British Economic Interests Research Articles

The Calcutta Marwaris and the Swadeshi Movement: In the Context of Boycott and Swadeshi Politics (1905-1907)

At the dawn of the 20th century, an organized struggle against the partition of Bengal significantly influenced the trajectory of Indian politics. The Swadeshi movement engendered political extremism within the realm of Indian nationalism, leading a contingent of educated Bengalis to take up arms against British rule. In these circumstances, Bengali leaders adopted the policies of 'Boycott' and 'Swadeshi' to undermine British economic interests in Bengal. This paper seeks to explore the role played by the Marwari community of Calcutta in the anti-partition movement of 1905. During that era, the Marwaris were integral to the European trading system. They procured raw materials from various parts of the country for export and served as distributors of foreign products in the local market. Marwari traders were aligned with the British in the realm of commerce. Given this context, it is natural to question how the Marwari traders of Calcutta reacted to the boycott of foreign goods. What if we were to uncover, albeit sparingly, instances of Marwaris supporting the anti-partition boycott movement in history? This paper aims to address the following questions to comprehend the involvement of Calcutta's Marwaris in the 1905 Swadeshi Movement. Firstly, to what extent did the policy of boycotting foreign goods succeed within the Swadeshi movement? Secondly, what was the impact of the 'Boycott' and 'Swadeshi' policies on the Calcutta Marwaris? And thirdly, did the Calcutta Marwaris indeed participate in the Swadeshi Movement, and if so, what motivated their involvement? Most prevailing studies have dismissed the participation of the Marwari Community of Calcutta in the Swadeshi movement. This paper aims to uncover the answers to these questions and shed light on the extent of the Marwari community of Calcutta's involvement in the Swadeshi movement.

The British Economic Interests in Mesopotamia 1914-1918: A Study of Securing Oil, Trade, and Commercial Path

The British Economic Interests in Mesopotamia 1914-1918: A Study of Securing Oil, Trade, and Commercial Path

Latin American Studies and the Cold War

Latin American Studies and the Cold War

The British and the transfer of power in the Bechuanaland Protectorate: Neo-colonialism or passive revolution?

Deploying the theoretical framework of Italian Marxist thinker, Antonio Gramsci, this article argues that rather than a neo-colonial arrangement, the transfer of power from the British to locals in the Bechuanaland Protectorate (Botswana) could be conceptualized as a passive revolution. This passive revolution, which was triggered by demands for independence by radical nationalists, entailed the formation of a pro-British political party, the Botswana Democratic Party, and transferring power to it in a carefully managed decolonization process. The passive revolution aimed not just at preserving British economic interests in the protectorate but also at state formation for purposes of expanding the capitalist mode of production in the newly independent state. Thus, the transfer of power took place concurrently with the creation of a legitimate capitalist state that served the interests of both the British and the cattle-owning Botswana Democratic Party elite that assumed power at independence. Post-independence, the cattle bourgeois class at the apex of the Botswana Democratic Party embarked upon the construction of hegemony through the creation of an interventionist developmental state that addressed the narrow interests of other classes and groups constituting the post-independence historical bloc. Such hegemony has allowed the Botswana Democratic Party to retain power to the present day.

The Monetary Crisis and Foundation for Reserve Bank of India (1890-1935)

The monetary policy of British India was highly controversial during the interwar period as it aimed to protect the budgetary obligations and private commerce. The currency stabilization policy was seen as a tool to protect the British economic interest while they ruled India. The currency came under serious pressure during the World War I and Great depression, the facets of Indian currency’s dependence was exposed through the modified council bill system and Gold exchange standard. The much-needed currency reforms and banking system were conceded by the colonial administration after much wrangling for half a century.

Facilitating colonial exploitation of resources of the Gold Coast: The role of the Police force, 1894-1914

Euro-African interactions between the 15th and 20th centuries were mainly motivated by the desire to exploit the economic resources of Africa. To ensure a peaceful exploitation of resources in the Gold Coast, the British policed their forts and castles for the peaceful conduct of trade. Even though policing in the Gold Coast was not a structured institution before its official establishment in 1894 by the British, it was an important institution in the administration of the colony. After the enactment of the 1894 ordinance, the Gold Coast Constabulary was renamed the Gold Coast Police Force. The police institution from this period operated under a standardized structure in the British-controlled areas of the Gold Coast. Using information from archival and secondary sources, this paper explores within a historical context, the extent to which the colonial Police Force facilitated the exploitation of the resources of the Gold Coast between 1894 and 1914. To achieve this, the study looks at the changing structure andfunctions of the Gold Coast Police Force from 1894 to 1914. One key argument of this paper is that to ensure a peaceful exploitation of colonial resources, the colonial government upon investing heavily in infrastructure (roads, railways, and communication), set up the Police Force to protect these investments. Moreover, the British economic interest and policy outcomes (acquisition of resources of the Gold Coast) between 1894 and 1914 dictated the structure and functions of the Police Force for the peaceful conduct of trade. The paper finally demonstrates that through the performance of the Gold Coast Police Force, the British by the end of 1914 had vastly exploited the resources of the Gold Coast to their advantage.

‘What has Ghana Got That We Haven't?’ Party Politics and Anti-Colonialism in Botswana, 1960–66: A Response to James Kirby

ABSTRACTThis short piece is a response to James Kirby’s article entitled ‘“What has Ghana Got That We Haven't?” Party Politics and Anti-Colonialism in Botswana, 1960–66’. Contrary to Kirby, who is oblivious of the political economy of colonialism, and how this reality informed the decolonisation processes, we argue that the transfer of power in the Bechuanaland Protectorate was designed to preserve British economic interests under the pro-British Bechuanaland Democratic Party. The British were very uncomfortable with the radical Bechuanaland Peoples Party, whore rhetoric threatened core British interests, hence their preference and support for the Democratic Party.

Ethiopian Categories, British Definitions: British Discovery of Ethiopian Identities from the Nineteenth Century to the First Decade of the Twentieth Century

Abstract This essay examines correspondence in the British Foreign Office Archive to explore British views of Ethiopian identities during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The premise of the paper is that during this time, British officials used group identities to help determine which Ethiopian leaders might make the best allies in furtherance of British strategic and economic interests. In essence, the British correspondents created and continually redefined ethnic categories as a reflection of the provincial leaders’ willingness to serve British economic interests. In the mid nineteenth century, after freeing British subjects imprisoned by emperor Tewodros (ruled 1855–1868), British diplomats sought to identify another legitimate ruler of Ethiopia; in the process, they attributed characteristics to various Ethiopian groups which marked those groups as more or less “civilized.” By the late nineteenth century, this recasting of identities contributed to the racializing of Ethiopian territories. In defining and redefining the qualities of Ethiopian notables and groups according to their own economic, colonial or political needs, British sources created categories of actors which did not necessarily correspond to identities as understood and asserted by the populations of what would become the Ethiopian Empire.

Amalgamation and the Crisis of Governance: The Nigeria Experience

This paper deals with the discourse on evolution of Nigerian state and the challenges it poses for actualisation of democratic governance in the polity. The continued crises in the polity and corrupt practices that characterizes Nigerian state overtime reveals a diminishing state of accountability and ethical values which has its foundation in emergence of the Nigerian state. Since the purpose of amalgamation was to protect the British economic interest and to facilitate exploitation of the nation’s resources, the Nigerian politician who took over power from the British continued from where they stopped, thereby making the state an instrument to perpetuate corrupt practices of all sorts. The implication of this is the disappearance of democratic values, political decadence and retarded development. Methodologically, the paper adopted a qualitative research technique of data collection through the content analysis of empirical studies conducted by scholars who have made outstanding contributions on the practice of governance within and outside Nigerian political landscape. Against this analytical background, the study analyses the issue of governance vis-a-vis avoidable crises foisted on the polity by the politicians since the commencement of the independence in 1960 and finds out that, the present governance crises in Nigeria had its root in colonialism. The study therefore calls for a resolution among the federating units which must entail a renegotiation of the polity along democratic principles and a total reform of the anti-corruption agencies for effective performance.

Controversial investments: trade and infrastructure in Ottoman–British relations in Iraq, 1861–1918

ABSTRACTThis article examines two sites of British investment in nineteenth-century Iraq, exploring the different interests and ideologies – both British and Ottoman – underlying each one, and using the funding controversies which plagued both projects as windows on the political and economic relationships which crystallized through these ventures and informed post-war governance. Ottoman Iraq provides an important perspective on global British economic interests: although it encompassed zones of Britain's informal empire, the Ottoman state intensified its own imperial ambitions towards the end of the nineteenth century. This created tensions within Ottoman policies towards the British, which were complicated by the friction between British state and commercial interests. By 1914, the controversies which plagued both projects seemed close to a breaking point. The outbreak of the First World War, however, entrenched existing patterns of financial and infrastructural involvement as part of the occupation, and encouraged the creation of a development paradigm in the Mandate.

The entanglements of freedom: Simón Bolívar’s Jamaica Letter and its socio-political context (1810–1819)

ABSTRACTBy looking at the Jamaica Letter and other political writings of the period, this article explores some problematic aspects of Bolívar’s thought regarding the capacity of Spanish Americans for self-government and the place assigned to marginalized ethnic groups within the revolutionary political process. Although it is nowadays revered as a great Americanist manifesto, Bolívar’s Jamaica Letter was ultimately an attempt to reassure Britain of the commercial benefits that a military intervention in favour of Spanish American Independence would bring to her geopolitical ambitions. However, because of the reliance on slave workforce for its rich plantation economy, and in view of its pivotal commercial role in the Caribbean, Bolívar had also to guarantee the stability of British economic interests in the region. This also applied to New Granada (present-day Colombia) and Venezuela, where creole opposition to the abolition of slavery was strong. Thus, Bolívar avoided the issue of slavery and took a cautious approach with regard to the future status of Indian communities. In this respect, the Jamaica Letter reveals the inexistence of a unified national body during the Wars of Independence as well as the socio-political tensions entwined within such a fragmented and heterogeneous milieu.

George Brown and British Policy Towards Israel in the Aftermath of the Six-day War

In the aftermath of the Six-Day War (5–10 June 1967), Britain’s foreign secretary, George Brown, invested significant efforts in improving Britain’s relations with Egypt as part of his strategy to restore Britain’s standing in the Arab world and protect British economic and geostrategic interests in the Middle East. The unavoidable result of this policy was the worsening of relations between Britain and Israel, which blamed the British Foreign Office of adopting a deliberate pro-Arab and anti-Israel policy. The growing tension between the two countries developed into a personal confrontation between the Israeli prime minister and the British foreign secretary, who was regarded in Israel as the chief architect of the change of British policy in the region.

Soft power and corporate imperialism: maintaining British influence

It is often suggested that Britain has lost its great power status since the fall of Empire. Yet, whilst its military and economic power has undoubtedly been weakened, it continues to exert power and influence and to promote national interests via the exercise of both hard and soft power. Far from representing a novel strategy, this simultaneous deployment of both forms of power may be considered as a continuation of the dual imperial strategy of gunboat diplomacy and winning hearts and minds at home and abroad. Yet, the postcolonial era does represent some novelty: as was clear under the Conservative-led coalition and is now evident under a Conservative majority government, soft power is no longer exercised principally via cultural diplomacy, through, for example, the British Council, but increasingly via large companies which promote British economic and political interests through corporate imperialism.

Britain's Decision to Withdraw from the Persian Gulf: A Pattern Not a Puzzle

ABSTRACTThe reasons for the British decision to withdraw from the Gulf are highly contentious. While some scholars have focused on short-term considerations, especially the devaluation of sterling towards the end of 1967, in the British determination to quit the Gulf, others have concentrated on longer-term trends in British policy-making for the region. This article sides with the latter. Britain's Gulf role came under increasing scrutiny following the 1956 Suez crisis as part of an ongoing debate about the costs and benefits of Britain's Gulf presence. In this sense, British withdrawal fitted into a wider pattern of British decolonisation. By the 1960s, the Treasury, in particular, strongly questioned the necessity and cost-effectiveness of the maintenance of empire in the Gulf to safeguard British economic interests there. Recent interpretations which seek to disaggregate the British decision to leave Southeast Asia from the decision to depart from the Gulf are also questionable. By mid-1967, it had already been determined that Britain would leave both regions by the mid-1970s, the only difference being that this decision was formally announced with respect to Southeast Asia, but not with regard to the Gulf. The devaluation of sterling in November 1967, therefore, merely hastened and facilitated decisions which had already been taken. Despite the end of formal empire in the Gulf, Britain did seek, not always successfully, to preserve its interests into the 1970s and beyond.

Great Britain in the Commonwealth of Nations

The article is devoted to an analysis of the role of the Commonwealth of Nations in British history and politics. Having emerged at the end of the XIX c. as an informal association of Britain and dominions within the British Empire it has developed into an independent institute that includes almost all former British territories. Even though nowadays the Commonwealth is a free association of countries and manifests democratic values, this distinctive representation of imperialists stood at its origins, and at times the term itself signified the empire, though in a more progressive, democratic and human form. The author argues that for many decades the main reason for this evolution was British politicians'desire to deter regions from breaking away from within the British sphere of influence. Indeed, the Commonwealth countries belonged to one of the three most important and traditional circles of British political and economic interests, as formulated by W. Churchill, while its importance has been constantly emphasized in numerous election manifestos and government statements. However, with the weakening of Britain and growing independence within the organization, as well as because of contradictions between British national interests and the Commonwealth's founding ideals and principles, Britain has become less and less capable of impacting the organization, and its significance has declined, while some British leaders have even openly sabotaged it. Nevertheless, voices that appeal to reanimate the institution, as well as Britain's role in it, are still heard in the British political arena.

“‘We Need Not Be Ashamed of our own Economic Profit Motive”: Britain, Latin America, and the Alliance for Progress, 1959–63’

This article traces British policy discussions over their position in Latin America between 1959 and 1963. In particular, it looks at the way British officials interacted with the John F. Kennedy administration's flagship Alliance for Progress and examines the reasons behind the gradual support for a more engaged UK policy toward the area. This decision, it argues, came about due to a complex set of reasons that challenge the idea that the Anglo-American relationship determined British policy during the cold war. Both the cold war and Anglo-American relations were important in shaping British thinking, but so, too, were calculations over British economic interests. Indeed, as the article demonstrates, it was the interplay of these three elements that shaped British deliberations.

The Cartography of Herman Moll and European Views of Muslim South Asia, 1700–1730

This paper will discuss the work of the premier British cartographer of the early eighteenth century, Herman Moll, and his depictions and descriptions of the Muslim areas of South Asia (Mughal India and the Indonesian archipelago in particular). Moll was a strong proponent and propagandist of British overseas expansion, South Asia being one area of particular interest to him. His maps disseminated and popularized information and perspectives brought back by European merchants, travelers, and pirates and were meant to be purchased by (mainly) British merchants, elites, and wealthy commoners interested in understanding Muslim Asia and the opportunities and challenges for British economic and political interests in that part of the world. Moll’s visual and graphic vocabulary highlighted European commercial and political contact with the societies and empires of South Asia. His maps functioned as strategic documents about British engagement with Muslim South Asia and showed the possibilities and limits of significant cross-cultural encounters during his active cartographic period (ca. 1700 to ca. 1730), a time when an emerging British Empire encountered well-developed indigenous empires in South Asia.

Centurions and Chieftains: Tank Sales and British Policy towards Israel in the Aftermath of the Six-Day War

Britain's attempt to distance itself from Israel as London sought to conciliate the Arab world in the aftermath of the Six-Day War has entered the historiography of Anglo-Israeli relations. A neglected aspect of the development of British policy towards Israel has been the intense debates among British decision-makers regarding the supply of tanks to Israel following the 1967 conflict. British reluctance to export the powerful Chieftain tank to Israel stemmed not only from an unwillingness to fuel an arms race in the Middle East, but also from a determination to protect ongoing and extensive British economic interests in the Arab world, especially oil supplies. In keeping with efforts to dissociate itself from Israel, Britain also sought to downplay, and even conceal from the Arab world, ongoing sales of the less sophisticated Centurion tank to Israel. In many ways, British policy towards Israel culminated in the decision during the 1973 Yom Kippur War to maintain an arms embargo to the region which, while not extending to all Arab countries, hit Israel especially hard as it desperately sought ammunition and spares for its Centurion tanks.

Neville Chamberlain and the Spanish Civil War, 1936–9

Neville Chamberlain's role in the Spanish Civil War is a neglected subject in the history of the conflict. Yet he wielded considerable influence over Britain's Spanish policy. Like most Conservatives, his ideological sympathies lay more with the Nationalist forces led by General Francisco Franco than the besieged Republicans. At the same time, he deplored the intervention of Germany, Italy, and Soviet Russia and was strongly committed to the policy of non-intervention, which he genuinely believed had confined the Spanish conflict and prevented its escalation into a European conflagration. He was strongly opposed to granting belligerent rights to Franco unless foreign volunteers were withdrawn from Spain. He deplored the bombing of civilians in Spain, sought to help the many refugees caused by the war, and tried unsuccessfully on occasions to mediate an end to the conflict. The civil war was a considerable obstacle which threatened to undermine Chamberlain's appeasement of Fascist Italy, intended to weaken the Rome–Berlin Axis, and to constrain Germany in pursuit of general European appeasement. The Prime Minister's commitment to non-intervention in Spain, more the creation of the Foreign Office than his own, did no serious damage to British economic and strategic interests before June 1940.

Moving Forward, Looking Back: Trains, Literature, and the Arts in the River Plate by Sarah M. Misemer (review)

Reviewed by: Moving Forward, Looking Back: Trains, Literature, and the Arts in the River Plate by Sarah M. Misemer David William Foster Misemer, Sarah M. Moving Forward, Looking Back: Trains, Literature, and the Arts in the River Plate. Lewisburg, PA: Bucknell UP, 2010: 249 pp. This monograph is an interesting experiment in cultural studies that makes use of the train—which was crucial to the socioeconomic development of both Argentina and Uruguay—as a cultural symbol to organize the examination of a wide [End Page 213] array of literary and filmic texts from the two River Plate countries. The vast train system was characteristically built by the British to serve British economic interests in the area, channeling the wealth of raw materials (typically cattle) to the port cities of Buenos Aires, Rosario, and Montevideo. But the trains, in classic capitalist fashion, also served to transport European manufactured and finished goods purchased with such raw material back to their points of origin, providing for the sophistication of the port cities and railway stops along the way (i.e., the splendor of the landed gentry) deep into the hearts of the two countries. It would be difficult to overrate the importance of the train as part of the definitive national organization (and the controversies deriving from it on the part of those excluded from its benefits) of Argentina and Uruguay beginning in the late nineteenth century. The goods brought back to the country estates and the urban palaces of the wealthy landowners, mostly from France and England, gave to these establishments their characteristic brilliance as well as a vast network of service industries. It was particularly the latter—theater, cabarets, book stores, societies, cafés, clubs, stores—that served as focal points for cultural development in Argentina and Uruguay. Misemer provides much more than simply a registry of a sociocultural motif. Rather, she attempts with considerable success to describe in detail how trains are thematized in works of art in Argentina and Uruguay and how they serve as an organizing principle for the structure of a particular text. Concomitantly, the decline of the train is consonant with the sociopolitical decline of the two nations. Moving Forward does not devote much space to theater because of the paucity of relevant works. However, there are three texts, two by well-known figures, that she does discuss. The first is Roberto Cossa’s El Sur y después (1987). Like most of Cossa’s work, the play focuses on the dissolution of Argentine society as a consequence of the military dictatorship and its socioeconomic contexts. The South is a fundamental motif in Argentine culture, signaling the open frontier, the escape from decadent urban society into pristine nature. The image of the train (specifically in the play, a train station), with its bidirectional movement, serves Cossa’s play as a structural device to connect past and present interpretations of Argentine history. The second play is Cecilia Propato’s Pri: una tragedia urbana (2002). Propato also uses the train station as the locus of her play. A series of monologues focuses on the question of the loss of personal and national identity that occurred as a result of the shock of the neo-fascist military dictatorship of the 1976-83 period. The train station, with its anonymous comings and goings, including vanishings and sudden appearances (one thinks of the Lumière brothers’ use of the train in their early promotional short for filmmaking), is a metaphor of the nation. Finally, Eduardo Rovner, known for his often brutal “absurdist” formulations of interpersonal and social violence, also uses the train station as a metaphor for the nation in El tren de soñar (2008), although in this case it is the promise of historical [End Page 214] meaning that has disappeared along with the train that never arrives—something like Juan José Arreola’s brilliant allegory in the story “El guardagujas” (1952). The importance of a study like Misemer’s lies, of course, in the intelligent commentary it has to make about the specific works discussed; good solid commentaries are always welcome. But what I particularly like about Moving Forward, Looking Back is the way in which she grounds...