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High Imperialism The Colonies |
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Between the Wars The Colonies |
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| World War I : The Colonies, 1914-1918 |
A.) The Chain of Events in the Colonies, from British Perspective
At the outbreak of World War I, the British navy imposed a Naval Blockade on Germany's coast and hunted down those German battleships spread over the world's oceans. In the BATTLE OF THE FALKLAND ISLANDS (Dec. 1914), 3 German cruisers were sunk and the hunt of German ships, except submarines, effectively ended.
Most German colonies proved undefendable and fell in the first days of the war, Togo and Cameroons to combined English and French units, South West Africa to South African units, German New Guinea to Australian units, German Samoa to New Zealanders. An exception was GERMAN EAST AFRICA, which was held by troops commanded by General PAUL VON LETTOW-VORBECK, who held the colony until 1916. When Commonwealth troops had finally managed to break through the defense lines, he gave up defending the colony and switched to guerilla warfare, constantly moving, harassing Commonwealth positions and tying Commonwealth troops, mainly South Africans. He held out until the armistice in 1918 and, on his return to Berlin, was given a hero's welcome.
The SULTAN OF DARFUR (in western Sudan), at the outbreak of World War I, recognized the Sultan of the Ottoman Empire as his sovereign and campaigned against the British. Darfur was pacified by 1916.
B.) The War, as perceived in the British Colonies
While there was not much fighting in the Colonies, the impact was just as perceptible there as in Britain. The (mostly white) young men of Australia, New Zealand, Canada, South Africa were immediately mobilized. The core of the corps which fought at Gallipoli was Australian.
At GALLIPOLI, it was mainly ANZAC (Australian and New Zealand Army Corps) troops responding to British command. There was a lack of trust of the fighting men in their command and a lack of responsibility of command for the fighting men. The high losses resulted in the dominions demanding to have their own officers command their own troops. Once changes in the command structure had been made, fighting morale went up, and successes were possible such as the Australian Lighthorsemen's capture of BEERSHEBA 1917.
In the dominions, WAR ECONOMY also was introduced, to deal with the scarcity of certain goods. As in Britain, young men in uniform had, at their workplace, to be replaced by either women or by indigenous persons. People were asked to sign WAR BONDS; an extra WAR TAX was raised on certain products.
Even the non-white peoples, the ruled, were asked to contribute. The famous ROYAL GURKHA RIFLES, in World War I alone, enlisted ca. 100.000 men which fought in various theatres of the war.
The Colonial Empire hitherto was run by the Colonial Office in London. The dominions, with a dominating white population (Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa) had been given a considerable degree of political autonomy; however the colonies with non-white population had been governed by a (white) colonial administration, in which the indigenous people had no say.
In India, MOHANDAS K. GANDHI, a celebrated political activist, called on the Indians to support the British war effort. This support was tied with the expectation that the British attitude regarding the administration of India would change. The Colonial Empire had been established by the military supremacy of the (white) British. Now they armed and trained those they had ruled.
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EXTERNAL FILES |
A Brief History of the Brigade of the Gurkhas, from the Royal Gurkha Rifles |
| DOCUMENTS |
| VIDEOS |
Gallipoli, 1981, cc The Lighthorsemen, 1988, cc |
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This page is part of World History at KMLA First posted in 2000, last revised on November 9th 2004 Click here to go Home Click here to go to Information about KMLA, WHKMLA, the author and webmaster Click here to go to Statistics |
