SCC Empire
Early Empire and Explorers
British Empire  developed over a period of almost 400 years. Motives:
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The settlement of surplus population (in some cases: settlement of unwanted
individuals)
The acquisition of raw materials and trade goods
Finding markets for goods, defence, missionary zeal and diplomacy
Origins
Origins Empire  began with the Elizabethan sea voyages of the 16th century, but its real
foundations were laid in the 17th century. North America was the focus of British expansion.
Expansion extended to the Indian Ocean and Southeast Asia, where the spice trade drew
Britain into competition with the Portuguese and Dutch. This led Britain to India, where the
British East India Company soon supplemented commerce with the profitable occupations of
tax collection and administration.
America  Britain lost its American Empire while building its British Empire. This led to
greater British involvement in India. After the American Revolution, many refugees from the
American States built new settlements in Canada.
During the Napoleonic Wars, the Cape of Good Hope, Ceylon and Trinidad were secured.
The settlements in Australia were intended originally to dump convicts and other
undesirables as a means to deal with Britain’s overpopulated cities.
Africa
Many British colonies originated from the old footholds the British had secured for
themselves in the 17th and 18th centuries. The British could buy slaves from local
slavehunters, exchange goods, take on fresh water and vegetables and guard the route to
their increasingly important Indian domains.
19th century: Three developments hastened large-scale exploration of Africa 
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Science had become important (Royal Society)
The abolition of slavery. Attitudes towards slavery were further influenced by the new
interest in religion. In the Empire, slavery was abolished in 1833.
The Industrial Revolution. It was time to find new areas in which to sell products. At
the same time, cheap raw materials were found everywhere in Africa.
Explorer  missionary  trader / industrialists  soldiers / policemen / administrators
Other European powers followed the British example and in 1878, Africa was carved up by
the European colonial powers. Britain and France benefited most, as well as Italy, Germany
and Belgium.
Early Explorers
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Mungo Park:
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Scottish traveller
His explorations added greatly to the knowledge about the Niger river.
Trained as a surgeon and in 1795 was asked by the Association for Promoting the
Discovery of the Interior Parts of Africa to take an expedition to the Gambia and Niger
rivers.
1799: Travels in the Interior Districts of Africa  described his adventures 1805:
Park led a second expedition to Africa.
He was drowned near Bussa during an attack by local tribes-people. Richard Burton
Stands out because he was genuinely interested in the peoples and cultures he
encountered.
1853-1855: visited Mecca and Medina in disguise and went to the forbidden city
Harar.
Translated the ‘1001 Nights’ into English.
1857: sent out by the Royal Geographical Society to search for the ‘legendary’ lake
called Nyanza by the natives (Tanzania). He was trying to find the source of the Nile.
Suffered from Malaria and did not travel north with Speke (thus not finding the
source).
Burton contested Speke’s findings.
John Hanning Speke
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Was coupled to Burton in the expedition to find the source of the Nile.
Failed to take his bearing properly and could not guarantee that the lake, which he
claimed was the source of the great river, did not have another outlet (Burton
contested).
On the day Burton and Speke were supposed to clear up the conflict, Speke died
from a self-inflicted gunshot-wound. David Livingstone
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The most famous explorer. Contributed more than any other person to the opening of
Africa to the West.
1838: Became a doctor of medicine.
1840: Ordained minister.
1841: Arrived in Kuruman (SA), where he was sent by the London Missionary
Society.
1849: Began his dramatic explorations, where he guided the first successful
European crossing of the Kalahari Desert to Lake Ngami.
1853-1846: Investigated Central Africa, obsessed with a desire to open up inner
Africa to new forms of commerce and religion in order to end the slave trade and
advance civilisation.
1855: Discovered and named the Victoria Falls.
1856: Emerged at Quelimane on the Indian Ocean, becoming the first non-African to
cross the continent from West to East.
1858-1863: The first Briton to describe Lake Nyasa and the Shire Highlands (Malawi).
1866-1873: Sought the source of the Nile and Congo rivers. He discovered lakes
Mweru and Bangwulu (Zambia).
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He insisted on continuing his explorations, even though he was ill. -
May 1, 1873:
Dies near Bangweulu. Henry Morton Stanley
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A journalist turned explorer
1871: Achieved fame when he found the ‘missing’ Livingstone.
Driven by ambition and the fact that the British establishment tended to look down on
him.
The most violent explorer. His travels led to hostile encounters with natives.
1874-1877: Circumnavigated Lakes Tanganyika and Victoria, traced the unexplored
Congo River to its estuary, and thus opened up an era when explorers sought
imperial goals.
1880: Secured the south bank of the river for Leopold 2, king of the Belgians.
The ‘White Man’s Burden’ Motivations
for colonisation
18th century  Empire of Trade. The idea of British superiority showed its influence on
foreign policy.
Liberals  advocated free trade and disliked the idea of an Empire. Supported by some
radicals and missionaries. They formed a minority.
The White Man’s Burden = The task of bringing civilisation, learning, health care and
Christianity to the ‘backward and benighted’ peoples of the world that was given to the white
(Anglo-Saxon) race that was so clearly superior and therefore should shoulder the great and
often thankless task of telling other, less fortunate races what was good for them.
Conservative Prime Minister, Disraeli:
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Believed he should bring the queen back in focus  titled her ‘Empress of India’. His
plan to make the Queen popular once more had worked and he earned her gratitude.
He silenced much criticism of the Empire and imperialism.
Made Queen’s status ‘equal’ to German / Austrian Emperors and added to Britain’s
prestige.
Cape to Cairo
The Cape Colony
The Colony changed from a station on the way to India to the administrative centre of the
South African territories and the starting-point for an ambitious drive north. What set off these
changes  1821: The arrival of white, English settlers, and the subsequent laws to protect
the indigenous peoples from their ill-treatment by the original white settlers, the Afrikaners.
A Railroad from the Cape to Cairo
Rhodes  dedicated his whole life to the dream of a great British Empire. He became
governor of the Cape Colony, and had another Colony named after him (Rhodesia, which is
now Zimbabwe). He embarked on an extensive scheme of railroad building. He used force,
because he didn’t have a lot of time to realise his dream of a railway line straight through
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Africa. His pioneers led a miserable existence. There were a few battles between Rhodes’
henchman Jameson and his men, and Lobeguela’s 1800 men. The whites won, and
Rhodesia would be rules and exploited by white settlers for 80 years.
The Suez Canal
North  private enterprise led to the digging of a canal which, in turn, led to more
colonisation.
Egypt started to modernise under ruler Muhammed Ali. He didn’t trust the British, and gave
the French entrepreneurs permission to start work on a canal that would connect the
Mediterranean with the Red Sea, and thus bring Asia much closer to Europe. Control over
the canal could be exercised by the Egyptian ruler. The canal was opened in 1867 and was a
success.
Fashoda
France  ambition and greed made them launch a desperate and ill-prepared campaign
from west to east in Africa. An army began to push all the way from Senegal towards the
Nile. At Fashoda, they were met by a British force under Kitchener on September 18, 1898.
Diplomatic negotiations resolved the issue.
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South Africa
The oldest surviving inhabitants of South Africa Homo
Sapiens in SA evolved into two groups:
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Khoikhoi  light-coloured, nomadic cattle-herders, taller than the San. San  small hunter-gatherers, roamed the land, nomadic.
The two groups established an equilibrium; sometimes fighting each other but also living
together peacefully and intermarrying. They had no concept of ownership of land.
Bantu  darker, Negroid people from Central and West Africa who practised agriculture and
fished as well as hunted. Led more settled lives. Bantu is the name for their group of
languages.
Tribes: Xhosa, Zulu, Sotho, Herero.
Negroid people  created kingdoms based on the wealth of cattle.
Early exploration by Europeans
European Renaissance  Europe was shut off from the rich lands of Asia by the Islamic
powers and could no longer travel east over land.
1487-1488: Bartolomeu Dias  discovered the Cape of Good Hope. Nine years later, Vasco
da Gama sailed the same route on a voyage which opened the way to India. Christmas Day
1497: Vasco da Gama gave Natal its name.
Portuguese opened trading stations on the west and east coasts of Africa, but were not
interested in SA. But interest in SA grew in 1600 because England, France and The
Netherlands started challenging the Portuguese monopoly for the Eastern trade. Their fleet
went for commerce only, not to convert people to Christianity and settle like the Portuguese.
Table Bay  a halfway station where the Europeans started trading with the Khoikhoi.
VOC  one of the largest multi-nationals in the world; ruled like a sovereign state, made war
and founded colonies, sent out explorers. The rule of the Heeren Zeventien was
authoritarian.
1647: Dutch ship wrecked in Table Bay and they stayed there for a year. Motivated the VOC
to establish a permanent settlement in 1652  Jan van Riebeeck + 125 men to build a fort
and a hospital. His instructions were to keep peace with the Khoikhoi, and to grow
vegetables themselves. The settlement was a failure because the men were badly paid.
1657: 9 men were released from the VOC’s service (Free Burghers). They were allowed to
start farming and the first slaves were brought it. They started to trade with the Khoikhoi as
well as fight them. Van Riebeeck tried to enforce separation of the two groups by planting a
hedge of bitter almonds all around the settlement (first attempt at apartheid).
The first ‘Trek’
Free Burghers  of Dutch or German descent. In 1688 they were joined by the French
Huguenots. The free burghers resented company rule so much that many of them ventured
deep into the lands north and east of the settlement. Cattle farmers followed the trail of
hunters and traders and a spontaneous movement (first Trek) developed. They went off to
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settle somewhere where they could live the life they envisaged for themselves.  field work
was left to slaves and servants while the whites hunted, traded and kept sway over their
farms. They became self-reliant in spiritual as well as material matters.
Trekboere  completely independent of official control. Backward people whose only
knowledge was often the Bible. They soon clashed with the San and Khoikhoi. The balance
was upset and the San defended themselves.
The Boers started forming Commandos  groups of armed citizens who rode out to hunt the
Bushmen. By 1800, the San had been decimated and driven off north. Some San survived
as slaves and pathfinders for the Boers, most others were killed. The Khoikhoi moved north
or were absorbed in the expanding Cape Colony. They formed the basis for the labour force
in the Cape colony.
1770: cattle farmers who had continued their trek eastwards came to the Great Fish River,
where they encountered different tribes. Clashes soon ensued. After 1779 nine frontier wars
were fought with the Xhosa.
The British Takeover
VOC  went bankrupt. Britain and France emerged as rivals and warred with each other.
After Napoleon had been beaten at Waterloo, the Cape was ceded to Britain.
First British rulers: liberal, rule was honest and firm. Swept away much of the corruption,
encouraged private enterprise and small industries.
Boere  first settlers, spoke Afrikaans, did not identify with Europe but could live well enough
with the British. Governors helped them: forcing the Khoikhoi to carry passes.
By 1820: friction increased. British immigrants came looking for land along the eastern
border. Further expansion was halted by the Xhosa. British and Afrikaners felt the need for
more land and thought Government protection from the Cape was inadequate.
1833: British government decided to abolish slavery in the British Empire. Was seen by the
Boers as moves against God’s ordering of the races. The Boers also faced a labour
shortage.  1834-1836: The Great Trek.
Frontier wars fought by the Voortrekkers
Mfecane  wars where entire tribes were being decimated by the ‘conquest and terror’
military campaigns of black warlords. In Natal, Shaka had forged a strong Zulu nation that
slaughtered its opponents and was organised in units called impis.
Voortrekkers: moved north across the Vaal and Orange rivers. They ventured into Natal,
where they found vast tracts of apparently uninhabited grazing lands and decided to
establish their own republic (Promised Land). They believed they were bringing civilisation to
a savage land. They tried to reach an accord with Shaka’s successor Dingaan, so they could
settle and start a republic. During these negotiations, Piet Retief and his men were murdered
in Dingaan’s termporary kraal. The Zulus then attacked parties of Boers until they finally
clashed at the Ncome River on December 16, 1838. Only three Boers were wounded and
over 3000 Zulus died, turning the river’s waters red (Battle at Blood River). Boer’s advantage:
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Mobility through their horses
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Firearms
Laager tactics
The independent Boer Republics
1848: Cape Colony was a fairly typical British colony. Contrasted with the territories north of
the Orange River where the Boers had ‘republics’. The British made an attempt at bringing
these territories under British rule but the native wars made them retreat.
1852: British and Transvaal Boers signed a treaty to recognize the Boer’s independence. The
territory became the Zuid Afrikaanse Republiek. 1854: the same happened with the Orange
territory (Oranje Vrijstaat).
Kimberley and Rhodes
1867: Diamonds were discovered on a land claimed by both Boer Republics. British stepped
in and annexed the land for themselves. Mining began and brought diggers, machinery,
traders, transporters and whole towns. The area around Kimberley became SA’s first
industrial area. The area kick-started the economic development and infrastructure of all SA
and brought a great rise in prosperity in the Cape Colony as well as the Orange Free State.
Cecil Rhodes  a British cotton farmer who studies in Oxford. He amassed a great fortune
by selling equipment and even ice-cream at the Kimberley mines and used it to build up
political power. He had a vision of imperialism in which a wide strip of Africa should become
British, from the Cape to Cairo.
1870: the British had annexed the diamond fields and added them to the Cape Colony, and
there was not much the Boers could do about it. the Cape government became colonial
rather than imperial.
Zulu campaign of 1879: The British led an expedition into Boer lands to fight the new Zulus
who came close to kicking the whites out of the territory. The British used their presence to
regain control over the Boer territories which gave rise to a Boer resistance movement.
The First Anglo-Boer War
1880: First war broke out. Afrikaner leaders were Pretorius, Joubert and Kruger. It was a
short war and lasted until the Boers defeated the British at Majuba Hill in 1881. The republics
once again became independent. Paul Kruger became the first President of the
ZuidAfrikaanse Republiek. The Cape was willing to leave the Boer Republics alone but still
wishing to expand the British Empire annexed Zululand and Rhodes pioneered on towards
the north, where he claimed Rhodesia.
The Second Anglo-Boer War
Gold was discovered in Transvaal. This Boer-republic was almost bankrupt. In 1886, gold
was found at Witwatersrand. Gold was economically more important than diamonds. The
Transvaal Boers imposed strict rules on the foreign adventurers who came to mine. The
foreigners (uitlanders) did not get civil rights, had to pay heavy taxes and were expected to
behave according to the rules the Boers laid down. The money from the gold mines was
used to turn Transvaal into a real modern industrial state with a proper administration,
judiciary and police. Rhodes invested in the Witwatersrand mines, but could not seize control
because of the heavy taxes. Rhodes started backing the Uitlanders and amplifying their
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grievances in his newspapers. Britain also started protesting against taxation without
representation. Rhodes tried to take over Transvaal by staging a rebellion. His army under
Colonel Jameson were to ride into Transvaal at the moment the Uitlanders rebelled. The
rebellion failed because Jameson arrived to early. Kruger’s army captured and disarmed him
and his men. Rhodes’ political career was broken. But this Jameson raid had other
consequences.
October 1899: Transvaal went to war with the British Empire. The first months saw Boer
victories. The Boers had advantages: guerrilla tactics, speed and superior weapons. Early in
1900 the tide turned  the British landed new troops and started capturing Republican
towns. The Boers were outnumbered and the British moved Afrikaner women and children to
concentration camps. Boers farms were burned down as part of the scorched earth
technique.
The surrender and the aftermath
The British built a line of block-huts straight across the country to pin the Boers down, and
formed their own commando units to hunt them. The Boers surrendered in 1902. Those who
had wanted to fight on became known as the ‘bitter enders’.
Treaty of Vereeniging (1902)  brought a superficial peace. The Boer Generals Botha, de
Wet, Smuts, de la Rey and Hertzog agreed to acknowledge British sovereignty on terms that
granted the Boer Republics a measure of self-government, the equality of the Dutch
(Afrikaans) and English language and money to rebuild farms.
Restrictive laws and protest
In the mining areas, non-whites were paid a 10th of the salary of the whites, were harshly
taxed, had bad housing and no hospital facilities. There was still a labour shortage and in
1907, 34000 Chinese had been employed in unskilled work. The attitudes towards
blacks/coloureds/Indians were different, and the need for one native policy was becoming
clearer.
Bambatha Rebellion (1906): blacks outnumbered whites 9-1, was put down, 4000 Zulus died.
Presence of Indian workers  the idea was that they would go home after some years of
work, but many wished to stay. They were denied the right to vote and to own fixed property.
Black Act  Indians were required to pass an educational test and carry a pass all the time.
This law brought Smuts into a direct confrontation with M.K. Ghandi  Ghandi founded the
Natal Indian Congress: worked out and put into practice his system of civil disobedience and
passive resistance to laws that were unjust or violated human dignity.
Native life during the Union (1910-World War Two)
Natal Native Congress  bringing forward the black grievances timidly and respectfully.
31 May 1910: Act of Union  bringing the republics of Cape Colony, Natal, Transvaal and
Orange Free State together as the Union of South Africa. Former Boer General Botha was
made Prime Minister, which established the precedent for Afrikaner political leadership. The
Union was British territory with home-rule for Afrikaners; a dominion in the British Empire.
English and Dutch were made official languages. Non-whites had no place in the Union, they
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were denied voting rights in the Transvaal and Orange Free State areas and could only vote
in the Cape Colony if they met a proper ownership qualification. Native life was shaped
around white needs.
Natives Land Act (1913): setting aside 8% of SA’s land for black occupancy (homelands).
Blacks were not allowed to buy, rent or be sharecroppers outside their designated areas.
Through these pass laws, movement of non-whites was restricted, leaving them tied to the
white farmer who often treated them like slaves.
In all industrial relations there was a colour bar  wages for non-whites were lower, they did
not have the right to form unions, were seen as criminals if they went on strike. Members of
the communist party started to train the African workers and provided night-schools.
ANC: African National Congress (1912)  the first political party for the Africans. Christian,
non-violent and extremely optimistic. Failed to have much political success in its early years,
but organised passive resistance and set up newspapers for Africans.
White integration versus white separatism
There was a rift between the Afrikaners and the English-speaking South African’s in the white
community. During World War 1, Boers were opposed to joining the British against the
Germans. South African forces fought a campaign in German East Africa. Smuts opposed
the harsh peace terms inflicted on Germany, foreseeing they would engender resentment
and feelings of revenge.
Interbellum
The cost of living started to rise and industry and agriculture went into a slump. Both whites
and non-whites streamed from the country-side to the cities to find work. The mine-owners
fired many non-whites as part of affirmative action. In 1919, the first non-white union was
formed and in 1920 some 70000 black miners went on strike for better wages and living
conditions.
1922: Rand Revolution  The mines were suffering from rising costs, and the owners
reduced wages and replaces thousands of unskilled white workers by cheaper non-white
labour. White trade unions, leading communists and right-wing Afrikaners united in armed
rebellion. The government put this rebellion down with machine-guns and aeroplanes. The
opposition (leader: Herzog) made use of this handling of the revolt, seen as ‘backing the
African threat to white jobs’.
Afrikaner Broederbond  an elite society with fascist traits. Purpose was to establish the
domination of Afrikanerdom in SA, full independence from Britain, Christian-Nationalist
education and the full segregation of non-whites in society.
1924: Hertzog became prime-minister and Afrikaner nationalism gained a greater hold on
SA. Afrikaans was made the 2nd official language (1925).
1927: Native Administration Act  gave the government power to ban people and punish
them for ‘doing anything that would promote hostility between the races’. The government
could take full control over the native areas.
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1929 election: National Party could govern on their own. ‘Swart gevaar’ had been their
campaign’s main issue and their slogan was ‘Vote White for a White Man’s Land’. The
Nationalist party was now exclusively Afrikaner and the SA Party mostly English-speaking.
National – Socialism
1936: The franchise was ended for non-white Africans in the Cape. The last possibility for
Africans to work from any electoral basis had been removed. Africans were moved to
homelands to speed up segregation.
1936: Centenary of the Battle of Blood River was commemorated and became a huge
propaganda success for right-wing factions in SA.
Brandwag and Stormjaers  cultural and political movement that attracted a huge following.
They opposed support for Britain in World War Two, and spread Nazi propaganda and made
plans to sabotage the SA war effort.
After World War Two: on the path to Apartheid
ANC  allied themselves to the Indians and other coloured groups. The townships had
grown as a result of the booming wartime economy. Black labour had become increasingly
important to the mining and manufacturing industry. The ANC Youth league was founded
with leaders as Oliver Tambo, Walter Sisulu and Nelson Mandela.
Nationalists fought and won the new elections with a new slogan: Apartheid.
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1950: Groups Areas Act  set aside desirable city properties for whites, while
banishing non-whites to the townships.
Separate Amenities Act  providing for separate beaches, buses etc.
Communist Party was outlawed, anyone who wanted to change SA in whatever way
could now be arrested for ‘subversion’
The role of the church, education and ‘Kleine Apartheid’
After the election victory of 1948, the National Party formed strong links with the Dutch
Reformed Church. They saw government as something God had given to the worthy (the
chosen). Black people were seen as a degenerated race and were exempt from any power.
They opposed the theory of evolution. These teachings were introduced in the schools, along
with Afrikaans.
Bantu Education Act (1953): the government from them on would spend 180 dollars a year to
educate a white child and only 25 dollars to educate a black child. The idea behind this act
was that you don’t have to spend that much money on people who will only work in unskilled
jobs.
1952: existing Pass Laws were further strengthened; black and coloureds were compelled to
carry their identity document at all time and were banned from the cities. Couples were not
allowed to live together and children had to remain in rural areas. Resistance grew fiercer
and pushed the ANC into action. From 1949 onwards it developed an agenda that advocated
open resistance in the form of strikes, acts of public disobedience and protest marches.
1955: Indian National Congress and the ANC adopted a Freedom Charter  demands for a
non-racial democratic South African state, is still central to the ANC’s vision.
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Kleine Apartheid = the name for the everyday segregation on buses, in parks etc.
Pan Africanist Congress: did not believe in shared power in South Africa, but in black rule.
Rejected the idea of peaceful resistance. Their slogan: ‘One settler, one bullet’.
Groote Apartheid
1958: Architect of Apartheid, Dr H. Verwoerd, became President and started to implement
the next phase of apartheid. The basis was the cleansing of SA and South-West Africa from
all non-white people. Officially all ten black SA peoples would get their own homeland
(Bantustan) where they could develop their own nation. Verwoerd also wanted to cut ties with
the British Commonwealth and held a referendum. In 1961 SA became a republic. New
borders were drawn for the homelands. SA stimulated white immigration, and many people
from Britain and Holland came. But never enough to keep SA’s expanding industry going.
The solution was to make the black workers migrant workers. This meant they were
‘foreigners’ without any rights. Gradually, the homelands were given their independence by
the ZAR.
A police state
ANC: began a Defiance Campaign (under Albert Luthuli)  passive resistance against
apartheid. Was unsuccessful as meetings were disturbed by police, people were arrested
and tortured and peaceful demonstrations turned into riots. Luthuli got banished. He was the
first person from outside Europe and the Americans to receive a Nobel Peace Prize (1960).
British Prime Minister Macmillan: ‘wind of change speech’  he denounced apartheid.
Caused the Afrikaners to react in the ‘Voortrekker’-siege mentality. They felt abandoned and
misunderstood.
Sharpeville  The police fired on peaceful demonstrators, killing 67 and wounding 186. The
struggle had crossed a crucial line and there could be no doubts about the nature of the
white regime. In the following week, a massive stay-away from work was organised, riots and
disturbances took place. Nine days after Sharpeville, 30000 blacks marched on Capetown,
which led the government to ban PAC and ANC meetings and to declare a state of
emergency. Both organisations were banned.
After Sharpeville: ANC leader Nelson Mandela  dropped the idea of peaceful resistance
and formed a military wing for the ANC (Umkonto We Sizwe; Spear of the Nation).
1963: Rivonia Trial  Nelson Mandela was arrested and tried for treason. Sentenced to life
imprisonment on Robben Island in 1964. Emerged as leader for the Black nation in 1990.
Oliver Tambo (other ANC leader)  escaped SA and lead the ANC whilst in exile.
Beyers Naude  left the Reformed church and founded the Christian Institute, became an
important white centre of dissent and protest within SA. He was banned to a place where he
could not reach his SA audience. Worked together with black church leaders like Allan
Boesak and Desmond Tutu to form a strong Christian opposition.
1960s: black protest changed into black sabotage and guerrilla warfare. The PAC had its
own military wing (Poqo). They sent young men to independent black countries to be trained
as soldiers. They were joined by the South West African SWAPO after 1968, when SA defied
the UN and refused to give that country its independence.
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Most visible boycott: sports  SA government did not wish to receive a mixed team of New
Zealand players. SA was no longer invited to the Olympic Games and tennis players who
played in SA were blacklisted.
Artists United Against Apartheid: Sun City
White support for the National Party and its Apartheid remained. Economically the country
was booming.
Late 1960s – early 1970s: black resistance again gained force, first channelled through trade
unions and strikes and then lead by South African Students’ Organisation, under Steve Biko
 the driving force behind the growth of SA’s Black Consciousness Movement which
stressed the need for psychological liberation, black pride and nonviolent opposition to
Apartheid.
1976: Secondary school pupils in Soweto began a rebellion in response to the government’s
decision that Afrikaans be used as the language of instruction in all subjects. The
demonstration was met by brute police-force. The police opened fire on the march and a
13year-old boy, Hector Pieterson, was killed. The following hours and days saw students
fight running battles with the security forces in the Soweto Uprising. Things spiralled out of
control when the police was given the go-ahead to take strong measures.
September 1977: Steve Biko was arrested. There was no case against him. But the police
kept him naked in a cell for twenty days, then beat him up so severely that he died five days
later of brain damage. He had not been given medical treatment. When they had finally
decided to transport him to a hospital they transported him to a prison with hospital facilities
in Pretoria, 1500 km from Port Elizabeth.
The effects of Soweto and Biko’s death resulted in protests and the UN boycotts finally
started working seriously. The oil flow stopped and GB and the US stopped delivering arms.
The final decade
A siege mentality developed among whites and the government resorted to ‘defending’ the
country against internal and external threats through brutal police force and military actions.
1978-1988: the SA Defence Force made a number of major attacks inside Southern African
countries. They even tried to seal off the border with electric fences, but nothing worked
against guerrilla infiltration. South African youths came back well-trained and armed.
The government had to compromise, because the economy was suffering under the boycott.
Adapt or die under Botha
1979: Botha became President  tried to reconcile the whites and the black middle classes
through Wham (winning hearts and minds) policy. He proposed the abolition of apartheid in
the economy. The Pass Laws would be abolished. Black members were appointed to
committees. Many blacks felt the changes were cosmetic, because black trade unions and
the right of black to strike were still not acknowledged, nor were they allowed to vote. Blacks
still got no representation and the tricameral parliament did not have any influence because
real power lay with the Presidential Council (all white South-Africans).
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Death squads  formed by the police and army to eliminate opposition leaders without
implicating the government.
A new platform was formed: United Democratic Front  600 SA opposition organisations
joined forces. Led by Archbishop Desmond Tutu and the Reverend Allan Boesak. It called for
the government to abandon its proposed reforms and instead abolish apartheid and eliminate
the homelands.
Townships were attacked by the comrades (violent youths). Botha retaliated by declaring a
state of emergency and divided the country into security zones in which police and army
would have a free hand. The ANC called for an uprising and the children turned the
townships into lawless areas.
Azanian People’s Organization  rejected the idea of negotiations and scorned the UDF.
De Klerk
1989: Botha was succeeded by FW de Klerk. He announced he would repeal discriminatory
laws and legalise the ANC, PAC and communist party. He dismantled apartheid, brought
back mixed schools, and welcomed back the exiles.
1991: Convention for a Democratic SA (Codeso) started negotiations on the formation of a
government representing all races and a new constitution. The right-wing parties refused to
join, as did the Azapo and the PAC. 69% of white SA voted in favour of a mixed society
(1992 referendum).
Mandela becomes President
1993: draft constitution was published guaranteeing freedom of speech/religion and
prohibiting discrimination. After the 1994 elections, Mandela became the first president of the
new SA. Zulu and Bantu had fought each other in the townships, both using violence. Still,
the election went off peacefully and Mandela managed to keep the country together during
his first 5 years.
Truth and Reconciliation Commission (1994-1999)  led by Desmond Tutu. Researched
crimes committed under apartheid and allowed victims to tell their stories and perpetrators to
confess their guilt and got amnesty if they told the whole truth. Those who didn’t appear
would face criminal prosecution if proven guilty.
Mbeki
Succeeded Mandela. His darkest hour was his stance on AIDS. He openly questioned the
link between HIV and AIDS. Withholding the anti-retroviral drugs cost thousands of extra
deaths. In 2002, the Constitutional Court overturned Mbeki’s decision and medicine was
made available.
Mbeki’s downfall
Mbeki should have taken a tougher line against Mugabe, who dealt violently with opposition
to his regime and expropriated farms owned by whites. The real reason for his fall from
power was that he tried to get rid of Jacob Zuma. Zuma fought and came back. In 2007
Mbeki lost the elections against him and the ANC appeared split. Zuma was appointed
president in 2009.
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Zuma
He has left foreign investments and great ‘white’ businesses in SA alone. He has more or
less continued Mbeki’s policies. The recent past has seen an ever-increasing crime rate and
much misery among the group of poor whites who suffer under the affirmative action-laws.
He has openly criticised same-sex marriages, sang his signature song ‘Shoot The Boers’ at
the ANC centennial 2012 celebration and has declared that, in a democracy, the minority
have ‘fewer rights’ and the majority prevails.
Australia Australia
today
Sparsely populated country, 23 million inhabitants. Most people live on the southern and
eastern coast. Modern country with a short history of occupation by Europeans. is a ‘car
country’. Pressing problem is the stream of refugees from Asian countries. Temperate
climate. Member of many international organisations (Commonwealth, NATO, ASEAN, G20).
The Head of State is the British Queen. Almost 50% of Australians are Republicans. Labour
and Liberal Party are main opponents.
The Great Southern Land
1605: Dutch navigator Willem Janssen sailed along the northern coastline and met
aborigines. Others were sent out by the Dutch East India Company to explore new lands.
1636: Anthony van Diemen  was appointed Governor General of the Dutch East Indies. He
sent out a number of expeditions from Batavia, and on one of these, captain Abel Tasman
sighted a coast he called ‘Van Diemen’s Land’ (Tasmania).
East India Company was not interested in the ‘Southland’, because it was parched, there
was no sign of water or fruit trees, and there were flies everywhere.
French explorer Bougainville: sent out by his government to gather as much information as
possible on the lands in the ‘South Seas’. He got as far as the Great Barrier Reef.
1770: James Cook  sent out by the Royal Society. He also carried government instructions,
to claim the Southern Land for Britain. Cook circumnavigated New Zealand. On the
Australian coast they stopped at a number of places, one of them being Botany Bay. At the
northernmost tip of the east coast Cook formally claimed possession of the lands he had
explored (August 22, 1770). He named it New South Wales.
The Aborigines
Hallmark of the culture: ‘oneness with nature’. Nature and landscape are comparable in
importance to the bible in Christian culture. Environment is the essence of Australian
Aboriginal godliness. Aborigines lived in harmony with the land and its animals. They lived a
nomadic life, following the seasons and the food. When at rest, they lived in open camps,
caves or simple structures made from bark or leaves. Their way of life was ideally matched to
the constraints of nomadic life. No notion of possessions. The idea that an individual could
‘own’ land was foreign to Aboriginal thinking.
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Contact between the new settlers and Australia’s indigenous people led to the decimation of
many Aboriginal groups due to disease, dispossession and murder.
Aborigines formed many small societies (100 – 1500 people). The groups rarely met,
because each group was tied to its own stretch of land. Men hunted larger game, women
gathered vegetables, fruit, eggs and smaller animals. When fires for cooking and warmth at
night were lit, unmarried women and widows would gather round one fire, bachelors around
the other and families around theirs. No form of government. Elders commanded most
respect. Much behaviour was formed by ritual, and punishment was also covered in ritual
rather than law. Men had more power than women: they could take more than one wife,
wives were sometimes swapped. Sexuality was talked about openly and was not seen as a
reason for shame or embarrassment. When children reached puberty, they were initiated.
Aboriginal religion didn’t have any sense of life after death.
Two types of Aboriginal myths:
-
-
‘just so’ stories  explained how the earth had been made, how the magpies had
lifted the sky and let the light in, why the koala had been sentenced to a life of eating
only eucalyptus leaves etc. They didn’t teach right or wrong.
Dreamtime  about the heroes in a ‘golden age’ in which the path were first roamed,
the struggles and adventures of heroes. In the Dreaming, Aborigine ritually expressed
his memories of a past that was at the same time the present and the future. The
natural system in which they lived had also been created in this dreamtime. Losing
connection would mean death. Bunyip: half-man, half serpent.
Legacy of racism
Focus of Australian government  assimilation of so-called half-caste Aborigines: Aboriginal
babies were removed from their natural parents and taken into foster care by non-Aboriginal
families, in the belief this would breed-out their culture and race within 5 generations
(Eugenics).
Stolen Generation  full-blooded Aborigines were relocated to prisonlike camps for being
‘illmannered’, ‘disruptive’ etc. These removals to Palm Island Mission continued until the late
1960s and were aimed at weeding out Aboriginal culture.
The convicts
There was much crime and London had no police force. There only way the authorities could
think of the keep crime in check was to mete out severe punishments. Formerly, a solution to
the problem of over-crowded prisons had been to ship prisoners off to the colonies in
America, but the American War of Independence put an end to that. Cook and Banks
claimed that Australia was a suitable place to send a prison population: it was far away,
fertile enough to set up farms, climate was pleasant and there were no enemies.
1787: 750 convicts were transported to Botany Bay. It was unsuitable, so the captain of the
fleet and first Governor General Arthur Phillip sailed north until he found a good harbour,
which he called Sydney. Only a small number of the prisoners had ever done any real hard
work. The soldiers who had been brought along to guard the convicts refused to do anything
that was out of the line of their normal duties. Ex-convicts were recruited to supplement the
soldiers already there and to relieve the soldiers who had fulfilled their duties. Two immediate
problems: shortage of women and the abuse of alcohol. The women transported to the
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colonies were mostly single, and many had been ‘on the town’. The biggest problem was
food. Seeds from Europe refused to grow, cattle wandered off and was lost. 1790: a ship with
supplies form England saved the colony.
The Squatters
Main pressure for expansion: the need for good farming land. The colony didn’t expand
across the Blue Mountain ridge until 1813. The coming of sheep changed the pattern.
Around 1800, sheep had been introduced and proved to thrive in Australia. John Macarthur
started a sheep station near Sydney. Once it was clear that the profits made from wool easily
overcame the long distance the wool had to be shipped, the hunger for new land became
insatiable. The government tried to restrain settlement by setting limits, but these were
ignored. Sheep farmers came to be known as squatters because they simply took the land
they needed illegally and considered it their own. The squatter’s employees, the shepherds,
developed the concept of mateship  you relied on your mate, trusted him completely,
shared your food with him.
1835: sheep-famers settled in the rich area that was later to become Victoria and all the
Government could do was accept the fait accompli.
1829: Western Australia was to be created around the Swan River and would be an example
of private enterprise all the way. But the land was less fertile than the explorers had thought it
to be, and there was no plan for the distribution of land.
Explorers: were the leaders of the famer’s expansion. Saw their task as an imperial one, they
thought they were engaged in British rather than Australian discovery. Regarded the falg
they planted in the newly discovered lands as the ‘emblem of civil and religious liberty’.
1860: Burke and Wills expedition  set out from Melbourne to cross inland to the Gulf of
Carpentaria in the North. Burke was an incompetent leader, and they starved to death.
Leichhardt expedition  disappeared completely, never to be found.
Eyre  explorer who lost his companion when he was killed by two Aborigines.
Aborigines resisted by waging a kind of guerrilla war. They were not protected by any law
and were treated savagely. The settlers justified the displacement of the aborigines by
pointing out that the natives were not ‘using the land properly and economically’.
Free immigrants
The end of the Napoleonic wars meant there were fewer careers to be made in the British
army. Caused a recession in agriculture. Younger sons of the landowning classes (gentry)
began to see emigration as an option. Between 1800 and 1850 the British population
increased greatly, forcing the Government to make experiments in State-aided emigration,
first to Canada and the Cape, then to Australia.
South Australia: attracted many non-conformists, people who for religious and political
reasons wished to leave Britain rather than out of poverty. It gained a reputation for political
freedom and radicalism and its citizens saw their territory more as an extension/province of
Britain.
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Emancipists versus exclusives
Ex-convicts believed that they could rise in Australian society. But the ‘exclusives’ sought to
exclude ex-convicts form polite society. Emancipists were treated badly. But by 1840 they
had steadily gained ground. Transportation to New South Wales was stopped. This
encouraged a tendency to forget the embarrassments of the convict period.
The Gold Rush changes the scene
1850: Victoria separated from New South Wales
1852: Van Diemen’s Land ended transportation and re-styled itself Tasmania to forget its
convict past
February 1851: Discovery of Gold in New South Wales. Town rapidly grew up in Ballarat and
Bendigo. The so-called ‘diggers’ came ill-equipped, and often wasted their earnings in a few
days. The Government regulated the mining from the start. The mining community was an
egalitarian society in which no man was better than another. Food was mutton and damper,
a sort of flat, steamed bread, washed down with tea.
1853: the new Governor of Victoria discovered that his colony’s government lacked funds. He
made more money out of the licences sold to the diggers, and to check regularly if all diggers
indeed possessed a license. The Ballarat miners, who didn’t have the vote and were treated
as second-class citizens, were outraged.
6 October 1864: fight at the Eureka Hotel led to a protest rally against the authorities. Many
active protesters were Irish. They demanded abolition of the licensing system, other
administrative reforms and the ballot. The Governor sent troops. The miners threw stones at
them and burned their licenses. The rebels chose an Irish leader, Peter Lalor, who designed
a new flag. On November 30, the rebels built a small fort and collected arms.
December 2: Government troops stormed the stockade and took it in 15 minutes. 30 diggers
were killed. Lalor escaped.
The Bushrangers
Bushrangers first meant anyone who roamed the ‘bush’, the wilderness or uncultivated land.
Later it became the term for bandits or outlaws. These men varied highway robbery with
thefts of stock, attacks on farms, stores and homesteads. Bushranging began in 1794, with a
robbery by an excaped negro convict called Black Caesar. The first free and Australian-born
bushranger was William underwood, who joined the gang of the already legendary Jack
Donohue in 1827. Donohue (The Stripper) was a small, violent Irishman who became the
hero of the convict population as he roamed the countryside of New South Wales for three
years.
After the 1851 gold rush: Bushranging changed  the new bushrangers were country boys,
who took it to new ‘heights’ by robbin in the city of Melbourne, holding up trains etc. The most
notorious of these bushrangers (Wild Colonial Boys) was Ned Kelly  took to the bush in
1878. When police went after them, 3 officers were shot dead, which made them outlaws
with a price on their heads. In 1880, they occupied Glenrowan and tore up the train rails to
wreck a train bringing special police. The train was warned by a hostage who got away, and
the Kelly gang was besieged in the Glenrowan Hotel. Kelly was hanged at Melbourne in
1880. His last words: ‘Such is life’.
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Towards independence
The Government tried to encourage agriculture by selling leases of land to farmers on the
condition they would grow crops. The farmers didn’t have to pay the whole fee all at once
and could start their farm immediately. The squatters called the farmers ‘cockatoos’. Many
former miners looked for work on the land, and created an impoverished class of farm
labourers.
In the towns: labour shortage of skilled workers. Australians looked more at material than
political aspects of life. The unions of skilled workers had claimed and got the eight-hour
work day in Melbourne and Sydney by 1856. Australians realised universal suffrage for men
and free, compulsory non-denominational schooling decades ahead of their mother country.
Affluence led to the opposition to all non-white immigration.
1859: Queensland  a separate colony that did much better than when it had been part of
NSW. The introduction of sugar cane to the region created one of Australia’s industrial
giants, the Colonial Sugar Refining Company.
Broken Hill  a whole hill of solid silver, lead and zinc was discovered.
Transformation of Australia was caused by transport  Railways connected towns and
industries. The construction opened up a flow of British investment.
1889: Boer War  Australians realised how unprepared their military forces were. When the
first political talks on federation were being held Australia slid into an economic depression,
caused by a worldwide decline in prices for agricultural products.
January 1, 1901: The new Commonwealth was proclaimed in Sydney.
Folklore of the bush
Outback = the barren land further from the city smoke and pastoral regions.
Different people:
-
-
Swagmen = men who travelled from farm to farm to get work, often sheep-shearing,
or ‘dipping’ the sheep in delousing fluid. The swag was the bloke’s blanket roll which
he carried on his back (bluey / Matilda). The grazier/squatter who owned the station
would employ the swagmen for as long as he needed them.
Jackeroos  Those who got a permanent job as an apprentice of the farm.
Ringer = The head sharer in the shearing-shed. Tough life: blowies (flies), handling
sheep was not a clean job, hot climate, boring, bewildering land.
Sundowners = those turning up at the station too late in the day to get any work done,
but expecting tea and food (tucker) anyway
Illywhackers = those who told clearly fantastical stories and lies
Larrikins = less popular, ‘hooligans’
Drongo = Somebody slow to catch on
Bilabong  small pond alongside a creek, a perfect spot to camp.
Swaggies wandering around were ‘wandering the never-never’, ‘in the back of beyond’,
‘beyond the black stump’.
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Aborigines who worked on stations and wandered off: ‘going walkabout’
Australia and World War 1
Australia enthusiastically joined Britain in its struggle against Germany, Austria and Turkey.
The Australians relied on volunteers to fill their army. Most had no experience of war and for
many it was a chance to see something of the world. This innocent enthusiasm ended at the
Dardanelles.
April 25, 1915: a combined force of Australian and British soldiers landed at the beaches of
Gallipoli to find that the Turks were well entrenched there and not at all the cowards
propaganda had made them to seem. Australians managed to dig in close to the beach, and
for half a year a savage trench war raged. The allies had to retreat. Gallipoli was seen as a
British strategic blunder.
Anzac Day, 1916: The first commemoration of Gallipoli  the beginning of an awareness that
they were a nation.
Between the wars
After the war  slump and enormous amounts of money were loaned and poured into
irrigation projects, railroad building etc. Australia wanted to attract men, markets and money.
In ten years some 300000 new immigrants arrived.
Crash of ’29  Businesses collapsed and the price of wool plummeted. Australia started to
recover by 1933: The economic growth was mainly felt in the new iron industry. Australia was
moving away from the British two-party system, and the Conservatives and Labour were
joined by a Country Party that combined a nostalgia for the days of the ‘bush’ with an
extremely conservative attitude to everything else.
1920s: plans to build a new capital at Canberra were implemented.
Foreign policy: Australia continued to move in concert with Great Britain more than Canada
or SA. They started having their own embassies in the US and Japan as late as 1940. Japan
seemed a great threat. Australia relied on Great Britain’s fleet and its citadel in Singapore.
Australia followed Britain into war immediately.
Australia and World War Two
The army first relied on volunteers. Later it conscripted men into the army, promising that
these would not be sent abroad. Australians fought in NA and Greece in 1940-1941. They
started to see that the naval cover they had expected from the British would not materialise.
They started looking at the US for protection. They were moving towards full independence.
December 1941: Japanese attacked the Americans at Pearl Harbour, which brought the war
much closer to Australia.
February 1942: Darwin and Broome were bombed, in March Japanese invaded New Guinea.
Australian troops in New Guinea earned the distinction of being the first to withstand the
Japanese onslaught and to force them to retreat. When the war ended the Australians felt
they had deserved to be present at the surrender and that from now on they would have a
say in matters concerning the South Pacific.
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Mass immigration
End of World War Two  Australia had a population of 7.5 million. This was not enough for
the vast country with its relatively new and booming industry and mining. Australia was
determined to become less vulnerable in the future. A target of 20 million people was set for
the end of the century. More Mediterranean immigrants flooded in than had originally been
the idea. When Australia had taken in displaced persons it had at first looked for ‘blue-eyed’
applicants, clinging the old ‘White Australia’ idea.
The immigration schemes were a success. This mass immigration had profound effects on
the country. Migrants were supposed to assimilate, not to form their own ethnic communities.
Immigrants should disperse and ‘disappear’ in the community.
Menzies years (1950s and early 1960s  a sedate life, with Sunday observance, family life,
sanctity of the home with the new TV and car.
By 1970: Australia changed its immigration policy and Vietnamese, Cambodian and
Lebanese refugees were let in. Immigration was not encouraged as much now.
Mineral resources
Mount Isa  a remote and forbidding place. The area was searched carefully in the 1950s. It
proved to be a treasure-trove of zinc, copper and silver.
1950s and 1960s: mineral resources made Australia a wealthy country, able to maintain the
high standard of living its population had become accustomed to in earlier agricultural boom
times. Trade centred on Britain, but when Britain joined the EC in the 1970s there was a shift
to the Pacific.
Foreign policy
1950: Australia was the first nation to follow the American lead and send UN forces to Korea.
The 3 years of the Korean War brought new prosperity to the Australian wool trade.
1950: Australia, New Zealand and the US signed the ANZUS treaty.
1954: SEATO was formed, including the US, GB, France, Pakistan, Philippines, Thailand, NZ
and Australia.
May 1970: the largest street demonstration against the war in Australia’s history.
1975: Relations with GB went through an awkward phase when the representative of the
Queen, the Governor General, dismissed the Labour government of Gough Whitlam. Deeper
origins were the refusal of Australian establishment to let Labour rule.
April 1993: Setting up of a Republican Advisory Committee. To reach an agreement a
constitutional convention was organised in 1996, but it failed to ignite the majority of
Australians and in 1999 the referendum on becoming a republic failed as well.
Territories and Antarctica
6 states: NSW, Victoria, Tasmania, Queensland, South Australia and Western Australia. The
Northern Territory is not a state but does have some limited self-government.
Other territories  Norfolk Island, Cocos Islands, Christmas island and Coral Islands.
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Two-fifths of the Antarctica continent are the Australian Antarctic Territory.
Australian government
Three-tier government  the Australian Parliament and Government (national), the six State
government and their legislatures for affairs of the six States and about 900 local
governments.
January 1, 1901: Australia’s written Constitution came into force  can be amended by
referendum.
Formally, the Queen of GB is Queen of Australia, represented by a Governor General and 6
State Governors (Head of State and the chief executive).
Federal Houses of Parliament: House of Representatives & the Senate. The party/coalition
with a majority in the HoR becomes the government and provides the PM. The HoR has 148
seats, divided proportionally. The Senate has 12 senators from each state and two each from
ACT and the Northern Territory. Representatives serve 3 years, senators 6. Anyone over 18
may vote. Largest parties: Labour, Liberal Party, National Party and the Australian
Democrats. Voting is compulsory.
Local government functions vary from state to state. Local government is financed by rates.
Justice
Judges and Magistrates are appointed by the government and are politically independent.
There are 12-strong juries in most serious cases.
Two kinds of law: Statue law (defined and enacted by the federal and state parliaments) and
common law (derives from court cases).
High Court  deals with cases in which federal and state laws cause disputes. Determines
what is constitutional and what isn’t. Final court of appeal.
Federal Court  deals with business practices, copyright etc.
Family Court  deals with divorce, custody, maintenance and so on.
Education
Primary and secondary schooling: compulsory between ages 6-15. Primary school
curriculum is the same nationwide. It is hard for some children to get to a school each day.
The solutions have been to offer a school on the air (via radio equipment), and to house
children in boarding schools.
Post-secondary education: there are some 20 universities and numerous colleges of
technical and further education.
Health
Mix of private and public insurance and treatment. Medicare programme  free hospital,
inpatient and out-patient treatment by doctors to Australian residents. Paid for by a deduction
of income and by general taxing. Special problems in health care are distances, (overcome
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by the royal flying doctor service), and the state of health of many Aborigines and Torres
Strait islanders.
The Aborigines today
1958: Aborigine painter Albert Namatjira was sentenced to prison for supplying alcohol to
another aborigine. His sentence was reduced but shortly after he died of a heart-attack.
1976: Aboriginal Land Rights Act  enabled Aborigines to claim land that traditionally was
owned by Aboriginal owners.
1993: Australian Government under Paul Keating recognised ‘ethnic territories’ for the
Aborigines.
The land, its flora and fauna
Driest continent, uses 70% of its water for agricultural irrigation. The trees that cover the less
arid bits are mostly wattle (mimosa) and eucalyptus (gum trees). Very flat. The animals found
have developed separately from other species. There are the marsupials, like the kangaroo,
wallaby and koala. There is the possum, a creature of the nights, as is the wombat. Dingoes
are wild dogs.
Two special animals are of a species of their own: the platypus and the echidna  both
monotremes (they lay eggs), but suckle their young.
Goanna = giant lizard. Cockatoos = spectacular bird. Emu = ostrich. Kookaburra = catches
cnakes and makes a sound as if it is either laughing, or brushing its teeth, or both at the
same time.
Australia today
A lot of suburban life as shown in the soaps. Sports and hedonistic beach activities play a
great role in Australian life. The folklore of the outback still has strong influence, as can be
seen in the popularity of the Australian battler (struggler) characters portrayed by Paul Hogan
in his TV sketches and Crocodile Dundee films.
Still a largely egalitarian society, with a love for the underdog.
1984: the old anthem ‘God Save the Queen’ was replaced by Advance Australia Fair, which
reflects the sentiment that Australia is a special and beautiful country.
The kangaroo and emu are the national animals and bird emblems, the golden wattle the
floral emblem. Green and gold are the (unofficial) national colours. The Australian flag is the
start of the Southern Cross plus one big star to represent the states, on a field of blue, with
the Union Jack in the left-hand top corner to represent the traditional tie with Britain.
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India
19th century  India was Britain’s ‘jewel in the crown’. British India encompassed presentday
Pakistan, India and Bangladesh.
Early civilisations: Indus Valley Civilisation and Aryan conquest
3000BC: well-organised and literate society inhabited the Indus Valley (Dravidians). Referred
to as Harappan culture because it centered around the city of Harappa. Seen as the first
civilisation. They had a written language, a system of law and invented new techniques and
produced copper, bronze, lead and tin. After 1900, this civilisation went into decline because
of change in climate.
Aryans  first invaders to enter India through the Khyber Pass into Punjab. They arrived
around 1500BC. It was a case of the ultimate triumph of the vanquished over the victors –
the newcomers adopted the settled agricultural lifestyle of their predecessors. They brought
with them the horse, the Sanskrit language and their own religion. They played in
fundamental role in the shaping of Indian culture:
-
Cavalry warfare facilitated the rapid spread of Aryan culture across North India, and
allowed the emergence of large empires
Sanskrit is the basis and the unifying factor of the vast majority of Indian languages
The Aryan religion, with its pantheon of Gods and Goddesses, and its storehouse of
myths and legends, became the foundation of the Hindu religion, arguably the single
most important common denominator of Indian culture
The Aryan tribes started settling. The light-skinned Aryans used the darker tribes as slaves.
The internal division of the Aryan society developed along caste lines. The early division was
between the fair skinned Aryans and the dark skinned slaves; known as the colour (vama)
division. The Aryans themselves came to be grouped into the Brahmin (priests), Khastriya
(warriors), Vaishya (agriculturists) and Sudra (workers). It was a division of occupations.
Caste status and the corresponding occupation came to depend on birth.
Buddhism and Jainism
Both preached non-violence to all living creatures and tolerance and self-discipline. The
teachings of these faiths won immediate popular acceptance owing to their simplicity and
practicality.
The Mauryan Empire
End of third century BC: most of North India was knit together in the first great Indian empire
of Maurya. Their greatest emperor was Ashoka the Great. He was the first victorious ruler to
renounce war on the battlefield. Ashoka converted to Buddhism.
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327 BC: Alexander of Macedonia (the Great) crossed into Northwest India. He conquered a
large part of the Indian territory before he was forced to go home. These regions were lost
out to Indian states through conflict and slow absorption. The contact between the two
cultures left a more lasting impact on Indian art.
Muslim invasions and the Mughal Empire
1000AD: Mahmud of Ghazni attacked India. In 1192, Muslim power arrived in India on a
permanent basis. In 1206, the first of the Sultans of Delhi ruled.
Impact Islam  permanently influenced the development of all areas of human endeavour.
Persian became the court language. Women started to adopt the purdah system (women
were secluded).
Most important Islamic empire: Great (during their reign culture attained a peak of tolerance,
harmony, and a spirit of enquiry) Mughals  founded by Babur in the 16th century. Babur
was succeeded by his son Humayun and under Humanayun’s son, Akbar the Great, IndoIslamic culture had its heyday. Leaders of all faiths were invited to his court at Fatehpur Sikri
to debate religious issues at the specially built ‘Ibadat Khana’. Akbar tried to consolidate
religious tolerance by founding the Din-e-Ilahi religion. His tolerance coincided with the arrival
of the first Europeans (Portuguese). Mughal culture peaked during the reign of Akbar’s
grandson Shahiehan. He moved his capital to Delhi and built the Taj Mahal at Agra. The last
Great Mughal (Aurangzeb) extended his empire over all but the southern tip of India, though
he was constantly harried by Rajput and Maratha clans.
After 1725: discontent in Empire. The growth of religious intolerance and heavy taxes were
the beginning of the end for the Mughals. To the South the empire was under threat of
Marathas (Hindus), but the divided Mughals hoped to fend these enemies off with the help of
Afghans and Persians. They however betrayed the Mughals and exploited their weakness.
They raided Delhi in 1739.
Third quarter of the 18th century: Maratha Empire
The Europeans arrive
1498: Vasco da Gama had landed at Calicut. The Portuguese established their colony in
Goa, but their hold in India remained limited.
Inland the other Europeans companies were making their presence felt, entirely in
commercial terms. The main focus was trade.
1700-1750 Trade
East India Company obtained trading rights from the Mughals and created factories and
military posts at Calcutta, Bombay and Madras. In the first 150 years the focus of the British
was trade. Governors (Nawabs) gave the British permission to trade. There was relative
stability. When the Mughal empire started falling apart they were alerted to the possibility of
acquiring more riches by the French. The British were jealous of the French and this led to a
number of wars.
1746: first war, fought in the Caribbean, America and India. The French captured Madras,
using a small army of less than 1000 French and sepoys to beat a 10000 strong army of an
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Indian opponent. The focus shifted from trade to rule. Dupleix became a nawab in his own
right.
Robert Clive
Robert Clive  a clerk for the EIC who had once tried to commit suicide out of disgust with
his boring life. He saw that India was ripe for conquest and that by creating his own
mercenary army he could expand and defend the EIC’s territory and get rich in the process.
He won some spectacular victories with a tiny force against Indian rulers and by 1752, he
was the nawab-maker in the region of Madras. By 1756, the prince of Bengal heard the
British were building new walls to their forts without his permission. Realising Clive was
planning to take over Bengal, the 50000 troops of Prince Siraj attacked and took the
illdefended fort. The British and Anglo-Indian soldiers and civilians were held overnight in a
tiny, ill-ventilated cell and about 40 of them died.  Black Hole of Calcutta (presented
differently in the media).
1756-1763: Seven Year’s War  cost the French most of their colonies in North America and
all of their influence in India. Clive removed the French from Bengal, and then used his new
influence to make a pact with the Hindu bankers in Calcutta.
June 23, 1757: Clive’s 800 British troops and 2000 sepoys defeated the nawab’s 50000. The
battle took place in a mango grove at Plassey, and marked the beginning of British rule. Clive
became one of the richest men in Britain overnight. Thanks to Clive the EIC became a
profitable organisation. The new strategy was rule behind an Indian Prince and levy taxes.
Through Clive the title nawab entered the English language as nabob, meaning someone
who has become filthy rich from ‘working’ in India for a while.
The Downfall of the East India Company
Millions were made from tax collecting in India’s most populous provinces, while at the same
time the Indian peasants who paid these taxes weren’t aware the British were their masters
now, as John Company paid the Mughal Shah a quarter of a million pounds a year for these
‘rights’. The Shah didn’t have the money anymore to pay for police and a system of justice,
and the British, who did, weren’t interested.
1769: the monsoon rains came late and the harvest failed. Bengal was left unaided and
onethird of the peasants died under British rule. But John Company’s inability to pay British
taxes was a more important reason to reform, and Parliament forced the company to make
some changes.
1784: the highest rule over the Company’s interests in India went to a new Board of Control.
This board could call back the Governor General.
1784: Lord Cornwallis  was made Governor General. He believed that the Britons were the
best qualified people to govern anyone. He fired those who were found lining their pockets
and convinced the Company that those who remained should be paid better. He believed
that the Indian aristocrats should be landlords as well and he allotted land to so-called
‘rajahs’ and ‘zamindars’ under a ten-year settlement, in which they had to bring in a specified
amount of money for the company.
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The Zamindar System
Between the rajah (ruler) and his peasants there were ties that traditionally were expressed
by numerous middlemen. These were called zamindars. They were required to perform
certain police, judicial and military duties. They were more public functionaries and
revenuecollecting agents but did not in any legal sense own the land itself. This changed
under Cornwallis. By granting land to zamindars in private ownership, he created a loyal
class of supporters. The zamindars, now exempt from their public-serving duties, could levy
more taxes and pocket the difference creating an extortion racket of immense proportions.
This new system destroyed the old social fabric of India and created a class of owners who
extorted and dispossessed peasants.
Two other important sources of income: the collection and sale of salt, and the production
and export of opium.
The First Half of the 19th Century
The decline of ‘Company’ influence continued and more Victorian colonial attitudes sprang
up. These attitudes of (sexual) restraint and strict social conduct contrasted with the morality
of the previous Georgian period. Indians were seen s superstitious, traditional and in need of
improvement and who better to offer this improvement than the modern, rational, stiff
upperlipped British? The EIC were not interested in Indian culture, their aim was to ‘spread
Britishness and curb Indianness’.
The British government now created a military force. 10% of this force was British, the others
were Indian soldiers (sepoys). They often came from Bengal. At the time, it was the largest
army in Asia.
The Road to Rebellion
Changes to ‘improve’ India:
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Lord William Bentinck abolished suttee, the Hindu ritual burning of wives when the
husband had died
Troops hunted down the sect called the Thugs, who ritually strangled travellers on the
roads
1840: the employees of the Company were forbidden to attend any Hindu religious
festival
British Blunders
1840s: British tried to spread their influence to Afghanistan and were humiliatingly defeated
and forced to retreat from Kabul to the Khyber Pass. Showed that the British weren’t
invincible.
1856: British annexed the principality of Oudh. Many Indian rulers felt that they could no
longer trust the British.
The new Governor decreed that Hindu soldiers in the British army would also have to serve
overseas. This enraged the sepoys, because it was against their religion. Hindu tradition was
ignored again when another law gave widows the right to remarry. To the Indians it seemed
as though the British were trying to Christianise the subcontinent.
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The Indian Mutiny / Indian Rebellion / First War of Indian Independence
The outbreak was sparked off by a ludicrous incident though this is a clear example of how
far removed the British had become from their subjects. New cartridges for the Indian army
had to be bitten before they were inserted into a rifle. The cartridges were greased with
animal fat. For Hindus, beef fat was taboo. This disregard of religious customs lead to a
rebellion. A century of accumulated grievances erupted in the Indian mutiny of sepoys in the
British army in 1857. The uprising was eventually brutally suppressed. The Indian troops
lacked a clear focus and discipline. Some joined the Rebels side and some the British. Some
Indian rulers had such tight financial ties with the British that they couldn’t afford to remain
neutral and the loyalty of the Sikhs to the British was undying as they would never fight under
the Muslim Mughal Emperor.
Siege of Lucknow  key episode in the rebellion. British men, women and children died
during this siege which lasted nearly a year. In the end the British army liberated Lucknow
only to discover that it had become a scene of carnage and deprivation.
The rebellion was put down and would turn out to be the formal end to the era of Mughal rule
in India. At the end of 1859, the emperor had been deported to Burma where he died. The
Mutiny produced a sense of unity between the Hindus and the Muslims of India. The
rebellion also saw the end of the EIC’s rule in India. Power was transferred to the British
Crown in 1858 by an Act of the British Parliament.
The Raj
The British gave up their attempts to meddle with Indian culture. The British government
issued that they had ‘no intention of imposing our convictions on any of our subjects’. Total
control was sacrificed for a lasting political stability. India remained restless and the fighting
with tribes continued along the North-western frontier.
In Britain young boys were educated to become civil servants in the British Empire (District
Commissioner). They were on call 24/7 and gradually earned immense respect from the
Indian population. They were supposed to marry an English girl and settle in bungalows. The
compensation for their hard work was that they could afford as many as 14 servants. The
reverse side of the coin was loneliness. In principle, the Indian Civil Service was open to
Indian men as well, but in practice they couldn’t enter, because the exams were always
taken in London.
1870-1885: nationalist feelings continued to foment, but were swamped by Queen Victoria’s
acceptance of the title Empress of India. Prime Minister Disraeli had come up with this plan.
The queen’s popularity had suffered since she had lost her husband. With her ‘promotion’ to
Empress Disraeli hoped to boost her popularity. Many Indian Rajas attended her coronation
in London.
There was a famine in the south of India. There was a surplus of grain in certain parts of
India but the British didn’t want to transport this to the famine-stricken areas because they
didn’t want to upset the market price of grain.
The Growth of Nationalism
The British constructed a vast railway network across the entire land in order to facilitate the
transport of raw materials to the ports for export. This gave form to the idea of Indian unity by
physically bringing all the peoples within easy reach of each other. They set out to create a
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local elite to help them in this task; they set up a system of education that familiarised the
local intelligentsia with the intellectual and social values of the West. Ideas of democracy,
individual freedom and equality were the antithesis of the empire and led to the birth of a
freedom movement. They formed the Indian National Congress (1885).
Tilak  anti-colonial leader and social reformer. Hoped to revive the glory days of the Hindu
defenders (Marathas). Was labelled ‘father of the Indian unrest’ by the British colonial rulers.
1895-1905: British Viceroy (Governor) Curzon failed to see what was going on and took
some bad decisions. He tried to bring Indian universities under government control, ordered
an expedition into Tibet and failed to see to it that the growing class of industrial workers in
the cotton and hemp industries were paid well. Violent rebellion rose in Bengal and Tilak was
arrested for ‘sedition’. He was imprisoned and deported to Birma for 6 years.
1907: INC split into a radical section under Tilak, who wanted immediate change, and a
moderate group who wished to gain influence in an Indian parliament.
Gandhi
1915: the freedom movement reached out to the common man through the force and
determination of Mohandas Gandhi  born in 1869. His family came from the traditional
caste of grocers and moneylenders. His mother was an adherent of Jainism (non-violence).
Gandhi went to London to study law when he was 18. He worked for an Indian firm in SA
from 1893-1914. His humiliating experiences of racial discrimination propelled him into
agitation on behalf of the Indian community of SA. He gradually developed his techniques
and tenets of non-violent resistance known as ‘satyagraha’. He returned to India in January
1915 and become the leading figure of the INC in 1919. He promoted cottage industry for
rural areas. Rather than buy British cotton clothes, Indian people should spin cotton
themselves. Indian flag: at its centre is a spinning wheel.
India and World War One
India sent its soldiers to help Britain fight WW1. They fought in Flanders and Gallipoli. The
nationalist feelings grew stronger. They gave rise to two home rule leagues in India. The
leaders of the Home Rule Movement (Tilak and Anne Besant) were non-violent.
After 1918: Nationalism intensified. The INC wanted more power. Woodrow Wilson’s
dominant role in the peace talks after WW1 was influential. The whole concept of national
self-determination undermined the basic idea of the British Empire.
The Massacre at Jallianwala Bagh in Amritsar
During the war Britain had considered giving India a measure of self-government. 1919:
Government of India Act  introduced a national parliament with two houses for India. 5
million of the wealthiest Indians were given the right to vote. It was met with resistance in
Britain. The reforms were introduced very slowly. The Indians suspected the British were
stalling to ensure their continued supremacy in India.
Rowlatt Act of 1919: Authorised the government to imprison any person without trial or
conviction in a court of law.
When Gandhi and two other politicians were arrested the centre of the Sikh territory in
Punjab exploded. Over 15000 people gathered at the Carriage Bridge and were shot at. The
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enraged crowd turned on British officials. The British response was a new proclamation
forbidding public meetings and processions.
13 April, 1919: people organised a peaceful religious meeting at the Jallianwala Bagh in
Amritsar. British General Dyer arrived along with two young officers, 50 Indian and British
rifle-men, 40 Gurkhas, and two armoured cars. General Dyer wanted to make an example of
this illegal meeting. He surrounded the Bagh, closed off the exit and ordered his soldiers to
shoot into the crowd with their machine-guns and rifles. 1516 people were killed. This
massacre influenced Indian politician Jawaharlal Nehru. He became an ardent nationalist
and the killings came to be called ‘the greatest recruiting poster for the Congress’. Gandhi
had immediately adopted the non-co-operation policy. All British goods were boycotted. The
British responded by reconciliation, and the policy was called off.
The Salt Tax
January 26 1930: Declaration of Independence of India  nothing happened following the
declaration.
February 1930: Gandhi started looking at the British salt tax. The salt tax dictated that the
sale or production of salt by anyone but the British government was a criminal offence
punishable by law.
March 12, 1930: Gandhi and 78 male satyagrahis (followers) set out for the coastal village of
Dandi (journey of 23 days). They illegally started making and selling salt along the seashore.
The British government imprisoned thousands of people, including Gandhi. This is seen as
the turning-point in the road towards Independence.
The religious divide
Muslim League under Mohammed Ali Jinnah demanded a separate state of their own to be
called Pakistan. Both Gandhi and the Congress Party were determined to preserve Indian
unity. Jinnah joined the INC but resented the fact that it was dominated by Hindus. In 1934,
he left the INC for the Muslim League (founded in 1906). It had originally been a cultural and
religious organisation. Jinnah turned it into a more dynamic political organisation.
1940: Jinnah called for the creation of an independent state Pakistan in which Muslim could
live away from Hindus.
Towards Independence and partition
1945: newly elected Labour government headed by Clement Attlee wanted to make quick
progress in India. Attlee didn’t think Britain had the right to be in India any longer. But
attempts to draw up a compromise constitution that was acceptable to both Muslims and
Hindus failed. The British plan was to allow the provincial governments extensive powers
whilst central government would only have limited powers. Nehru became the Chief
Negotiator of the Congress for the Transfer of power. He also became the Prime Minister of
the Interim Government. Jinnah became convinced that Nehru couldn’t be trusted and called
on Muslims to take direct action. Violence spread and over 5000 people were killed in
Calcutta. Gandhi went on a fast to stop the killing but to no avail.
Early 1947: PM Atlee announced that Britain would leave India in June 1948. Lord
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Mountbatten believed that peace would come through partition; dividing the country into a
Muslim and Hindu state. He pushed forward the date for Britain leaving India to August 1947.
The British didn’t want to take responsibility for the ensuing violence and had already sent
their troops home. Whether or not areas in Punjab and Bengal were to become part of India
or Pakistan was based on infrastructure and the religious majority.
August 1947: Indian Independence Act  separated the Muslim majority areas from India to
create the independent state of Pakistan. This state was split into East- and West-Pakistan.
15 million people went on a mass-exodus to move to the other side of the new frontiers.
Where the two moving groups met, violence occurred, especially in Punjab where 250000
people were murdered in religious clashes.
January 1948: fundamentalists Hindu assassinated Gandhi. Ironically, it ushered in a period
of stability.
The Nehru Years
Nehru defended his policy as anti-imperialist, anti-apartheid and anti-colonial. With Tito and
Nasser he founded the Non-Aligned Movement. This wasn’t neutral but he believed it
allowed Nations to accept aid and maintain good relations with Nations from both Power
Blocs.
India worked towards becoming a regional economic and political power. It was hampered by
its relationship with Pakistan and China. Problem with China: the status of Kashmir  In
1947, the rulers of princely states were given the choice to join either India or Pakistan, or to
remain independent. In Kashmir, the Mharajah hesitated. The principally Muslim population
witnessed the arrival of Indian troops and rebelled. They eventually agreed to join India. The
people were promised a referendum and heavy fighting took place in 1947-48 between the
Indian and Pakistani forces over Kashmir.
1st January 1949: a cease-fire was declared which created the first Line-of-Control. In 1962,
China fought a short war with India and occupied part of Kashmir. A direct result of this war
was the Indian nuclear programme  led to the creation of a Pakistani bomb. In 1965, India
and Pakistan were at war again. Their final war took place in 1971. India entered a civil war
between East and West Pakistan on the side of the East. Bangla Desh was struck by
warfare, floods and famine.
The Indira Gandhi years
Indira Gandhi  ruled India for 15 years, in an increasingly authoritarian fashion. She was
the daughter of Jawaharlal Nehru. She was elected PM in 1966. The was popular after
India’s triumph in the war of 1971 against Pakistan, and the explosion of a nuclear device in
1974.
By 1974: still protests and accusations of corruption. Mrs. Gandhi declared a state of
emergency. Political enemies were imprisoned, constitutional rights were abandoned and the
press faced censorship. Indira’s son Sanjay Gandhi started to run the country as though he
owned it. He ordered whole slum areas to be bulldozed, and he started a forced sterilisation
programme for the poor. Sanjay died in a mysterious airplane crash. At the same time, India
got into trouble with the Sikh population of the Punjab. Sikh militants wanted to secede from
India. In 1984, Indira ordered an assault upon the holiest Sikh shrine in Amritsar, ‘the Golden
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Temple’. It was damaged, and Mrs. Gandhi earned the undying hatred of Sikhs. Mrs. Gandhi
was assassinated that year by two of her own Sikh bodyguards.
Indians and Pakistanis in England, India’s attraction for (young) British people
After 1947: Many people from the Indian subcontinent moved to Britain to find work. Large
Indian communities can be found in the old industrial centres of the North, in Birmingham
and in London. In 2013 a law was suggested that would make it more difficult to get the
socalled temporary H and L visas used by Indian high tech workers.
Bollywood  mixture of adventure story, romance and musical
Emergence of India as a fast-development country
Worries are that the development of India will lead to a demand for an equal standard of
living as compared to the West, and that such a demand will mean that the world’s resources
will not be up to such demands.
India and terrorism
After the Mumbai attacks, the question arose if this was not more than another aspect of the
long-standing trouble between India and Pakistan.
National Anthem, Flag and National Symbol
Song: Jana-gana-mana, composed originally in Bengali by Rabindranath Tagore.
Indian flag: Saffron, White and Green. Saffron stands for courage and sacrifice, White for
purity and Green for fertility. The spinning wheel represents the Dharma Chakra. It’s also
there to honour Gandhi’s campaign for economic independence in which he called upon
Indians to spin their own yarn and make their own clothes instead of depending on the British
Textile industry.
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Canada
-
G8 member, belongs to the eight most powerful and influential countries economically
speaking. Top five in mineral production.
World’s second largest country. Lakes contain 50% of the world’s sweet water.
A constitutional monarchy, a federal state and a parliamentary democracy at the
same time. Multicultural and officially bilingual (French and English).
Has participated in all UN peacekeeping efforts.
Open-minded views on immigration and LGBT-rights.
The Seven Years’ War
This war was the first step towards British rule over India, Australia and Canada. The British
had explored Canada in the 17th century, but left it lying for the French. It was not a desire for
more colonies that drove the British to conquer Canada. It was the outcome of a number of
European power-games.
Native Canadians and European Discovery
11000 years ago: ancestors of the Native Canadians migrated to the North-American
continent by crossing the Bering Strait. They hunted, fished and gathered wild vegetation.
The rights of the Canadian Aboriginal people haven’t been respected. Language and
customs were forbidden for children who were forced into Government schools in the 19th
and early 20th centuries.
Eric The Red  Viking explorer who reached Greenland in 985. His son founded a shortlived
settlement on the northern tip of Newfoundland. About 1000 years ago Leif Ericsson sailed
from Iceland to Greenland but was blown off course and landed on Canada’s EastCoast.
John Cabot  was sent on voyages in 1497-98 by English king Henry 7 to look for things of
value. They found thick fish and the European powers sent out fishing vessels to fish in the
West-Atlantic Ocean. But beaver is what made the Europeans settle because beaver hats
were very popular at the time and fostered a large market. To assist fur-traders and set traps
the French started small settlements (not permanent). The French explorer Jacques Cartier
sailed up the St Lawrence River to an Indian village that is now known as Montreal. He
started a tradition of peaceful trade with the natives.
Samuel De Champlain  headed Quebec, one of the first settlements. He later became
governor of New France. This was a large area in North-East North America ruled by the
French King Louis 13th. He gave away large portions of land to French Nobles. They in turn
rented land to commoners as sharecroppers.
The Hudson Bay Company
1670: Hudson Bay Company was granted exclusive trading rights for fish and furs to all lands
which rivers and streams drained into Hudson Bay. The Company was an English trading
company. It originally confined its trading activities to James Bay and the western shore of
Hudson Bay. London could be reached by ships sailing directly from Hudson Bay. TO
counter this intrusion the French attacked English forts in the Hudson Bay but were unable to
defeat them. In 1756, this led to the Seven Years’ War.
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Towards a confrontation
The British felt threatened by the French presence close to their territories. French had built
forts and trading posts along the Mississippi River. The British saw they were being
encircled.
The Iroquois League
The balance of power in the region was held by the League of Five Nations  a union of
Iroquoian-speaking North American Indian peoples. Was formed by the early 16th century. Its
formation was a defensive response to warfare with neighbouring Huron and other
Algonquian-speaking tribes. Hiawatha travelled among the five Nations and united them in a
nearly invulnerable political alliance until its eventual collapse during the American
Revolution. The League skilfully played off opposing parties against one another and
subjugated neighbouring tribes for both economic and territorial gains. The league’s Grand
Council consisted of 50 life-appointed male sachems, who were nominated by the
headwoman of certain sachem-producing lineages in each clan. Major decisions were
reached through unanimity.
The series of conflicts that broke out in the 18th century are sometimes called the ‘French and
Indian Wars’ because of the important Indian contribution.
The Seven Years’ War
A worldwide conflict that pitted Britain and Prussia against Austria, France, Rusia, Saxony,
Sweden, and Spain. The British used the pretext of the European war to tackle the problem
of French encirclement in North America.
One British army commander who distinguished himself was George Washington.
If the British could knock out the Canadian colonies, the French armies in the forts would no
longer be supplied, and they would eventually have to give up. The British commander Wolfe
had his 4000 troops climb the steep cliffs of Quebec in a surprise attack. Wolfe was killed
and instantly became a national hero. After the fall of Quebec, British acquisition of New
France was confirmed in the Peace of Paris of 1763.
70000 French Canadians and 1500 Acadians now faced a North America that was British
from the Gulf of Mexico to Hudson Bay. The British didn’t insist people of French descent to
adopt British Customs.
1774: the Quebec Act  recognised the Roman-Catholic church in North-America. Also
established French Civil Law. Passed to create goodwill among those of French heritage.
Another result of the War: it cost them the American Colonies. The British decided to tax the
American colonists. The Americans saw things differently and claimed they had done most of
the fighting. The quarrel was fanned by politicians who envisaged a different kind of society,
and by 1773 the American Revolution was a fact. The French took revenge by sending an
army under Lafayette. After the Revolution, immigration to Canada increased as the United
Empire Loyalists fled to the new United States. The arrival of these people posed problems
of adjustment between two peoples. The Loyalists on the one hand brought to Canada a
belief in representative government. To keep the loyalists happy, the British divided the old
province of Quebec into two parts in 1791, Lower Canada and Upper Canada.
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The War of 1812
The English Navy in Canada stopped and then boarded US’ ships as American vessel made
their way to France and vice versa. American sailors were sometimes taken captive to serve
on British ships. The US President Madison objected to these indignities and persuaded the
US-congress to declare war on Britain and thus on Canada. The British in Canada supplied
American Indians with guns as soon as the American War of Independence ended. Warfare
between American troops and Indians gradually developed into a secret war between the
Americans and British Canadians.
In the war of 1812 the British were stronger. They repulsed an American attack on Canada
and retaliated by burning New Orleans. The Americans were ill prepared for war. Only the
navy was in good shape. When the war ended in December 1814 neither side kept any land
it had won and relationships between Canadians and Americans have been relatively friendly
ever since.
The Hudson’s Bay Company expands
In Canada the Hudson’s Bay Company was influential and played a major role in the
development of Canada in the 19th century. The Company didn’t began building trading posts
in the Canadian interior until the Montreal-based North West Company became competition.
Pathfinders
In opening the West the companies were helped by the native people who were their
indispensable allies. Samuel Hearne, an explorer and fur-trader working for the Hudson’s
Bay Company in 1766 was chosen to search for a western passage. His first 2 attempts
ended ingloriously. In 1772 he was successful when he was led on a monumental trek by
Dene chief Matonabbee. They walked across trackless wastes, following the seasonal
migrations of the caribou. Hearne became the first European to make an overland excursion
across northern Canada to the Arctic Ocean.
Sir Alexander Mackenzie  Scottish explorer, the first to travel overland to the Pacific Coast.
He succeeded with his second mission. In 1783, he began his quest for the Pacific again;
this meant crossing the Rocky Mountains. He reached his goal and became the first to cross
the continent north of the Spanish possessions.
David Thompson  map-maker and geographer who started in the employment of the
Hudson’s Bay Company as a clerk and later as a fur trader. He left for the North West
Company, for whom he started mapping the interior of Canada. He was the first European to
navigate the full length of the Columbia River.
Competition
The Hudson’s Bay Company won in the end because of its greater financial resources and
because of the economic advantage of its bay route to Europe. The trade war between the
two companies showed the animosity between the British and those who saw themselves as
Canadians. In 1816 the massacre of settlers at Seven Oaks by men of the North West
Company provoked the Hudson’s Bay Company to seize Fort William, the NWC’s western
headquarters. The North West Company eventually merged with the English Hudson’s Bay
Company in 1821.
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Go West!
1846: Oregon Question  the Oregon Territory was ceded by the HBC to the US. The
Canadian federal government arranged (1869) to buy the HBC’s territories for 300000
pounds. This meant the end of HBC’s political jurisdiction but not of its commercial activities.
After 1870 the HBC expanded into real estate, retail trade and oil and gas production.
May 29, 1970: HBC’s received a Canadian charter, following the decision to transfer the
company’s headquarters from Britain to Canada. It’s the oldest chartered company in the
world.
Compromises in government
Divide of Lower and Upper Canada: British had taken over a French colony and there were
differences between the French-speaking and the English-speaking settlers. The colonies
were divided into Upper and Lower Canada. The British were forced to admit Catholics into
government jobs and to allow their Church certain rights. This showed that the British wanted
cooperation. Canada was ruled by a British governor and its justice system was a mixture of
French and British law.
Trouble started through immigration. Most newcomers were farmers who had been promised
a small piece of land to settle on. Much land was bought by British people who had become
rich through the fur trade. In Lower Canada a French elite saw its political power shift to a
new (British) class of merchants and lawyers. There was a large French opposition which
skilfully used its newspapers to create anti-British sentiments.
By 1830: the struggle for democratic government in the colonies of British North America had
reached fever pitch. A generation of reformers confronted the appointed governors and their
local favourites with one demand  let the citizen’s elected representatives run their own
affairs. This led to bloody rebellion and defeat for the rebels.
May 1838: a liberal English aristocrat arrived in Canada (Earl of Durham). He was
commissioned by the British government to inquire into the Canadian troubles and
recommend changes. He recommended that the French Canadians be assimilated with the
English and urged that the colonies of Lower and Upper Canada be joined. This was done in
1840 (Province of Canada). The French settlers resented this enforced unification.
Therefore, Durham also recommended that the ministerial government be made responsible
to the elected assembly rather than to the crown-appointed governor. This happened in
1848.
Railroads and Political Union
The building of the Grand Trunk Railway from Montreal to Toronto produced permanent
changes in Canadian society: development of cities, breaking down isolation, changing the
countryside etc.
1861-65: American Civil War  caused a climate of tension between the US and Canada.
The British were neutral, but in important financial circles there was much sympathy for the
Southern rebels fighting the US government.
The driving force for change came from Canada West. By 1864 it was clear that no
government could long survive unless changes were made. Proposal for British North
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American Union  accepted by the British government. The decisive push was the threat of
annexation of the Canadian ‘west’ by the Americans.
1867: British North America Act: Uniting Canada, New Brunswick, and Nova Scotia. Name of
the union was the Dominion of Canada. The union was federal and strongly weighted at the
centre; the federal government was given the right of veto over provincial legislation, and an
aggrieved religious minority in any province could appeal educational rights to the federal
government. The first prime minister was Sir John A. Macdonald. He remained in power until
his death in 1891.
Manitoba and the Northwest Territories were included in 1870, British Columbia in 1871, and
Prince Edward Island in 1873. When British Columbia joined, the Macdonald government
committed itself to start a railroad to the Pacific. The task was impossible. Only in 1880 was
a private group found that was strong enough to undertake the task. The Canadian Pacific
Railway Company went to work, and within 5 years the last spike was hammered in place.
The Mounties
In order to police the area, the North-West Mounted Police (Mounties) was created. Through
selection and training, a corps of policemen was created. They were respected. They
couldn’t handle the political problems that cause a rebellion of Indian and Metis
(FrenchIndian half-breeds) that erupted when the HBC’s lands were added to Canada. The
rebels, led by Louis Riel, feared that their land would be taken from them. The new railway
was used to send in Canadian troops, which put down the rebellion. The execution of Riel
created controversy.
The Klondike Gold-rush
Klondike: sparsely populated area in west central Yukon Territory in Canada near the
Alaskan border. The site of a gold rush in the 1890s. Gold was discovered in 1896, and the
rush began in ’97. Dawson, a major town of the Klondike, served the needs of the
prospectors. By 1910, more than 100000000 dollars’ worth of gold had been taken from the
Klondike. Stories of the dangers were published by the American writer Jack London (Tales
of the Northwest). The Klondike adventure and life at the turn of the century were described
by Robert Service (poet). Famous gold-rush poem: The Shooting of Dan McGrew.
Immigration
Early mass immigration took place during the American Civil War. People: wealthy farmers,
agricultural labourers, female domestics and professionals. Idea was to settle the West. The
Canadian Pacific was designated to build the national railway and be the main instrument of
immigration and settlement. To enhance the value of the railway’s land it needed
‘neighbours’, people who had farms and would use the railroads to transport their produce.
The CPR formed its own department of colonisation and immigration, and engaged in
massive propaganda efforts to attract immigrants in Europe and the US. They offered special
mortgage plans for CPR built ready-made farms.
English Canadian emigration led to demands for large-scale British immigration to Canada.
In 1895, the Government tried to attract new groups of settlers through extensive advertising
in Europe and the US. It was effective because of what was happening in Europe: ethnic and
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religious tensions, persecution, industrial upheaval and the collapse of peasant farming
systems.
Restrictions
1885: act to restrict and regulate Chinese immigration
1907: Anti-Asian tensions rose again, following the formation of the Asiatic Exclusion league.
The federal government restricted immigration to those who arrived directly from their
country of origin.
First decades of 20th century: immigrants were seen as strike breakers by trade unionists.
View of foreign radical agitators. The Chinese Immigration Act of 1923 halted immigration
from China.
During World War Two: immigration to Canada almost stopped completely. At the end of the
war there was a strong external pressure to have immigrants. A sense of economic optimism
in Canada helped create an agreement among Canadians that an expansive future required
a more expansive immigration policy. Anti-Asian sentiment remained present.
Boom and change
After the booming years in the 1950s and early 1960s immigration changed again. Highly
educated and highly skilled people are welcome but there are limits.
Canada and World War 1
Canada declared war on Germany on August 4, 1914. 600000 soldiers served, and between
50000 and 60000 died. Canada provided men mainly for the Western Front, in Northern
France and Flanders.
Famous poem: ‘In Flanders Fields’ (John McCrae). Symbolises the sacrificed of all who were
fighting in WW1.
Important contribution to the war effort: Canadian Flying Corps  supplied many fighter
pilots, one of whom became the war’s third ‘ace’, meaning he shot down a large number of
enemy planes.
Halifax disaster  In 1917, ships headed for Europe while the wounded returned to Canada
from the frontlines. Two ships collided, fire broke out and there was an explosion which
destroyed Halifax.
Between the wars
In Canada tensions increased. War factories were shutting down, which caused
unemployment. A strike committee was formed. The Government and employers were quick
to brand the strike as ‘communist’ and tried to outlaw it. It was easy to blame the unrest on
immigrants too. Those laws were tightened as well. The Mounties started fighting the
strikers, which led to increasing violence in the streets. The strike lasted 40 days.
1937: the world economy began to straighten out. Industrial countries resumed their
economic development but Canada remained behind others. It would take them two more
years to pull off the Great Depression.
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World War Two
September 10, 1939: Canada joined Britain and France in the war against Germany. It
wanted to play only a limited role. This seemed possible in the autumn and winter of
19391940 (‘Phony War’). The fighting had come to a temporary halt. But after May 1940,
Britain was threatened and asked the US and Canada for support. The Prime Minister
commanded factories to begin production of war supplies. Canadians fought on many fronts
in this war. The greatest disaster for Canadians was the Raid on Dieppe, their finest hour the
liberation of the Netherlands.
August 19, 1942: attack on Dieppe was supposed to be a quick raid. Part of the landing force
encountered a small German convoy that alerted the German defences. They had lost the
element of surprise. They walked into a hail of fire.
In the race to build an atomic bomb during WW2, the Americans contacted their Canadian
allies to fulfil the needs of having a supply of uranium.
After WW2, Canada finally took on its present size and shape as Newfoundland joined the
federation.
The Flag
1963: referendum on a new flag. Controversy arose over the proposed design (one maple
leaf). On December 15, 1964 a majority agreed on the present design of one maple leaf.
Officially hoisted at the Peace Tower on Parliament Hill on February 15, 1965.
Greenpeace
Started in Canada in the early 1970s. Protests started against US nuclear testing in Alaska.
This didn’t lead to results. Then somebody proposed to sail a boat to the area so that the
nuclear device couldn’t be exploded. The boat was called the Greenpeace. The strategy
worked but supplies on the boat ran out and they had to sail back home. They garnered
worldwide media attention and the Canadian government voted to condemn nuclear tests.
Greenpeace was born. It became the first organization that linked the survival of the human
race with the survival of the environment.
The Quebec question
1791: established Lower Canada with capital Québec. People in Quebec felt they were held
back and discriminated against in an English-speaking nation. By the 1960s Quebec
witnessed the Quiet Revolution, a period of rapid modernisation of Quebec society and
economy. In the 1970s there were tensions when people of French descent wanted the
province of Quebec to secede from Canada. A radical group calling itself ‘Front for the
Liberation’ started using acts of terror to bring about separation from Canada. British trade
commissioner James Cross was kidnapped by members. Pierre Laporte, a famed Quebec
reported and minister of immigration and labour in the Quebec government, was kidnaped
and the federal government, led by Pierre Trudeau, didn’t hesitate to summon armed troops
to guard potential targets in Ottawa and Montreal.
War Measures Act: a State of Emergency was declared and traditional Canadian civil
liberties were suspended. The FLQ was declared a terrorist organisation. All separatists
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movements had become suspect to the English-speaking Canadians and moderate
Quebecois. Many started seeing democratic separatism as an option they could live with. In
1976 a party advocating sovereignty, the Parti Québécois, took power. They started working
towards a referendum that would legally separate Quebec from Canada. So far it has failed
twice.
Today
Important partner in the North American Free Trade Agreement. Regular contributor to
peace-keeping missions all over the world. Has its own space programme (since late 1980s).
Popular country for immigration. Skilled workers are much in demand outside the great cities.
The Government of Canada establishes an annual range for the number of immigrants who
will be admitted into Canada.
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