Gandhi’s brilliance as a political tactician and master of public relations gestures was
demonstrated in acts such as his eighty mile “Walk to the Sea” to make salt (in violation
of the government’s salt monopoly), in his several fasts “unto death”—to protest the
violence of both the police and his followers and to demand independence— and in his
repeated arrests and prison sentences.

India Moves toward Independence

-In the 1920s the British slowly and reluctantly began to give in to the pressure of the
Indian National Congress. They handed over to Indians control of areas such as
education, the economy, and public works. Gradually admitted more Indians into the
Civil Service and the officer corps.
-High tariff barriers were erected behind which Indian entrepreneurs—built plants to
manufacture iron and steel, cement, paper; cotton and jute textiles, sugar and other
products— were able to undertake a degree of industrialization (provided jobs but not
enough to improve the lives of the Indian peasants or urban poor); this helped to create
a class of wealthy Indian businessmen who looked to Gandhi’s designated successor in
the Indian National Congress–Jawaharlal Nehru (1889-1964)—highly educated
nationalist and subtle thinker and looked forward to creating a modern industrial India—
for leadership.

-Congress politicians won regional elections by continues to be excluded from the

viceroy’s cabinet
-When WWII began in 09/1939, Viceroy Lord Linlithgow declared war without consulting a
single India
 When the British offered to give India its independence once the war ended,
Gandhi demanded full independence immediately
 His “Quit India” campaign aroused popular demonstrations against the
British and provoked a wave of arrests, including his own
-Indians supplied 2 million soldiers in WWI and enormous amount of resources, especially
timber needed for emergency construction
-The Second World War divided the Indian people; Indians contributed heavily to the war
effort, but the Indian National Congress opposed the war, and a minority of Indians
joined the Japanese side.

-Indian’s subordination to British interests was vividly demonstrated in the famine of

1943 in Bengal—caused by Japanese conquest of Burma, which cut off supplies of
Burmese rice that normally went to Bengal
 British army had requisitioned the railroads to transport troops and equipment in
preparation for a Japanese invasion
 Supplies ran short in Bengal and surrounding areas, speculators hoarded
what little there was, and some 2M people starved before the army was
ordered to supply food

Partition and Independence

-Deep suspicions b/w Hindus/Muslims complicated process of independence
Chapter 31 806—817
 Break b/w two communities had started in 1937, when the Indian National
Congress won the provincial elections and refused to share power with the Muslim
League
-In 1940 the Muslim League’s leader Muhammad Ali Jinnah (1876–1948) demanded that
Muslims be given a country of their own, to be named Pakistan.
-Violent rioting between Hindus and Muslims broke out in Bengal and Bihar
-Gandhi’s appeals for tolerance and cooperation fell on deaf ears; in despair he retreated
to his home near Ahmedabad
-British made attempts to keep India united, but their authority was waning fast

-1947—Indian National Congress had accepted idea of a partition of India into 2 states,
one secular but dominated by Hindus, the other Muslim
 Lord Mountbatten, the last viceroy, decided that independence must come
immediately
 Aug 15, British gave away to a new India and Pakistan
-The Indian National Congress, led by Nehru, formed the first govt of India; Jinnah and
the Muslim League established a govt for the provinces that made up Pakistan

-Partition and independence were accompanied by violence between Muslims and

Hindus and by massive flows of refugees as Hindus left predominantly Muslim areas and
Muslims left predominantly Hindu areas.
-Trainloads of refugees of one faith were attacked and massacred by members of the
other or were left stranded I the middle of deserts
 Within a few months, some 12M people had abandoned their ancestral homes and
half a million lay dead
 January—Gandhi died, gunned down by an angry Hindu refugee