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Imperialism, as understood by the British in the year 1850, was sentimental in essence as opposed to later utilitarianism. Lord Beaconsfield and his party assumed ‘’an attitude of superiority towards other civilized nations.” “Trade follows the flag” had not yet become an Imperial slogan. [...]

The functioning of African societies in the colonial environment has become a popular subject of research by historians. However, these are areas of neglect insofar as the investigation of the economic role of Africans in colonial states is concerned. In spite of the fact that the European population and the revenue of Natal have never been very large, there have been numerous studies examining the role of the white inhabitants in the economic development of the colony. Stimulus for this thesis has therefore been provided by the vacuum in the historical literature concerning the financial history of colonial Natal, and in particular, how the Hut Tax - one of the more significant manifestations of colonialism - served as a tool in coercing the northern Nguni inhabitants to finance the administration of foreign rule. / Thesis (M.A.)-University of Natal, Durban, 1985.

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This thesis is concerned with the mobilisation of African labour in South Central Africa and the creation of a dual economy there. The problem it seeks to examine is why a purely migrant labour system was created, in which Africans spent only short periods in the cash economy interspersed with longer periods in their own subsistence one. This problem is closely linked with the wider issues of land policy, native policy, and colonial labour theory in the nineteenth century. Using the records of the Colonial Office and of the British South Africa Company's administrations in Northern and Southern Rhodesia, together with other contemporary material, an attempt is made to examine the relationship between developments in the Rhodesias and wider colonial experience, between the Company's aims in its administration and the Colonial Office's control of it. Colonial labour theory in the nineteenth century is found to have emerged as a response to the end of the slave trade and the emancipation of the slaves, as a need to substitute for force both stimulants (like taxation) to overcome so-called tropical indolence and a modicum of land hunger to overcome excessive dependence on subsistence. This had to be balanced, however, by the need to protect the interests and rights of indigenous peoples in the face of humanitarian concern and international opinion. These considerations, coupled with administrative expediency and the desire of European settler communities for the security of social and political segregation, led to the creation of a reserves policy. In Southern Rhodesia, the absence of a genuine reserves policy during the first years of settlement appeared to lead to disastrous relations with the native peoples. The Colonial Office insisted upon the creation of reserves, and the effect, if not the intention, of subsequent Company native policy was to move Africans increasingly on to the reserves, away from European centres of employment, opportunities for marketing produce and stock, and principal lines of communication. As a result, Africans' capacity to respond rationally to the cash economy actually declined as opportunities for exploring the various avenues into it were withdrawn with geographical isolation. In consequence labour became a purely migratory experience which entailed brief periods in the essentially alien environment (accentuated by ordinance) of the town or mine location. This was accentuated also by the migration of labour into Southern Rhodesia from throughout South Central Africa and the import of indentured labour from overseas, policies pursued by an administration convinced of the inadequacy of the internal labour supply. Thus Colonial Office concern for the protection of the native interest led to the perpetuation of an inefficient and, to the African, disturbing system, which ultimately facilitated the mortgaging of Africans' social and political development. / Arts, Faculty of / History, Department of / Graduate

This thesis is to indicate the positive British role in developing Nigeria during the Colonial period to the point that effective self-government became possible. The study is approached analytically, utilizing information primarily from printed sources, but including conclusions from the author's experience and informal interviews from local chiefs who lived through much of the Colonial period. Between 1849 and 1906, West African territories were occupied by several European powers who subjected the peoples to a new type of administration. In Nigeria, Britain was the Colonial master. The British unquestionably benefited economically from their control of Nigeria, but, to their credit, they also endeavored to create a colony in which the subject peoples would ultimately be able to take over the country's administration. Side by side with the British Government / commercial and religious groups with economic and religious motives, moved into Nigeria and introduced new concepts and practices of the western world. Barriers to effective administration and rapid advancement of native authority during the initial stages of British control were due, not to the shortcomings of the British Administrators, but, rather, in large measure to the traditions and social structures of the various peoples. Moreover, sufficient revenue was not available due to the underdeveloped economic resources and because local taxation was not introduced in the early days of the British administration. Assistance in the form of revenue came from the British Government and commercial groups. By the end of the Second World War administrative progress was encouraging, and radical approaches to democratic self-government reached a high peak. The process of transition to full-scale democracy on the British model proceeded rapidly. The British Government assisted the establishment of popularly elected majorities. The executive councils were taken over by politicians drawn from and responsible to the majorities. The system of one man, one vote was initiated. In general, Britain was remarkably successful in training Nigerians to assume control of their country, and the British efforts cannot be erased from the history books or from the minds of many Nigerians. The result was a united, viable, and independent Nigeria.

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Within the research field of colonial violence, scholars focused on wars of conquest or independence and tended to picture counterinsurgency campaigns as an exceptional deployment of state violence in the face of peculiar threats. In colonial Kenya, the British repression of the Mau Mau uprising of the 1950s has been the object of extensive and thorough analysis, contrasting with the lack of research on colonial punishment during the preceding decades. Yet the unleashing of state violence during the 1950s actually has a much longer history, lurking in the shadows of the criminal justice system that British powers introduced in the colony in the late nineteenth century. In contrast to previous scholarship, this study shows how ordinary colonial violence - although massively scaled up during the 1950s - was progressively normalised, institutionalised and intensified throughout the colonial experience of the 1930s and 1940s, laying the ground for the deployment of a counterinsurgency campaign against Mau Mau fighters.