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Relations with Indigenous Peoples (Relations with the Boers and Bantu…
Relations with Indigenous Peoples
The Indian Mutiny and its Impact
The Mutiny
Began among sepoys serving in the Bengal Army.
1857 = grievances about pay and changes to their condition of service exploded
Traditional explanation = cartridges in the new Enfield rifles had been greased with animal fat which offend the religious beliefs
Real trigger = anger felt by landlords and nobles who had been deprived of their lands by Governor-General Dalhousie
Sepoys in Bengal refused to obey orders in February 1857.
At Meerut sepoys turned on their British officers and a mob set upon local Europeans
Seized control in most on the northern cities (Agra, Cawnpore)
Short-lived attempt to restore the old Mughal Emperor
The sepoys were joined by sections of the urban and rural population, some were discontented landowners who had lost out under British rule and others were peasants who resented taxation or to get back at feuding neighbours
The Emperor's sons were executed so that the remaining rebels could not restore the Mughal dynasty
Delhi and Lucknow were devastated - villages burnt down- mutineers tortured by British officers, their wives and children murdered
British rule was not fully restored until June 1858 following a final battle at Gwalior India passed into the direct rule of the British Crown
The Impact of the Mutiny
Government and society in India
Reporting emphasised the savagery of the Indians whilst ignoring the brutality of the British which fuelled the arrogance of white men as people began to question whether the East could be westernised
The British did try to act in a more religiously sensitive way but grew more aloof
After 1858 a greater degree of separation set in and the legal systems imposed favoured white men and were to complex and expensive to help the poor especially inmate of land tenure
'equality of opportunities' offered by British rule provided more educational opportunities for the wealthier Indians who created the new professional classes. However it did little for the mass of peasants and even those with education found it hard to get promotions beyond the lower ranks of colonial bureaucracy
Between 1859 and 1861 - Viceroy Canning toured India to win back those who had be disposed or felt alienated, as a result his efforts:
Some land and title were returned to native Indians
Star of India medals were introduced
Positions in Imperial Assembly or Statutory Civil Service posts were shared amongst the Indian nobility
More educational establishments, teaching in English were opened
The extension of education
Universities were established in Bombay, Madras and Calcutta in 1857:
30 years following 1857 about 60,000 Indians entered the universities
2000 in law
1712 Calcutta students graduated by 1882 and over a 1/3 entered government services
Social reformer Mary Carpenter helped to establish a corps of British teachers for India as well as girls' schools in Bombay and Ahmedabad
She also opened a college to train female Indian teachers
Economic change
The greatest change after 188 was a growth in investment - particularly in the railways (built more for strategic than economic purposes) they helped to stimulate trade
Subsistence farming prevailed although the number of tea plantations increased
1 in 1851 to 295 by 1871
Increase in the domestic production of raw cotton for expire to Britain in the 1880s and 1890s
Relations with the Boers and Bantu Peoples in Southern Africa
Boers = descendants of the original Dutch settlers from the Cape area and moved north from 1833:
First moved to Natal which the British then annexed in 1845 and subsequently further into the interior
In the second 1/2 of the 19th century the British came to conflict with both the boers and the native Bantu tribes of southern Africa
Relations with Boers and Bantu 1867 - 1880
The discovery of diamonds in 1867near Kimberly in West Griqualand bordering the Orange Free State = greater friction
Triggered a 'diamond rush' attracting both whites and Bantus
1868 - The British annexed Basutoland claiming the indigenous African were seeking British protection against the Boers
1871 - Britain took West Griqualand and following the annexation 2000 Griqua trekked eastwards and established Griqualand East in 1873 ( annexed in 1874)
British proposed a federation of the British and Boer territories in 1875 bu the Boers rejected
Xhosa War 1877 - 1878:
The British easily disarmed neighbouring tribesmen and annexed their communities to the cape
Boer were less successful in their conflict with the Pedi tribe who maintained their independence in the eastern Transvaal
1877 = British announced the annexation of the Transvaal claiming that they needed to defend the white European settlers against the Pedi and Zulus
The boers reluctantly accepted the British aid
British launched invasion of Zululand in JANUARY 1879 ( the Zulu War 1879 -1880)
The British defeated the Zulus at Ulundi 1879
Once the Zulus had been defeated the boers declared their total independence from Britain in 1880
Relations with Boers and Bantu 1880 - 1890
From 1880 the Boers turned on the British attacking army garrisons across the Transvaal
Humiliated the British at Majuba Hill FEBRUARY 1881 - over 150 Britons were killed = British forced to sign the Convention of Pretoria
Convention of Pretoria recognised Boer self-government in the Transvaal but the British still claimed a right to control over external affairs , the Boers were unaware of this situation and it increased hostility
The arrival of the Germans in south-west Africa in 1884raised British fears that the Boers might form an alliance with Germany
1885 - the British annexed a section of territory between German South-West Africa and the Transvaal = Bechuanaland
It was a strategic attempt to prevent the combining of German and Boer colonies
1886 - new gold discoveries as Witwatersrand near the Transvaal produced further instability
The gold was eagerly sought by trading companies and Uitlanders aoung them Cecil Rhodes
Rhodes received a charter for his British South Africa Company in October 1889
His ultimate aim was to create an continuous British land route from Cape Town to Egypt
SEPTEMBER 1890 Rhode's company established a fort at Salisbury, Mashonaland
Treatment of the Bantu
Little thought was given to the local Bantu tribes whose land was increasingly eroded
The discovery of diamonds and gold increased wealth of the region but the profits remained firmly in the hands of the settlers
Laws were passed at the insistence of the mining companies that limited the right of the black Africans to have claims over the mines
Black Africans relegated to preforming manual labour while the white people got the high skilled jobs and reaped the profits
Black workers were forbidden by law from living wherever they wanted and were forced to stay in segregated neighbourhoods