Current Affairs

International factors determined key aspects of decolonisation in India, Algeria and Angola. World events, philosophical beliefs, ideologies, national identity, political and commercial pressures defined the peripheries resolve for independence and an end to the domination of arguments found in the metropole. The perceived identity developed by the metropole defined how the periphery became determined nationally, which led to the acceptance of the metropoles constructed identity of the periphery and the realisation of this identity.

The Portuguese, British and French empires were developed and influenced through the concerns and needs of a mercantile elite. Portuguese mercantile concerns in Angola were developed from the slave trade and ivory exported through Cabinda, Luanda and other ports. The idea that Portugal was a civilising mission, as Antonio Salazar argued on 12^th August 1963, (Markum. J., 1978, pp. 248-6) could be argued, if historically it was only put into context with Diogo Cao’s first voyage into Angola in 1483. In return for accepting Bakongo hospitality, Bakongo emissaries sent to Portugal were treated with courtesy, which led to the recognition of Nzinga Nkuwu as the Manikongo by King Joao II of Portugal. (Bender. J., 1978. pp12-14). Within ten years Nzinga Nkuwu had converted to Catholicism, then rejected his new faith, been replaced by his son Mbemba Nzinga, who after ten years of clerical instruction in Lisbon, was recognised as the new Manikongo, Alonso I. However, the reality was something different, between 1491 and 1575, approximately 400,000 slaves were sent to the Americas, (Bender J,. 1978. p.15) and according to Gerald Bender, even the priests sent from Portugal to evangelise and teach were involved in the slave trade, and as Salazar argued in the declaration of overseas policy, in August 1963, “does the religion preached constitute a nation of civilized expression”. (Markum. J., 1978. Pp.284-286).

The reality of Portuguese governance in Angola was similar to British governance in India, it was alien and wholly dependent on a population that was ethnically diverse and determined by an administration whose authority was justified by being militarily superior, with a belief in the own supremacy. Fieldhouse argues that British sovereignty over India was inherited when Moghul authority was “defunct”. (Fieldhouse. D., 1982., Pp272) T.B. Macauley in 1833, called for a policy to educate Indians so there “might emerge a class of persons, Indian in colour and blood, but English in tastes, in opinions, in morals and in intellect”. (Fieldhouse. D., 1982., p.272). In a similar way to Macauley, Salazar in his declaration on overseas policy in 1963, argued that Portugal was awakening “a conscience of the national that is, created a fatherland and raised the population to the new level of a higher civilization” (Markum. J., 1978., Pp. 284-286), and in France, Jules Ferry argued that “France had a ‘mission civilsatrice’ […] more justice, more material and moral order, more equity, more social virtue in North Africa since France carried out its conquest”. (Aldrich., R., 1996,. p.98)

In Antonio Salazar’s Declaration on Overseas Policy, August 12, 1963, Salazar argued that “Angola does not exist without Portugal” […] and “the only national conscience rooted in the province is not Angolan, it is Portuguese”. (Markum. J., 1978., Pp284-286). However, to be considered Portuguese and be considered civilised”, the Portuguese demanded Mestico and Africans to be classified by a test determining the ability of the Mestico and Africans ability to “read, write, speak Portuguese fluently, earn wages from a trade, eat, dress, worship as the Portuguese and maintain [the] standard of living and customs of a European life”.Of the African’s who succeeded, out of an African population who succeeded in passing the test and considered civilised by the Portuguese colonial administration, only 30,089 succeeded out of an African population of 4,036,689, which accounted for 99.9 percent of Angola’s population.. (Bender,. G., 1975 Pp150, 151). Mendez France on 12^th November 1954, argued in a speech that “ici, c’est la France”, meaning Algeria was France and part of France. The reality in Algeria in 1954, was that the population stood at 9.7 million, and of that there were 8.7 million Muslims, with the largest employment sector being agriculture, which employed 2.7 million of those at working age, and out of the 2.7 million, only1.7 million were employed for more than a hundred days a year. In education, Muslim children made up only 12.75 percent of primary school places and 18 percent of places in the Lycee, and 11 percent accepted into Algiers University. (Waites,. B., 2009., Pp128-129). Rachid Benecheneb argued that the majority of Algerians who were not European could not speak French, and only a fifth of European men could speak Arabic. (cited, Waites,. B., 2009., p.129)

The moral order argument in the metropole was enforced by military supremacy, which in itself depended on commerce generated in the periphery. Jules Ferry in 1885 argued that “Colonial policy is the daughter of industrial policy. […] export is essential factor, (and as such), the establishment of a colony is the establishment of a market”. (Aldrich., R., 1996 Pp97,98).  Mohandas Gandhi, wrote in the newspaper Indian Opinion, that Britain “hold whatever dominions they have for the sake of commerce […] Many problems can be solved by remembering that money is their God.” (Gandhi., M., 2003 (1909). John Darwin argued that economically  India’s place in the metropole in the 1930s’ was in decline (Darwin., J., 1980., Pp. 657-659). Between, 1865-1914, British capital exports to the empire totalled £1614.8 million or 39.6% of investment, and British investment in India was 7.8%, in contrast, British capital exports to the USA alone came to £836.3 million, which accounted for 20% of British investment overseas. In 1870, Indian exports to Britain accounted for 53.6% of its trade worldwide, and only exported 8% of its minerals to Europe. However, by 1910, India’s exports halved to 25.4%, while increasing trade with Europe by 31.6% (Source: Latham., 1978). India’s economic expansion into Europe challenged the metropoles influence on the periphery, and with boycotts of British imports and civil disobedience, the metropoles relevance to the periphery was becoming less important.

In 1845, three hundred and fifty years after Diogo Cao’s first contact with the Bakongo, the composition of the Europeans living in Angola was 1,832, which was only 0.03 percent of the population, and of this 1,601 lived in Luanda. There were 5,770 mestico, which made up 0.10 percent of the population and 5,378,923 Africans, making up 99.9 percent of the population. (Lima.J.J. De., 1846. Vol.III, p.4a, Table 1). In contrast, the European population of Algeria, in 1841, eleven years after the invasion of Ottoman Algeria by the French, stood at 37,000, and within thirty years had grown to 279,000, (Aldrich., R., 1966. P.28) and by 1955 there were 1 million European’s in Algeria. (source: Amin, 1970., Pp33,61). In contrast the United States own census in 1840, put their population at 17,069,453, which was an increase of 32.7 percent on the 1830 census (http://www.census.gov/history).

Sir John Strachey aregue that “there is not, there never was an India […] no Indian nation […] that the men of Punjab, Bengal, the North-West provinces and Madras should ever feel that they belong to one great Indian nation is impossible”. (Hack., K., 2009. P.97).  John Darwin argues that preservation of India as a unitary constitution initially promoted by the reforms of Montague-Chelmsford, empowered the Congress party. In response to the Congress’ dominance, the Simon’s commission argued that India should move to a federal system, and as such “the (nationalists) can be given effective expression,” which would break Congress’ dominance in Indian politics and drive regional concerns to the forefront of Indian politics. (Darwin., J., 1980. Pp657-659). Mahomed Ali Jinnah’s Muslim League attempted to achieve a united front with Congress in March 1929, by publishing 14 demands that they believed would safeguard Muslim concerns in a Congress party, that Muslims believed was biased in its make-up towards Hinduism, rather than as a unifier in an independent Indian government. (Madden., F., 1993. Pp. 706-7). Metrocentric concerns throughout the 1930’s were in Europe, whereas India’s pericentric Congress party’s absolute desire for power ignored the concerns of other arguments or beliefs and as Jinnah teased, “Congress Raj” when speaking at the Muslim League’s October conference in 1937. (Darwin., J., 1980. Pp.657-679).

Salazar in the declaration on Overseas Policy, August 12, 1963, that Angola is a Portuguese creation […] if Portugal is excluded, there is NGWIZAKO, asking for the kingdom of the Congo. […] there are the ethnic groups of the district of Moxico and Lunda.” (Markum., 1978. Pp284-6) The speech argues that tribal differences would lead to division and the breakup of Angola, which had had its borders defined in 1885/6 at the Berlin conference. The speech was a reaction to other European metropoles withdrawal from the periphery and independence for these new nations. In 1959, the metropole exported 29.8% of its GDP to its colonies, by 1973 it had declined to only 14.8%, whereas 60.5% of Portugal’s exports were sent to the European Union. (Source: MacQueen., 1997., P.51). The logic of Portugal to fight for neo mercantillist concerns in Africa challenged arguments found in Britain, France and Belgium, which had relinquished their colonies. Bernard Waites argues that the European powers had confidence and sufficient economic power to defend their interests in the newly independent countries. (Waites., B., 2009., Pp. 146-7). With Portugal’s withdrawal from Angola in 1975, Angola was determined by distinct ideological arguments, pan African movements and division that led it into a conflict that drew in dominant powers and their proxies who were determined to influence Angola’s identity as an Independent state economically and politically.

International factors were influential in shaping decolonisation, ideals and political movements permeated internationally and inspired the periphery to challenge colonial and imperial arguments. New dominant powers confronted arguments defining imperialism , mercantile concerns became globalised as the focus moved from the periphery onto the metropole that no longer depended on the periphery as a market place. Institutions determining government were no longer racially segregated and peripheral self-determination became a definite argument, not just in the periphery, the metropole but also Internationally.     

Bibliography

Bender. G. (1978) Angola under the Portuguese. Heinmann Education Books Ltd.

Darwin,. J (1980) Imperialism in Decline? Tendencies in British Imperial Policy between the Wars , The Historical Journal, Vol 23, No.3, pp. 657-679. (SS 19.3)

Darwin,. J. (1991) The End of the British Empire, Oxford, Blackwell.

Frederick Madden and John Darwin (eds) (1993) The Dominions and India since 1900. Select Documents on the Constitutional History of the British Empire and Commonwealth. Volume VI, Westport, CT, Greenwood Press, pp. 706–7. (PS. 19.8)

Davidson. B (1971) ‘Angola in the tenth year: A Report and an Analysis. May-June 1970’, African Affairs, vol.70, no.278, pp.37-49.   (SS 20.2)

Fieldhouse,. D. (1982) The Colonial Empires: A Comparitive Survey from the Eighteenth Century, London, Mcmillan, pp.272-288. (SS19.2)

Gandhi,. M. (2003 [1909]) Indian Home Rule or Hind Swaraj. Pp101-2.  (PS19.7)

Hack. K. (2009) Why do empires end? India 1885 to 1947. The Open University, Milton Keynes. Pp.79-117.

Rule and Riot in Algeria (1954) The Times, 10 November, p7, 11 November, p.9

Antonio Salazar’s  ‘Declaration on Overseas Policy, August 12 1963’ in John A. Markum (1978) The Angolan Revolution Volume 2: Exile Politics and Guerrilla Warfare (1962-1976) MIT Press. Pp284-6.   (PS.20.3)