Political Power And Colonial Development In British Central Africa 1938 1960s

This book focuses on the late colonial history of Zambia and Malawi, which between 1953 and 1963 were part of the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland. Although there were many links in their history and between their populations, the two territories (British protectorates under Colonial Office control) contrasted greatly in power structures, in their economies, and in their development. Europeans living in Northern Rhodesia, with a power base in the mining economy, were able to establish a dominant position in the territory after the Second World War. By the 1950s it looked as though they would have, with Southern Rhodesian Europeans, a long hegemony, gaining independence from Britain as a new Dominion, which would mean control over both Northern Rhodesia and Nyasaland through the Federation. Thus, white ethnicity and ideology are essential factors in this book relating to the struggle for power from just before the Second World War up to the 1960s. However, crises in 1959 and 1960 led to the collapse of the Federation. A second focus is on issues of social and economic development. For Africans in Nyasaland, and in rural parts of Northern Rhodesia, there was a relatively weak economy in this period, a pattern of limited cash crop production, while many people became caught up in labour migration, subordinate to powerful European-dominated economic forces within southern Africa. This meant that colonial policies aimed at rural development were fundamentally flawed. The book also looks at the actual nature of rural economic change (as opposed to colonial policies) and discusses alternative visions of the future which were put forward. The argument is put that historians have often concentrated on the activities of the main nationalist movements in Nyasaland and Northern Rhodesia, seeing them as bringing progress away from colonialism and towards independence. Here there is an attempt to draw out the complexities of life, and a variety of responses in the colonial situation, progress coming in a number of forms, but not always being achieved.

This book is the first comprehensive economic, social and political study of the London suburb of Croydon from 1900 up to the present day. One of the largest London boroughs, Croydon, has always been a mixed residential suburb (mainly private but with some municipal housing), which has strongly influenced the nature of its political representation. It was never just an affluent middle-class suburb or ‘bourgeoise utopia,’ as suggested by traditional definitions of suburbia and in popular imagination. In economic terms it was also an industrial suburb after 1918. It was then transformed into a vibrant post-industrial service economy following rapid deindustrialisation and remarkable commercial and office redevelopment after 1960. In this respect Croydon is also an ex-industrial suburb, similar to many other outer London areas and other peripheral metropolitan areas. Croydon’s civic identity as a previously independent town on the outskirts of London remains unresolved to this day, even as its political representatives seek to redefine the borough as a more independent ‘Edge City.’ Author Michael Tichelar examines this suburb by looking at the suburban development of London, the changing politics of Croydon and policy issues during the twentieth century. Labour in the Suburbs will be of interest to the general reader as well as students of modern British history with special interests in electoral sociology, political representation and suburbanisation. It provides a template against which to measure the process of suburbanisation in the UK and internationally.

Between the mid-eighteenth and the mid-nineteenth century, the idea of dictatorship changed drastically, leaving back the ancient Roman paradigm and opening the way to a rule with extraordinary powers and which was unlimited in time. While the French Revolution produced an acceleration of history and created new narratives of dictatorship, with Napoleon Bonaparte as its most iconic embodiment, the Latin American struggle for independence witnessed an unprecedented concentration of rulers seeking those new nations’ sovereignty through dictatorial rule. Starting from the assumption that the age of revolution was one of dictators too, this book aims at exploring how this new type of rulers whose authority was no longer based on dynastic succession or religious consecration sought legitimacy. By unveiling the role of emotions – hope, fear and nostalgia – in the making of a new paradigm of rule and focusing on the narratives legitimizing and de-legitimizing dictatorship, this study goes beyond traditional conceptual history. For this purpose, different sources such as libels, history treatises, encyclopedias, plays, poems, librettos, but also visual material will be resorted to. This book is essential reading for scholars and students of modern history, the history of emotions, intellectual history, global history, cultural studies and political science.

This volume explores the formative and expressive dynamics of Khoesan identity during a crucial period of incorporation as an underclass into Cape colonial society. Khoesan and Imperial Citizenship in Nineteenth Century South Africa emphasises loyalism and subjecthood – posited as imperial citizenship – as foundational aspects of Khoesan resistance to the debilitating effects of settler colonialism. The work argues that Khoesan were active in the creation of their identity as imperial citizens and that expressions of loyalty to the British Crown were reflective of a political and civic consciousness that transcended their racially defined place in Cape colonial society. Following a chronological trajectory from the mid-1790s to the late 1850s, author Jared McDonald examines the combined influences of colonial law, evangelical-humanitarianism, imperial commissions of inquiry, and the abolition of slavery as conduits for the notion of imperial citizenship. As histories and legacies of colonialism come under increasing scrutiny, the history of the Khoesan during this period highlights the complex nature of power and its imposition, and the myriad, nuanced ways in which the oppressed react, resist, and engage. This book will be of interest to scholars and students working on British imperialism in Africa, as well as histories of settler colonialism, nationalism, and loyalism.

Globalizing the Soybean asks how the soybean conquered the West and analyzes why and how the crop gained entry into agriculture and industry in regions beyond Asia in the first half of the twentieth century. Historian Ines Prodöhl describes the soybean’s journey centered on three hubs: Northeast China, as the crop’s main growing area up to the Second World War; Germany, to where most of the beans in the interwar period were shipped; and the United States, which became the leading cultivator of soy worldwide during the 1940s. This book explores the German and U.S. adoption of the soybean being closely tied to global economic and political changes, such as the two world wars and the Great Depression. The attraction of the soybean to stakeholders on both sides of the Atlantic was linked to a need for cheap alternatives to butter and lard and a desire for greater quantities of meat, which led to the soybean becoming a cheap resource for fat and fodder. Only occasionally was it also used as food. This volume is useful for anyone who is studying or interested in economic history and commodity trading in the twentieth century. It is also connected to the histories of capitalism, globalization, imperialism, and materiality.

Drawing on official, archival, and published sources, this book explores how the formative history of the European nation-state was embedded within economic globalization and associated with conceptions of the world overseas. With a particular focus on France, Germany, Italy, and Britain, this research investigates how overseas relationships shaped state governance. The argument departs from conventional histories by linking together the analysis of economic relationships and political cultures, examining the ways in which state agency formed in different areas such as national economy building, the organization of overseas raw material and food supplies, labour, migration, and national identity. Spanning over a century, the book discusses the changing role of overseas colonies in European national development. Once a means to complete economic liberalization, colonies were then envisaged as tools of crisis management before, in the mid-twentieth century, complementarities in imperial-colonial economies shifted away from empire. This volume covers neglected aspects of the transnational history of European nation-states and is an ideal resource for students and researchers interested in the ties between Europe, Africa, and Asia, as well as connections between political, economic, and social relations and their conceptualizations.

This volume tells the story of the Helsinki Process from the immediate post-war period through the signing of the Helsinki Final Act in 1975 to the collapse of the Soviet empire and up to the present day. Treating it as a single narrative in the search for a just and stable order in Europe adds significantly to the copious but mostly narrowly focused academic literature on the subject. Divided into 26 chapters, it can also serve as a handy reference book for different phases of the story. Chapter 22 examines the continuing debate over whether the West is responsible for the breakdown of relations with Russia and why the Helsinki Process failed to avert it. Chapter 26 asks whether the remarkable multilateral diplomacy that produced the Final Act could be replicated in other troubled areas today. It then offers 12 lessons that may be drawn from that experience. Defrosting the Cold War and Beyond: An Introduction to the Helsinki Process, 1954–2022 will help students and others understand the long arc of the Helsinki process, its place in European history and its continuing relevance today. Drawing on the first-hand experience of the author and other sources, the book corrects common errors and identifies some of the key people involved.

Intended for those interested in the African continent and the diversity of human history, this work looks at Africa's past and reflects on the changing ways it has been imagined and represented. It illustrates key themes in modern thinking about Africa's history with a range of historical examples.