History British Imperialism All Possible Part B Essay Questions With Plans H

OCR History B (A2 British Imperialism) - All Possible Part B Essay Plans by Harry Bojakowski (2014)
PART A - General advice

What can you learn from this extract about the interpretations, approaches and methods of this historian?
Refer to the extract and your knowledge to support your answer.

1. This is an essay and should be answered in length and in great detail. To do this one question in the exam you would have 1 ½ hours. This gives you an idea of the detail and depth required. It should be 5/6 sides of A4 long in the exam (hand written)

2. Think of these questions as conducting an in-depth analysis of an extract/interpretation.

3. The extract MUST remain central to your answer throughout. Ideally, every paragraph in your essay should make direct reference to the extract.

4. A reminder of the terminology:
Interpretations - the specific argument and conclusions of the historian in the extract.
Approaches - These may include;
An Economic Approach
A Marxist Approach
A Strategic Approach (Looking at Britain’s strategic interests and perhaps incorporating international relations)
A Political Approach which focuses on Politics (either domestic or international)
A Metropolitan Approach – Approaches which focus on the decisions and events in London and how they shape Empire.
An approach which concentrates on “formal Empire”
An approach which identifies periods of Anti-Imperialism and New Imperialism in the C19th
An approach which focuses on “informal Empire”
An approach which stresses continuity in C19th attitudes to Empire
A Peripheral Approach (this may include the actions and decisions of “men on the spot” or on the events and actions involving indigenous peoples of the colonies and how they influence the growth/control or collapse of the Empire.
An Approach “from above” – focusing on the lives and actions of the political elites.
An approach “from below” – looking at the lives of ordinary people
An approach which focuses on area/regional studies – in depth studies of one particular region
(which are valid as unique studies in themselves but which then may be used to influence and shape broader ideas about the wider Empire)
A Nationalist Approach – an approach which focuses on the growth of national identities within the Empire – in particular with relation to decolonisation.
An Approach which focuses on Colonial discourse – how the Empire has been represented in text.
How language influences the ideas and shape of imperialism.
An approach which focuses on Colonial experiences
An approach which focuses on the role of women in the Empire
An approach which focuses on gender
An approach which focuses on the impact of Empire on Britain

OCR History B (A2 British Imperialism) - All Possible Part B Essay Plans by Harry Bojakowski (2014)
(Another way to sometimes think about approaches is to think “what are the key questions that the historian is trying to address?” in the extract).

Methods
Empirical methodology
Use of statistics (esp. economic data)
Use of official government records
Use of the records and diaries of “men on the spot”
Use of the records and accounts of indigenous people
Use of other academic disciplines (psychology, political science, literature, sociology, philosophy etc) to influence the study of history e.g. Gramsci, Foucault
Use of other historiographical accounts – many historians study each others work.
Use of literature/representations of Empire
Use of art/architecture/culture
A polemical/moral argument...

4. Suggested structure/Exam technique

You will need to spend some time reading the extract in detail. When you read it for the first time, highlight/annotate areas of the extract which show (i) the historians interpretation/argument (ii) his/her approach (iii) the methods/sources used by the historian
Remember your job is to analyse and explain the extract – you are NOT saying whether or not you agree with it Introduction – Perhaps identify the key questions which the extract is dealing with (Is it about the growth of
Empire? How the Empire was controlled? The impact of Empire? Or decolonisation? Etc). Show an awareness that you are dealing with an interpretation. E.g. that a historian has constructed this analysis of Empire – but it is one of many interpretations. Signpost your answer. Explain you are going to analyse the interpretation and then identify the approaches and methods which have helped the author to reach this interpretation explaining how they all link together. You are then going to contrast the approaches of the extract you are given with other approaches which could also have been used to answer similar questions about the Empire.

Part 1 - A section which lays out the interpretation(s) offered in detail - This will probably be a few substantial paragraphs. Each paragraph will explain and analyse the different points/arguments put forward in the
EXTRACT. Summarise the key points in your own words – Then select key quotations/phrases which highlight the argument (ideally a few words, a sentence at MOST).

You must also introduce your own knowledge of similar interpretations AND of events in imperial history which “shed light on the extract”... But you must then explain how and why they do this.

OCR History B (A2 British Imperialism) - All Possible Part B Essay Plans by Harry Bojakowski (2014)
For example – you might explain that an extract puts forward very similar arguments to one of the historians you have studied e.g. Hobson/Taylor/Robinson & Gallagher etc. You may then use your knowledge about that historian/when they were writing etc to reveal more about the extract.

Or – you might use your knowledge of particular events in one part of the Empire to help explain the extract –
e.g. if it talks about how events on the periphery sparked the growth of formal Empire – use your knowledge of Egypt to give an example which helps to shed light and clarify the interpretation put forward in the extract.

Throughout this section be very clear about the fact that you are explaining an interpretation of history.
You should aim to use your own knowledge of the EVENTS of Empire and of the INTERPRETATIONS that you have studies, to help EXPLAIN the extract.

Part 2 - A section which deals with approaches/methods (again with reference to the text itself). Give evidence from the extract of where you can see that the historian has used particular approaches/methods e.g. If the extract refers to examples from South America it show the historian is using an approach which considers informal Empire. If all the evidence comes from people/data concentrating on London/Britain, it may show a metropolitan approach etc.

Again here, it would be perfectly justifiable to mention historians/approaches similar to that shown in the extract – use your knowledge of similar types of view to help explain the extract e.g. if you know similar ideas were being developed at a particular time, look if there is anything in the extract which suggests it was written at a similar time and how events of that time might have shaped the approach being used. (e.g. can you explain the context in which the approaches used in the extract were most common)

Part 3 - A section which deals with how the approaches (and context?), methods and interpretation are all linked together. How do they flow into one another? How does the approach determine the method and how do they both create the interpretation etc etc. You must show an understanding that history is a construct created by historians (not a reconstruction of the past – this is impossible) and of how and why historians produce interpretations.

Part 4 - A section which deals with alternative interpretations, methods and approaches as a contrast to the ones in the passage. Eg – peripheral explanations, strategic explanations etc You need to think about how others have seen things differently. Accurate knowledge of events must be used to analyse the interpretation.
NB – You may also refer to other interpretations earlier in your essay if it helps you analyse the extract

Conclusion – Summarise again how the methods/approaches and interpretation in the extract all link together
– show how this leads to one interesting construction of a historical interpretation which has added to our understanding – but which inevitably is only a partial interpretation

OCR History B (A2 British Imperialism) - All Possible Part B Essay Plans by Harry Bojakowski (2014)

Other approaches may offer a different insight into this question. But that does not necessarily reduce the validity of the interpretation in the extract – all interpretations can add something to our understanding of the past. Mark Scheme
Level 5:
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Demonstrates sound understanding of the interpretation by explaining it - (using detailed references to the extract, and knowledge of the events). Demonstrates knowledge and understanding of the interpretation in a wider context e.g. may mention historians or limitations. Explains the methods and approaches (using detailed references to the extract).
Demonstrates a wider knowledge of the methods and approaches.
Interpretation and methods/approaches are closely linked.
Refers to alternative interpretations, methods, approaches as a contrast to the ones in the passage. An overall understanding of how and why historians produce interpretations.
Relevant and accurate knowledge of events used to analyse the interpretation.

Level 3:
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Explains the interpretation as an interpretation - (with some reference to the extract and some knowledge of the events). Demonstrates reasonable understanding and knowledge of the interpretation as a whole.
Identifies approaches or methods but these are not explained through reference to the extract. Fails to connect approaches and methods with the interpretation.
A general understanding of how and why historians produce interpretations
Relevant and largely accurate knowledge of events. Sometimes used to explain the interpretation. Level 1:
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Summarises the main points in the extract. There is some understanding that this is an interpretation but it is not understood as a whole.
Some knowledge of events demonstrated but largely irrelevant to the interpretation.
Limited understanding of the methods of historians.

Part B Plan:
Introduction – Layout what you plan to argue about the approach
Section 1 – Explain and describe the approach in DETAIL.
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What is the approach? What are its main features? REMEMBER NOT EVERYONE WILL HAVE
NECESSARILY USED IT IN THE SAME WAY.
Why was it developed? What had the study of empire been like before it? What was the context it was developed in?
THIS SECTION SHOULD BE ABOUT ONE PAGE

OCR History B (A2 British Imperialism) - All Possible Part B Essay Plans by Harry Bojakowski (2014)
Section 2 – Explain how the approach has advanced our understanding of study of empire. Give detailed examples of how the approach has been used.
THIS SECTION SHOULD BE SEVERAL PAGES LONG. WILL BE THE LONGEST SECTION It should be subdivided into paragraphs by big points with each big point being one way of how the approach has advanced our understanding. The paragraph should then contain a series of DETAILED examples about this one strength. Each paragraph should end with an explanation of how the examples illustrate this strength.
Section 3 - Explain how the approach has possible disadvantages.
AGAIN- THIS SECTION SHOULD BE SEVERAL PAGES LONG. IT. It should be subdivided into paragraphs by big points with each big point being one way of how the approach has disadvantages.
The paragraph should then contain a series of DETAILED examples about this disadvantage. Each paragraph should end with an explanation of how the examples illustrate the approach has this disadvantage. Section 4 - Compare the approach with other approaches to empire
THIS SECTION SHOULD BE SEVERAL PAGES LONG.
It should be subdivided into different approaches to the empire Eg – Economic forces etc. For each approach: What does it offer that the main approach of the question does not.
How might it be combined with the approach in the question to produce an even more enriched view of the empire. This is critical to achieve an A or B grade.

i) ii) Section 5 – An overall evaluation of the approach.
This is your conclusion but should be much more in depth than a normal conclusion. Issues you will want to consider are:
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What has been learned from this approach that could not be learned from other approaches?
What new questions have been asked and what new perspectives on empire have been discovered.
How has the approach changed the way in which empire is now written about?
What are its shortcomings?
How it can be used in combination with other approaches to empire to develop an EVEN RICHER
VIEW OF EMPIRE.
Traditional Approach Part B
Introduction
The traditional approach focuses on a comparison of late-nineteenth century imperial enthusiasm with mid-nineteenth century imperial apathy; the late-nineteenth century was the ‘great age of imperialism’ Section 1 – Explain the approach in detail
- By using different interpretations we can evaluate how accurately they assess the Empire and how they can be used in conjunction to provide a wider spectrum and map an explanation etc.
- The main features of the approach: this approach was one that focused on the political and economic physical dominance of Britain which therefore lead to them being able to expand
- Developed through study of the metropole and the physical dominance of the armies etc. using

OCR History B (A2 British Imperialism) - All Possible Part B Essay Plans by Harry Bojakowski (2014) examples of Britain removing the Mughal Empire in India through economic control (East-India
Trading Company) and then physical force or Royal Africa Company, benefitted trade as well as political and strategic power
- Added to definition of Empire as we consider the era of mercantilism and growth
- Historians such as Seeley used this approach to explain British dominance
- Traditional historians so method focused on past records of British politicians and traders as well as working on previous historians views, established historical belief
Possible questions
- Why did the Empire expand
- The impact of Empire on Britain
- How was the Empire experienced
Section 2 – Explain how the approach has advanced our understanding of study of empire
Britain’s dominance allowed expansion
- Provided a strong focus on factual records as well as a good explanation of how Britain was able to expand - At the time contextually there was a strong focus on Britain as a strength
- From the late 1880s, an expensive programme of naval construction attempted to create a ‘twopower standard’ of superiority
- British naval strength was to match that of any two other countries combined
- In East Africa the British East African Company had gained a great deal of territory by the 1990s
- In Egypt, a nationalist movement had spawned in 1881
- The Egyptian ruler became worried that his army might start a rebellion and dispose him
- An Anglo-French naval force was sent to Egypt in 1882 to support the authority of the Khedive
- After this sparked of bouts of riots killing around 50 Europeans, Britain launched a military invasion and remained a constant force in Egypt afterwards
Empire was seen as a good thing
- Built on previous historians who predicted British dominance and believed that Empire was a good thing - Contextually the approach was around at the start of the growth of the Empire and so people were experiencing the benefits first-hand
- 1870: British GDP 40% higher than Germany
- 1880: 20% British investment overseas
- 1873-1882: West African Trade worth £32m
- Trade with Zanzibar in 1880s worth £2m p.a.
- Middle-East trade = £30m p.a. 1870s.
- “Our task is to lead the way and direct the march of other nations.” - Palmerstone, 1848
Policies were focused around expansion
- The approach builds on the traditional view Seeley took of focusing on the dominance of the metropole however it is developed to consider the way in which politics played the most influential role - He said that Britain was in danger of being left behind by these other nations because it was a small

OCR History B (A2 British Imperialism) - All Possible Part B Essay Plans by Harry Bojakowski (2014) island with finite resources
- He was said to be influenced by Charles Dilke (he said that there was a natural bond between colonies and the metropole)
- Highlights the development of British politics and how this has allowed for expansion
- From the 1880s, a number of individuals in Britain sought to promote closer imperial relations
- They believed that the construction of a more politically-cohesive Empire was essential if Britain was to remain a world power
- Only the economic and military resources of the colonies would allow Britain to compete with nations such as Germany and the USA
- W. A. S, Hewins called this ‘constructive imperialism’ (1899)
- Joe Chamberlain is who is most commonly identified with constructive imperialism
- Colonial Secretary 1895-1903
- He attempted to develop the infrastructure of Britain’s tropical colonies
- He also became a great supporter of plans to introduce reciprocal preferential imperial tariffs (that countries within the Empire would place higher tariffs on goods imported from outside the Empire – thus imperial goods would have a larger share of the imperial market because goods produced elsewhere would be more expensive)
- Since imperial preference would help to provide guaranteed markets for British and colonial goods, it was argued that each colony would have an economic interest in retaining the integrity of the
British empire
- There was a broad measure of support for imperial preference in the metropole and in the colonies

Section 3 – Disadvantages
- Too narrow a focus, only looks at the influence of the metropole doesn 't consider what is happening outside of that that may act as a form of influence for the growth of the Empire. A use of the informal or peripheral approach would allow us to see the more active role that the colonies and periphery of the empire took in its growth and dominance.
- Only takes in to account data relating to growth and beliefs of British politicians that the Empire is growing and is a good thing, doesn 't consider the view of the masses and they reacted or if they had an opinion on growing dominance of British empire. A use of the bottom-up approach would be more useful to see how the demands of the masses played as an influence to the actions of the politicians in charge.
- Doesn 't consider any factors outside of political dominance, too narrow a focus on strength, no consideration of more cultural factors that lead to increase in power such as civilising or growth of religion etc. A use of cultural approach would allow us to view how the spread of religion had equally added to a want to grow and possibly how that influenced to beliefs of the metropole in expanding.

Section 4 – What have other approaches bought to the study of Empire
Economic approach
- Hobson was the first to challenge previous assumptions (Seeley) about the empire and its

OCR History B (A2 British Imperialism) - All Possible Part B Essay Plans by Harry Bojakowski (2014) expansion - Had the theory of underconsumption: The root of imperial expansion lay in the inability of the impoverished masses to pay for and consume the expanding volume of produce issuing forth from
Britain’s industries. Because there was a limit on the ability and inclination of the rich to consume this produce, British industrialists were increasingly compelled to seek foreign markets for their goods - Seeley argued that the expansion of empire was based on the metropolitan politicians, who wanted a “greater Britain”. Hobson challenged this- brought economic reasons to explain why, using empirical evidence
- "It is this economic condition of affairs that forms the taproot of imperialism" – Hobson
- Gladstone entered Egypt in 1880- had 37% of his wealth invested there in bonds. Need to protect overseas investment
- First to challenge the accepted interpretation of Seeley – led to questioning of historiography of empire and led to a rise in study of empire
Strategic approach
- Germany: In 1883, Otto Von Bismarck called for a meeting of the Great Powers to ‘carve up’ parts of West Africa. Britain was taken by surprise. Bismarck’s views= discuss methodology…
- By 1886, Germany had acquired significant imperial territory. The Cameroons and Togoland were taken as a result of the Berlin West African Conference of 1884-5, and Tanganyika followed by way of a separate agreement. In the Pacific, north-eastern New Guinea and a number of islands further north and east were also annexed by Germany. Threatened Britain’s influences in Africa
- Bismarck: “my map of Africa lies in Europe. Here is Russia and here is France with Germany in the middle; that is my map of Africa.”
- The approach can be used to explain events such as the "scramble for Africa" as it demonstrated the power rivalry of Europe being displayed in a different continent. The approach acts to explain the ways in which great power rivalry developed and therefore the influence played by these across the globe in their situations. A typical challenge to the earlier economic explanations
- Gave light to a new idea that the acquirement of territories/colonies was an accidental by-product of some European politicians who were prioritising the strategic interest if their country. For example the occupation of Egypt was a by-product of fears that the French were attempting to make territorial gains to control the Suez Canal

Section 5 – An overall evaluation of the approach.

This is your conclusion but should be much more in depth than a normal conclusion. Issues you will want to consider are:
- What has been learned from this approach that could not be learned from other approaches?
- What new questions have been asked and what new perspectives on empire have been discovered? - How has the approach has changed the way in which empire is now written about?
- What are its shortcomings?

OCR History B (A2 British Imperialism) - All Possible Part B Essay Plans by Harry Bojakowski (2014)

- How it can be used in combination with other approaches to empire to develop an EVEN RICHER
VIEW OF EMPIRE.
The last sentence is the key point.... You want to demonstrate that as with all approaches, the named approach has added much to our understanding... but that no approach on its own is perfect. That by combining elements of this approach with others, we can gradually build a richer, more diverse understanding of Empire – this will never be complete, but the more different approaches that are uncovered, the greater synthesis we may hope to achieve.
Marxist Part B
Introduction
The Marxist approach focuses on an argument based on Marxist-Leninist ideology; Imperialism was inevitable as it was ‘the highest stage of capitalism; it was also bound to lead to further world conflict Section 1 – Explain the approach in detail
- Historians have used a Marxist approach to try and explain why imperialism happened
- The Marxist approach follows the idea that imperialism is at the highest stage of capitalism as it goes about annexing free land and turning free trade into a capital monopoly
- It states that small firms are taken over by large ones and therefore this is how imperialism happens as large firms dominate the world so political control develops with it
- The approach follows similarly to the economic one as it focuses on trade being the source of imperialism however it differs in that imperialism is merely described as being a stage, also it takes a role in the political side as well as some Marxist historians have focused more so on the morality and politics behind imperialism to demonstrate the evils of capitalism before a communist utopia can be reached. - Lenin was a key historian who drove this approach, he built on the work of Kautsky who first stated that imperialism was the highest form of capitalism however Lenin then developed this explanation as Kautsky only focused on trade whereas Lenin focused on firms themselves expanding and leading to imperialism
- The methodology mainly focuses on economic factual data to support the claim as they study the movement of finance and capital.
- Marxism is generally considered to be a bottom-up approach as historians belief it is the actions of the masses that drive actions however there is an equally strong focus on the highest level of the financiers Possible questions
- The impact of Empire on Britain
- Why did the Empire expand
- How far was imperial policy continuous
Section 2 – Explain how the approach has advanced our understanding of study of empire
Free Trade leads to Imperialism
- The approach provides a new way of considering the development of the Empire in an economic sense as it considers how free trade has led to annexation of free land etc. acts as a source to explain how and why firms grow and therefore how this drives imperial expansion
- Has a focus on financial rather than industrial so builds on Hobson and Kautsky focusing on industry
- “Imperialism is capitalism in which the division of all territories of the globe among the biggest capitalist powers has been completed”

OCR History B (A2 British Imperialism) - All Possible Part B Essay Plans by Harry Bojakowski (2014)
- “Opening economies to outside commerce by promoting free trade was a de facto policy of expanding British influence” - Martin Lynn
- Allows for a new chronology as the Marxist approach places capitalism as merely a stage and therefore doesn 't examine stages of anti-imperialism or new-imperialism as it is a continual movement to a new stage of development
- For example trade was still high during the era of anti-imperialism so the Marxist approach considers capitalism to be in action
- Opium Wars: 1839-42 - Treaty of Nanking provided for 5 treaty ports where Britain could trade
- Free Trade Treaties: Persia, 1857; Turkey, 1861; Japan, 1858
Capitalism leads to immoral methods of imperialism
- There is an advancement to focus on the morality of the Empire as the Marxist approach focuses on the way that imperialism and capitalism leads to people being mistreated. Builds on Hobson 's moral objection to the Empire however deems it to be a necessary stage
- For example mistreatment in the Indian Mutinies is simply seen as a development of established capitalism - New Enfield Rifles had been introduced several months before the mutiny - the cartridge which needed to be bitten off was said to be made of cow (Muslim/ Hindus can’t eat it)
- People who refused to follow orders were put on trial and sent to prison, hung or entire troops were disbanded
Individual classes led to a growth of Imperialism
- A strong focus on the role of the financial side of the Metropole, examines the way in which the individual classes have led to a growth of imperialism.
- For example the West and East-Africa trading companies that gained power in Africa and therefore lead to a monopolisation of Britain in large parts of Africa as a form of capitalist imperialism
- Founded on the last day of 1600 by Queen Elizabeth and it lasted 258 years
- It was run by separating the ownership from the management – it reached a 250% return on investments - The Mughal Empire were happy to have British there to compete with Portuguese – the British promised not to catholicise the Indians like how the Portuguese had, the Mughal Empire was powerful enough to call the shots. The EIC did this as they wanted to be exempt from taxes – paying
£300
Section 3 – Disadvantages
- Too narrow a focus on the metropole as a role, only considers the way in which the metropole is developing imperially, fails to consider the reaction and the actions of those countries on the periphery who are influenced by imperialism. If used alongside a peripheral approach one would be able to witness how the development is expanding and therefore the impact of these firms and their level of monopoly style capitalist power.
- Too narrow a focus from Lenin on the economic side of imperialism. Kautsky considers politics slightly more however the focus is mainly on industry and trade. There is limited consideration of politics and culture and therefore it is difficult to tell how capitalism has influenced the expansion of the Empire in nature. If used in conjunction with the tradition approach or a cultural approach then

OCR History B (A2 British Imperialism) - All Possible Part B Essay Plans by Harry Bojakowski (2014) one would be able to examine how the Empire has changed in its nature and therefore what the most influential factor was to expansion.
- The Marxist definition is fundamentally flawed as the next stage has never been truly established, in no country is there strong evidence to suggest that imperialism then lead to the next stage of
Marxism and so we have no evidence to put in to practice the claims of it simply being a stage of capitalism. Section 4 – What have other approaches bought to the study of Empire
Economic approach (Hobson/ Cain and Hopkins)
Hobson was the first to challenge previous assumptions (Seeley) about the empire and its expansion. Had the theory of underconsumption: The root of imperial expansion lay in the inability of the impoverished masses to pay for and consume the expanding volume of produce issuing forth from Britain’s industries. Because there was a limit on the ability and inclination of the rich to consume this produce, British industrialists were increasingly compelled to seek foreign markets for their goods.
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Seeley argued that the expansion of empire was based on the metropolitan politicians, who wanted a “greater Britain”. Hobson challenged this- brought economic reasons to explain why, using empirical evidence.
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"It is this economic condition of affairs that forms the taproot of imperialism" –
Hobson
Example: Gladstone entered Egypt in 1880- had 37% of his wealth invested there in bonds. NEED TO
PROTECT OVERSEAS INVESTMENT.
R&G brought about the study of the periphery:
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Peripheral reasons pushed formal empire: Example: Rhodes wanted to expand empire into Matabeleland and Mashonaland- wanted gold, but he also wanted to extend the
British empire in order to create a continuous land route from Cape Town to Egypt, which came under control of the British in 1882.
Rhodes wanted mining rights, gained Rhodesia.

Brought idea of informal empire- previously, only red bits (White dominions, countries gained after scramble, etc.) were focused on: Increased scope and capacity for study:
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Between 1815 and 1880, it is estimated, £1,187,000,000 in credit had accumulated abroad, but no more than one-sixth was placed in the formal empire.
Hobson: 60% of British investments abroad didn’t go to formal empire.
Argentina, Mexico and Columbia, found themselves turning to the British for financial support, and in return opening their economies to British exports.
China, after Opium wars- also shows attitudes of British Empire (Gunboat diplomacyforceful, force for good?)
Altered previous assumptions on free trade= not an obstacle to imperialism. Example of Argentina.
Tackled previous assumptions of discontinuity- argued that there was continuity: informal empire…

Cain and Hopkins brought focus back on to the metropole:

OCR History B (A2 British Imperialism) - All Possible Part B Essay Plans by Harry Bojakowski (2014)

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Gentlemanly capitalism: City financiers pushed the expansion of empire- World
Bank, creditors to the world.
Example: The Rothschilds had close clinks to politicians. Earl of Rosebery married
Lord Rothschild’s cousin in 1878.
Emphasised interaction between metropolitan and peripheral factors.

Strategic approach
- The approach can be used to explain events such as the "scramble for Africa" as it demonstrated the power rivalry of Europe being displayed in a different continent. The approach acts to explain the ways in which great power rivalry developed and therefore the influence played by these across the globe in their situations. A typical challenge to the earlier economic explanations.
- Gave light to a new idea that the acquirement of territories/colonies was an accidental by-product of some European politicians who were prioritising the strategic interest if their country. For example the occupation of Egypt was a by-product of fears that the French were attempting to make territorial gains to control the Suez Canal.
- Created a new idea that suggested that the use of power rivalry across the globe would help to avoid European war as rivalries were directed towards the peripheral areas., therefore this approach allows us to consider the Empire in a much wider state of affairs. For example the "scramble for
Africa" was representative of European wars as the French made gains in West Africa which meant there was more pressure on Britain to protect Niger.
- The approach can also be used to further ideas of other approaches that it was necessary for
Britain to expand in order to compete on industrial, territorial and economic level and therefore act as a major player on the world stage. For example when the Germans and Russians were making gains, Germany controlling Cameroon and Togoland, Russia controlling central Asia and Siberia they had a more ample supply of resources and were able to develop economically as superpowers.
Section 5 – An overall evaluation of the approach.
This is your conclusion but should be much more in depth than a normal conclusion. Issues you will want to consider are:
- What has been learned from this approach that could not be learned from other approaches?
- What new questions have been asked and what new perspectives on empire have been discovered? - How has the approach has changed the way in which empire is now written about?
- What are its shortcomings?
- How it can be used in combination with other approaches to empire to develop an EVEN RICHER
VIEW OF EMPIRE.
The last sentence is the key point.... You want to demonstrate that as with all approaches, the named approach has added much to our understanding... but that no approach on its own is perfect. That by combining elements of this approach with others, we can gradually build a richer, more diverse understanding of Empire – this will never be complete, but the more different approaches that are uncovered, the greater synthesis we may hope to achieve.
Economic Part B

OCR History B (A2 British Imperialism) - All Possible Part B Essay Plans by Harry Bojakowski (2014)
Introduction
The Economic approach focuses on economic explanations for the growth of Empire;
Section 1 – Explain the approach in detail
- Historians have used economic reasons as the reasons for the Empire to both expand and decolonise - The main function of the approach is to consider how economics was the driving force behind the nature of British imperialism
- It was an approach that is utilised by economic historians such as Hobson and Lenin at the start of the 20th century
- However both use it in a different way and Lenin is considering the Empire from a Marxist perspective - Cain and Hopkins focused on the role of the individuals in this case focusing on the Gentlemanly
Capitalists
- The methodology of the approach relies on financial documents as evidence to demonstrate how imperialism was driven by economic factors
- The approach focuses on the influence of the financiers as well as the need for politicians to protect trade and use imperialism as a source of economic growth
- All views are based around the metropole
- Links to the idea of informal empire as there is a big focus placed on trade however the main focus is on the physical Empire as it is considering why formal expansion or decolonisation takes place
- Generally considered to be a top-down approach as it is the influence on the financiers that is being focused on as the source of imperialism
- However Lenin may argue that it was the demand of the masses for increased goods and the cycle of capitalism
Possible questions
- The impact of Empire on Britain
- Why did the Empire expand
- How far was imperial policy continuous
Section 2 – Explain how the approach has advanced our understanding of study of empire
Financial investment was crucial for Britain’s economy
- Takes in to account the obvious financial data and therefore provides a suitable explanation as why the Empire may or may not be viable dependent on the level of investment and outlay being relied back in to the hands of those in charge of industry.
- For example in 1900, 125.8 million was invested overseas therefore demonstrating the importance of Empire
- Income from overseas investments crucial to Britain 's positive balance of payments 1890s
- 1880: 20% British investment overseas
Protect investments
- Acts as a suitable explanation as to whether formal control was necessary or not whether industry and trade needed to be protected or whether the country was stable enough as it was. Sheds light on the political side of British governments view on the rest of the world. For example choosing to take formal control in Egypt in order to protect the Suez Canal
- During 1860s and 70s, Egypt faced bankruptcy. British investors wanted to protect assets
- In 1880, Britain entered Egypt to ensure stability, protecting these assets: 20,000 British and 7,000

OCR History B (A2 British Imperialism) - All Possible Part B Essay Plans by Harry Bojakowski (2014)
Indian troops used
- 13% British trade passed through Suez Canal
- Most of Gladstone 's personal wealth invested in colonies, esp. Egypt: Gladstone had an extensive investment portfolio, 37% of which was in Egyptian bonds
- 1875: Disraeli borrows £4m from Rothschilds - buys 44% of original Canal Company shares
- 1901: Dividends of £880,000 on Canal Company shares
- Late 1890s: 63% Egyptian exports and 38% imports to/from Britain.
Relying on trade and import from the colonies
- Allows for a focus on the rest of the Empire as well as the metropole as we are able to see how trade has been established overseas and how these are therefore necessary for Britain to remain a strong power.
- For example relying on goods from other countries such as palm oil from Niger and cocoa from
Nigeria
- 1873-1882: West African Trade worth £32m
- Trade with Zanzibar in 1880s worth £2m p.a.
- Late 1890s: 63% Egyptian exports and 38% imports to/from Britain.
- Middle-East trade = £30m p.a. 1870s
People migrated for economic prosperity
- Allows a good explanation of why Britons moved overseas and domesticated formal territories. If there was potential economic prosperity then this lead financiers and their families overseas to become a part of the indigenous population.
- For example population surged in Egypt after British occupation from 7.6 million in 1880 to 12.3 million in 1914
Individual influence
- Takes a consideration of the individual classes as we consider the role the Gentlemanly Capitalists played in influencing the Empire through their association in society. Allows for a consideration of the individual influence and the changing nature of British class system
- Sir Bartle Frere – annexed Transvaal after discovery of gold at Witwatersrand - only retrospectively approved by Chamberlain
- Cecil Rhodes – Colonisation of Rhodesia: a means of securing mineral wealth for the DeBeers
Mining Corporation; used as a stepping stone to the colonisation of East Africa
- Goldie – obtained a charter to annexe Niger after warning of the inevitability of French palm-oil monopoly - Gladstone – most of his personal wealth invested in colonies, esp. Egypt: Gladstone had an extensive investment portfolio, 37% of which was in Egyptian bonds
Section 3 – Explain the advantage and disadvantages of the approach’s methodology

- Limited in scope of evidence and records (at the time of writing)
- Only looks at the metropole
- Use of statistics; better as they aren’t subject to opinion (primary evidence)
- Allows it to focus on case studies

OCR History B (A2 British Imperialism) - All Possible Part B Essay Plans by Harry Bojakowski (2014)
- Too narrow a focus, the approach doesn 't consider any other influences other that of the economic drive. Fails to consider the role of spreading culture or political need for empirical expansion or decolonisation. Approach needs to be used in conjunction with cultural or traditional approach in order to consider other reasons why expansion or decolonisation may have taken place
- Too much of a focus on the metropole 's actions and the actions of the financiers. Little consideration of the role of the peripheral countries or the indigenous people. There is no consideration of nationalist movements or the roles the people played in encouraging economic growth. Used in conjunction with a peripheral approach one would be able to better assess the way in which both the metropole and the periphery played a role in the influence of the governments
- Economic approach fails to take in to consideration the informal empire as the main focus is on the formally controlled parts of the Empire. Using the financial data a historian would be able to see that is it not necessarily formal control that leads to a growth in trade such as in the chronology provided by Robinson and Gallagher in the informal approach.
Further ideas:
1. Hobson’s use of this approach focused too much on the newly developed territories rather than other influential markets such as the USA and Latin America. His chronology was weak as he missed out the so called ‘peak’ time for overseas investment which was in the 1900.
2. Lenin and Hobson largely ignored other factors and solely concentrated on the economics, assuming that governments were mostly encouraged due to the desire to obtain new raw materials and new profitable markets.
3. David Cannadene fines the approach to be too monocausal.
4. Bernard Porter criticises Cain and Hopkins use of the approach as he believes it underplays the importance of the periphery.
5. Example;
Of the £4.1 billion Britain invested abroad, only 40% went to areas which were formally part of the Empire. In 1870 Britain’s GDP was 40% higher than Germany’s, by 1913 it was 6% lower. Section 4 – What have other approaches bought to the study of Empire
Strategic approach
Power rivalry caused expansion
- The approach can be used to explain events such as the “Scramble for Africa” as it demonstrated the power rivalry of Europe being displayed in a different continent
- The approach acts to explain the ways in which great power rivalry developed and therefore the influence played by these across the globe in their situations
- A typical challenge to the earlier economic explanations
- 1880 to 1900 – About 90% of the continent of Africa was seized by Britain, France, Germany and
Belgium (Britain=5 million2 miles; France= 3.5 million2 miles; Germany, Belgium and Italy= 2.5 million2 miles shared)
- 1885 – Pressure around the Niger River became a factor when the Belgians set up the Congo Free
State in order to exploit the thriving rubber there
- 1885 – A conference in Berlin agreed that there should be free trade in the Congo basin and recognised British interests along the River Niger. There was also an agreement about the process of annexation of territory in West Africa: out of this emerged the British colony of Nigeria
Colonies were a by-product of a protective strategy
- Gave light to a new idea that the acquirement of territories/colonies was an accidental by-product of some European politicians who were prioritising the strategic interest if their country
- For example the occupation of Egypt was a by-product of fears that the French were attempting to

OCR History B (A2 British Imperialism) - All Possible Part B Essay Plans by Harry Bojakowski (2014) make territorial gains to control the Suez Canal
- During 1860s and 70s, Egypt faced bankruptcy. British investors wanted to protect assets. In 1880,
Britain entered Egypt to ensure stability, protecting these assets: 20,000 British and 7,000 Indian troops used
- Fear that if the British didn 't act to colonise Egypt, the French would, who also had interests in the
Suez which was most important as a route to India: other considerations were secondary
Global power rivalry stopped a European war
- Created a new idea that suggested that the use of power rivalry across the globe would help to avoid European war as rivalries were directed towards the peripheral areas
- Therefore this approach allows us to consider the Empire in a much wider state of affairs
- For example the “Scramble for Africa” was representative of European wars
- Germany: In 1883, Otto Von Bismarck called for a meeting of the Great Powers to ‘carve up’ parts of West Africa
- By 1886, Germany had acquired significant imperial territory. The Cameroons and Togoland were taken as a result of the Berlin West African Conference of 1884-5, and Tanganyika followed by way of a separate agreement. In the Pacific, north-eastern New Guinea and a number of islands further north and east were also annexed by Germany. Threatened Britain’s influences in Africa
- Bismarck: “my map of Africa lies in Europe. Here is Russia and here is France with Germany in the middle; that is my map of Africa.”
- Bismarck believed that a harmless colonial conflict with Britain might help him towards winning the
Reichstag elections (1884)
- In 1895, the Kaiser sent a telegram to Paul Kruger, President of the Transvaal, congratulating him on repelling a ‘raid’ by the British adventurer, Leander Jameson, who had been intent on stirring a rebellion to unseat Kruger. Created hysteria in Britain as it was believed that there was an alliance between Germany and the Transvaal for the eventual takeover of South Africa
Britain had to expand to become more of powerful compared to rivals
- The approach can also be used to further ideas of other approaches that it was necessary for
Britain to expand in order to compete on industrial, territorial and economic level and therefore act as a major player on the world stage
- James Roll points out that Wilhelm II valued the acquisition of colonies in Africa as it provided a testing ground for new German technology, especially warships
- Plans for an expanded and modernised Germany navy developed in 1897 under Admiral Tirpitz and began to be implemented from 1900
- HMS Dreadnaught; Admiral Fisher created it; Battleship
- By 1914 there were 5 British ships to every 3 German ships
Periphery approach
Focus on the influence on Periphery on Metropole
- Allows a focus away from the metropole so there is a broader spectrum as we look at the role of the individual colonies and therefore see the way in which they influenced their own decisions over simply being considered as under the rule of Britain
- For example a focus on the Mau Mau rebellion demonstrated the fight for nationalist freedom and therefore the development of Kenyan politics having Kenyetta in charge
- The Kenyan African Union protested peacefully calling for political change and independence from
Britain. Jomo Kenyatta was a part of these peaceful protests however some took his words to mean the only way to independence was through violence. Upon hearing Kenyatta’s tame explanation of the KAU flag one Kenyan thought he meant the “fertile lands (green) could only be regained by the blood (red) of the African (black)”.
- The Home Guard killed 4,686 Mau Mau’s, amounting to 42% of total insurgents. Detention camps were built and as many as 1.5 million suspected Mau Mau supporters were imprisoned

OCR History B (A2 British Imperialism) - All Possible Part B Essay Plans by Harry Bojakowski (2014)
- Allows for a more widespread understanding of influence rather than simply focusing on one strand the approach begins to consider social and cultural factors as well as economic factors
- For example a focus on Africa 's individual resources which therefore attracted expansion and how companies worked alongside British to develop the materials
Periphery showed how the Empire was being controlled
- The focus on individual colonies allows an accurate picture of what was actually going on in the
Empire rather than a simple generalisation of the role of the Empire as whole, expanding knowledge and therefore allowing a more accurate judgment
- For example considering India on its own shows an outcome of brutality and mistreatment
- John Newsinger – “there was a systematic policy of torture in British India, covered up by authorities in Britain”
- After Indian mutiny, 150 corpses hung on single Banyan tree.
- “Every tree and gable-end in the place should have its burden in the shape of a mutineer 's carcass”
- The Times
- Amritsar: 379 killed, 1100 wounded (official estimate: INC estimates 1000 killed; 1,500 casualties total) - Amritsar Massacre: instigated by Brigadier-General Dyer – British response: Dyer relieved of his command - “Certainly not. It was not my job. Hospitals were open and they could have gone there” - Dyer, on whether he should have tended to the wounded
- Equally John Newsinger accused the British of “native bashing” as they used modern technology against the natives – the Maxim gun introduced in 1881
- In 1888, 1500 Matabele warriors were wiped out whilst only 4 invaders died
- Whereas a focus on Australia shows a well-developed flourishing country
- Sidney was built by the British – Artisans (skilled workers) who were convicts
- Convicts were given 30 acre land grants when they finished their sentences
- 1838 – the official aboriginal protectors were created (the government in London weren’t happy with the treatment of the Aboriginals)
- 1850 – 16 Aboriginals were settled into 16 huts by the British to ‘civilize’ them as they thought if the convicts can be converted then why not the Aboriginals
- 1850s+ – Australian colonies start to receive self-government
- 1860 – Responsible government granted to Western Australia
- By 1928, free farmers outnumbered prisoners
Periphery shaped the public’s opinion on Empire
- Helps to build a picture of the morality of the Empire as we can consider the reaction from the colonies rather than the peripheral view on the outcomes of imperialism
- For example the Boer War was partially celebrated as a heroic event
- Songs were created about the heroism shown
- “Boers are not like the Sudanese who stood up for a fair fight, they are also running away on their little ponies” Kitchener
- The Conservatives won the election of 1900 – popular support lay with the government and proimperial policy
- Although many Liberals were not imperialist some leading figures in the party still were e.g. Grey and Asquith
- Whereas it involved serious loss of life and the use of concentration camps

OCR History B (A2 British Imperialism) - All Possible Part B Essay Plans by Harry Bojakowski (2014)
- There were a total of 45 tented camps built for Boer internees
- Of the 28,000 Boer men captured as prisoners of war, 25,630 were sent overseas
- Most Boers remaining in the local camps were women and children
- The conditions in the camps were very unhealthy and the food rations were meagre
- The poor diet and inadequate hygiene led to endemic contagious diseases such as measles, typhoid and dysentery
- A report after the war concluded that 27,927 Boers (of whom 22,074 were children under 16) had died of starvation, disease and exposure in the concentration camps
- In all, about 25% of the Boer inmates died
- Reports have stated that the number of Boers killed was 18,000-28,000
Section 5 – An overall evaluation of the approach.

This is your conclusion but should be much more in depth than a normal conclusion. Issues you will want to consider are:
- What has been learned from this approach that could not be learned from other approaches?
- What new questions have been asked and what new perspectives on empire have been discovered? - How has the approach has changed the way in which empire is now written about?
- What are its shortcomings?
- How it can be used in combination with other approaches to empire to develop an EVEN RICHER
VIEW OF EMPIRE.
The last sentence is the key point.... You want to demonstrate that as with all approaches, the named approach has added much to our understanding... but that no approach on its own is perfect. That by combining elements of this approach with others, we can gradually build a richer, more diverse understanding of Empire – this will never be complete, but the more different approaches that are uncovered, the greater synthesis we may hope to achieve.
Age of Anti-Imperialism Part B
Introduction
The age of anti-Imperialism approach focuses on the mid-Victorian era of indifference/ antiimperialism; Empire’s formal Empire didn’t expand
Section 1 – Explain the approach in detail
- There was a lack of continuity towards imperialism in Britain over time
- It was characterised by very little territorial expansion of the formal Empire, and by Britain’s willingness to allow the development of self-government in the white settlement colonies
- In the mid-Victorians there was a period of anti-imperialism that lasted up from the 1840s until the
1870s
- Historians tend to link this to Britain’s adoption of free trade in the middle of the nineteenth century; the ideology of free trade appeared to contradict notions of Empire, since imperial expansion usually involved the acquisition of foreign territory in order to regulate trade and commerce - To deem there to be anti-imperialism we have to look at the physical expansion of the empire such as the traditional historians have e.g. Hobson, Seeley, Lenin

OCR History B (A2 British Imperialism) - All Possible Part B Essay Plans by Harry Bojakowski (2014)
- Could be considered as either top-down or bottom up. Hobson would argue top-down as it was the politicians and financiers who had the main influence however Lenin would argue it was a bottomup approach as the masses influenced the decision of popular imperialism or not
- The approach focuses on physical, formal expansion and therefore relies on the traditional definition of Empire
- The approach was developed through a consideration of political records and political views and therefore looks at geographical movement
- There was a strong focus on the economic factors of imperialism as to whether it was financially beneficial to continue expanding
- As well as this, it considers the view of the masses as being a large influence over the governments choice of imperialism
- Links in to the consideration of informal Empire being an alternative and therefore explaining the lack of physical expansion
Questions
- How the Empire was maintained?
- The impact of Empire on Britain?
- How far was imperial policy continuous?
Section 2 – Explain how the approach has advanced our understanding of study of empire
The adoption of free trade
- Gives a good consideration of the financial viability of Empire and therefore the important role that financiers and trade played in the decision of formal expansion
- Richard Cobden criticised holding colonies as being expensive and an unnecessary burden
- After the repeal of the Corn Laws in 1846, the British government adopted a policy of free trade
- Protectionist legislation was scrapped, and measures were taken to limit government interference in commerce, culminating in the free trade budgets of the 1850s/60s
- Advocates of free trade believed that British manufacturing would be stimulated; free trade would make it easier for other countries to earn sterling through the export of raw materials, and these countries could then buy British manufactures
- Free trade also bought moral benefits, as it would foster an ethos of work and enterprise
-Contextually aligns with Britain struggling to fund the army and therefore simply relying on trade agreements Self-government
- Gives a good indication of the development of politics in identifying how the Empire was changing, able to see the British allow more colonial governments and forms of self-rule and so explains a change in the nature of the role of the politicians
- In 1838 Charles Trevelyan said that “Empire was to be self-government”
- The 1839 Durham Report (Lord Durham) meant that, in the 1840s, Britain’s remaining North
American colonies were allowed to develop self-government
- This meant that the government of each colony in the region was to be held responsible to, and rule according to the wishes of, it’s elected legislative assembly
- This gave elected representatives of a colony the ability to determine domestic policy, such as how taxation was to be spent
- Between 1841-51, there was the annexation of New Zealand, Gold Coast, Labuan, Natal and Hong
Kong.
- In 1848, New Brunswick was the first colony to receive self-government and Upper and Lower

OCR History B (A2 British Imperialism) - All Possible Part B Essay Plans by Harry Bojakowski (2014)
Canada and the other American colonies followed
- The Australasian colonies secured self-government from the 1850s onwards
- At around the same time, the Cape colony in Southern Africa gained representative institutions
- After the India mutiny, the East India Company was replaced by the Raj in 1858
- The Queen’s Great Proclamation of 1858 – Queen Victoria is made to announce that British rule will be non-interfering where religious groups will be treated equally
- In 1860 self-government was granted to Western Australia and New Zealand
- Helps to demonstrate the role the masses played in imperialism as they influenced politicians and so showed an active role in Empire. Demonstrates the importance of Empire to population as there was a distinct change in attitude and therefore presents how it affected people 's everyday lives. For example the Edinburgh Review stated in 1825 “can any man give me one way in which Canada is useful for Britain”
- Forster’s A Passage to India is critical of British Imperialism
Imperial defence
- Helps to map the change in British politics as a move towards popular politics in a need to please the masses. Demonstrates a distinct change in the nature of British politics and so portrays reform and the way in which the country changed and developed.
- Richard Cobden became an MP in 1841 having actively spoken out against the continual expansion of the Empire.
- In 1846, colonial secretary Earl Grey published a review of Britains overseas military strength and recommended Britain concentrated its armed forces at home
- He argued that if a colony was threatened, Britain had the technological ability to respond quickly
- Plus the settler colonies with self-government should provide their own internal defence
- The British government accepted these proposals and between 1840 and 1880 withdrew troops from colonies
- Canada the British garrison fell from 16,000 in 1841 to 2,800 in 1856
- In the 1860 New Zealand conflict, Britain was obliged to help the colonists against indigenous peoples by 1864 had providing around 18,000 troops, but despite renewed hostilities in 1868-69
Britain refused to send reinforcements – many people believed the support was in aid of the colonists, not for the empire
- New Zealand was coerced into adopting self-reliance and local defence force was raised
- This contextually fits alongside a change in popular politics
Section 3 – Explain the advantage and disadvantages of the approach’s methodology
- Too narrow a focus as the way in which the nature of imperialism is defined means that we are only focusing on the formal expansion of the Empire, not the level of control that is exerted on other countries without formally controlling territory. The use of the informal approach would allow a more broad picture and allow us to see how the Empire exerts influence without simply formal annexation. For example Britain had a large influence in South Africa and China without having any formal control.
- Fails to consider the roles of the controlled or not-controlled countries. The approach only considers the role of the metropole and therefore doesn 't consider how changing policies in other countries may have influenced the change in support for the Empire. Used in conjunction with a

OCR History B (A2 British Imperialism) - All Possible Part B Essay Plans by Harry Bojakowski (2014) peripheral or international approach we would be able to see how the opinions of countries within the Empire or close had been changing over the time period.
- The approach fails to take in to account the accurate financial data as to levels of trade etc, despite not formally increasing trade is still increasing and therefore imperialism and free trade must have still been supported, investment earnings increased from 50.9 million in 1870 to 125.8 million in
1900. The approach needs to be considered alongside the economic approach to determine whether there was actually an anti-imperialistic feel or whether it was simply more of a focus on economic growth rather than physical growth.
- The Empire was still expanding despite supposedly being in an anti-imperialistic period. During the period 1841-1851 Lower Burma, Transvaal, Lagos and Basutoland were all added to the formal empire. Section 4 – What have other approaches bought to the study of Empire
New Imperialism approach
Financiers expanded for trade
- Gives a good consideration of the role financiers played in the expansion of the Empire as it considers that trade was a driving force for a new wave of imperialism being necessary.
- For example in 1875 Disraeli bought 44% of the Suez Canal for £4 million
- Contextually important as the money was borrowed from the Rothschild 's and therefore demonstrated an important role in being able to encourage expansion to protect trade
- Helps to map the change in British politics as a move towards popular politics as a need to please the masses.
- Shown by Disraeli re-introducing the idea of imperialism when it was demanded as well as a need to please the financiers
- For example Britain had 125.8 million invested overseas in 1900 and it was necessary for Disraeli to show that he was protecting this
Expansion was driven to protect investments
- Gives a good indication as to the change in politics and identifying when the British government felt it necessary to formally expand
- They set up trade in countries and then expanded in order to protect status and trade such as with the Suez Canal in Egypt to protect trade from the French
- Britain claimed 5m mi.sq. in Scramble for Africa: one half of all land colonised
- During 1860s and 70s, Egypt faced bankruptcy. British investors wanted to protect assets. In 1880,
Britain entered Egypt to ensure stability, protecting these assets: 20,000 British and 7,000 Indian troops used
- Fear that if the British didn 't act to colonise Egypt, the French would, who also had interests in the
Suez which was most important as a route to India: other considerations were secondary
Public demand and support for Imperialism
- Helps to present the influence of the masses to empire in a bottom-up form as a strong wave of support for imperialism and growth in trade helped encourage the government to continue formal expansion - Partly shown by the demand for foreign goods from the masses as Niger supplied palm oil and rubber and Nigeria supplied cocoa
- Colonisation of Nigeria
Informal approach (continuity)

OCR History B (A2 British Imperialism) - All Possible Part B Essay Plans by Harry Bojakowski (2014)
Protect overseas investments
- Builds on the economic approach in explaining why it was necessary not to take full control because of the cost of formally expanding as well as explaining the reasoning for informal expansion being just to gain trade agreements and economic prosperity. At the time there was a general feeling against imperialism however it was still necessary to protect British overseas investments
- Opium War
- First War 1839-42 and the second 1856-60
- For example massive trade in China despite Britain never formally controlling any part of the country - Opium Wars in order to open China up to free trade
- Opium Wars: 1839-42 - Treaty of Nanking provided for 5 treaty ports where Britain could trade
- China: British influence limited for Chinese disinterest in Western goods and a 'buy Chinese ' campaign - British Robert Hart became Head of Chinese Imperial Maritime Customs in 1863
- 1806-07: River Plate invasion
- 1839 – Landings at Callao Latin America
- 1861-1862 – Mexican intrusion; 1848 – threaten Brazil over the slave trade
- Assault on Lagos in 1851 Africa
Encouraged overseas trade
- Suitably explains why trade and investment continued to increase despite a supposed period of anti-imperialism as it explains how Britain was expanding in other way to instead consider informal territory and grow just for the nature of encouraging trade and growth. For example countries such as Columbia, Mexico and Argentina becoming dependent on Britain for financial support, exports and supplies. The development of new chronology contrasts the earlier views of historians such as
A.J.P. Taylor
- Only 40% of £4.1bn British investments abroad in 19thC went to formal empire
- “The British Empire was not limited to the parts of the world coloured red on the map” - R&G
- Free Trade Treaties: Persia, 1836 & 1857; Turkey, 1838 & 1861; Japan, 1858 in order to reduce tariffs - Latin America – By 1913 informal imperialism had become so important for the British economy that £999,000,000, over a quarter of total overseas investment, was invested there
- 1826: £30m invested in Latin America; 1865: £81m
- 1815 – 1880 £1,187,000,000 was invested in the empire. Just 1/6 of this went to areas under formal control
- £3,000,000 exports to Turkey (1850), Turkey 's total imports: £200,000,000
Section 5 – An overall evaluation of the approach.
This is your conclusion but should be much more in depth than a normal conclusion. Issues you will want to consider are:
- What has been learned from this approach that could not be learned from other approaches?
- What new questions have been asked and what new perspectives on empire have been discovered? - How has the approach has changed the way in which empire is now written about?
- What are its shortcomings?
- How it can be used in combination with other approaches to empire to develop an EVEN RICHER
VIEW OF EMPIRE.
The last sentence is the key point.... You want to demonstrate that as with all approaches, the named approach has added much to our understanding... but that no approach on its own is

OCR History B (A2 British Imperialism) - All Possible Part B Essay Plans by Harry Bojakowski (2014) perfect. That by combining elements of this approach with others, we can gradually build a richer, more diverse understanding of Empire – this will never be complete, but the more different approaches that are uncovered, the greater synthesis we may hope to achieve.
Metropolitan Part B
Introduction
The metropolitan approach focuses on the identification of how political ideology affected decisions taken in the metropole
Section 1 – Explain the approach in detail
- Historians have chosen to focus the study of the Empire on the way in which the metropole operated and the effect this had on the rest of the Empire
- Can be considered a multi-disciplinary approach as it can focus on both how the Empire developed and regressed through the influence of domestic politics and internal political ideology
- The approach builds on the traditional view Seeley took of focusing on the dominance of the metropole however it is developed to consider the way in which politics played the most influential role - The approach is viewed as top-down approach as the emphasis is placed on the way that the elite politicians acted and therefore the impact this had on the population of the metropole as a whole
- Historians focused their methodology on the use of official political documents in order to see the changing role of politics in the metropole
- The main outcomes of this approach are a focus on the way Imperial rule was run mainly by the decisions and the influences of the metropole from the start
Possible questions
- The impact of Empire on Britain
- Why did the Empire expand
- How was the Empire controlled
- Why did the Empire expand
Section 2 – Explain how the approach has advanced our understanding of study of empire

The late 19th century was “the great age of imperialism”
- 1850-1875 was usually identified as anti-imperialist because it was characterised by very little territorial expansion of the formal empire, and by Britain 's willingness to allow the development of self-government in the white settlement colonies as well as the adoption of free trade
- In 1838 Charles Trevelyan said that “Empire was to be self-government”
- The 1839 Durham Report (Lord Durham) meant that, in the 1840s, Britain’s remaining
North American colonies were allowed to develop self-government
- This meant that the government of each colony in the region was to be held responsible to, and rule according to the wishes of, it’s elected legislative assembly
- This gave elected representatives of a colony the ability to determine domestic policy, such as how taxation was to be spent
- Between 1841-51, there was the annexation of New Zealand, Gold Coast, Labuan, Natal and Hong Kong.
- In 1848, New Brunswick was the first colony to receive self-government and Upper and
Lower Canada and the other American colonies followed
- The Australasian colonies secured self-government from the 1850s onwards
- At around the same time, the Cape colony in Southern Africa gained representative

OCR History B (A2 British Imperialism) - All Possible Part B Essay Plans by Harry Bojakowski (2014)

institutions
- After the India mutiny, the East India Company was replaced by the Raj in 1858
- The Queen’s Great Proclamation of 1858 – Queen Victoria is made to announce that British rule will be non-interfering where religious groups will be treated equally
- In 1860 self-government was granted to Western Australia and New Zealand
- The ideology of free trade appeared to contradict notions of empire, since imperial expansion usually involved the acquisition of foreign territory in order to regulate trade and commerce - Britain claimed 5m mi.sq. in Scramble for Africa: one half of all land colonised
- During 1860s and 70s, Egypt faced bankruptcy. British investors wanted to protect assets.
In 1880, Britain entered Egypt to ensure stability, protecting these assets: 20,000 British and
7,000 Indian troops used
- Fear that if the British didn 't act to colonise Egypt, the French would, who also had interests in the Suez which was most important as a route to India: other considerations were secondary - The traditional approach identified significant discontinuity between mid-Victorian imperial apathy and the development of strong imperial sentiments in the latter part of the 19th century - New Imperialism was prompted by concerns that free trade was no longer working and that security could only be found by expanding imperial markets
Economic reasoning behind expansion
- Hobson
- Imperialism was morally wrong; more often than not, it was enforced using violence
- The main cause of imperialism was the greed of those with “idle hands”: capitalist financiers who had made fortunes out of investing, mainly in British industry
- When industry started to slow down (U.S and Germany producing cheaper goods, markets were over-flowing with goods that people no longer needed/could afford) the financiers went overseas to seek new investment opportunities, which expanded empire
- "Rhodes was an Empire jerry-builder, who has always been a mere vulgar promoter masquerading as a patriot, and the figurehead of a gang of astute Hebrew financiers with whom he divides the profits" (N. Ferguson Empire: How Britain Made the Modern World)
- Lenin
- By the outbreak of WWI, monopoly capitalists were making vast amounts of money which they were ploughing into what they anticipated would be the most profitable enterprises
- Lenin agreed with Hobson in stating that territories in untapped parts of the world were being fought over to provide markets for the "new" money to be invested
- Cain and Hopkins (“Gentlemanly Capitalists”)
- British Imperialism: Innovation and Expansion takes into account the influence of globalisation - Cain and Hopkins argued that the link between the Industrial Revolution and British
Imperialism was greatly exaggerated, and that this group of “gentlemanly capitalists” consisted of individuals from families associated with commerce, the professions, and/or landed interest
Section 3 – Explain the advantage and disadvantages of the approach’s methodology
- It focus on government resources so true representation of government views and beliefs at the time
- Some documents not available till well after most historians who used this approach therefore they missed the bigger picture
- Too focused on just the metropole, ignores periphery and other nations completely

OCR History B (A2 British Imperialism) - All Possible Part B Essay Plans by Harry Bojakowski (2014)

- Too narrow a focus on solely the role of the metropole. The approach only considers the role of the metropole and therefore completely fails to explain why the British chose to expand where they did or what might have changed political decisions. The approach needs to be used with the peripheral approach to gain a broader spectrum of the influences in the Empire and what acted as the definitive forces.
- The sole focus on politics takes away from any other forms of influence that might have led to the expansion of the Empire. If used alongside the cultural approach we would be able to see how the role of culture played an influence alongside that of political dominance.
- The approach fails to take in to account the fact that Empire was still expanding despite a supposedly anti-imperialistic feel, therefore the politicians were not necessarily influenced by the public as they continued to expand in other ways to continue exerting control. Consider the informal approach with the approach in order to see how the Empire was influenced elsewhere other than the metropole.

Section 4 – What have other approaches bought to the study of Empire
Periphery approach
- Focus on the influence on Periphery on Metropole

- Allows a focus away from the metropole so there is a broader spectrum as we look at the role of the individual colonies and therefore see the way in which they influenced their own decisions over simply being considered as under the rule of Britain
- For example a focus on the Mau Mau rebellion demonstrated the fight for nationalist freedom and therefore the development of Kenyan politics having Kenyetta in charge
- The Kenyan African Union protested peacefully calling for political change and independence from Britain. Jomo Kenyatta was a part of these peaceful protests however some took his words to mean the only way to independence was through violence. Upon hearing Kenyatta’s tame explanation of the KAU flag one Kenyan thought he meant the
“fertile lands (green) could only be regained by the blood (red) of the African (black)”.
- The Home Guard killed 4,686 Mau Mau’s, amounting to 42% of total insurgents. Detention camps were built and as many as 1.5 million suspected Mau Mau supporters were imprisoned
- Allows for a more widespread understanding of influence rather than simply focusing on one strand the approach begins to consider social and cultural factors as well as economic factors - For example a focus on Africa 's individual resources which therefore attracted expansion and how companies worked alongside British to develop the materials
Periphery showed how the Empire was being controlled
- The focus on individual colonies allows an accurate picture of what was actually going on in the Empire rather than a simple generalisation of the role of the Empire as whole, expanding knowledge and therefore allowing a more accurate judgment
- For example considering India on its own shows an outcome of brutality and mistreatment
- John Newsinger – “there was a systematic policy of torture in British India, covered up by authorities in Britain”
- After Indian mutiny, 150 corpses hung on single Banyan tree.
- “Every tree and gable-end in the place should have its burden in the shape of a mutineer 's carcass” - The Times
- Amritsar: 379 killed, 1100 wounded (official estimate: INC estimates 1000 killed; 1,500

OCR History B (A2 British Imperialism) - All Possible Part B Essay Plans by Harry Bojakowski (2014)

casualties total)
- Amritsar Massacre: instigated by Brigadier-General Dyer – British response: Dyer relieved of his command
- “Certainly not. It was not my job. Hospitals were open and they could have gone there” Dyer, on whether he should have tended to the wounded
- Equally John Newsinger accused the British of “native bashing” as they used modern technology against the natives – the Maxim gun introduced in 1881
- In 1888, 1500 Matabele warriors were wiped out whilst only 4 invaders died
- Whereas a focus on Australia shows a well-developed flourishing country
Collaborative approach
- ‘Men on the spot’
- Creates a focus on a new class of individuals and therefore provides new terminology. The approach considers the role played by the men on the periphery and therefore demonstrates how they played an important role in the ruling of the Empire. For example Alfred Milner, the high commissioner of South Africa was able to convince the British government to take more decisive action in the Transvaal as a part of the Boer War
- It was difficult for metropolitan policymakers to exert authority over ‘men on the spot’ because the distance between centre and periphery hindered effective communications
- Colonial governors argued that those in the metropole lacked sufficient firsthand experience of a particular colony to offer suitable advice
- In 1989-9, Milner used telegrams to hustle the Colonial Office and Cabinet into issuing an illconsidered ultimatum to the Transvaal. Milner had also made the Transvaal question a prominent issue in the British media thereby placing greater pressure on the British government to act
Collaboration and the indigenous elite
- Shows a more moral side to the Empire, rather than considering coercion which promoted British brutality this approach instead considers the way in which the British worked with local people in order to better their lives. For example the collaborators were rewarded with technological and knowledge advancement so that they could individually benefit
- Local people were used extensively in the administration, army and police force
- 3/4 Indian civil servants were native Indians by 1914
- There were difficulties in employing large numbers of European administrators in the colonies and indigenous also possessed the local knowledge that was essential for effective government
- Indigenous elites were courted and involved in the exercise of British power, particularly in areas of indirect rule
- 1931: India had over 1 million government workers involved in the administration of the country
- 1939: the elite administrative division of the colonial service in Africa numbered 1200 men for over a dozen colonies covering 2 million square miles
- These collaborators were sometimes rewarded with material benefits, such as access to investments and technology, or favourable allocations of land and labour
- Indigenous authorities gained new legitimacy through association with a technologically-advanced foreign power

+ more on it in the essay plans for these approaches

OCR History B (A2 British Imperialism) - All Possible Part B Essay Plans by Harry Bojakowski (2014)

Section 5 – An overall evaluation of the approach.
This is your conclusion but should be much more in depth than a normal conclusion.
Issues you will want to consider are:
- What has been learned from this approach that could not be learned from other approaches?
- What new questions have been asked and what new perspectives on empire have been discovered? - How has the approach has changed the way in which empire is now written about?
- What are its shortcomings?
- How it can be used in combination with other approaches to empire to develop an EVEN RICHER
VIEW OF EMPIRE.
The last sentence is the key point.... You want to demonstrate that as with all approaches, the named approach has added much to our understanding... but that no approach on its own is perfect. That by combining elements of this approach with others, we can gradually build a richer, more diverse understanding of Empire – this will never be complete, but the more different approaches that are uncovered, the greater synthesis we may hope to achieve.
International Relations Part B
Introduction
The international relations approach focuses on an emphasis on international relations in an historical context; expansionism and, in particular, the ‘Scramble for Africa’ was a result of Great
Power rivalry
Section 1 – Explain the approach in detail
- Historians have studied the Empire by considering its international relations and therefore studying the how the Empire influenced these relationships and what stemmed from them
- From this then considering how imperial rivalry has perhaps lead to the expansion of the Empire, the scramble for Africa being an obvious example of this
- The methodology of this approach focused around considering analysis of official and unofficial records and therefore considering how these represented the relationships at the time
- The methodology seeks to prove that the Empire needed to expand in order to compete with rival powers - Historians such as A.J.P . Taylor and Kennedy have used this approach to explain how there was a power struggle between Europe going on in other countries
- A.J.P. Taylor particularly explains the "Scramble for Africa" as being an effectively European war on a foreign land
- Historians have approached the study of the growth of Empire by emphasising the complex interplay between European rivals
- Considered to be a top-down approach as the approach focuses mainly on the way in which the beliefs of power of the major politicians lead to the development of the Empire and the actions that were taken
Possible questions
- The impact of Empire on Britain
- Why did the Empire expand
- How far was imperial policy continuous
Section 2 – Explain how the approach has advanced our understanding of study of empire

OCR History B (A2 British Imperialism) - All Possible Part B Essay Plans by Harry Bojakowski (2014)
International pressure to expand
- Allows for a new consideration of reasoning why the Empire would expand rather than simply considering the traditional political and economic dominance approach. The pressure from outside influences lead to expansions and ways of influencing the roles of the government
- For example Chancellor Bismarck 's foreign policy aims threatened Europe and therefore highlighted the need for Britain to gain power in safety before Germany had the chance to expand
- In 1883, the German leader called for a meeting of the Great Powers to carve up parts of West
Africa
- The British were taken by surprise, and Gladstone was rather dismissive of the action seeing it as an election gimmick
- By 1886, Germany had acquired significant imperial territory
- The Cameroons and Togoland were taken as a result of the Berlin West African Conference of
1884-5, and Guinea and a number of islands further north and east were also annexed by Germany
Peripheral events influenced metropolitan decisions
- Allows for more of a focus on the periphery as it allows an understanding of how international relations developed what happened to the Empire. The outside influences affected the Empire as whole - For example the threat from Germany lead to more back for “men on the spot” as in 1886 a Royal
Charter was granted to Sir George Goldie 's national Africa company to allow a virtual British monopoly of trade around Niger
- In 1889, Cecil Rhodes was also granted further permission to go into lands north of the Zambezi
(North Rhodesia, now Zambia) and Rhodes also influenced the declaration of a protectorate over
Nyasaland in 1891 by guaranteeing to fund it for at least 4 years
- In East Africa, William McKinnon was granted a charter to run the Imperial British East Africa
Company
- This was partly so that McKinnon might eventually take Uganda, which would help to prevent the spread of German influence via the trader and explorer Carl Peters
- Finally, an agreement with Germany in 1890 over East African claims resulted in German recognition of British claims to Zanzibar and Uganda in exchange for Heligoland and extension of
German influences from Dar-es-Salaam to Lake Tanganyika
- Salisbury also used the opportunity to gain an agreement over British control of Northern
Rhodesia, Bechuanaland and eastern Nigeria. By 1891, partition of Africa was pretty much complete
Created moral Imperialism
- Adds a study of morality to the study of Empire as decolonisation was considered in line with the view that other superpowers, e.g. USSR and USA, did not believe that imperialism was moral and therefore considers the way in which the Empire was represented along with reasons for expansion and decolonisation
- Fear of communism led to Americans unwilling to support British Imperialism: USA had been founded as a country of liberty and democracy
Compete with Rival powers
- Builds on the economic approach as there was a strong belief that imperialism was necessary in order to protect foreign investment from rival powers

OCR History B (A2 British Imperialism) - All Possible Part B Essay Plans by Harry Bojakowski (2014)
- For example Britain take control of Egypt in order to protect their investment in the Suez Canal from their French rivals
Section 3 – Disadvantages
- The focus moves away from the role of the metropole and the periphery on their own and only considers their actions as a reaction to that of international competitors. Therefore does not account for the way in which the Empire has developed through more traditional methods. Needs to be used in conjunction with the metropolitan and peripheral approach in order to gain the broader picture of how all forms have played influence toward the Empire
- Not necessarily a suitable explanation for why there was a partition of Africa. Britain agreed to a formal partition and therefore did not continue a war of Europe abroad but were happy to concede and accept it, for example Britain give up Heligoland to Germany. This would disagree with Taylor 's belief that a European war was being fought elsewhere so there was no damage to European soil
- Ignores any influence of spreading culture, only considers European rivalry but fails to consider the ideological side behind it and therefore does not utilise other studies that could be linked to the consideration of foreign competitors. Should be used alongside the cultural approach to explain how the British felt they were civilising the globe.

Section 4 – What have other approaches bought to the study of Empire
Economic approach
Protect investments
- Acts as a suitable explanation as to whether formal control was necessary or not whether industry and trade needed to be protected or whether the country was stable enough as it was. Sheds light on the political side of British governments view on the rest of the world. For example choosing to take formal control in Egypt in order to protect the Suez Canal
- During 1860s and 70s, Egypt faced bankruptcy. British investors wanted to protect assets
- In 1880, Britain entered Egypt to ensure stability, protecting these assets: 20,000 British and 7,000
Indian troops used
- 13% British trade passed through Suez Canal
- Most of Gladstone 's personal wealth invested in colonies, esp. Egypt: Gladstone had an extensive investment portfolio, 37% of which was in Egyptian bonds
- 1875: Disraeli borrows £4m from Rothschilds - buys 44% of original Canal Company shares
- 1901: Dividends of £880,000 on Canal Company shares
- Late 1890s: 63% Egyptian exports and 38% imports to/from Britain.
Relying on trade and import from the colonies
- Allows for a focus on the rest of the Empire as well as the metropole as we are able to see how trade has been established overseas and how these are therefore necessary for Britain to remain a strong power.
- For example relying on goods from other countries such as palm oil from Niger and cocoa from
Nigeria
- 1873-1882: West African Trade worth £32m
- Trade with Zanzibar in 1880s worth £2m p.a.

OCR History B (A2 British Imperialism) - All Possible Part B Essay Plans by Harry Bojakowski (2014)
- Late 1890s: 63% Egyptian exports and 38% imports to/from Britain.
- Middle-East trade = £30m p.a. 1870s
Periphery approach
- Explains expansion of Empire as well
- India – Suez Canal – Sudan
- India – Cape colony – scramble for Africa
- Expansion was in order to protect parts of the empire, places on the periphery were necessary to be taken in order to secure the Empire
- Takes a wider view, not just great nations but formal and informal empire
- South America (Argentina)
- Nigeria
Section 5 – An overall evaluation of the approach.

This is your conclusion but should be much more in depth than a normal conclusion. Issues you will want to consider are:
- What has been learned from this approach that could not be learned from other approaches?
- What new questions have been asked and what new perspectives on empire have been discovered? - How has the approach has changed the way in which empire is now written about?
- What are its shortcomings?
- How it can be used in combination with other approaches to empire to develop an EVEN RICHER
VIEW OF EMPIRE.
The last sentence is the key point.... You want to demonstrate that as with all approaches, the named approach has added much to our understanding... but that no approach on its own is perfect. That by combining elements of this approach with others, we can gradually build a richer, more diverse understanding of Empire – this will never be complete, but the more different approaches that are uncovered, the greater synthesis we may hope to achieve.
New-Imperialist Part B
Introduction
The new-Imperialist approach focuses on an emphasis on areas of the globe which Britain formally controlled Section 1 – Explain the approach in detail
- Historians argue that there was lack of continuity in the support for the Empire
- In the period 1870 to 1950 it is argued that there was a new phase of support for the Empire in new imperialism
- In order to consider eras of new-imperialism it is necessary to determine chronology
- To deem there to be new-imperialism we have to look at the physical expansion of the empire such as the traditional historians have e.g. Hobson, Seeley, Lenin.
- The approach focuses on physical, formal expansion and therefore relies on the traditional definition of Empire
- The approach was developed through a consideration of political records and political views and

OCR History B (A2 British Imperialism) - All Possible Part B Essay Plans by Harry Bojakowski (2014) therefore looks at geographical movement
- A strong focus on the economic factors of imperialism as to whether it is financially beneficial to continue expanding
- As well as this considers the view of the masses as being a large influence over the governments choice of imperialism.
- Could be considered as either top-down or bottom up
- Hobson would argue Top-down as it was the politicians and financiers who had the main influence however Lenin would argue it was a bottom-up approach as the masses influenced the decision of popular imperialism or not
Possible questions
- Why did the Empire expand
- The impact of Empire on Britain
- How was the Empire experienced
Section 2 – Explain how the approach has advanced our understanding of study of empire
Financiers expanded for trade
- Gives a good consideration of the role financiers played in the expansion of the Empire as it considers that trade was a driving force for a new wave of imperialism being necessary.
- For example in 1875 Disraeli bought 44% of the Suez Canal for £4 million
- Contextually important as the money was borrowed from the Rothschild 's and therefore demonstrated an important role in being able to encourage expansion to protect trade
- Helps to map the change in British politics as a move towards popular politics as a need to please the masses.
- Shown by Disraeli re-introducing the idea of imperialism when it was demanded as well as a need to please the financiers
- For example Britain had 125.8 million invested overseas in 1900 and it was necessary for Disraeli to show that he was protecting this
Expansion was driven to protect investments
- Gives a good indication as to the change in politics and identifying when the British government felt it necessary to formally expand
- They set up trade in countries and then expanded in order to protect status and trade such as with the Suez Canal in Egypt to protect trade from the French
- Britain claimed 5m mi.sq. in Scramble for Africa: one half of all land colonised
- During 1860s and 70s, Egypt faced bankruptcy. British investors wanted to protect assets. In 1880,
Britain entered Egypt to ensure stability, protecting these assets: 20,000 British and 7,000 Indian troops used
- Fear that if the British didn 't act to colonise Egypt, the French would, who also had interests in the
Suez which was most important as a route to India: other considerations were secondary
Public demand and support for Imperialism
- Helps to present the influence of the masses to empire in a bottom-up form as a strong wave of support for imperialism and growth in trade helped encourage the government to continue formal expansion - Partly shown by the demand for foreign goods from the masses as Niger supplied palm oil and

OCR History B (A2 British Imperialism) - All Possible Part B Essay Plans by Harry Bojakowski (2014) rubber and Nigeria supplied cocoa
- Colonisation of Nigeria
Section 3 – Disadvantages
- Too narrow a focus as the way in which the nature of imperialism is defined means that we are only focusing on the formal expansion of the Empire, not the level of control that is exerted on other countries without formally controlling territory. The use of the informal approach would allow a more broad picture and allow us to see how the Empire exerts influence without simply formal annexation. For example Britain had a large influence in South Africa and China without having any formal control.
- Fails to consider the roles of the controlled or not-controlled countries. The approach only considers the role of the metropole and therefore doesn 't consider how changing policies in other countries may have influenced the change in support for the Empire. Used in conjunction with a peripheral or international approach we would be able to see how the opinions of countries within the Empire or close had been changing over the time period.
- The approach places a strong focus on financial data however does not consider the fact that the change in data was not vast between the two "defined" periods and therefore does not necessarily show a distinct lack of continuity, only demonstrated when focusing on expansion rather than influence. Section 4 – What have other approaches bought to the study of Empire
Periphery approach
Focus on the influence on Periphery on Metropole
- Allows a focus away from the metropole so there is a broader spectrum as we look at the role of the individual colonies and therefore see the way in which they influenced their own decisions over simply being considered as under the rule of Britain
- For example a focus on the Mau Mau rebellion demonstrated the fight for nationalist freedom and therefore the development of Kenyan politics having Kenyetta in charge
- The Kenyan African Union protested peacefully calling for political change and independence from
Britain. Jomo Kenyatta was a part of these peaceful protests however some took his words to mean the only way to independence was through violence. Upon hearing Kenyatta’s tame explanation of the KAU flag one Kenyan thought he meant the “fertile lands (green) could only be regained by the blood (red) of the African (black)”.
- The Home Guard killed 4,686 Mau Mau’s, amounting to 42% of total insurgents. Detention camps were built and as many as 1.5 million suspected Mau Mau supporters were imprisoned
- Allows for a more widespread understanding of influence rather than simply focusing on one strand the approach begins to consider social and cultural factors as well as economic factors
- For example a focus on Africa 's individual resources which therefore attracted expansion and how companies worked alongside British to develop the materials
Periphery showed how the Empire was being controlled
- The focus on individual colonies allows an accurate picture of what was actually going on in the
Empire rather than a simple generalisation of the role of the Empire as whole, expanding knowledge and therefore allowing a more accurate judgment
- For example considering India on its own shows an outcome of brutality and mistreatment

OCR History B (A2 British Imperialism) - All Possible Part B Essay Plans by Harry Bojakowski (2014)
- John Newsinger – “there was a systematic policy of torture in British India, covered up by authorities in Britain”
- After Indian mutiny, 150 corpses hung on single Banyan tree.
- “Every tree and gable-end in the place should have its burden in the shape of a mutineer 's carcass”
- The Times
- Amritsar: 379 killed, 1100 wounded (official estimate: INC estimates 1000 killed; 1,500 casualties total) - Amritsar Massacre: instigated by Brigadier-General Dyer – British response: Dyer relieved of his command - “Certainly not. It was not my job. Hospitals were open and they could have gone there” - Dyer, on whether he should have tended to the wounded
- Equally John Newsinger accused the British of “native bashing” as they used modern technology against the natives – the Maxim gun introduced in 1881
- In 1888, 1500 Matabele warriors were wiped out whilst only 4 invaders died
- Whereas a focus on Australia shows a well-developed flourishing country
Economic approach
- Hobson was the first to challenge previous assumptions (Seeley) about the empire and its expansion - Had the theory of underconsumption: The root of imperial expansion lay in the inability of the impoverished masses to pay for and consume the expanding volume of produce issuing forth from
Britain’s industries. Because there was a limit on the ability and inclination of the rich to consume this produce, British industrialists were increasingly compelled to seek foreign markets for their goods - Seeley argued that the expansion of empire was based on the metropolitan politicians, who wanted a “greater Britain”. Hobson challenged this – brought economic reasons to explain why, using empirical evidence
- “It is this economic condition of affairs that forms the taproot of imperialism” – Hobson
- Gladstone entered Egypt in 1880- had 37% of his wealth invested there in bonds. Need to protect overseas investment
- First to challenge the accepted interpretation of Seeley – led to questioning of historiography of empire and led to a rise in study of empire.
Section 5 – An overall evaluation of the approach.

This is your conclusion but should be much more in depth than a normal conclusion. Issues you will want to consider are:
- What has been learned from this approach that could not be learned from other approaches?
- What new questions have been asked and what new perspectives on empire have been discovered? - How has the approach has changed the way in which empire is now written about?
- What are its shortcomings?
- How it can be used in combination with other approaches to empire to develop an EVEN RICHER
VIEW OF EMPIRE.

OCR History B (A2 British Imperialism) - All Possible Part B Essay Plans by Harry Bojakowski (2014)
The last sentence is the key point.... You want to demonstrate that as with all approaches, the named approach has added much to our understanding... but that no approach on its own is perfect. That by combining elements of this approach with others, we can gradually build a richer, more diverse understanding of Empire – this will never be complete, but the more different approaches that are uncovered, the greater synthesis we may hope to achieve.
Gentlemanly Capitalist Part B
Introduction
The gentlemanly capitalist approach focuses on an emphasis on the role of economic history but also a multi-disciplinary approach to studying the empire
Section 1 – Explain the approach in detail
- Historians have chosen to focus on the Empire by considering the emergence of a single social class of society
- The approach deals with the class of Gentlemanly Capitalists who were products of the industrial revolution however they were highly educated and therefore sought to become a part of the social elite, this approach considers the marrying of finance and elite
- The approach deals with the question of why did the British Empire expand
- The approach reverts back to the earlier interpretations of Hobson and Lenin of focusing on the economic forces driving imperialism and moving away from the cultural focus on society and politics that was common after World War Two
- The two historians most notably linked with this approach are Cain and Hopkins, they were studying in the 1980s and therefore their revert back to the idea of economic forces was driven by the growing nature of globalisation and this could be linked to the Empire as the earliest example of this - The methods used by these historians was to focus on quantitative evidence and therefore use factual evidence to present the way in which this social class invested abroad in projects such as railways and infrastructure to develop their role in society
- The approach focuses mainly on the role of economic forces in the metropole and therefore shows similarities towards Hobson and Lenin, however their focuses were on industrialists and big business
Possible questions
- The impact of Empire on Britain
- Why did the Empire expand
- How far was imperial policy continuous
Section 2 – Explain how the approach has advanced our understanding of study of empire
New social class
- The focus on a new class allowed a development of a new role of a class in society. Allows for new terminology “gentlemanly capitalists” as we consider the role and emergence of a whole new social class linking finance and elite together
- For example the 8th Duke of Devonshire represented a new class of people as he was a part of the old landed gentry who sought to make new-money and so moved in to dominate the service industry in the City
- After 1890, Devonshire invested heavily in overseas railways and government stocks, which provided a considerable amount of his income before 1914 and the major part of it by the 1920s
Financial reliance on Imperialism

OCR History B (A2 British Imperialism) - All Possible Part B Essay Plans by Harry Bojakowski (2014)
- A revert back to the focus on economic forces, using quantitative data we are able to see a development of the work of Hobson as Cain and Hopkins consider a different role of influence as opposed to the over exaggeration placed on the industrial revolution.
- For example the Rothschild family invested almost £41 million in to government bonds which were in Egypt and South Africa
- The approach therefore explains the necessity of imperialism as it is reliant on such large finance
Link between financiers and political elite
- Develops the link between the financiers and the political elite as it demonstrates how both needed the support of one another to develop financial interests and to have them protected. This relationship is presented in a way that means both are reliant on one another and therefore allows development of the role of metropolitan politics alongside the role of economic forces.
- For example the Rothschild family had close links with Disraeli, Randolph Churchill and the Earl of
Rosebery (Foreign Secretary 1886, 1892-4; Prime Minister 1894-5)
- Rosebery married Lord Rothschild 's cousin in 1878
- Disraeli borrowed money from the Rothschilds – investment in Suez Canal
Focus on the Metropolitan role
- Reverts to a focus on the metropole in considering the role it played in controlling and expanding its own Empire rather than considering the Empire as mere by-product the approach allows us to consider how the metropole played a direct role in its outcome.
- For example Gladstone invested heavily in the Egyptian economy via the Ottoman Egyptian Tribute loan of 1871
- By 1891, he had main a capital gain of almost 130% in Egypt and so needed to protect his investment - The monitoring of affairs in Egypt for the last part of the century was placed in the hands of a member of another great financier family of the time, the Barings
Section 3 – Disadvantages
- The focus of the approach is too narrow, it is monocausal and therefore only focus on the role of individual economic forces. Fieldhouse claimed that the focus was too narrow and needed to be considered as part of a cumulative approach. The approach should be used alongside other approaches such as cultural or political to see what other factors were influential
- There is too narrow a focus on the metropole and it therefore ignores the role of the periphery.
Bernard Porter claims that the thesis underplays the role of the periphery. The approach needs to be considered with reference to the peripheral approach to get a more broad spectrum of the Empire
- Historians, such as Daunton, have claimed that Cain and Hopkins chose to focus the role of the industrialists who in fact did play a large role in the expansion of the Empire and so the approach ignores the evidence that doesn 't fit with the thesis. The approach should be considered in conjunction with the economic approach to examine how there is more than one social class that influenced expansion.
Section 4 – What have other approaches bought to the study of Empire
Peripheral approach
Focus on the influence on Periphery on Metropole
- Allows a focus away from the metropole so there is a broader spectrum as we look at the role of the individual colonies and therefore see the way in which they influenced their own decisions over

OCR History B (A2 British Imperialism) - All Possible Part B Essay Plans by Harry Bojakowski (2014) simply being considered as under the rule of Britain
- For example a focus on the Mau Mau rebellion demonstrated the fight for nationalist freedom and therefore the development of Kenyan politics having Kenyetta in charge
- The Kenyan African Union protested peacefully calling for political change and independence from
Britain. Jomo Kenyatta was a part of these peaceful protests however some took his words to mean the only way to independence was through violence. Upon hearing Kenyatta’s tame explanation of the KAU flag one Kenyan thought he meant the “fertile lands (green) could only be regained by the blood (red) of the African (black)”.
- The Home Guard killed 4,686 Mau Mau’s, amounting to 42% of total insurgents. Detention camps were built and as many as 1.5 million suspected Mau Mau supporters were imprisoned
- Allows for a more widespread understanding of influence rather than simply focusing on one strand the approach begins to consider social and cultural factors as well as economic factors
- For example a focus on Africa 's individual resources which therefore attracted expansion and how companies worked alongside British to develop the materials
Periphery showed how the Empire was being controlled
- The focus on individual colonies allows an accurate picture of what was actually going on in the
Empire rather than a simple generalisation of the role of the Empire as whole, expanding knowledge and therefore allowing a more accurate judgment
- For example considering India on its own shows an outcome of brutality and mistreatment
- John Newsinger – “there was a systematic policy of torture in British India, covered up by authorities in Britain”
- After Indian mutiny, 150 corpses hung on single Banyan tree.
- “Every tree and gable-end in the place should have its burden in the shape of a mutineer 's carcass”
- The Times
- Amritsar: 379 killed, 1100 wounded (official estimate: INC estimates 1000 killed; 1,500 casualties total) - Amritsar Massacre: instigated by Brigadier-General Dyer – British response: Dyer relieved of his command - “Certainly not. It was not my job. Hospitals were open and they could have gone there” - Dyer, on whether he should have tended to the wounded
- Equally John Newsinger accused the British of “native bashing” as they used modern technology against the natives – the Maxim gun introduced in 1881
- In 1888, 1500 Matabele warriors were wiped out whilst only 4 invaders died
- Whereas a focus on Australia shows a well-developed flourishing country
- Sidney was built by the British – Artisans (skilled workers) who were convicts
- Convicts were given 30 acre land grants when they finished their sentences
- 1838 – the official aboriginal protectors were created (the government in London weren’t happy with the treatment of the Aboriginals)
- 1850 – 16 Aboriginals were settled into 16 huts by the British to ‘civilize’ them as they thought if the convicts can be converted then why not the Aboriginals
- 1850s+ – Australian colonies start to receive self-government
- 1860 – Responsible government granted to Western Australia
- By 1928, free farmers outnumbered prisoners

OCR History B (A2 British Imperialism) - All Possible Part B Essay Plans by Harry Bojakowski (2014)
International Relations approach (put pressure on Britain to expand to keep on equal footing)
International pressure to expand
- Allows for a new consideration of reasoning why the Empire would expand rather than simply considering the traditional political and economic dominance approach. The pressure from outside influences lead to expansions and ways of influencing the roles of the government
- For example Chancellor Bismarck 's foreign policy aims threatened Europe and therefore highlighted the need for Britain to gain power in safety before Germany had the chance to expand
- In 1883, the German leader called for a meeting of the Great Powers to carve up parts of West
Africa
- The British were taken by surprise, and Gladstone was rather dismissive of the action seeing it as an election gimmick
- By 1886, Germany had acquired significant imperial territory
- The Cameroons and Togoland were taken as a result of the Berlin West African Conference of
1884-5, and Guinea and a number of islands further north and east were also annexed by Germany
Peripheral events influenced metropolitan decisions
- Allows for more of a focus on the periphery as it allows an understanding of how international relations developed what happened to the Empire. The outside influences affected the Empire as whole - For example the threat from Germany lead to more back for “men on the spot” as in 1886 a Royal
Charter was granted to Sir George Goldie 's national Africa company to allow a virtual British monopoly of trade around Niger
- In 1889, Cecil Rhodes was also granted further permission to go into lands north of the Zambezi
(North Rhodesia, now Zambia) and Rhodes also influenced the declaration of a protectorate over
Nyasaland in 1891 by guaranteeing to fund it for at least 4 years
- In East Africa, William McKinnon was granted a charter to run the Imperial British East Africa
Company
- This was partly so that McKinnon might eventually take Uganda, which would help to prevent the spread of German influence via the trader and explorer Carl Peters
- Finally, an agreement with Germany in 1890 over East African claims resulted in German recognition of British claims to Zanzibar and Uganda in exchange for Heligoland and extension of
German influences from Dar-es-Salaam to Lake Tanganyika
- Salisbury also used the opportunity to gain an agreement over British control of Northern
Rhodesia, Bechuanaland and eastern Nigeria. By 1891, partition of Africa was pretty much complete
Created moral Imperialism
- Adds a study of morality to the study of Empire as decolonisation was considered in line with the view that other superpowers, e.g. USSR and USA, did not believe that imperialism was moral and therefore considers the way in which the Empire was represented along with reasons for expansion and decolonisation
- Fear of communism led to Americans unwilling to support British Imperialism: USA had been founded as a country of liberty and democracy
Compete with Rival powers
- Builds on the economic approach as there was a strong belief that imperialism was necessary in order to protect foreign investment from rival powers
- For example Britain take control of Egypt in order to protect their investment in the Suez Canal from their French rivals

OCR History B (A2 British Imperialism) - All Possible Part B Essay Plans by Harry Bojakowski (2014)

Section 5 – An overall evaluation of the approach.

This is your conclusion but should be much more in depth than a normal conclusion. Issues you will want to consider are:
- What has been learned from this approach that could not be learned from other approaches?
- What new questions have been asked and what new perspectives on empire have been discovered? - How has the approach has changed the way in which empire is now written about?
- What are its shortcomings?
- How it can be used in combination with other approaches to empire to develop an EVEN RICHER
VIEW OF EMPIRE.
The last sentence is the key point.... You want to demonstrate that as with all approaches, the named approach has added much to our understanding... but that no approach on its own is perfect. That by combining elements of this approach with others, we can gradually build a richer, more diverse understanding of Empire – this will never be complete, but the more different approaches that are uncovered, the greater synthesis we may hope to achieve.
Informal Empire Part B
Introduction
The informal empire approach focuses on the use of the concept of informal empire; the policy adopted by British governments towards the Empire in the nineteenth century displayed more continuity than change
Section 1 – Explain the approach in detail
- Historians have studied the empire by considering the informal parts of the Empire
- Therefore considering the countries that weren 't coloured red on the map but were acting directly under British control
- The approach has been focused on by Robinson and Gallagher who felt it more important to consider the areas of the globe that weren 't formally known as the Empire
- Their methods were to analyse official documents from the informally recognised countries to establish the nature of their relationship with Britain
- As a part of this they developed a new chronology which considered that there was no antiimperialistic period but instead that the nature of imperialism changed to informal expansion during that period
- The new chronology focuses on level of control rather than formal control
- The approach links in well with the economic approach as a lot of the reasons for informal expansion were based around financial trades and not wanting to go in to the costly business of taking and maintaining control
- Distinguished that some countries became economically dependent on Britain and therefore this explained why Britain was able to exert so much control without necessarily having to formally take control of areas
Possible questions

OCR History B (A2 British Imperialism) - All Possible Part B Essay Plans by Harry Bojakowski (2014)
- How was the Empire experienced
- The impact of Empire on Britain
- How was the Empire controlled
- Why did the Empire expand
- How far was imperial policy continuous
Section 2 – Explain how the approach has advanced our understanding of study of empire
Peripheral Influence
- Takes in to account the role of countries outside of the formal Empire and therefore provides more of broad picture as to the level of influence Britain had over other areas of the globe.
- 1856: Britain begins to build Brazilian rail network
- 1848-49: British naval intervention in Brazil over slave trade
- Tropical Africa – 1840s-1860s= growing involvement. Expeditions to the Niger in 1841 and 1847.
Mission to Dahomey in 1850. Actions against Zanzibar slave trade in 1840s. Emphasis on influence not seizure of colonies
Protect overseas investments
- Builds on the economic approach in explaining why it was necessary not to take full control because of the cost of formally expanding as well as explaining the reasoning for informal expansion being just to gain trade agreements and economic prosperity. At the time there was a general feeling against imperialism however it was still necessary to protect British overseas investments
- Opium War
- First War 1839-42 and the second 1856-60
- For example massive trade in China despite Britain never formally controlling any part of the country - Opium Wars in order to open China up to free trade
- Opium Wars: 1839-42 - Treaty of Nanking provided for 5 treaty ports where Britain could trade
- China: British influence limited for Chinese disinterest in Western goods and a 'buy Chinese ' campaign - British Robert Hart became Head of Chinese Imperial Maritime Customs in 1863
- 1806-07: River Plate invasion
- 1839 – Landings at Callao Latin America
- 1861-1862 – Mexican intrusion; 1848 – threaten Brazil over the slave trade
- Assault on Lagos in 1851 Africa
Encouraged overseas trade
- Suitably explains why trade and investment continued to increase despite a supposed period of anti-imperialism as it explains how Britain was expanding in other way to instead consider informal territory and grow just for the nature of encouraging trade and growth. For example countries such as Columbia, Mexico and Argentina becoming dependent on Britain for financial support, exports and supplies. The development of new chronology contrasts the earlier views of historians such as
A.J.P. Taylor
- Only 40% of £4.1bn British investments abroad in 19thC went to formal empire
- “The British Empire was not limited to the parts of the world coloured red on the map” - R&G
- Free Trade Treaties: Persia, 1836 & 1857; Turkey, 1838 & 1861; Japan, 1858 in order to reduce

OCR History B (A2 British Imperialism) - All Possible Part B Essay Plans by Harry Bojakowski (2014) tariffs - Latin America – By 1913 informal imperialism had become so important for the British economy that £999,000,000, over a quarter of total overseas investment, was invested there
- 1826: £30m invested in Latin America; 1865: £81m
- 1815 – 1880 £1,187,000,000 was invested in the empire. Just 1/6 of this went to areas under formal control
- £3,000,000 exports to Turkey (1850), Turkey 's total imports: £200,000,000
Informal control meant a more moral approach to control
- Enabled historians to consider the empire in a different light. Where previously the Empire had been thought of as immoral and inhumane in the form of informal empire the British weren 't formally taking control and therefore were not impacting in unjust ways on people. Therefore the wave for a new bout of formal imperialism could be inspired as there was no longer a public disproval of the Empire
- In the mid-Victorian period countries such as Columbia, Mexico and Argentina became dependant on the British for financial support, export markets and manufactured supplies – the British thus developed political leverage over local rulers (trade not coercive approach)
Other ideas:
- Takes in to account the role of countries outside of the formal Empire and therefore provides more of broad picture as to the level of influence Britain had over other areas of the globe. For example massive trade in China despite Britain never formally controlling any part of the country
- Builds on the economic approach in explaining why it was necessary not to take full control because of the cost of formally expanding as well as explaining the reasoning for informal expansion being just to gain trade agreements and economic prosperity. At the time there was a general feeling against imperialism however it was still necessary to protect British overseas investments
- Suitably explains why trade and investment continued to increase despite a supposed period of anti-imperialism as it explains how Britain was expanding in other way to instead consider informal territory and grow just for the nature of encouraging trade and growth. For example countries such as Columbia, Mexico and Argentina becoming dependent on Britain for financial support, exports and supplies. The development of new chronology contrasts the earlier views of historians such as
A.J.P. Taylor
- Enabled historians to consider the empire in a different light. Where previously the Empire had been thought of as immoral and inhumane in the form of informal empire the British weren 't formally taking control and therefore were not impacting in unjust ways on people. Therefore the wave for a new bout of formal imperialism could be inspired as there was no longer a public disproval of the Empire.
Section 3 – Disadvantages
- The argument of Robinson and Gallagher focuses on the idea of informal growth growing from free-trade however idealistically many free-traders were anti-imperialistic and therefore the explanation does not fit. There needs to instead be a mixture considered with the economic

OCR History B (A2 British Imperialism) - All Possible Part B Essay Plans by Harry Bojakowski (2014) approach in order to understand the role of the individuals supposedly driving imperialism
- Controversy as to whether the informal Empire can truly be called a part of the British empire, dependent on the way one looks at the definition however none of these parts are formally part of the Empire and therefore can they really be considered to under British control. A need to consider the approach alongside the international approach to consider how heavily the informal empire rested on the British and therefore whether they can fundamentally be considered a part of the
Empire
- Too narrow a focus on the informal part of the Empire, there is a loss of appreciation of the recognised Empire and what part of a role they would take in this as well as the role of the metropole itself. Used in conjunction with a more traditional approach one would be able to consider how the Empire expanded both through the recognised Empires dominant influence as well as formally expanding.
Section 4 – What have other approaches bought to the study of Empire
Formal empire approach
- Provided a strong focus on factual records as well as a good explanation of how Britain was able to expand, the example of India fits well in to this and explains how through economic dominance
Britain was able to gain influence over countries. At the time contextually there was a strong focus on Britain as a strength so the approach supports the dominance of Britain and was taught at university etc.
- Built on previous historians who predicted British dominance and believed that Empire was a good thing. Contextually the approach was around at the start of the growth of the Empire and so people were experiencing the benefits first-hand.
- Highlights the development of British politics and how this has allowed for expansion in trade to other countries. Contextual the growth of popular politics and the influence of Disraeli to encourage growth etc.
- The influence of politics into other forms of life such as economics, e.g. the government allow free trade with other countries so as to encourage growth and develop more of an assertive power, time span known as mercantilism.

Coercive approach
Brutal force was used extensively to rule the Empire
- Provides an alternative to the hegemonic and collaborative approach, explains the reasoning why the British often had to rely on force because it was the only way to maintain control and therefore works in with individual cases, for example the Morant Bay Rebellion where British troops fired on protestors of social oppression
- In 1865, growing economic and social unrest culminated in a riot in Morant Bay town, Jamaica
- Government troops fired on protestors and in the ensuing disorder a number of civilians dies
- Governor Eyre responded to the rebellion ruthlessly, he imposed martial law and had a local
Baptist preacher court-martialled and hanged
- In the subsequent repression ordered by Eyre, 580 men and women were killed, and around 1000

OCR History B (A2 British Imperialism) - All Possible Part B Essay Plans by Harry Bojakowski (2014) homes were destroyed
- Morant Bay Rebellion: 439 Black Jamaicans killed by soldiers putting down the protests, 354 hanged, and over 600 flogged, including pregnant women. The governor, John Eyre, was twice charged with murder back in Britain, but the cases never proceeded.
Force was the only way to control
- Allows a new consideration of morality of the Empire as it considers the brutal fashion in which the
British dealt with struggles on the periphery, often finding cause to justify it as the only means necessary, for example the brutality shown against the uprising of the Indian Mutiny as the British were brutal with the Indians and the conflict lasted over a year
- John Newsinger – “there was a systematic policy of torture in British India, covered up by authorities in Britain”
- After Indian mutiny, 150 corpses hung on single Banyan tree.
- “Every tree and gable-end in the place should have its burden in the shape of a mutineer 's carcass”
- The Times
- Amritsar: 379 killed, 1100 wounded (official estimate: INC estimates 1000 killed; 1,500 casualties total) - Amritsar Massacre: instigated by Brigadier-General Dyer – British response: Dyer relieved of his command - “Certainly not. It was not my job. Hospitals were open and they could have gone there” - Dyer, on whether he should have tended to the wounded
- Equally John Newsinger accused the British of “native bashing” as they used modern technology against the natives – the Maxim gun introduced in 1881
- In 1888, 1500 Matabele warriors were wiped out whilst only 4 invaders died
Focus on the periphery
- Provides a strong focus on the periphery and so enables us to consider the way in which the Empire impacted upon the periphery and therefore the relationship between colonies and colonisers, the approach allows the understand the way in which the British lacked understand of native culture.
Example such as the British sparking the Indian mutiny by trying to get soldiers in the East India
Company to use bullets laced with pig fat which offended local religion
- New Enfield Rifles had been introduced several months before the mutiny - the cartridge which needed to be bitten off was said to be made of cow (Muslim/ Hindus can’t eat it)
- If they refused to use the cartridges, they were sent to prison
- In response to imprisonment, the rest of the garrison rose up and marched to Delhi in May 1857
- British involvement in India is a “career of spoilation and wrong” – Cobden
- Sati was banned 1829
- However, in 1932 a Brahmin died in Fathpur Sikri. A crowd demanded his wife die, the police locked her into her house for her own protection, the mob broke down the door and dragged her to the pyre, a shooting broke out, 3 died, and the police rescued the woman
Use of technology to ‘bash natives’
- Holds a strong focus on the role of individuals and therefore we gain an understanding of the way in which the British forces were encouraged to act and therefore the level of violence they chose to use against natives. Equally how the role of technology played in as the British became more reliant on new technology to maintain the Empire, for example the use of the RAF to put down a revolt in
Iraq in 1920

OCR History B (A2 British Imperialism) - All Possible Part B Essay Plans by Harry Bojakowski (2014)
- “Whatever happens we have got – the Maxim gun, and they have not” – Belloc
- Churchill authorised use of RAF bombers which allegedly used gas against the rebels in Iraq in 1920
- “I am strongly in favour of using poisoned gas against uncivilised tribes” – Churchill
- As a consequence, many troops could be safely withdrawn from certain areas without compromising security – between 1921 and 1928, the garrison of Iraq was reduced from 23 British and Indian battalions to 2 battalions

Section 5 – An overall evaluation of the approach.
This is your conclusion but should be much more in depth than a normal conclusion. Issues you will want to consider are:
- What has been learned from this approach that could not be learned from other approaches?
- What new questions have been asked and what new perspectives on empire have been discovered? - How has the approach has changed the way in which empire is now written about?
- What are its shortcomings?
- How it can be used in combination with other approaches to empire to develop an EVEN RICHER
VIEW OF EMPIRE.
The last sentence is the key point.... You want to demonstrate that as with all approaches, the named approach has added much to our understanding... but that no approach on its own is perfect. That by combining elements of this approach with others, we can gradually build a richer, more diverse understanding of Empire – this will never be complete, but the more different approaches that are uncovered, the greater synthesis we may hope to achieve.
Area Studies Part B
Introduction
The area studies approach focuses on the analysis of a particular historical question through focusing on a small area
Section 1 – Explain the approach in detail
- The approach can be considered to be multi-disciplinary as it can be used to answer a number of questions however it may be most effective to consider why decolonisation happened
- The focus allows historians to focus on a manageable area and therefore conduct a case study of it in order to test a hypothesis on a local level
- The approach generally focuses on the circumstances of the periphery that forced the Empire to expand or to decolonise because of local destabilisation
- The approach was developed post World War Two (after the R&G revolution which put the periphery on the map) as the threat of the Cold War allowed historians to begin considering smaller areas to gain a more direct understanding of causation and effects of a local level
- Nationalism and decolonisation become apparent after WW2, leading to the US becoming interested in how certain countries worked, which led to US backing in these studies
- The British also sent out officials and academics to help with the decolonisation process, learning more about the colonies in the process
- Historians such as Fredrick Lugard have used this approach to focus on individual areas such as

OCR History B (A2 British Imperialism) - All Possible Part B Essay Plans by Harry Bojakowski (2014)
Nigeria; he built up the idea of indirect rule in West Africa
- The methodology used was to apply detailed research to a local case study and therefore build on the interpretation of the roles of informal empire, indirect rule and nationalist movements
- The approach links in with the nationalist, peripheral and informal approach as it focuses on influential factors in the periphery and the areas considered as informal Empire and the active roles those people played
Questions
- Why did decolonisation occur?
- How was the Empire controlled?
- How was the Empire experienced?
- The impact of Empire on Britain?
Section 2 – Explain how the approach has advanced our understanding of study of empire
The Anglo-Argentine economic relationship
- The approach allows us to focus in detail and in depth at specific areas of imperialism, specifically in these areas therefore it allows for a deeper understanding rather than merely skimming the surface and creating a generalised view.
- In Argentina we have seen the role of indirect rule because of Argentinean dependence on British economics - From 1850 to 1950, Britain became Argentina’s major foreign creditor
- Cain and Hopkins “the ability to borrow on a massive scale and to make repayment through exports of primary products became the basis of power and prosperity of the 400 or so wealth landed families who formed the Argentine elite, and also of their allies in banking and commerce”
- Argentina was willing to suffer privations to retain its credit reputation
- In the financial crisis of 1890, the Argentine government was compelled by Britain to adopt unpopular deflationary policies in return for the advancement of a government loan
- This happened again when the Great Depression prompted the US to introduce prohibited agrarian protection meaning they competed with Argentine exports (beef and grain). This meant Argentina relied even more heavily on the British market, and after being excluded from the Ottawa trade agreements increasing the chance that Britain would apply similar prohibitive tariffs, the RocaRunciman Pact was signed 1933. Britain promised to allow Argentine goods access to the British market in return for tax reductions for British goods, and the retention of a British stake in the meat industry - ‘Men on the spot’ encouraged Argentina to adopt policies favourable to British investment and commerce - They did this by lobbying local politicians, supporting rival political factions and using bribery
- The opposition to the Argentine Radical Party 1916 by ‘men on the spot’ shows how more effective they were than metropolitan influences
- When radicals turned working-class interest against big businesses, the British officials threatened to boycott Argentine ports and end Argentine grain purchases
- Collaboration was vital in creating the conditions for British economic interests to thrive
- This allowed Britain 3 advantages: one of self-interest, where collaborators would share profits, and the second of economic logic, where policies that favoured British capital and commerce might benefit Argentina.

OCR History B (A2 British Imperialism) - All Possible Part B Essay Plans by Harry Bojakowski (2014)
- This all added up to the dependency theory in the 1960s/70s, where Britain could manipulate
Argentine economic policy due to the latter’s disadvantage
- British officials intervened frequently on behalf of British interests, British financier dictated the types of goods that Argentina would produce would be developed towards the export market and lacked diversity increasing dependence on Britain, and Britain’s cheap exports prevented the development of local industry
- Therefore we are able to see how the role of informal Empire played importance in the individual area Indirect rule in Nigeria
- The specific focus allows for a greater concentration of the consequences and legacy of the Empire.
For example in West Africa Britain only educated very few individuals so they could act in an autonomous style rule and this has led to an inability to the modern day for these countries to escape tyrannous rule
- Frederick Lugard justified indirect rule and is seen as being responsible for introducing it to West
Africa
- Lugard argued that it was far better to retain traditional forms of authority than to impose a foreign colonial administration – the local populace was less likely to rebel and would be happier living and working according to the norms and values they were accustomed to
- It was impossible for white colonists in significant numbers to settle due to the climate and propensity of Europeans to catch local diseases – there was little opportunity for Britain to impose a system of colonial government reliant on European administrators
- However, the north of Nigeria was ruled by an autocratic Islamic sultanate, and in 1914 when the country was joined Lugard imposed an alien, hierarchal system onto the more progressive south.
Southern Nigeria was more advanced in finance, trade, industry, education, and public health, and had not tradition of chieftainship. In 1929, a number of uprising were sparked because of this imposition - Indirect rule was a cheap form of colonial rule, since the administration of the colony was mainly undertaken by existing rulers
- In the late 19th century, Britain relied on a number of educated, Westernised Africans to assist in colonial government which ended up marginalising these people. They were given too much power and consequently, Western education was discouraged meaning Nigeria had no experienced, political class able to assist in the transition towards independence and democracy
Indian Nationalism
- The specific approach means that historians are able to form a more nuanced view of imperialism and therefore understand how different forms of rule were useful in different places and therefore create a synthesis of how the Empire was affected in different areas
- Even after the 1935 constitutional changes effectively gave India provincial self-government, nationalists wanted an overall framework of imperial rule
- Sir Stafford Cripps was sent to India in 1942 to compromise a proposal that in exchange for cooperation and no major political advances during war, India would be granted full dominion status after the war and the option of seceding from the Empire-Commonwealth
- The India National Congress 1885 declined started a ‘Quit India appeal’ involving protests, where the British intervened swiftly, suppressing civil disobedience and arresting 90,000 supporters of congress OCR History B (A2 British Imperialism) - All Possible Part B Essay Plans by Harry Bojakowski (2014)
- Nevertheless, after 1945 Britain did not stand in the way of Indian independence
- Britain’s decision to work with nationalist moderates was significant and paved the way for independence - The Indianisation of the civil service and army weakened British authority, and the increasing power given to Indian politicians gave nationalists a legitimate platform on which to challenge the colonial state
- Viceroy of India Lord Wavell 1947 “The really fatal thing for us would be to hang on to responsibility [in India] when we had lost the power to exercise it”
- Whereas in Argentina it was due to Metropolitan indifference that they left Argentina, D.C.M. Platt highlights this to demonstrate the limited relationship between politics and economics in Britain
- In the first half of the 19th century, attempts at political coercion often proved counterproductive
- In the 1840s, Britain became displeased with the Argentine dictator Rosas leading to a military expedition against Buenos Aires. Many British expatriates were unhappy with these actions and the expedition revealed the difficulties in implementing metropolitan directives.
- Political pressure was exerted by representatives of British economic interests residing in
Argentina, and, by the second half of the nineteenth century Argentina possessed a political elite who were willing to collaborate in creating hospitable conditions for British commerce and capital
- The approach encourages the incorporation of other disciplines to support the historical study of the Empire. For example in China and West Africa there was strong focus on the cultural impact of the Empire and therefore the influence that this played as role of literature, philosophy, psychology and political science.
Advantages
- Creates a more focused view of Empire, allowing for more in-depth examinations of certain parts of the Empire and the factors that affected it.
- Allows for greater ability to compare and contrast certain areas of Empire, as an in-depth focused look leads to most of the various studies being strikingly dissimilar, allowing for the contrast between areas.
- The more in-depth look allows for fewer generalisations between the areas, allowing for a unique insight to each area without using a possibly crippling generalisation.
- Generates a greater understanding and information – greater general picture of the Empire as a whole, with more unique information adding to the understanding of Empire.
- Gave a greater understanding of the effects of Imperial rule on the periphery, understanding the impact of the indigenous people and possible reasoning for nationalist rebellions and other protests against British rule.
- The approach borrows elements from other fields of study, such as nation studies, culture studies etc. rather than relying on historical information to help create a more well-rounded interpretation.
Section 3 – Disadvantages
- Area studies could be criticised for being too specific in its study. By this meaning that by only focusing on individual areas we lose the bigger picture and therefore we cannot create overarching theories of expansion rule and decline. Effectively the study is no longer a study of British imperialism but of individual colonies. The approach needs to be used alongside the peripheral and informal approach in order to show a bigger picture view of the effects of British imperialism

OCR History B (A2 British Imperialism) - All Possible Part B Essay Plans by Harry Bojakowski (2014)
- The study completely takes away from any focus of the metropole, all of the area studies are related only to the study of the periphery. Therefore we lose the role of the metropole for example the Lancaster House Conference where the British assigned legislature and then independence to
Kenyans. The approach should be synthesised with the metropolitan approach in order to see how both played a role in the Empire
- The approach loses some of the focus on the decisions of the political elite as it takes more of a role in considering the implications of the feel of the masses and how that has influenced the development/regression of the Empire.
Section 4 and 5 – What have other approaches bough to the study of Empire
Periphery Approach
Strategic Approach
Disadvantages
- No general interpretation – in some ways too focused on the smaller things while forgetting about the bigger picture. While more information on various areas could be considered a good thing, it also leads to no single trend, or at least a very weak and patchy one.
- No focus on the metropole – focuses too hard on the periphery and leaves out that a large amount of what occurred in Empire was directed from the metropole, and not everything was a reaction against events on the periphery.
Dependency theory
- Limited British intervention: C. M. Platt demonstrated that metropolitan interference was infrequent and limited. There was a significant gulf between the British government and business interests; the former did not act at the whim of the latter
- Argentine autonomy: A number of historians argue that the Argentine elite frequently collaborated. Moreover, surviving railway company archives suggest that the Argentine government had the ability to act against British business if it was in Argentina’s best interests to do so
- Economic logic: Cain and Hopkins have argued that “If South America’s economic prospects came to rely on a narrow range of exports, it was because specialisation followed the logic of comparative advantage, and not because imperialist forces imposed deviations from the ‘natural’ path of development” Indirect rule
- Propaganda: it is argued that Lugard’s vision of indirect rule was idealised because his wife was a well-connected journalist, adept at promoting the work of her husband. Furthermore, Lugard’s protégé and biographer, was the foremost Africanist of her generation, and did much to endorse the idea of indirect rule
- Marginalisation of southern Nigeria: the north of Nigeria was ruled by an autocratic Islamic sultanate that Lugard favoured. In 1914, northern and southern Nigeria were joined together, mainly because the financially-solvent south could subside the north. According to a number of historians,
Lugard imposed an alien, hierarchical system onto the more progressive south. Southern Nigeria was more advanced in finance, trade, industry, education and public health, and had no tradition of chieftainship. In 1929, the imposition of ‘chiefs’ in south-eastern Nigeria sparked a number of uprisings OCR History B (A2 British Imperialism) - All Possible Part B Essay Plans by Harry Bojakowski (2014)
- Hindrance of local political development: in the late nineteenth century, Britain relied on a number of educated, Westernised Africans to assist in colonial government. Lugard’s insistence on indirect rule marginalised this group of people. In their place, too much was placed in the hands of unrepresentative ‘chiefs’. The spread of Western education to local peoples discouraged.
Consequently, Nigeria had no experienced, political class able to assist in the transition towards independence and democracy
India National Congress
- Founded in 1885 as a vehicle to articulate nationalist grievances continued to be dominated by a small, educated elite
- The British were keenly aware that Indian nationalism was unrepresentative of the population at large and they often emphasised this point when legitimising the role of the colonial state
- However, the interpretation that India was not ‘a nation’ overlooked the face that nationalism was powerful as an ‘anti-feeling’, directed against colonial oppression
- Moreover, the image of the colonial state as the protector of minorities concealed the extent to which Britain exploited and intensified decisions in Indian society as a means of strengthening its own power
- Classifying the Indian population by religion was a policy introduced by the British and one that, thereafter, only encouraged increasing tension and division
Section 6 – An overall evaluation of the approach.
This is your conclusion but should be much more in depth than a normal conclusion. Issues you will want to consider are:
- What has been learned from this approach that could not be learned from other approaches?
- What new questions have been asked and what new perspectives on empire have been discovered? - How has the approach has changed the way in which empire is now written about?
- What are its shortcomings?
- How it can be used in combination with other approaches to empire to develop an EVEN RICHER
VIEW OF EMPIRE.
Overall
- Allows for much more focus on certain areas of Empire, unlike most other approaches which only focus on certain trends and an overview.
- Gives more focused perspectives on the indigenous people of Empire, and of the colonial officials who were sent out there to oversee the decolonisation process.
- Allows for Empire to be written about with much more focus and clarity, rather than as an overview of certain topics.
- Disadvantages – too focused on the smaller elements that it leaves out the bigger picture, and also ignores the events in the metropole, arguably a very important component of Empire.
The last sentence is the key point.... You want to demonstrate that as with all approaches, the named approach has added much to our understanding... but that no approach on its own is perfect. That by combining elements of this approach with others, we can gradually build a richer, more diverse understanding of Empire – this will never be complete, but the more different approaches that are uncovered, the greater synthesis we may hope to achieve.
Evidence for interpretations

OCR History B (A2 British Imperialism) - All Possible Part B Essay Plans by Harry Bojakowski (2014)
Anglo-Argentine economic relationship
- In the latter half of the 19thC Britain became Argentina’s main source of financial credit and as a market for Argentine goods – Cain and Hopkins “the ability to borrow on a massive scale and to make repayments through export of primary products became the basis of power and prosperity of the 400 or so wealthy landed families who formed the Argentine elite, and also of their allies in banking and commerce”
- During the financial crisis of 1890, the Argentine government was compelled by Britain to adopt unpopular deflationary policies in return for the advancement of a government loan – Britain had influence over Argentinian government
- Britain faced competition from Germany, USA on a financial front and opposition from nationalist groups but they retained influence and their dominance was only eclipsed after the second world war - USA threatened Britain but in 1930s British influence was revived. The great depression forced US to focus on their own economy resulting in Argentina having to rely on Britain even more
- Plus since Argentina was not included in the Ottawa trade agreements, there was a threat Britain would apply similarly prohibitive tariffs as America had done
- This resulted in the Roca-Runciman Pact in 1933. Britain promised to allow Argentine goods access to the British market in return for tariff reductions for British goods and the retention of a British stake in the meat industry
- Nationalist historians have said the treaty was designed to preserve Argentina as a giant cattle ranch for British consumers
Metropolitan interference
- Attempts at political coercion often proved counterproductive
- in the 1840s, Britain became displeased with the Argentine dictator Rosas
- This led to a haphazard military expedition against Buenos Aires
- Many British expatriates were unhappy with these actions and some even volunteered to man shore batteries against the Royal Navy; the expedition also revealed the difficulties in implementing metropolitan directives
- In the late 18th century, the metropole interfered less and political pressure was exerted by representatives of British economic interests residing in Argentina (men on the spot)
- By the second half of the nineteenth century, Argentina possessed a political elite who were willing to collaborate in creating hospitable conditions for British commerce and capital
Collaboration
- The collaboration of Argentine elites was vital in creating the conditions for British economic interests to thrive
- Elites collaborated due to self-interest collaborators would receive a share of the profits); economic logic (policies that favoured British capital and commerce might also benefit the Argentine economy); and ideology (the Argentine elite had adopted British cultural values and practices including a commitment to laissez-faire capitalism)
Dependency theory
- In the 1960/70s, it was argued that whilst the British market had been vital to Argentina, the
Argentine market had merely been important not crucial to Britain
- Hence Britain had been in a position to manipulate the Argentine economic policy

OCR History B (A2 British Imperialism) - All Possible Part B Essay Plans by Harry Bojakowski (2014)
- British intervention: British officials intervened frequently on behalf of British business interests
- Specialisation: British financiers dictated the type of goods that Argentina would produce, which were developed towards the export market (e.g. if international demand for beef fell, then
Argentina would face an economic crisis)
- Local industry: Britain’s cheap exports prevented the development of local industry
Indirect rule in Nigeria – Origins of British involvement
- British involvement along the coastline of Nigeria stemmed from Britain’s commitment to suppress the slave trade in the mid-nineteenth century
- The West African coast subsequently gained commercial importance as a source of primary products, in particular palm oil, cocoa and tin
- In the 1880s, French expansion prompted Britain to make treaties with indigenous rulers and establish protectorates along the coast and into the interior, sometimes through the use of force
- This sphere of influence was united in a single colony and protectorate on 1 January 1914
- The new colony of Nigeria contained many different ethnic groupings, which operated under different political systems
- Frederick Lugard is regarded as the man responsible for introducing the idea of indirect rule to
West Africa:
- Retention of indigenous social structures: it was believed that colonial interference often had a very negative impact on indigenous society. Lugard argued that it was far better to retain traditional forms of authority, such as tribal chiefs, than to impose a foreign, colonial administration. The local populace were less likely to rebel, and would be happier living and working according to the norms and values that they were accustomed to
- Impossibility of European settlement: white settlement in significant numbers was impossible to the climate and propensity of Europeans to catch local diseases. Hence, there was little opportunity for Britain to impose a system of colonial government reliant on European administrators
- Economics: indirect rule was a cheap form of colonial rule, since the administration of the colony was mainly undertaken by existing rulers
India and Pakistan – Independence
- The 1935 constitutional changes effectively granted India provincial self-government within an overall framework of imperial rule
- In 1942, Cripps was sent to India to strike a compromise with nationalists
- He proposed that in exchange for cooperation and no major political advances during war, India would be granted full Dominion status after the war and the option of seceding from the Empire
Commonwealth
- Congress refused this offer and launched an appeal for complete independence (Quit India appeal)
- The British authorities responded swiftly, suppressing civil disobedience and arresting 90,000 supporters of Congress
- After 1945, Britain didn’t stand in the way of Indian independence
- The British left in 1947 and the separate states of India (Hindu) and Pakistan (Muslim) came into existence Erosion of imperial interest in India
- A number of historians have pointed out that British interests in India were being eroded during the interwar years

OCR History B (A2 British Imperialism) - All Possible Part B Essay Plans by Harry Bojakowski (2014)
- Judith Brown argues that “by later 1839s almost all [of the] facets of the Imperial interest were in decline because of shifts in the world economy or of repercussions to British political decisions made to elicit Indian cooperation in Imperial governance”
- Indentured labour had been banned in 1917
- the Indianisation of the military, police, and civilian services meant that there were fewer opportunities for expatriate service
- from the early 1920s, Britain (responding to Indian opinion) agreed not to use the Indian army as a cheap source of troops
- by the 1940s, trade and investment with India was far less important than it had been in 1914
- the position of India was strategically important to Britain for defence purposes this would not be endangered if a self-governing India subsequently signed defence treaties with Britain and remained within the Commonwealth
Nationalism
- Nationalism was an important force in India politics during the interwar years despite society being fractured along regional, linguistic, religious, caste and class lines
- Nationalist leaders held different conceptions of the Indian nation
- Jawarharlal Nehru (first PM of independent India) wanted to create a secular, socialist, national identity - Ghandi on the other hand, was keener to emphasise the moral, and religious foundations of
‘traditional India’
- Britain’s decision to work with nationalist moderates was significant and paved the way for independence - The Indianisation of the civil service and army weakened British authority, and the increasing power given to India politicians gave nationalists a legitimate platform on which to challenge the colonial state
- The British felt compelled to continue making concessions to moderates in order to prevent extremists and agitators gaining popular support
- By November 1946, it was clear that Britain was incapable of maintaining control of India

Peripheral Part B
Introduction
The peripheral approach is the use of the concept of informal Empire; the policy adopted by British governments towards the Empire in the 19th Century displayed more continuity than change
Section 1 – Explain the approach in detail
- Historians have focused on specific parts of the periphery in order to explain the role played by
Empire and the role in which these peripheral colonies played as a part of the Empire
- The idea of considering the actions of the local people as well as the role of the “men on the spot” and so considering collaboration
- The approach differs from many others as it does not consider the role of the metropole to such an extent, that the metropole didn’t drive imperial policy and change
- The method behind the approach is a shift, generally focusing on individual case studies and therefore gain an understanding of the roles played in the individual colonies
- Cain and Hopkins focused partly on the periphery as they considered how the role of the
Gentlemanly Capitalists spread
- John Newsinger has developed this approach further specifically focusing on India and the Indian mutiny as an example
- Generally can be considered alongside the informal empire approach as there is a similar move

OCR History B (A2 British Imperialism) - All Possible Part B Essay Plans by Harry Bojakowski (2014) away from the role of the metropole
Possible questions
- How was the Empire experienced
- How was the Empire controlled
- Why did the Empire expand
- How far was imperial policy continuous
- The impact of Empire on Britain
Section 2 – Explain how the approach has advanced our understanding of study of empire
Focus on the influence on Periphery on Metropole
- Allows a focus away from the metropole so there is a broader spectrum as we look at the role of the individual colonies and therefore see the way in which they influenced their own decisions over simply being considered as under the rule of Britain
- For example a focus on the Mau Mau rebellion demonstrated the fight for nationalist freedom and therefore the development of Kenyan politics having Kenyetta in charge
- The Kenyan African Union protested peacefully calling for political change and independence from
Britain. Jomo Kenyatta was a part of these peaceful protests however some took his words to mean the only way to independence was through violence. Upon hearing Kenyatta’s tame explanation of the KAU flag one Kenyan thought he meant the “fertile lands (green) could only be regained by the blood (red) of the African (black)”.
- The Home Guard killed 4,686 Mau Mau’s, amounting to 42% of total insurgents. Detention camps were built and as many as 1.5 million suspected Mau Mau supporters were imprisoned
- Allows for a more widespread understanding of influence rather than simply focusing on one strand the approach begins to consider social and cultural factors as well as economic factors
- For example a focus on Africa 's individual resources which therefore attracted expansion and how companies worked alongside British to develop the materials
Periphery showed how the Empire was being controlled
- The focus on individual colonies allows an accurate picture of what was actually going on in the
Empire rather than a simple generalisation of the role of the Empire as whole, expanding knowledge and therefore allowing a more accurate judgment
- For example considering India on its own shows an outcome of brutality and mistreatment
- John Newsinger – “there was a systematic policy of torture in British India, covered up by authorities in Britain”
- After Indian mutiny, 150 corpses hung on single Banyan tree.
- “Every tree and gable-end in the place should have its burden in the shape of a mutineer 's carcass”
- The Times
- Amritsar: 379 killed, 1100 wounded (official estimate: INC estimates 1000 killed; 1,500 casualties total) - Amritsar Massacre: instigated by Brigadier-General Dyer – British response: Dyer relieved of his command - “Certainly not. It was not my job. Hospitals were open and they could have gone there” - Dyer, on whether he should have tended to the wounded
- Equally John Newsinger accused the British of “native bashing” as they used modern technology against the natives – the Maxim gun introduced in 1881

OCR History B (A2 British Imperialism) - All Possible Part B Essay Plans by Harry Bojakowski (2014)
- In 1888, 1500 Matabele warriors were wiped out whilst only 4 invaders died
- Whereas a focus on Australia shows a well-developed flourishing country
- Sidney was built by the British – Artisans (skilled workers) who were convicts
- Convicts were given 30 acre land grants when they finished their sentences
- 1838 – the official aboriginal protectors were created (the government in London weren’t happy with the treatment of the Aboriginals)
- 1850 – 16 Aboriginals were settled into 16 huts by the British to ‘civilize’ them as they thought if the convicts can be converted then why not the Aboriginals
- 1850s+ – Australian colonies start to receive self-government
- 1860 – Responsible government granted to Western Australia
- By 1928, free farmers outnumbered prisoners
Periphery shaped the public’s opinion on Empire
- Helps to build a picture of the morality of the Empire as we can consider the reaction from the colonies rather than the peripheral view on the outcomes of imperialism
- For example the Boer War was partially celebrated as a heroic event
- Songs were created about the heroism shown
- “Boers are not like the Sudanese who stood up for a fair fight, they are also running away on their little ponies” Kitchener
- The Conservatives won the election of 1900 – popular support lay with the government and proimperial policy
- Although many Liberals were not imperialist some leading figures in the party still were e.g. Grey and Asquith
- Whereas it involved serious loss of life and the use of concentration camps
- There were a total of 45 tented camps built for Boer internees
- Of the 28,000 Boer men captured as prisoners of war, 25,630 were sent overseas
- Most Boers remaining in the local camps were women and children
- The conditions in the camps were very unhealthy and the food rations were meagre
- The poor diet and inadequate hygiene led to endemic contagious diseases such as measles, typhoid and dysentery
- A report after the war concluded that 27,927 Boers (of whom 22,074 were children under 16) had died of starvation, disease and exposure in the concentration camps
- In all, about 25% of the Boer inmates died
- Reports have stated that the number of Boers killed was 18,000-28,000
Section 3 – Disadvantages
- Provides too narrow a view as it focuses only really on the peripheral sense of the Empire. Removes from the importance of the metropole and therefore fails to take in to account the actions of the politicians in the metropole as well as those countries outside of the Empire. Needs to be synthesised with the informal and the metropolitan approach to provide a much broader spectrum of outcomes and feeling. - Berlin Conference.
- Focuses on individual colonies and therefore does not consider all of the colonies, creates them as too much of a generalised view and therefore considers the periphery as a whole unit rather than

OCR History B (A2 British Imperialism) - All Possible Part B Essay Plans by Harry Bojakowski (2014) individual dominions. Needs to be used in conjunction with area studies to create a specific outcome of the particular areas of the periphery.
- The periphery of the Empire is hard to define as some countries take a more prominent role in the
Empire and therefore act as a more obvious source by which to judge the empire. India was much more important to Britain than for example Argentina so Britain would place more focus on this specific part and therefore differing views created if you look at different parts. Needs to be used with area studies to be specific.
- The periphery will always have a biased view of the Empire, will be more critical of the way Empire has affected the legacy of some countries e.g. Rhodesia now known as Zimbabwe. Use in line with the metropolitan approach to create a split view and a middle ground between the two forms of bias. The advantage and disadvantages of the approach’s methodology
- Spheres of influence – must have been looking at trade figures from parts of the informal empire
- In order to determine the motivations of politicians, political discourse, but in particular private papers – memoirs, letters ect
- Looked at the approaches of other historians
- Talk about how single, simple formula of ‘imperialism’ doesn’t work
- Peripheral approach – case study of Egypt
Section 4 – What have other approaches bought to the study of Empire
Metropolitan approach
- Looks at decisions made in the metropole which Periphery ignores entirely
- Complete opposite approach, has different methodology which leads to different ideas about
Empire e.g. why empire expanded ect.
Economic approach
- Can explain similar questions – Why empire expanded
- Due to different approach and methodology we can see how different interpretations are formed
Protect investments
- Acts as a suitable explanation as to whether formal control was necessary or not whether industry and trade needed to be protected or whether the country was stable enough as it was. Sheds light on the political side of British governments view on the rest of the world. For example choosing to take formal control in Egypt in order to protect the Suez Canal
- During 1860s and 70s, Egypt faced bankruptcy. British investors wanted to protect assets
- In 1880, Britain entered Egypt to ensure stability, protecting these assets: 20,000 British and 7,000
Indian troops used
- 13% British trade passed through Suez Canal
- Most of Gladstone 's personal wealth invested in colonies, esp. Egypt: Gladstone had an extensive investment portfolio, 37% of which was in Egyptian bonds
- 1875: Disraeli borrows £4m from Rothschilds - buys 44% of original Canal Company shares

OCR History B (A2 British Imperialism) - All Possible Part B Essay Plans by Harry Bojakowski (2014)
- 1901: Dividends of £880,000 on Canal Company shares
- Late 1890s: 63% Egyptian exports and 38% imports to/from Britain.
Section 5 – An overall evaluation of the approach.
This is your conclusion but should be much more in depth than a normal conclusion. Issues you will want to consider are:
- What has been learned from this approach that could not be learned from other approaches?
- What new questions have been asked and what new perspectives on empire have been discovered? - How has the approach has changed the way in which empire is now written about?
- What are its shortcomings?
- How it can be used in combination with other approaches to empire to develop an EVEN RICHER
VIEW OF EMPIRE.
The last sentence is the key point.... You want to demonstrate that as with all approaches, the named approach has added much to our understanding... but that no approach on its own is perfect. That by combining elements of this approach with others, we can gradually build a richer, more diverse understanding of Empire – this will never be complete, but the more different approaches that are uncovered, the greater synthesis we may hope to achieve.
Strategic Part B
Introduction
The strategic approach focuses on how strategic measures were used to protect against external threats Section 1 – Explain the approach in detail
- Historians have chosen to focus on the way in which Britain was forced to develop for strategic reasons against the competing international powers
- The approach therefore focuses on the expansion of the Empire and considers the role played by the outside influences
- The approach combines the threat of power rivalry in the international approach along with the domestic issues of national security etc.
- In the aftermath of the work of J.A. Hobson, much of the historical study focused on economic motives for Empire
- However contextually after WW2 historians began to consider outside influences and the role of the Cold War created a modern day interpretation of the forces that led the Empire to expand
- Historians such as A.J.P. Taylor have used this approach, included in his work “The struggle for the mastery of Europe” 1954
- As has P. Kennedy in the book “The rise and fall of great powers”
- Both were influenced by the way the Cold War was shaping the globe
- The methodology used by both men was to focus on official documents and therefore understand the way in which the political forces deemed there to be a need for expansion for political, strategic, protection Possible questions
- The impact of Empire on Britain
- Why did the Empire expand
- How far was imperial policy continuous
Section 2 – Explain how the approach has advanced our understanding of study of empire

OCR History B (A2 British Imperialism) - All Possible Part B Essay Plans by Harry Bojakowski (2014)

Power rivalry caused expansion
- The approach can be used to explain events such as the “Scramble for Africa” as it demonstrated the power rivalry of Europe being displayed in a different continent
- The approach acts to explain the ways in which great power rivalry developed and therefore the influence played by these across the globe in their situations
- A typical challenge to the earlier economic explanations
- 1880 to 1900 – About 90% of the continent of Africa was seized by Britain, France, Germany and
Belgium (Britain=5 million2 miles; France= 3.5 million2 miles; Germany, Belgium and Italy= 2.5 million2 miles shared)
- 1885 – Pressure around the Niger River became a factor when the Belgians set up the Congo Free
State in order to exploit the thriving rubber there
- 1885 – A conference in Berlin agreed that there should be free trade in the Congo basin and recognised British interests along the River Niger. There was also an agreement about the process of annexation of territory in West Africa: out of this emerged the British colony of Nigeria
Colonies were a by-product of a protective strategy
- Gave light to a new idea that the acquirement of territories/colonies was an accidental by-product of some European politicians who were prioritising the strategic interest if their country
- For example the occupation of Egypt was a by-product of fears that the French were attempting to make territorial gains to control the Suez Canal
- During 1860s and 70s, Egypt faced bankruptcy. British investors wanted to protect assets. In 1880,
Britain entered Egypt to ensure stability, protecting these assets: 20,000 British and 7,000 Indian troops used
- Fear that if the British didn 't act to colonise Egypt, the French would, who also had interests in the
Suez which was most important as a route to India: other considerations were secondary
Global power rivalry stopped a European war
- Created a new idea that suggested that the use of power rivalry across the globe would help to avoid European war as rivalries were directed towards the peripheral areas
- Therefore this approach allows us to consider the Empire in a much wider state of affairs
- For example the “Scramble for Africa” was representative of European wars
- Germany: In 1883, Otto Von Bismarck called for a meeting of the Great Powers to ‘carve up’ parts of West Africa
- By 1886, Germany had acquired significant imperial territory. The Cameroons and Togoland were taken as a result of the Berlin West African Conference of 1884-5, and Tanganyika followed by way of a separate agreement. In the Pacific, north-eastern New Guinea and a number of islands further north and east were also annexed by Germany. Threatened Britain’s influences in Africa
- Bismarck: “my map of Africa lies in Europe. Here is Russia and here is France with Germany in the middle; that is my map of Africa.”
- Bismarck believed that a harmless colonial conflict with Britain might help him towards winning the
Reichstag elections (1884)
- In 1895, the Kaiser sent a telegram to Paul Kruger, President of the Transvaal, congratulating him on repelling a ‘raid’ by the British adventurer, Leander Jameson, who had been intent on stirring a rebellion to unseat Kruger. Created hysteria in Britain as it was believed that there was an alliance

OCR History B (A2 British Imperialism) - All Possible Part B Essay Plans by Harry Bojakowski (2014) between Germany and the Transvaal for the eventual takeover of South Africa
Britain had to expand to become more of powerful compared to rivals
- The approach can also be used to further ideas of other approaches that it was necessary for
Britain to expand in order to compete on industrial, territorial and economic level and therefore act as a major player on the world stage
- James Roll points out that Wilhelm II valued the acquisition of colonies in Africa as it provided a testing ground for new German technology, especially warships
- Plans for an expanded and modernised Germany navy developed in 1897 under Admiral Tirpitz and began to be implemented from 1900
- HMS Dreadnaught; Admiral Fisher created it; Battleship
- By 1914 there were 5 British ships to every 3 German ships
Section 3 - The focus of the approach is too narrow, said Freda Harcourt as it focuses so strongly upon the role of dominance of economics and politics and therefore reverts back to the main role of the traditional approach and ignores other outside factors such as culture. The approach would need to be used with the cultural approach in order to explore how there are other factors influencing growth of Empire.
- The approach takes away any focus from the role of the periphery as it concentrates only on the actions of the periphery alongside the outside influences of great power rivals. One would have to consider the approach alongside the peripheral one to examine how both had their own level of influence in to the development of the Empire.
- The idea that the Empire was merely a by-product ignores the role of many elite politicians and financiers who sought to expand the Empire for their own personal gain, for example financiers invested abroad and politicians such as Disraeli sought to expand the Empire. The approach would have to be used alongside the economic and metropolitan approach so as to examine how the
Empire wasn 't merely a by-product.
Section 4 – What have other approaches bought to the study of Empire
Economic approach
Protect investments
- Acts as a suitable explanation as to whether formal control was necessary or not whether industry and trade needed to be protected or whether the country was stable enough as it was. Sheds light on the political side of British governments view on the rest of the world. For example choosing to take formal control in Egypt in order to protect the Suez Canal
- During 1860s and 70s, Egypt faced bankruptcy. British investors wanted to protect assets
- In 1880, Britain entered Egypt to ensure stability, protecting these assets: 20,000 British and 7,000
Indian troops used
- 13% British trade passed through Suez Canal
- Most of Gladstone 's personal wealth invested in colonies, esp. Egypt: Gladstone had an extensive investment portfolio, 37% of which was in Egyptian bonds
- 1875: Disraeli borrows £4m from Rothschilds - buys 44% of original Canal Company shares
- 1901: Dividends of £880,000 on Canal Company shares

OCR History B (A2 British Imperialism) - All Possible Part B Essay Plans by Harry Bojakowski (2014)
- Late 1890s: 63% Egyptian exports and 38% imports to/from Britain.
Relying on trade and import from the colonies
- Allows for a focus on the rest of the Empire as well as the metropole as we are able to see how trade has been established overseas and how these are therefore necessary for Britain to remain a strong power.
- For example relying on goods from other countries such as palm oil from Niger and cocoa from
Nigeria
- 1873-1882: West African Trade worth £32m
- Trade with Zanzibar in 1880s worth £2m p.a.
- Late 1890s: 63% Egyptian exports and 38% imports to/from Britain.
- Middle-East trade = £30m p.a. 1870s
Periphery approach
- Explains expansion of Empire as well
- India – Suez Canal – Sudan
- India – Cape colony – scramble for Africa
- Expansion was in order to protect parts of the empire, places on the periphery were necessary to be taken in order to secure the Empire
- Takes a wider view, not just great nations but formal and informal empire
- South America (Argentina)
- Nigeria
Section 5 – An overall evaluation of the approach.

This is your conclusion but should be much more in depth than a normal conclusion. Issues you will want to consider are:
- What has been learned from this approach that could not be learned from other approaches?
- What new questions have been asked and what new perspectives on empire have been discovered? - How has the approach has changed the way in which empire is now written about?
- What are its shortcomings?
- How it can be used in combination with other approaches to empire to develop an EVEN RICHER
VIEW OF EMPIRE.
The last sentence is the key point.... You want to demonstrate that as with all approaches, the named approach has added much to our understanding... but that no approach on its own is perfect. That by combining elements of this approach with others, we can gradually build a richer, more diverse understanding of Empire – this will never be complete, but the more different approaches that are uncovered, the greater synthesis we may hope to achieve.
Coercive Part B
Introduction
The coercive approach focuses on military history; force was used to rule the Empire
Section 1 – Explain the approach in detail

OCR History B (A2 British Imperialism) - All Possible Part B Essay Plans by Harry Bojakowski (2014)
- Historians have decided to focus on the way Britain used force in order to exercise control over the
Empire.
- The approach deals with the question of how the Empire was maintained and therefore determines that Britain were reliant on "the sword" in order to maintain the Empire
- The idea of coercion relied on British superiority in terms of the army, this came in the form of technological superiority as well as brutality
- Historians such as Samson have focused on the way in which the British used force and therefore the methodology behind this approach is to focus on individual events and therefore study the way in which the British have acted in this particular case
- The approach links in with the peripheral approach as it focuses mainly on actions and the periphery and does not relate to orders from the metropole, instead considers the way in which the local British governments acted in the colonies
Possible questions
- How was the Empire controlled
- How was the Empire experienced
- The impact of Empire on Britain
Section 2 – Explain how the approach has advanced our understanding of study of empire
Brutal force was used extensively to rule the Empire
- Provides an alternative to the hegemonic and collaborative approach, explains the reasoning why the British often had to rely on force because it was the only way to maintain control and therefore works in with individual cases, for example the Morant Bay Rebellion where British troops fired on protestors of social oppression
- In 1865, growing economic and social unrest culminated in a riot in Morant Bay town, Jamaica
- Government troops fired on protestors and in the ensuing disorder a number of civilians dies
- Governor Eyre responded to the rebellion ruthlessly, he imposed martial law and had a local
Baptist preacher court-martialled and hanged
- In the subsequent repression ordered by Eyre, 580 men and women were killed, and around 1000 homes were destroyed
- Morant Bay Rebellion: 439 Black Jamaicans killed by soldiers putting down the protests, 354 hanged, and over 600 flogged, including pregnant women. The governor, John Eyre, was twice charged with murder back in Britain, but the cases never proceeded.
Force was the only way to control
- Allows a new consideration of morality of the Empire as it considers the brutal fashion in which the
British dealt with struggles on the periphery, often finding cause to justify it as the only means necessary, for example the brutality shown against the uprising of the Indian Mutiny as the British were brutal with the Indians and the conflict lasted over a year
- John Newsinger – “there was a systematic policy of torture in British India, covered up by authorities in Britain”
- After Indian mutiny, 150 corpses hung on single Banyan tree.
- “Every tree and gable-end in the place should have its burden in the shape of a mutineer 's carcass”
- The Times
- Amritsar: 379 killed, 1100 wounded (official estimate: INC estimates 1000 killed; 1,500 casualties total) - Amritsar Massacre: instigated by Brigadier-General Dyer – British response: Dyer relieved of his command - “Certainly not. It was not my job. Hospitals were open and they could have gone there” - Dyer, on

OCR History B (A2 British Imperialism) - All Possible Part B Essay Plans by Harry Bojakowski (2014) whether he should have tended to the wounded
- Equally John Newsinger accused the British of “native bashing” as they used modern technology against the natives – the Maxim gun introduced in 1881
- In 1888, 1500 Matabele warriors were wiped out whilst only 4 invaders died
Focus on the periphery
- Provides a strong focus on the periphery and so enables us to consider the way in which the Empire impacted upon the periphery and therefore the relationship between colonies and colonisers, the approach allows the understand the way in which the British lacked understand of native culture.
Example such as the British sparking the Indian mutiny by trying to get soldiers in the East India
Company to use bullets laced with pig fat which offended local religion
- New Enfield Rifles had been introduced several months before the mutiny - the cartridge which needed to be bitten off was said to be made of cow (Muslim/ Hindus can’t eat it)
- If they refused to use the cartridges, they were sent to prison
- In response to imprisonment, the rest of the garrison rose up and marched to Delhi in May 1857
- British involvement in India is a “career of spoilation and wrong” – Cobden
- Sati was banned 1829
- However, in 1932 a Brahmin died in Fathpur Sikri. A crowd demanded his wife die, the police locked her into her house for her own protection, the mob broke down the door and dragged her to the pyre, a shooting broke out, 3 died, and the police rescued the woman
Use of technology to ‘bash natives’
- Holds a strong focus on the role of individuals and therefore we gain an understanding of the way in which the British forces were encouraged to act and therefore the level of violence they chose to use against natives. Equally how the role of technology played in as the British became more reliant on new technology to maintain the Empire, for example the use of the RAF to put down a revolt in
Iraq in 1920
- “Whatever happens we have got – the Maxim gun, and they have not” – Belloc
- Churchill authorised use of RAF bombers which allegedly used gas against the rebels in Iraq in 1920
- “I am strongly in favour of using poisoned gas against uncivilised tribes” – Churchill
- As a consequence, many troops could be safely withdrawn from certain areas without compromising security – between 1921 and 1928, the garrison of Iraq was reduced from 23 British and Indian battalions to 2 battalions
Section 3 – Disadvantages
- The approach fails to answer why coercion wasn 't necessarily always needed, sometimes collaboration and hegemony could be used to successful extents in order to deal with the Empire and therefore that force was not always necessary. Used in conjunction with the collaborative and the hegemonic approach we would be able to see how the British had to use a variety of measures and therefore gain a broader perspective
- The approach suggests a generalised view that Britain ruled with "the sword" however the evidence only focuses on very individual cases and therefore creates to much of an overview of
British rule, there is not enough of a focus of the way in which things differed across the Empire there wasn 't necessarily continuity. We would need to look at this approach in line with area studies and the peripheral approach in order to see how things varied across the Empire
- Removes focus from the metropole and therefore we are only really focusing on local politicians.
We lose a focus as to what extent the British politicians and British public supported the way in

OCR History B (A2 British Imperialism) - All Possible Part B Essay Plans by Harry Bojakowski (2014) which British forces dealt with native peoples. Need to use alongside the metropolitan approach in order to see how both played a role in the way the Empire was run.
Section 4 – What have other approaches bought to the study of Empire
Hegemony approach
Influence of control
- Provides an alternative to the collaborative and the coercive approach. Explains the possibility of sometimes not having to use force which was expensive but instead relying on the influence of control - Use the example of Indians being segregated to create a form of ideological control e.g. Indian
Sikhs were seen as the martial race and incorporated into the Indian Army
- Educated Bengalis on the other hand we ridiculed as effeminate because they threatened Britain’s supremacy as a governing race
- It has been argued that the colonial state had the ability to reproduce these labels and classifications to such an extent that indigenous people began to believe them
- Useful to explain how the approach has shed new light on the opinion of those in the metropole, disagreements with the use of force, approval of expansion of the empire and how to maintain control - For example, the British claimed that they were a great governing race and would protect indigenous people from various horrible characters such as greedy landlords and exploitative employers - During WW2, the British were keen to tell their colonial subjects that Hitler did not like black people - Equally could be linked to the question of what the impact of the Empire was dependent on the way it had to be maintained
Colonial knowledge
- Allows for a study of the morality of the Empire as we can considered how justified the Empire was in maintaining control over the colonies. There are arguments to suggest that hegemony was immoral as it required partial consideration of the force of Britain however equally it avoided conflict - For example the British, in Ceylon, became custodians of Buddha 's tooth, which showed a sacred relationship developed between them which would suggest a more moral force
- British authority was also entwined with the need for respect
- This social act was a symbolic representation of the power of the colonial elite and if challenged, then the whole idea of white supremacy would be endangered
- Lord Roberts “respect based on fear; remove the fear and the respect will soon disappear”
The ritual and legitimacy rule in India
- Focuses on the role of individuals and therefore an understanding of the way in which politics was exercised in Britain to develop a level of control over the native colonies.
- For example in 1858, the British monarch replaced the Mughal Emperor
- Attempts to place Queen Victoria as the direct successor to the Mughals were furthered in 1876 when she assumed the title Empress of India on the premise that her Indian subjects held a genuine affection for her
- The title was supposed to symbolise Britain’s intention to retain a permanent connection with India
– the term Empress of India was revived from the title of the later Mughal emperors: in 1857
Bahadur Shah Zafar had been proclaimed Emperor of India
- In celebration, Viceroy Lytton planned an Imperial Assemblage in 1877 – this consisted of a grand celebration, procession and presentation of arms to the assembled India aristocracy
- Lytton wanted to “place the Queen’s authority upon the ancient throne of the Moguls, with which the imagination and tradition of [our] Indian subjects associate the splendour of supreme power”

OCR History B (A2 British Imperialism) - All Possible Part B Essay Plans by Harry Bojakowski (2014)

Orientalism approach (presenting them as weaker, less of a threat – we were superior so they wanted us to rule them)
- Orientalism by Said was published in 1978
- Said brought together lots of existing ideas on colonial discourse, with work on literary theory and the arguments of Foucault to accuse western liberal historians of perpetuating the imperialist paradigm. This means writing about and interpreting the empire in such a way so as to continue perceptions which place the imperial powers as superior to their colonial subjects.
- Said’s method was to use Jacque Derrida’s technique of the ‘deconstruction’ of texts - by doing this he showed the European portrayal of Islam and the Orient was an invention which bore no real relation to the real middle east
- Argued that the Enlightenment’s methodology of reason occurred at the same time as imperial expansion was beginning in earnest, and therefore served the imperialist idea. The enlightenment was therefore a vehicle for oppression
- Said argued that throughout Western history, Europe had portrayed the Oriental as the ‘other’ meaning they were opposite (or antithesis) of the virtues of the West. The Orient was backward whereas the Western model was the way to progress. The west defined its own identity by seeing others as inferior.
- Said’s work was incredibly influential – existing vocabulary for scholars studying imperialism had negative connotations, and therefore a new language was developed, borrowing from literary criticism - For example, the imperial discourse became a ‘paradigm’ whilst individual words were ‘signifiers’ or ‘signs’. All ‘knowledge’ was a relative ‘construction’.
- Arguing that this notion of ‘otherness’ and Western superiority not only affected the mind-set of the colonisers, but also those who were being colonised. They were indoctrinated into a feeling of inferiority. This could therefore be applied to the legacy left by empire, since it had implications for the nation states which emerged in the wake of empire.
- Can also mention that he further outlined this thesis in another book – Culture and Imperialism, published in 1993.
- Said justifies his use of examples where imperialism is not a central theme by suggesting that it is so pervasive that it doesn’t need to be mentioned – this is his argument with Dickens
- Said argues that what is most interesting about art is its “worldliness” – both reflects that helps constitute the political realities of a society. Here he is justifying his methodology
Section 5 – An overall evaluation of the approach.
This is your conclusion but should be much more in depth than a normal conclusion. Issues you will want to consider are:
- What has been learned from this approach that could not be learned from other approaches?
- What new questions have been asked and what new perspectives on empire have been discovered? - How has the approach has changed the way in which empire is now written about?
- What are its shortcomings?
- How it can be used in combination with other approaches to empire to develop an EVEN RICHER
VIEW OF EMPIRE.
The last sentence is the key point.... You want to demonstrate that as with all approaches, the named approach has added much to our understanding... but that no approach on its own is perfect. That by combining elements of this approach with others, we can gradually build a richer,

OCR History B (A2 British Imperialism) - All Possible Part B Essay Plans by Harry Bojakowski (2014) more diverse understanding of Empire – this will never be complete, but the more different approaches that are uncovered, the greater synthesis we may hope to achieve.
Collaborative Part B
Introduction
The collaborative approach focuses on how control was maintained in the Empire; collaboration between colonisers and the colonised
Section 1 – Explain the approach in detail
- Historians have focused on how the British maintained control of the Empire and therefore what methods they had to use to achieve this
- This approach focuses on how Britain maintained control through the use of treaties and working with both “men on the spot” and the native collaborators
- The “men on the spot” were British officials who lived in the colonies and therefore the ruling of the colony was left down to them and so they had to often make “on the spot” decisions using their vital colonial knowledge to keep the colonies happy
- The collaborators were often the local indigenous elite who the British worked with in order to ensure that the needs of all the peoples were being achieved and so the British could work with people who understood the local culture and what was needed
- The historian Samson considers that the role of the British officer in the colonies had changed as
“he is no longer the ruler of individual lives and the oppressor of villages” which would suggest a more engaged relationship with the colonies
- The methods used to study this approach involve a study of both written records by British officials in the colonies as well as a study of the records and memoirs of the local people
- Leading to the interpretation that imperial rule was affected by the role of individuals on the periphery - Shows links with the peripheral approach as it focuses on the role of the periphery
Possible questions
- How the Empire was controlled
- How was the Empire experienced
- The impact of Empire on Britain
Section 2 – Explain how the approach has advanced our understanding of study of empire
Economic cost of maintenance
- Provides an alternative to the coercive approach and therefore links on with the economic idea that the maintenance of armies was too expensive and therefore provides a suitable explanation as to why the British chose to work with the local people more so than to oppress them
- Harold MacMillan 's White Paper: The British Empire: A Cost-Benefit Analysis concluded that Empire was now costing the British taxpayer money
- For example the British made trade agreements with Nigeria in order to maintain peace without having to exert rule
- “Coercion was expensive and counter-productive except in an emergency and everyone knew that no amount of force could hold down indigenous politics for long” – Robinson
- Average of 1 British Soldier/53 miles squared in 1854
- Cost of capturing one Mau Mau fighter – £100,000

OCR History B (A2 British Imperialism) - All Possible Part B Essay Plans by Harry Bojakowski (2014)
‘Men on the spot’
- Creates a focus on a new class of individuals and therefore provides new terminology. The approach considers the role played by the men on the periphery and therefore demonstrates how they played an important role in the ruling of the Empire. For example Alfred Milner, the high commissioner of South Africa was able to convince the British government to take more decisive action in the Transvaal as a part of the Boer War
- It was difficult for metropolitan policymakers to exert authority over ‘men on the spot’ because the distance between centre and periphery hindered effective communications
- Colonial governors argued that those in the metropole lacked sufficient firsthand experience of a particular colony to offer suitable advice
- In 1989-9, Milner used telegrams to hustle the Colonial Office and Cabinet into issuing an illconsidered ultimatum to the Transvaal. Milner had also made the Transvaal question a prominent issue in the British media thereby placing greater pressure on the British government to act
Collaboration and the indigenous elite
- Shows a more moral side to the Empire, rather than considering coercion which promoted British brutality this approach instead considers the way in which the British worked with local people in order to better their lives. For example the collaborators were rewarded with technological and knowledge advancement so that they could individually benefit
- Local people were used extensively in the administration, army and police force
- 3/4 Indian civil servants were native Indians by 1914
- There were difficulties in employing large numbers of European administrators in the colonies and indigenous also possessed the local knowledge that was essential for effective government
- Indigenous elites were courted and involved in the exercise of British power, particularly in areas of indirect rule
- 1931: India had over 1 million government workers involved in the administration of the country
- 1939: the elite administrative division of the colonial service in Africa numbered 1200 men for over a dozen colonies covering 2 million square miles
- These collaborators were sometimes rewarded with material benefits, such as access to investments and technology, or favourable allocations of land and labour
- Indigenous authorities gained new legitimacy through association with a technologically-advanced foreign power
Divide and Rule
- Sheds new light on the role of the periphery, instead of a focus on the metropole there is more of an understanding of the way in which the politics of the metropole were received in the periphery and therefore demonstrates the way in which they react to their rulers. For example the reaction to
British rule in India was obvious from the Indian Mutiny and therefore it was necessary to use divide and rule to split each regiment up in to different races and religions
- Britain exploited rivalries in order to be seen as an impartial guarantor of the rights of different social groups
- For example, when the Indian army was reorganised in the aftermath of the mutiny a policy of
‘divide and rule’ was broadly favoured; each native regiment recruited men from different regions, caste and religion so soldiers lacked unity and common identity to challenge their British rulers
- After the Indian Mutiny, Indian princes were allowed to retain their powers in order to help win

OCR History B (A2 British Imperialism) - All Possible Part B Essay Plans by Harry Bojakowski (2014) back control
- There were also no more annexations of princely territory after 1858

Section 3 – Disadvantages
- Fails to explain why then the British still had a high cost resulting in army costs, does not explain how sometimes coercion was necessary when there was no way of securing safe collaboration in a region, for example in Egypt. Needs to be used alongside the coercive approach to demonstrate the way in which the British were still occasionally forced to use force - The focus stretches only to the periphery and therefore the approach fails to consider the role of the metropole and so doesn 't see the way politics from the metropole influences the decisions of the men on the spot and the outcome of the periphery. Used with the metropolitan approach we would be able to see how the British government still exerted influence over the periphery
- In India the ICS was still not fairly accessible for Indian people, it was made up mainly of wealthy white people and therefore collaboration is not necessarily the correct term as there was not a suitable amount of equal sided collaborating from both sides, the British still exerted control.

Section 4 – What have other approaches bought to the study of Empire
Metropolitan approach
Economic reasoning behind expansion
- Hobson
- Imperialism was morally wrong; more often than not, it was enforced using violence
- The main cause of imperialism was the greed of those with “idle hands”: capitalist financiers who had made fortunes out of investing, mainly in British industry
- When industry started to slow down (U.S and Germany producing cheaper goods, markets were over-flowing with goods that people no longer needed/could afford) the financiers went overseas to seek new investment opportunities, which expanded empire
- "Rhodes was an Empire jerry-builder, who has always been a mere vulgar promoter masquerading as a patriot, and the figurehead of a gang of astute Hebrew financiers with whom he divides the profits" (N. Ferguson Empire: How Britain Made the Modern World)
- Lenin
- By the outbreak of WWI, monopoly capitalists were making vast amounts of money which they were ploughing into what they anticipated would be the most profitable enterprises
- Lenin agreed with Hobson in stating that territories in untapped parts of the world were being fought over to provide markets for the "new" money to be invested
- Cain and Hopkins (“Gentlemanly Capitalists”)
- British Imperialism: Innovation and Expansion takes into account the influence of globalisation
- Cain and Hopkins argued that the link between the Industrial Revolution and British Imperialism was greatly exaggerated, and that this group of “gentlemanly capitalists” consisted of individuals from families associated with commerce, the professions, and/or landed interest
Coercive approach
Brutal force was used extensively to rule the Empire
- Provides an alternative to the hegemonic and collaborative approach, explains the reasoning why the British often had to rely on force because it was the only way to maintain control and therefore

OCR History B (A2 British Imperialism) - All Possible Part B Essay Plans by Harry Bojakowski (2014) works in with individual cases, for example the Morant Bay Rebellion where British troops fired on protestors of social oppression
- In 1865, growing economic and social unrest culminated in a riot in Morant Bay town, Jamaica
- Government troops fired on protestors and in the ensuing disorder a number of civilians dies
- Governor Eyre responded to the rebellion ruthlessly, he imposed martial law and had a local
Baptist preacher court-martialled and hanged
- In the subsequent repression ordered by Eyre, 580 men and women were killed, and around 1000 homes were destroyed
- Morant Bay Rebellion: 439 Black Jamaicans killed by soldiers putting down the protests, 354 hanged, and over 600 flogged, including pregnant women. The governor, John Eyre, was twice charged with murder back in Britain, but the cases never proceeded.
Force was the only way to control
- Allows a new consideration of morality of the Empire as it considers the brutal fashion in which the
British dealt with struggles on the periphery, often finding cause to justify it as the only means necessary, for example the brutality shown against the uprising of the Indian Mutiny as the British were brutal with the Indians and the conflict lasted over a year
- John Newsinger – “there was a systematic policy of torture in British India, covered up by authorities in Britain”
- After Indian mutiny, 150 corpses hung on single Banyan tree.
- “Every tree and gable-end in the place should have its burden in the shape of a mutineer 's carcass”
- The Times
- Amritsar: 379 killed, 1100 wounded (official estimate: INC estimates 1000 killed; 1,500 casualties total) - Amritsar Massacre: instigated by Brigadier-General Dyer – British response: Dyer relieved of his command - “Certainly not. It was not my job. Hospitals were open and they could have gone there” - Dyer, on whether he should have tended to the wounded
- Equally John Newsinger accused the British of “native bashing” as they used modern technology against the natives – the Maxim gun introduced in 1881
- In 1888, 1500 Matabele warriors were wiped out whilst only 4 invaders died
Use of technology to ‘bash natives’
- Holds a strong focus on the role of individuals and therefore we gain an understanding of the way in which the British forces were encouraged to act and therefore the level of violence they chose to use against natives. Equally how the role of technology played in as the British became more reliant on new technology to maintain the Empire, for example the use of the RAF to put down a revolt in
Iraq in 1920
- “Whatever happens we have got – the Maxim gun, and they have not” – Belloc
- Churchill authorised use of RAF bombers which allegedly used gas against the rebels in Iraq in 1920
- “I am strongly in favour of using poisoned gas against uncivilised tribes” – Churchill
- As a consequence, many troops could be safely withdrawn from certain areas without compromising security – between 1921 and 1928, the garrison of Iraq was reduced from 23 British and Indian battalions to 2 battalions

Section 5 – An overall evaluation of the approach.
This is your conclusion but should be much more in depth than a normal conclusion. Issues you will want to consider are:
- What has been learned from this approach that could not be learned from other approaches?
- What new questions have been asked and what new perspectives on empire have been discovered? - How has the approach has changed the way in which empire is now written about?

OCR History B (A2 British Imperialism) - All Possible Part B Essay Plans by Harry Bojakowski (2014)
- What are its shortcomings?
- How it can be used in combination with other approaches to empire to develop an EVEN RICHER
VIEW OF EMPIRE.
The last sentence is the key point.... You want to demonstrate that as with all approaches, the named approach has added much to our understanding... but that no approach on its own is perfect. That by combining elements of this approach with others, we can gradually build a richer, more diverse understanding of Empire – this will never be complete, but the more different approaches that are uncovered, the greater synthesis we may hope to achieve.
Hegemonic Part B
Introduction
The hegemonic approach focuses on the application of theories developed in other disciplines such as political science
Section 1 – Explain the approach in detail
- Historians have chosen to focus on the way in which the Empire was maintained and controlled and therefore have considered that Britain used hegemony to maintain control
- Hegemony was a way of convincing colonies that they needed the British for their own good and for their own protection
- The idea of hegemony developed from the ancient Greeks as it was defined as one state being dominated by another
- It was first proposed by Italian Marxist Gramsci
- However it had been adapted more theoretically than that as it lead to the idea of false consciousness, subordinate groups possessed a false conception of their real social condition
- This dominance leads to subordinate groups believing that their oppression is legitimate and that social order was natural and inevitable and so couldn 't be changed
- Link this to the fact that the approach was being created alongside those of collaborative and coercive and so this was created as an alternative to violence
- The approach links in with the metropolitan approach as it focuses mainly on the role of the metropole to gain influence and control over the colonised peoples
- The methods used were mainly the study of a variety of written sources and the interpretation that came with this was that imperial rule was inevitable and natural
- It was argued that knowledge was skewed to create a stereotype of the native peoples and therefore justify British rule
- Boehmer considered how native children had been made in to a racial stereotype that deemed them incapable of looking after themselves but reliant on the role of the British
Possible questions
- How was the Empire controlled
- How was the Empire experienced
- The impact of Empire on Britain
Section 2 – Explain how the approach has advanced our understanding of study of empire
Influence of control
- Provides an alternative to the collaborative and the coercive approach. Explains the possibility of

OCR History B (A2 British Imperialism) - All Possible Part B Essay Plans by Harry Bojakowski (2014) sometimes not having to use force which was expensive but instead relying on the influence of control - Use the example of Indians being segregated to create a form of ideological control e.g. Indian
Sikhs were seen as the martial race and incorporated into the Indian Army
- Educated Bengalis on the other hand we ridiculed as effeminate because they threatened Britain’s supremacy as a governing race
- It has been argued that the colonial state had the ability to reproduce these labels and classifications to such an extent that indigenous people began to believe them
- Useful to explain how the approach has shed new light on the opinion of those in the metropole, disagreements with the use of force, approval of expansion of the empire and how to maintain control - For example, the British claimed that they were a great governing race and would protect indigenous people from various horrible characters such as greedy landlords and exploitative employers - During WW2, the British were keen to tell their colonial subjects that Hitler did not like black people - Equally could be linked to the question of what the impact of the Empire was dependent on the way it had to be maintained
Colonial knowledge
- Allows for a study of the morality of the Empire as we can considered how justified the Empire was in maintaining control over the colonies. There are arguments to suggest that hegemony was immoral as it required partial consideration of the force of Britain however equally it avoided conflict - For example the British, in Ceylon, became custodians of Buddha 's tooth, which showed a sacred relationship developed between them which would suggest a more moral force
- British authority was also entwined with the need for respect
- This social act was a symbolic representation of the power of the colonial elite and if challenged, then the whole idea of white supremacy would be endangered
- Lord Roberts “respect based on fear; remove the fear and the respect will soon disappear”
The ritual and legitimacy rule in India
- Focuses on the role of individuals and therefore an understanding of the way in which politics was exercised in Britain to develop a level of control over the native colonies.
- For example in 1858, the British monarch replaced the Mughal Emperor
- Attempts to place Queen Victoria as the direct successor to the Mughals were furthered in 1876 when she assumed the title Empress of India on the premise that her Indian subjects held a genuine affection for her
- The title was supposed to symbolise Britain’s intention to retain a permanent connection with India
– the term Empress of India was revived from the title of the later Mughal emperors: in 1857
Bahadur Shah Zafar had been proclaimed Emperor of India
- In celebration, Viceroy Lytton planned an Imperial Assemblage in 1877 – this consisted of a grand celebration, procession and presentation of arms to the assembled India aristocracy
- Lytton wanted to “place the Queen’s authority upon the ancient throne of the Moguls, with which the imagination and tradition of [our] Indian subjects associate the splendour of supreme power”
Section 3 – Disadvantages
- Consider the disadvantages of the approach, such as why examples of force were deemed necessary in some cases. The cost of armies etc. was still very high showing that force was a

OCR History B (A2 British Imperialism) - All Possible Part B Essay Plans by Harry Bojakowski (2014) necessity and therefore the hegemonic approach does not fully explain how the power of the empire was maintained and controlled. Therefore needs to be considered alongside the coercive approach to understand why sometimes hegemony wasn 't always successful
- Fails to answer why collaboration wasn 't necessarily successful even though it would arguably be the most moral and cheapest option, fails to consider other possibilities. Needs to be used alongside the collaborative approach to demonstrate how it was necessary more successful to use hegemony.
Hugh Clifford points out that the British were never powerful enough to negotiate terms with the colonies - The approach is too narrowly focused on the role of the metropole, it fails to take in to consideration the role in which the periphery played in this and how they necessarily reacted to the use of hegemony, how successful really was it. Used in synthesis with the peripheral approach we would get a broader picture of how the relationship between the periphery and the metropole developed. Section 4 – What have other approaches bought to the study of Empire
Coercive approach
Brutal force was used extensively to rule the Empire
- Provides an alternative to the hegemonic and collaborative approach, explains the reasoning why the British often had to rely on force because it was the only way to maintain control and therefore works in with individual cases, for example the Morant Bay Rebellion where British troops fired on protestors of social oppression
- In 1865, growing economic and social unrest culminated in a riot in Morant Bay town, Jamaica
- Government troops fired on protestors and in the ensuing disorder a number of civilians dies
- Governor Eyre responded to the rebellion ruthlessly, he imposed martial law and had a local
Baptist preacher court-martialled and hanged
- In the subsequent repression ordered by Eyre, 580 men and women were killed, and around 1000 homes were destroyed
- Morant Bay Rebellion: 439 Black Jamaicans killed by soldiers putting down the protests, 354 hanged, and over 600 flogged, including pregnant women. The governor, John Eyre, was twice charged with murder back in Britain, but the cases never proceeded.
Force was the only way to control
- Allows a new consideration of morality of the Empire as it considers the brutal fashion in which the
British dealt with struggles on the periphery, often finding cause to justify it as the only means necessary, for example the brutality shown against the uprising of the Indian Mutiny as the British were brutal with the Indians and the conflict lasted over a year
- John Newsinger – “there was a systematic policy of torture in British India, covered up by authorities in Britain”
- After Indian mutiny, 150 corpses hung on single Banyan tree.
- “Every tree and gable-end in the place should have its burden in the shape of a mutineer 's carcass”
- The Times
- Amritsar: 379 killed, 1100 wounded (official estimate: INC estimates 1000 killed; 1,500 casualties total) - Amritsar Massacre: instigated by Brigadier-General Dyer – British response: Dyer relieved of his command - “Certainly not. It was not my job. Hospitals were open and they could have gone there” - Dyer, on whether he should have tended to the wounded

OCR History B (A2 British Imperialism) - All Possible Part B Essay Plans by Harry Bojakowski (2014)
- Equally John Newsinger accused the British of “native bashing” as they used modern technology against the natives – the Maxim gun introduced in 1881
- In 1888, 1500 Matabele warriors were wiped out whilst only 4 invaders died
Collaborative approach
‘Men on the spot’
- Creates a focus on a new class of individuals and therefore provides new terminology. The approach considers the role played by the men on the periphery and therefore demonstrates how they played an important role in the ruling of the Empire. For example Alfred Milner, the high commissioner of South Africa was able to convince the British government to take more decisive action in the Transvaal as a part of the Boer War
- It was difficult for metropolitan policymakers to exert authority over ‘men on the spot’ because the distance between centre and periphery hindered effective communications
- Colonial governors argued that those in the metropole lacked sufficient firsthand experience of a particular colony to offer suitable advice
- In 1989-9, Milner used telegrams to hustle the Colonial Office and Cabinet into issuing an illconsidered ultimatum to the Transvaal. Milner had also made the Transvaal question a prominent issue in the British media thereby placing greater pressure on the British government to act
Collaboration and the indigenous elite
- Shows a more moral side to the Empire, rather than considering coercion which promoted British brutality this approach instead considers the way in which the British worked with local people in order to better their lives. For example the collaborators were rewarded with technological and knowledge advancement so that they could individually benefit
- Local people were used extensively in the administration, army and police force
- 3/4 Indian civil servants were native Indians by 1914
- There were difficulties in employing large numbers of European administrators in the colonies and indigenous also possessed the local knowledge that was essential for effective government
- Indigenous elites were courted and involved in the exercise of British power, particularly in areas of indirect rule
- 1931: India had over 1 million government workers involved in the administration of the country
- 1939: the elite administrative division of the colonial service in Africa numbered 1200 men for over a dozen colonies covering 2 million square miles
- These collaborators were sometimes rewarded with material benefits, such as access to investments and technology, or favourable allocations of land and labour
- Indigenous authorities gained new legitimacy through association with a technologically-advanced foreign power
Divide and Rule
- Sheds new light on the role of the periphery, instead of a focus on the metropole there is more of an understanding of the way in which the politics of the metropole were received in the periphery and therefore demonstrates the way in which they react to their rulers. For example the reaction to
British rule in India was obvious from the Indian Mutiny and therefore it was necessary to use divide and rule to split each regiment up in to different races and religions
- Britain exploited rivalries in order to be seen as an impartial guarantor of the rights of different social groups
- For example, when the Indian army was reorganised in the aftermath of the mutiny a policy of

OCR History B (A2 British Imperialism) - All Possible Part B Essay Plans by Harry Bojakowski (2014)
‘divide and rule’ was broadly favoured; each native regiment recruited men from different regions, caste and religion so soldiers lacked unity and common identity to challenge their British rulers
- After the Indian Mutiny, Indian princes were allowed to retain their powers in order to help win back control
- There were also no more annexations of princely territory after 1858
Section 5 – An overall evaluation of the approach.

This is your conclusion but should be much more in depth than a normal conclusion. Issues you will want to consider are:
- What has been learned from this approach that could not be learned from other approaches?
- What new questions have been asked and what new perspectives on empire have been discovered? - How has the approach has changed the way in which empire is now written about?
- What are its shortcomings?
- How it can be used in combination with other approaches to empire to develop an EVEN RICHER
VIEW OF EMPIRE.
The last sentence is the key point.... You want to demonstrate that as with all approaches, the named approach has added much to our understanding... but that no approach on its own is perfect. That by combining elements of this approach with others, we can gradually build a richer, more diverse understanding of Empire – this will never be complete, but the more different approaches that are uncovered, the greater synthesis we may hope to achieve.
Nationalist Plan B
Introduction
The Nationalist approach focuses on how peripheral factors contributed to decolonisation
Section 1 – Explain the approach in detail
- Historians have focused on the nationalist side of the Empire and therefore have considered the independence movements of the individual countries in order to explain how the Empire became decolonised - Takes away all focus on the metropole and instead looks at the periphery and the action it has taken. - The methodology used is to look at individuals and the role they have taken as part of case studies of different parts of the Empire
- It is more focused and therefore looks at the rise of the independence movements and the roles they have played.
- Historians such as Bruce Berman, Frantz Fanon and Professor Ranger have used this approach to explain how decolonisation has happened and focused their studies on individual independence movements in the periphery.
- Bruce Berman "Unhappy Valley" considers how Kenya rose up against imperial rule.
- Frantz Fanon argues that the way the British left Africa is what led to corruption being rife in the modern day.
- Professor Ranger, history department at Dar Es Salaam University “Dance and society in East
Africa” focused on how things have changed in society to focus on movement of culture. Possible

OCR History B (A2 British Imperialism) - All Possible Part B Essay Plans by Harry Bojakowski (2014) questions - How far was imperial policy continuous
- Why did decolonisation occur
- How was the Empire experienced
- The impact of Empire on Britain
Section 2 – Explain how the approach has advanced our understanding of study of empire
Focus on Nationalist movements
- Movement away from a sole focus on the metropole as we instead begin to look at the role of the periphery instead.
- For example the focus on Kenyetta as a part of the Mau Mau Rebellion against the British. Followed in the idea of people seeking a national identity and therefore uprising against the oppressive British forces that had ruled over them in the Empire. A shift away from the Eurocentric approach as instead there is a focus on the colonies
- “To hell with European domination” - election slogan, Tom Mboya (Kenyan nationalist politician and trade unionist)
- Operation Anvil: 30,000 women and children deported to reserves; 20,000 suspected Mau Mau interned at Langata Screening Camp
- Caroline Elkins, in Imperial Reckoning, claims that almost 1.5m Kikuyu were detained in the camps and fortified villages
- Kenya, 1905: Sir James Sadler led a small field force with 10 maxim guns against 25,000 Nandi rebels. 1117 Nandi were killed, 4956 huts and stores destroyed, 16,000 cattle and 36,000 sheep and goats confiscated
- Baring declared a state of emergency in 1953
- Lieutenant-General Lathbury – “Nationalism is still a very potent force and the African will pursue his aim by other means”
Individual case studies cause political change
- Allows for a study on individual figures as the case studies consider how individuals have encouraged movements away from the British and therefore we can consider their roles in society now. - For example looking at Mahatma Gandhi and how he encouraged a peaceful movement away from the British and sought a removal of the oppressive system being upheld by the British
- Ghandi staged a peaceful protest which bought many Indians together, walking 240 miles to the coast to collect salt in a protest against the British salt tax – this became known as the Salt March
- Bringing together many different politically based people, his arrest sparked civil unrest in which roughly 100,000 people were arrested
- The media coverage bought these protests to light culminating in what can be considered to be part of India’s independence movement
- This resulted in Britain having to adjust policies as not to appear negligent to their colonies, eventually resulting in 1935 in the Government of India Act
Focus on the growth of nationalist colonies
- Historians are able to map the development of Africa and therefore move away from the idea that

OCR History B (A2 British Imperialism) - All Possible Part B Essay Plans by Harry Bojakowski (2014) the colonies were uncivilised and only the British added civilisation to them. Instead we see how times have changed and therefore there was a growth of civilisation and intelligence.
- For example the fact that a university Dar Es Salaam has been set up in Tanzania represents the movement of intelligence and that historians are moving out to the colonies in order to focus their study on the colonies rather than the metropole
Decolonisation was caused by independence, not through the metropole’s decision
- Creates controversy as to the terminology we use when discussing Empire. Instead of considering that the Empire was decolonised we should instead be considering that the Empire was liberated or encouraged a move towards independence. This moves away from the traditional approach to
Empire and therefore considers the alternative role.
- For example would Britain have left Kenya if it hadn 't been for the pressure being placed on them by Kenyetta and the independence movement
- “Africa before European settlement had no history at all” - Hegel
- By end of 19th Century, more than 12,000 Christian missionaries in Africa and Asia
- 1935-39: British trade w. Empire increased to 49%
- 27m attended British Empire Exhibition at Wembley in 1924
Section 3 – Disadvantages
Historians find it difficult to access archives. Ex-colonies are incapable of providing the information sought after by historians – much of the evidence, therefore, is from European colonial officers which might give a tainted picture, one derived from a metropolitan outlook. Elkins work was criticised for her use of accounts from indigenous people.
First wave of historians who undertook a nationalist approach did so alongside a nationalist movement, possible for them to view the situation objectively when they’re so close to it all.
Most importantly the nationalist approach ignores other reasons for decolonisation. Economic approach could offer statistics which indicate other reasons for granting independence: WWII was costing half her GNP, defence spending in 1945 was £6.1billion, by the end of the war Britain owed
£3billion to overseas creditors, by 1960 only 40% of British goods were going to the Empire.
The nationalist approach also fails to pay sufficient attention to the wider international context.
Britain became reliant on the USA following WWII, leads to USA influencing foreign policy. Joint overthrowing of Iranian leadership in 1953 but US enjoys the most profit from oil revenues. US then forces Britain to withdraw from Egypt in the Suez crises 1956, showing the world Britain is no longer an imperial power.
Synthesis of the nationalist approach and those which focus on the metropole is the key to developing a more nuanced view of the empire. Indian nationalism played a huge role in their independence gaining, but an economic approach also revelas that Britain was £1.3Billion in debt to
India – no longer a strategic or economic reason to keep empire. The cost of £100,000 to capture a
Mau Mau fighter is also a finding which comes from an economic approach.
By using other approaches, a nationalist approach can be enhanced which provides a more detailed and complete view of Empire.

OCR History B (A2 British Imperialism) - All Possible Part B Essay Plans by Harry Bojakowski (2014)
Further ideas:
- Takes the metropole completely out of the equation and we are instead solely focusing on the role of the periphery, by ignoring the metropole we are ignoring the actions taken by the metropole itself. For example the Lancaster House Conference realising that it was necessary to grant Africans legislature and then granting Kenya independence in 1962 is ignored. Needs to be used in conjunction with the metropolitan approach in order to examine how both had played their role in removing the oppressive form of Empire.
- By focusing on individual countries we lose a sight of the bigger picture as we are instead focusing on small parts. We are unable to examine trends as we are looking at such an intricate level at the individual countries. Need to use the periphery approach in order to generalise the Empire as a whole. - Problematic sources, very little government and therefore no official political records that can be examined instead we are relying on the reports of the nationalist movements themselves which are obviously littered with forms of bias in them. The metropolitan approach provides more sold factual evidence as the reports are from the government.

Section 4 – What have other approaches bought to the study of Empire
Economic approach
- Metropole focus
- Can be used to explain decolonisation:
- Criticises previous assumptions that independence was granted because the colonies finally deserved it and were capable of exercising it
- Underplayed importance of the periphery and the indigenous
- Ochieng and Atieno-Odhiambo - “camouflages the flow of history merely to suit the ego of imperialists” - The Mau Mau created huge economic costs for Britain: to capture one ‘terrorist’ would cost
£100,000 and by the late 1950s it was clear that Kenyan nationalism could not be appeased without black majority rule
- Iraq Revolt of 1921 cost Britain £40 million
- By 1944, WWII was costing Britain half of her GNP
- In 1933, Britain’s defence spending stood at £100 million (3% of GNP). By 1945, this had risen £6.1 billion - Also: reaction to Mau Mau revolts (concentration camps) shows that British were not civilising, as previous assumptions thought
Strategic approach
- Wider focus, global
- Provides new ideas on the process of decolonisation and its causes:
- Britain’s actions were governed by pressures from the USA
- In 1946, the US loaned Britain $3.5 billion to help it avoid bankruptcy. Therefore, the US had some influence on Britain’s foreign policy- also, the US disliked imperialism and so Britain had to take that into account

OCR History B (A2 British Imperialism) - All Possible Part B Essay Plans by Harry Bojakowski (2014)
- Example- Iran: Later in March 1951, the Iranian parliament (the Majlis) voted to nationalise the
Anglo-Iranian Oil Company (AIOC) and its holdings, and shortly thereafter Iranians democratically elected a widely respected statesman and champion of nationalisation, Mohammed Mossadegh,
Prime Minister
- Britain was unable to subvert Mossadegh as its embassy and officials had been evicted from Iran in
October 1952, but successfully appealed in the U.S. to exaggerated anti-communist sentiments, depicting both Mossadegh and Iran as unstable and likely to fall to communism in their weakened state. If Iran fell, the "enormous assets" of "Iranian oil production and reserves" would fall into
Communist control, as would "in short order the other areas of the Middle East". By 1953 both the
US and the UK had new, more anti-communist and interventionist administrations and the United
States no longer opposed intervention in Iran
- However, Under pressure from the United States, British Petroleum (Anglo-Iranian Oil Company, which changed its name to British Petroleum in 1954) were forced to accept membership in a consortium of companies which would bring Iranian oil back on the international market. Therefore this shows how us influenced Britain’s decisions and led to less power in Iran.
- Also, it shows how the rivalry of Russia was significant and the threat of communism…
- Another example: Suez Canal Crisis: The President of Egypt, Gamal Abdel Nasser, decided to nationalise the Suez Canal in July 1956 after Britain and the USA’s rejection of supporting Egypt’s building of the Aswan Dam. Due to the fact that a significant proportion of Britain’s trade went through the canal, it prompted a proposed invasion. Britain’s aim was to remove Nasser from power and restore French and British control over the canal, and with it British and French influence in the
Middle East. The USA, the Soviet Union, a number of independent Commonwealth countries and the
Middle Eastern Arab states condemned the action. US pressure forced Britain to withdraw from the
Suez, over fears of an alliance between the Soviet Union and Russia. US pressure = Britain had less control over Egypt.
Section 5 – An overall evaluation of the approach.
This is your conclusion but should be much more in depth than a normal conclusion. Issues you will want to consider are:
- What has been learned from this approach that could not be learned from other approaches?
- What new questions have been asked and what new perspectives on empire have been discovered? - How has the approach has changed the way in which empire is now written about?
- What are its shortcomings?
- How it can be used in combination with other approaches to empire to develop an EVEN RICHER
VIEW OF EMPIRE.
The last sentence is the key point.... You want to demonstrate that as with all approaches, the named approach has added much to our understanding... but that no approach on its own is perfect. That by combining elements of this approach with others, we can gradually build a richer, more diverse understanding of Empire – this will never be complete, but the more different approaches that are uncovered, the greater synthesis we may hope to achieve.
Some historians have focused on cultural factors in their study of the British Empire. What has this added to our understanding of British imperialism? What are the disadvantages of this approach?

OCR History B (A2 British Imperialism) - All Possible Part B Essay Plans by Harry Bojakowski (2014)
Approach – analysis of cultural discourse and artefacts in order to gain an insight into how the Empire was experienced and how the Empire was represented. Emerged since 1970s. Focused attention on previously neglected aspects of imperialism – namely contemporary perceptions of empire and the peoples within them. Move away from the actions of politicians and major financiers. Gain an insight into how Empire effected people’s lives. Also encouraged people to look at the difference between cultural representations of the past and reality.
What has it added to our understanding of history
•

Has opened up a far wider range of evidence for historians to investigate. Traditional political and economic approaches have focused on an analysis of economic statistics and research into governmental records etc.
Cultural approach has introduced a brand new methodology. Analysis of literature, art, music hall, personal diaries, oral histories etc etc… This in turn has opened up new questions about Empire... rather than just focusing on why the Empire expanded and collapsed, historians have started to study how the Empire was “represented”, how it was “perceived” and what this reveals about people’s experiences of Empire (impact on everyday lives)

•

One of the most controversial and fascinating new areas of study which has stemmed from a cultural approach is colonial discourse theory – an analysis of the way Empire was represented influenced by Foucault and postmodernism. In particular led to the idea that the discourse on Empire had to be “interpreted”. This hugely influenced the work of Edward Said and lead to the theory of Orientalism which has sparked huge new areas of debate about European imperialism. Said’s analysis of imperial writings concluded that there was a long running tradition in Western writing to portray the Orient (East) as “the other”… as inferior etc. This peaked during the age of Empire as the Europeans represented local people in a negative way to legitimise colonial rule. Said used a huge range of discourse (literature written in the West from Aeschylus (The Persians), Dante, Austen, Kipling etc etc), to support his view. However, other cultural historians have written stinging criticisms of Said’s work –
Mackenzie, Cannadine, Washbrook, Colley etc. Historians have argued at great length about the validity of Said’s claims of the existence of an Orientalist discourse within British (and European culture) This debate has added huge complexity to the question of how representations of Empire shaped the imperial process.

•

These cultural studies can highlight the interaction of Western and Eastern worlds – useful tools in showing how
Empire was controlled (look at disagreements here between Said/Washbrook/Cannadine). A focus on discourse and how it was used to reinforce racial stereotypes has added to our understanding of hegemony – Culture could be used to help reinforce “ideological control” and to instil a tacit acceptance of British rule. Not only discourse, but also the use of ritual, symbol (Honours system, Buddha’s tooth etc) all examples of how culture could be used to legitimise and therefore maintain order in the Empire. Said has drawn contrasts between British, Spanish and French imperialism – England, more interested in long-term subjugation... hence ideological control through cultural means. Could also use popular culture (the press etc) reacted to other methods of control such as the use of force.... e.g. popular opposition to Morant Bay, Amritsar leads to a decline in the use of violent activities?

•

Regardless of the merits of Orientalism, a cultural approach has lead to the greater analysis of the language used by imperialists. Encourages the reader of colonial literature to evaluate writings to identify the underlying attitudes and beliefs which shape them. A huge amount of the evidence about imperialism was produced by those who supported it… Cultural discourse encourages the critical evaluation of sources of information by identifying how information is presented. Revolutionised how evidence should be approached.

•

Cultural approaches and discourse theory also led to development of subaltern studies – attempts to study and provide a history from the perspective of less powerful people within indigenous societies. Look at some examples of this – Case Study – India, birth place of subaltern studies, Ranajit Guha – interest in peasant rebellions as an early from of resistance and nationalism). Think about how this has added something by trying to give a voice in the history of Empire to those who previously might not be heard from… Scholars of the subaltern hoped to break away from histories of the elites and the Eurocentric bias of current imperial history – this involved reading “against the grain” when studying sources to try and infer the views and beliefs of ordinary people. A way of approaching culture to try and understand the unspoken messages... however, methodological problems! OCR History B (A2 British Imperialism) - All Possible Part B Essay Plans by Harry Bojakowski (2014)
•

Cultural analysis can offer another tool for analysing the experience of people on the periphery and whether
Empire was a force for good. E.g. Benefits of the expansion of Western culture and civilisation on the periphery vs destruction of local traditions.

•

Emphasis on culture – opened doors to studying religion, sex, gender etc and their impact on Empire – wrestled the study of imperialism away from economic and political historians who had dominated the subject. – Writing about Empire now far more diverse, richer and dynamic. Could do some case studies on how a cultural approach, in particular has been important in helping to analyse both the role of women in Empire and the role of gender.

•

A cultural approach has offered a new way of thinking about the impact of Empire on Britain. Again move away from the focus on the economic and political consequences of Empire to the extent to which Empire affected the lives and consciousness of ordinary people. Has led to a stimulating debate e.g. between authors such as
Mackenzie and Porter and Judd… also however reveals a problem in the cultural approach – the existence of different cultural artefacts do not necessarily tell us how these artefacts were understood and viewed by the wider population? E.g. lots of literature about Empire... but how do we know how widely this was read... did membership of the Boy scouts really show support for Empire or was it for other reasons... interesting that approaches and methods of Mackenzie, Porter very similar – but come to very different conclusions – reveals how historical writing depends on individual interpretations of evidence.

•

Studies of the impact of Empire on Britain have become more nuanced... considerations of change over time and impact on different social groups – again link to class/gender etc.

•

Cultural approach to the impact of Empire on Britain also reveals much about the process of colonisation and decolonisation! Studying trends in cultural writings might help to reveal how British attitudes towards Empire evolved over time. E.g. Does a study of culture reveal a distinct difference between the ages of anti-imperialism and new imperialism in the C19th – e.g. was there an increase in jingoism etc which supports the discontinuity thesis (Could this be used to challenge Robinson and Gallagher?). Culture also enables historians to investigate hypotheses such as to what extent the decline of Empire was the result of a change in public opinion – either to indifference or to active opposition to Empire after WWII. What evidence is there for public apathy and antipathy by the mid C20th?

•

Allows analysis of how Imperial culture still influences the post-colonial world in the metropole – Recent book by
Paxman… populist history but investigates the continued legacy of Empire in shaping British perceptions of themselves – Do British attitudes but also the British education system (case study of new national curriculum),
British foreign policy (e.g. intervention across the world) owe much to imperial history. Could draw similarity with
Said... very different, but both looking at legacy.

DISADVANTAGES
•

Some cultural approaches (esp. post-colonial theory) have been criticised for their lack of historical method and their selective use of evidence. (e.g. Was Dickens, Mansfield Part really about Empire – requires a particular reading!) but also could be applied to some of the work on the impact of Empire on Britain?) Also most of the cultural evidence comes from the West? Hence the problems with subaltern studies.

•

Can lead to cultural generalisations. Overarching cultural theories fail to take into account the wide variety of imperial cultures. Again critique of orientalism

•

Danger of sidelining political and economic factors in imperial studies – contrast to these approaches. However, culture could be used alongside more traditional approaches – e.g. especially in relation to expansion, control and decolonisation... to add a further layer of complexity to our analysis.... e.g. decolonisation – there is evidence of changing British attitudes to Empire... but this alone does not explain why the Empire collapsed... must combine this with economic issues (did people now believe the Empire was a drain on resources) and colonial nationalism OCR History B (A2 British Imperialism) - All Possible Part B Essay Plans by Harry Bojakowski (2014)
Colonial Discourse Part B
Introduction
The Colonial Discourse approach focuses on how the language of discourse, shaped by power relations, intrinsically shapes how the world is viewed by all those who access that discourse; the
Metropole had a discriminatory view on the periphery meaning that imperial action was seen as justified Section 1 – Explain the approach in detail
- Came about after WW2 (1970s+)
- Historians such as Foucault and Derrida chose to look at an approach where imperialism is becoming interesting for those in fields which wouldn’t necessarily be defined as ‘history’
- Michel Foucault was the most prominent when talking about discourse
- He expanded the definition of discourse to include all meaningful utterances and texts
- Foucault believed that the real, external world could only be ordered and interpreted through discourse; how one sees the world is dependent on the linguistic means of describing it
- Argues that cultural artefacts, which are referred to as ‘texts’ or ‘discourses’ can be analysed to bring forward the latent commentaries, attitudes and values contained within.
- Led to developments in ideas about how ‘knowledge’ is inexact as all texts are subjective
- Therefore, any analysis of the past is shaped by the dominant values of the writer and the society in which they are writing
- Historians hadn’t strayed into this territory before necessarily – Eric Hobsbawm and Terence
Ranger had argued previously that many institutions and protocols had been invented in Europe and were transferred to the colonies but Said was very influential in terms of his ideas and methodology
Possible questions
- How the Empire was represented
- The impact this empire had on Britain
- How it was controlled
- Was the Empire a force for good
Section 2 – Explain how the approach has advanced our understanding of study of empire
Use of new methodology
- Completely new approach – new methodology – using literary texts very differently to before as evidence - Said’s work – new increased focus on language of imperialism – and the inherent underlying racism
- This is a more sophisticated reading of the literature than had gone before
- You can find many examples to support how this could lead us to read different into texts produced at the time in order to discern the underlying meaning – e.g. Kipling’s Kim
Subaltern studies
- Led to the development of subaltern studies – focusing less on colonial peoples as subjects
- Subaltern studies attempts to study and provide a history from within the less powerful people within indigenous societies
- The development of post-colonial theory also led to “subaltern studies”, a group of works focused on “history from below”
- A group of historians calling themselves the Subaltern Studies Group emerged in the 1980s

OCR History B (A2 British Imperialism) - All Possible Part B Essay Plans by Harry Bojakowski (2014)
- Highly influential in this group was Ranajit Guha, an Indian historian who edited several anthologies of the early works of these groups
- He himself has written many works on India during the Imperial Period including Dominance without Hegemony: History and Power in Colonial India (1998)
- This group were not just influenced by Said, but also by Gramsci and rejected the version of Indian
History given by Marxist historians
- Similarly, a group of historians has also emerged carrying out ‘subaltern studies’ in Latin American, considering the ‘hidden groups’ in the Spanish and Portuguese Empires
- By the late 1980s, the Subaltern attitudes group were rejecting historical narratives altogether, along with notions of ‘class’ or ‘individualism’ as Western designs unsuited to a truthful analysis of local society
- With these boundaries deconstruction the way was open to embrace fragments without typicality, order or reliability
- Myth and fact were subsumed and given equal validity
- They argued that only ‘subalterns’ who had lived under the rule of the British could really write
‘subaltern’ history because they were free of the ‘constructions’ of Western epistemology
Impact on the metropole
- Focused attention on previously neglected aspects of imperialism – contemporary perspectives on empire and the impact this had on those on the Metropole – could argue that this has had an impact on cultural historians like Porter and Mackenzie, even if fundamentally they disagree with Said
- Michael Gorra, when reviewing Culture and Imperialism (1993 – Said) – “one of the first critics to show how one might mount the kind of sophisticated analysis of the close relations between literature and politics, knowledge and power, that now prevails in literary studies. No one examining the relations between metropolitan West and the decolonizing world can ignore his work.”
- Dane Kennedy – argues that post-colonial theory is a positive influence on imperial history as it
“raises provocative and fundamental questions about the epistemological structures of power and cultural foundations of resistance.”
Emphasise on culture
Emphasis on culture – opens new avenues of study allowing analysis of how empire was represented which focuses on class, religion and gender (as well as race)
- This is influential in terms of writers who followed Said’s methods
- A number of post-colonial writers emerged who rejected traditional history in favour of investigating the experience of groups that they perceived as having been marginalised and ignored in the history of the Empire and the non-western world: women, the working classes, people from races other than white Europeans, and homosexuals
- Anne McClintock was one such individual, who followed the idea of Said that the cultural values of empire deeply permeated all those in the colonising country, even if they were not conventionally groups associated with empire
- “imperialism and invention of race were fundamental aspects of Webster, industrial modernist, which became central not only to the self-definition of the middle class, but also to the policy of the
“dangerous classes”: the working class, the Irish, Jews, prostitutes, feminists, gays and lesbians, criminals, the militant crowd and so on.”
- Her use of the term “invention of race” clearly shows her debt to Said
- Also can be seen as influential in other ways, even with those who don’t necessarily agree with
Said’s underlying principles or his methods – for example Cannadine for class
- “Ornamentalism was hierarchy made visible, immanent and actual… Chivalry and ceremony, monarchy and majesty, were the means by which this vast world was brought together, interconnected, unified and sacralised”
- In short; the British respected those who held power and were of high status, and looked down on

OCR History B (A2 British Imperialism) - All Possible Part B Essay Plans by Harry Bojakowski (2014) those of lower classes.
- For example, “The king of Hawaii ranked above the crown prince of imperial Germany.
Aristocracies in Africa or Asia should be accorded some of the respect due to the British aristocracy.
The great mass of such populations was regarded with disdain, but then so were the urban and rural poor in Britain itself”
- When taking control of a new colony, the British kept the same hierarchical system and just put a white face on it (unless collaborators were available)
- Class dominated British relations with the colonies, if people were of high standing they were treated well, if not then they were treated the same as the British public; it was not racism but class divide Section 3 – Explain the advantage and disadvantages of the approach’s methodology
Cannadine
- Own experiences – Cannadine looks back on his own experiences of Empire as a boy, and his fathers as a Soldier in India during WWII
- Uses other approaches to formulate his own
- Criticises the works of other historians who seek to “approach and recover” the past through the stereotypical and unequal collectivises of race, class or gender
- ‘The official mind’; Indigenous aristocracies, monarchs, colonial gentlemen, ICS members
Literature
- Memoirs and travel accounts suggest that encounters with different cultures often made European travellers question assumptions based on racial superiority
- Critics claim that many discourse theorists privilege their own work as ‘truth’ rather than as a separate discourse; colonial writings could be only judged against other discourses, rather than the
‘truth’
- Much work on colonial discourse has been conducted in the US, where racial and ethnic victimisation remain extremely important political issues – it’s therefore possible that contemporary concerns have created a particularly skewed version of imperial history
Foucault
- The knowledge conveyed by a discourse is the result of power relations; only certain points of view possess the power to be heard
- Discursive mechanisms (rules and regulated practices) place limitations on what information is deemed valid, and have the effect of concealing other interpretations
- E.g. An article that conforms to academic conventions is more authoritative than an article which doesn’t - Only certain individuals possess the right to speak authoritatively about a specific matter
- These rules and regulations in turn affect how people selectively interpret the world
Said (Orientalism)
- European authors had consistently described colonised countries and colonial subjects in a negative way in order to make their own countries seem civilised
- The Orient was defined by how it was perceived to differ from the West and colonised peoples became ‘Others’
- The portrayal of the East in European texts simply reinforced flawed stereotypes of indigenous peoples and cultures
- Colonial stereotypes legitimised exploitation and dehumanised colonial subjects
- Negative conceptions of the Orient gained ‘truth value’ by constant repetition, and because those

OCR History B (A2 British Imperialism) - All Possible Part B Essay Plans by Harry Bojakowski (2014) who authored Oriental texts were supported by the imperial authorities
- Enlightenment ideas of scientific truth enabled Orientalists to claim that their construction of the
East was an objective ‘truth’, thereby invalidating alternative interpretations
Washbrook (Occidentalism)
- Occidentalism generally refers to stereotypical and unflattering views of the West, particularly
Europe, the US and Australia; an inversion of Orientalism
- Critique of Said’s work on Orientalism
- Claimed that Said has selectively analysed European views of the Orient in order to demonstrate the inferiority of European culture
Cannadine (Ornamentalism)
- “Ornamentalism was hierarchy made visible, immanent and actual… Chivalry and ceremony, monarchy and majesty, were the means by which this vast world was brought together, interconnected, unified and sacralised”
- In short; the British respected those who held power and were of high status, and looked down on those of lower classes.
- For example, “The king of Hawaii ranked above the crown prince of imperial Germany.
Aristocracies in Africa or Asia should be accorded some of the respect due to the British aristocracy.
The great mass of such populations was regarded with disdain, but then so were the urban and rural poor in Britain itself”
- When taking control of a new colony, the British kept the same hierarchical system and just put a white face on it (unless collaborators were available)
- Class dominated British relations with the colonies, if people were of high standing they were treated well, if not then they were treated the same as the British public; it was not racism but class divide Advantages
- Periphery studies
- Bibliographies, footnotes and vocabulary (but tended to be self-referential)
- Specific rereading’s of sources with the awareness of language of oppression and supremacy used by the elites
- Western oppression in all aspects of society
Disadvantages
- African historians tended to over exaggerate
- Many discourse theorists originate from the periphery and this seems to have been responsible for their anger towards colonialism
- only looked for episodes where the British had created the ‘Other’, rather than at the debates on commerce, politics and virtue that took place
- excludes and denies any other forms of enquiry
Section 3 – Disadvantages

OCR History B (A2 British Imperialism) - All Possible Part B Essay Plans by Harry Bojakowski (2014)
Ther is a lack of the sources from ‘hidden groups’ because most of the documentary material that survives was written by elites – look at the methodology of those engaged in subaltern studies as explained about – deconstruction without consideration of reliability and typicality. This obviously has drawbacks as a way of reading sources!!
• Michael Gorra (literary scholar) – “in mapping the ways in which Orientalist discourse works, it fell, inadvertently but perhaps inevidtably int othe very type of binary thinking it sought ot attack, siggesting that there is indeed some “real” Orient whose radical difference remiands unrepresentable in or by the Occidental mind.”
• Also – criticism that Said etc. imposing their OWN world view on the past, thus committing the very sin that Said suggests the west was guilty to in regards of the East. For example –
John Mackensie – “the modern critique of Orientalism had gneerally committed that most fundemental of historical sins, the reading back of contemporary attitudes and prejudices into hisotrical periods.”
• David Washbrook also making a similar criticism when he suggests that post-colonial theory is making its own inverted hierarchy based on value judgements, where “European and white” is moved from th top to the bottom”. Washbrook also criticises the way Said views the Enlightenment – says too simplisitic, like any intelletual movement, was masviely VARIED and DIVERSE>
• Fundamental weakness of post-colonial approach to argue that western ‘knowledge’ was a vehicle of oppression that pervaded all aspects of society. This does not take into account the argument for COLLABORATION (if you are going to mix the 3 and 4th section I would bring in Pollock and Cannadine here.
• TOO SIMPLE – binary distinction between the culture of the West and the East. This ignores the product of influences on Western culture from other parts of the world over many centuries. For example, languages, alphabets, concepts, academic dicipliens and technologies have ll been imported as well as being inherently European.
• Post-colonial theory is highly selective – because it only looks for examples where the british created the “other” rather than the debates on commerce, politics etc. that took place – this is pointed out by C.A. Bayley.
Section 4 – What have other approaches bought to the study of Empire
•

Economic Approach
Financial investment was crucial for Britain’s economy
- Takes in to account the obvious financial data and therefore provides a suitable explanation as why the Empire may or may not be viable dependent on the level of investment and outlay being relied back in to the hands of those in charge of industry.
- For example in 1900, 125.8 million was invested overseas therefore demonstrating the importance of Empire
- Income from overseas investments crucial to Britain 's positive balance of payments 1890s
- 1880: 20% British investment overseas
People migrated for economic prosperity
- Allows a good explanation of why Britons moved overseas and domesticated formal territories. If there was potential economic prosperity then this lead financiers and their families overseas to become a part of the indigenous population.
- For example population surged in Egypt after British occupation from 7.6 million in 1880 to 12.3

OCR History B (A2 British Imperialism) - All Possible Part B Essay Plans by Harry Bojakowski (2014) million in 1914
Individual influence
- Takes a consideration of the individual classes as we consider the role the Gentlemanly Capitalists played in influencing the Empire through their association in society. Allows for a consideration of the individual influence and the changing nature of British class system
- Sir Bartle Frere – annexed Transvaal after discovery of gold at Witwatersrand - only retrospectively approved by Chamberlain
- Cecil Rhodes – Colonisation of Rhodesia: a means of securing mineral wealth for the DeBeers
Mining Corporation; used as a stepping stone to the colonisation of East Africa
- Goldie – obtained a charter to annexe Niger after warning of the inevitability of French palm-oil monopoly - Gladstone – most of his personal wealth invested in colonies, esp. Egypt: Gladstone had an extensive investment portfolio, 37% of which was in Egyptian bonds.
Strategic Approach
Global power rivalry stopped a European war
- Created a new idea that suggested that the use of power rivalry across the globe would help to avoid European war as rivalries were directed towards the peripheral areas
- Therefore this approach allows us to consider the Empire in a much wider state of affairs
- For example the “Scramble for Africa” was representative of European wars
- Germany: In 1883, Otto Von Bismarck called for a meeting of the Great Powers to ‘carve up’ parts of West Africa
- By 1886, Germany had acquired significant imperial territory. The Cameroons and Togoland were taken as a result of the Berlin West African Conference of 1884-5, and Tanganyika followed by way of a separate agreement. In the Pacific, north-eastern New Guinea and a number of islands further north and east were also annexed by Germany. Threatened Britain’s influences in Africa
- Bismarck: “my map of Africa lies in Europe. Here is Russia and here is France with Germany in the middle; that is my map of Africa.”
- Bismarck believed that a harmless colonial conflict with Britain might help him towards winning the
Reichstag elections (1884)
- In 1895, the Kaiser sent a telegram to Paul Kruger, President of the Transvaal, congratulating him on repelling a ‘raid’ by the British adventurer, Leander Jameson, who had been intent on stirring a rebellion to unseat Kruger. Created hysteria in Britain as it was believed that there was an alliance between Germany and the Transvaal for the eventual takeover of South Africa
Section 5 – An overall evaluation of the approach.
This is your conclusion but should be much more in depth than a normal conclusion. Issues you will want to consider are:
- What has been learned from this approach that could not be learned from other approaches?
- What new questions have been asked and what new perspectives on empire have been discovered? - How has the approach has changed the way in which empire is now written about?
- What are its shortcomings?
- How it can be used in combination with other approaches to empire to develop an EVEN RICHER
VIEW OF EMPIRE.

OCR History B (A2 British Imperialism) - All Possible Part B Essay Plans by Harry Bojakowski (2014)

The last sentence is the key point.... You want to demonstrate that as with all approaches, the named approach has added much to our understanding... but that no approach on its own is perfect. That by combining elements of this approach with others, we can gradually build a richer, more diverse understanding of Empire – this will never be complete, but the more different approaches that are uncovered, the greater synthesis we may hope to achieve.
Orientalism Part B
Introduction
The Orientalist approach focuses on
Section 1 – Explain the approach in detail
- Some historians have studied the Empire by considering how culture was spread across the Empire and what influence culture had over the opinion towards Empire and the way in which it influenced imperialism. Was it for cultural reasons that Britain felt the need for imperial conquest and to
"civilise" the world
- Built on in the 1950s as scholars began to analyse linguistics, anthropology, philosophy and literature, exploring the role of dominance through culture. Post-modernists such as Derrida believed that all texts contained infinite complexities of interpretations, all knowledge was imperfect, subjective and relative. Foucault built on this stating that all knowledge is intrinsically influenced by the language it 's communicated in and so control over language brings in turn power
- 1970s study of Empire begins to attract the interest of intellectuals outside the established network and some study how the Empire is represented
- Edward Said built on this and drew on studies of British literature considering discourse to explore how the Empire was being represented and the development of cultural stereotyping from literature and how this had developed an assumed dominance of power. His methods included focusing on individual works and reading them as a product of creative and interpretive imagination e.g. Jane
Austen 's “Mansfield Park”
- This approach links in with the nationalist approach as the stereotyping is represented by the rise up of the native people against the British
- Acts in a bottom-up approach as the cultural studies considers how the masses viewed the Empire and its peoples from the literature that was supposed to represent society.
Possible questions
Section 2 – Explain how the approach has advanced our understanding of study of empire
- Developed a new line of study, instead of considering the political or economic nature there is instead a consideration of how culture had led to an imprinted belief of cultural superiority because of stereotyping religion and race. Therefore helps understand the thought process behind the need for imperialism. For example Edward Said 's book “Orientalism” in 1978 explains the development of the negative stereotyping of the Middle East and the need to spread Christianity there
- Helped develop an understanding of the masses at the time as the approach considers the way in which society is represented as a whole, so is supposed to mirror the modern society and its views on the Empire. For example in “Mansfield Park” the characters consider the Empire a necessity as the natives of the other countries are merely savages who need to be civilised. Demonstrates how
Empire played a role, possibly sub-consciously in people 's everyday lives

OCR History B (A2 British Imperialism) - All Possible Part B Essay Plans by Harry Bojakowski (2014)
- Moves away from the traditional line of historiography, begins to consider other fields within history such as literature and philosophy. By considering other parts of discourse we can move away from the recognised line of history and therefore get a wider perspective as to the real influence and driving force behind the Empire. Contextually important as academics move away from history to instead consider wider topics and their meaning
- Furthers the chronology of the recognised study of Empire as Said studies beyond the formal
Empire as he claims negative stereotyping has carried on after the collapse and Empire was merely a part of the root of this negative stereotyping. This is proven by the US intervention in the Middle
East in the modern day and the British approach to the rest of the world of their superiority in terms of democracy etc.
Advantages
Section 3 – Explain the advantage and disadvantages of the approach’s methodology

- “My method is to focus as much as possible on individual works, to read them first as great products of the creative or interpretative imagination, and then to show them as part of the relationship between culture and empire. I do not believe that authors are mechanically determined by ideology, class, or economic history, but authors are, I also believe, very much in the history of their societies, shaping and shaped by that history and their social experience in different measure.”
- Basically, looking at various books from different time periods and noting the conventions and writing style from that period, and how that is linked to the relationship with Empire.
This can also apply to dialect and phrases used i.e. terms such as Dutch Courage, used to describe a courage found by drinking, was coined when Britain was in a rivalry with the
Dutch.
- Black is evil, white is good, etc.
- Study of many forms of the Media such as the BBC to see how official government sources viewed the empire and its subjects. The study of exhibitions highlights how people in the
Metropole wanted the empire to be viewed.
Section 4 - Explain how the approach has possible disadvantages/ Compare the approach with other approaches to empire
Disadvantages
Other approaches which answer similar questions but use differing approaches
An approach which considers the role of class (Ornamentalism)
Interpretation
- “Ornamentalism was hierarchy made visible, immanent and actual… Chivalry and ceremony, monarchy and majesty, were the means by which this vast world was brought together, interconnected, unified and sacralised”
- In short; the British respected those who held power and were of high status, and looked down on those of lower classes.
- For example, “The king of Hawaii ranked above the crown prince of imperial Germany.
Aristocracies in Africa or Asia should be accorded some of the respect due to the British aristocracy.
The great mass of such populations was regarded with disdain, but then so were the urban and rural

OCR History B (A2 British Imperialism) - All Possible Part B Essay Plans by Harry Bojakowski (2014) poor in Britain itself”
- When taking control of a new colony, the British kept the same hierarchical system and just put a white face on it (unless collaborators were available)
- Class dominated British relations with the colonies, if people were of high standing they were treated well, if not then they were treated the same as the British public; it was not racism but class divide Gender approach
- The approach gives a more detailed insight into the roles and experiences of women in the Empire and therefore allows a bottom-up approach in considering hoe the people actually involved in the
Empire experienced their time within it. For example the British missionaries conflicted with natives in Africa as they were against female circumcision, a dangerous practice, which was commonplace in
African society
- The approach has helped to further understanding to many other questions involved within the
Empire, for example how the Empire was controlled and what colonial experience was and therefore gender studies can be used to build on other factors of Empire. For example studying Annie Besant who actively supported Indian home rule and backed indigenous causes
- Gender studies can be established alongside class and race to give another tool of analyse to study when it comes to considering culture and the role it played within the Empire. For example in 1919 the British passed an act in India that said girls had to be 14 to marry which conflicted with the traditional culture of marriage in India
- The approach has helped to overcome the stereotypes of women 's role in the Empire and therefore allows for a new level of consideration rather than merely following the traditional approach to the way that history and gender is presented and equally the way in which the Empire has treated them. For example in the early 20th century the British pass a law making women legal individual so they cannot be forced into marriage.

Section 5 – An overall evaluation of the approach.
This is your conclusion but should be much more in depth than a normal conclusion. Issues you will want to consider are:
- What has been learned from this approach that could not be learned from other approaches?
- What new questions have been asked and what new perspectives on empire have been discovered? - How has the approach has changed the way in which empire is now written about?
- What are its shortcomings?
- How it can be used in combination with other approaches to empire to develop an EVEN RICHER
VIEW OF EMPIRE.
The last sentence is the key point.... You want to demonstrate that as with all approaches, the named approach has added much to our understanding... but that no approach on its own is perfect. That by combining elements of this approach with others, we can gradually build a richer,

OCR History B (A2 British Imperialism) - All Possible Part B Essay Plans by Harry Bojakowski (2014) more diverse understanding of Empire – this will never be complete, but the more different approaches that are uncovered, the greater synthesis we may hope to achieve.
Gender Part B
Introduction
The Gender and Sexuality approach focuses on the role of women in colonial society
Section 1 – Explain the approach in detail
- Some historians have based their study of the Empire on gender and therefore taken in to consideration the role of women and sexuality within the Empire and how it may have affected their lives - Before the role of women had been ignored or undermined
- Women were seen as inferior by historians before 1960 who focused on military and politics
- The 1960/70s onwards saw the emergence of a campaign for “women’s liberation” and the emergence of feminist ideology. Women sought equality in all areas of life – gradually, as a result more women entered professional jobs. This included academia – more women gained work at universities and became scholars and professors.
- Useful multi-disciplinary approach as it considers the role of women in the periphery, both the native woman and the English settlers and therefore envisage how their lives were affected by imperialism - The methodology behind the approach involves the use of case studies and an analyse of contemporary written records including diaries and newspapers. The approach focuses on studying the relationship between the sexes
- The approach developed through the increasing presence of white women settling in the Empire and a growing prominence of campaign for women 's liberalisation and so new trends in history began to develop studying both gender history and women 's history
- Native women had sexual relationships with white men and equally white women had relationships with native men which lead to changing culture and the myth of the destructive female as the introduction of white women was perceived to spark jealousy in the colonies
- Rosalind O 'Hanlon has focused her study on the role of gender in the Empire and she considers the way in which sexuality was presented in Europe in comparison with the rest of the Empire and contrasted with Roger Hyam claiming the infrastructure of the Empire allowed males to relieve sexual frustration which was generated by a repressive British society.
Possible questions
- How have women been reflected in literature? How does the identity of women represented in discourse reflect the reality?
What was the impact of imperialism on “native women”? Did British rule have a positive or negative impact on the role and status of women?
Section 2 – Explain how the approach has advanced our understanding of study of empire
- The approach gives a more detailed insight into the roles and experiences of women in the Empire and therefore allows a bottom-up approach in considering hoe the people actually involved in the
Empire experienced their time within it. For example the British missionaries conflicted with natives in Africa as they were against female circumcision, a dangerous practice, which was commonplace in

OCR History B (A2 British Imperialism) - All Possible Part B Essay Plans by Harry Bojakowski (2014)
African society
- The approach has helped to further understanding to many other questions involved within the
Empire, for example how the Empire was controlled and what colonial experience was and therefore gender studies can be used to build on other factors of Empire. For example studying Annie Besant who actively supported Indian home rule and backed indigenous causes
- Gender studies can be established alongside class and race to give another tool of analyse to study when it comes to considering culture and the role it played within the Empire. For example in 1919 the British passed an act in India that said girls had to be 14 to marry which conflicted with the traditional culture of marriage in India
- The approach has helped to overcome the stereotypes of women 's role in the Empire and therefore allows for a new level of consideration rather than merely following the traditional approach to the way that history and gender is presented and equally the way in which the Empire has treated them. For example in the early 20th century the British pass a law making women legal individual so they cannot be forced into marriage.
Indigenous Sexuality - The Traditional Approach
- Historians like Janice Brownfoot are keen to find out women’s role in improving education in the
Empire
- Also now the focus has changed to study women like the Annie Besant who actively supported
Indian home rule (1917) and backed indigenous causes and campaigns
- Supporters of Empire, emphasise that the British did much to protect girls and women from previous ordeals that had been imposed on them
In India and Asia
- Mid C19th – British attempted to abolish Sati (1829)
- 1929 Act was passed that said girls had to be 14 in order to marry; very controversial as it inferred with traditional religious marriage ceremonies
In Africa
- Female circumcision was another controversial practice – e.g. caused conflict between British missionaries and the kikuyu in Kenya in the 1920s
- Early C20th much British opposition to forced African marriages. Officials protected women by making them legal individuals and giving them some protection under the law
- 1916 – Southern Rhodesia – law passed to make adultery criminalized (previously it had been judged by the damage it did to a family’s reputation – family chiefs could seek compensation when adultery was committed)
The ‘myth of the destructive female’
- Whims and prejudices of European women in the colonies had contributed to the loss of Empire – caused a lack of colloboration
- European women were the custodians of British moral virtues and dominated the domestic sphere, the segregated space of the white family
- This heightened the social distance and soured the relations between the British and their colonial subjects - European women disapproved of European men taking indigenous wives or concubines (a practice which had previously helped to unite colonizer and colonised)
- The introduction of white women caused jealousies between white men and black men (the latter were often seen as a “black peril” by sexually jealous white males) – this created hostile atmosphere

OCR History B (A2 British Imperialism) - All Possible Part B Essay Plans by Harry Bojakowski (2014) and increased tension
Hyam - European Sexuality
- Ronald Hyam argued that empire-building allowed European males to relive sexual frustrations which were generated in the repressive atmosphere of British society
- However, from the latter half of the nineteenth century, campaigns for sexual purity placed restraints on British sexual activity in the colonies
- Hyam further suggests that the rigid boundaries placed on acceptable British and indigenous sexual behaviour were detrimental to individuals and to society
- When you take sexual freedom away from a society, racism and nationalism increases
- Interference in local sexual customs in Buganda and Kenya caused some unsavoury results
- Up until the 1880s in India, the colonial authorities tolerated regulated prostitution
Advantages
- Insight into lives and experiences of women in the Empire
- Help overcome stereotypes about women’s role in Empire
- Looks at how concepts of gender have been constructed
- Has added a more nuanced understanding to many other questions of Empire e.g. how was the
Empire controlled? Or what was the colonial experience? Did Empire have a positive or negative impact upon the colonies?
- Gender now established alongside class and race to give another tool of analysis of the Empire and an ever more complex understanding
Section 3 – Disadvantages
- The focus of gender studies is too narrow as its main focus is on the role of women and therefore the role of the male is being effectively removed and creating a distorted picture of roles within the
Empire. The emphasis is placed on the control women had and therefore ignores certain parts of historical empire. The approach needs to be used in conjunction with the metropolitan approach in order to able to consider the role of all the states. Equally the approach fails to consider any other factors such as the political or economic side and therefore should be used alongside the traditional and economic approaches
- The approach focuses mainly on the periphery and therefore fails to consider the role of women within the metropolitan, the study only really considers them once they have become a part of the peripheral Empire. Again used alongside the metropolitan approach we would see how gender plays an important role in the metropole as well as in the periphery
- Some women have criticised gender studies claiming that it can be perceived as a step backwards.
By studying the role of gender separately it is effectively marginalising the sexes as it separates the role of women from men in the Empire and therefore considers that they had different level of influences. Section 4 – Explain the advantage and disadvantages of the approach’s methodology
- The use of case studies
- The analysis of contemporary written records and sources such as diaries and newspapers

OCR History B (A2 British Imperialism) - All Possible Part B Essay Plans by Harry Bojakowski (2014)
- The study of sources which reveal information about the lives of women or about relationships between the sexes
Section 4 and 5 - Explain how the approach has possible disadvantages/ Compare the approach with other approaches to empire
Disadvantages
- Concentrates on women; distorted view of the past; shouldn’t society be studied cohesively
- Some women criticise it saying it has made women even more marginalised
Attack on Myth of Destructive Female
- Historians argue that the arrival of women coincided with a greater European presence and the development of pseudo-scientific racial beliefs; these factors are now considered the most likely cause of the rising racial tensions
- It’s also argued that many women were merely playing the role that society expected them to play
Attack on Hyam
- Since Hyam treats the individuals of his study with sympathy, he has been accused of defending sexually abusive and exploitative relationships
- P. J Marshall is convinced that sexual relations between coloniser and colonised were ‘high exploitive’ - Marshall points out that the offspring of mixed relations were rarely recognised and that when
European men returned to Europe they left indigenous women to fend for themselves
- Whereas European men could forego sexual relations without serious damage, indigenous women were obliged to offer sexual services because of economic necessity and colonial exploitation
- It is argued that indigenous women were often treated better by British men than they would have been by indigenous men
- Another criticism surrounds Hyam’s naïve view about natural sexual urges
- The apparent lack of interest shown in sexual matters by a number of famous late nineteenth century imperialists such as Rhodes creates the argument that these asexual males translated sexuality into daring deeds done for the empire
Other approaches
Economic approach
- Throughout the Empire, indigenous women were involved in work such as subsistence agriculture, petty commerce and craft activity
- The integration of colonies into the world economy caused many men to migrate in search of paid work - In consequence, greater responsibility was placed on women to continue subsistence agriculture in the absence of male family members
- Sometimes women became economic migrants
- In urban areas, the colonial state offered economic opportunities for women
- A local study in Kenya has demonstrated how Nairobi prostitutes were able to save money in order to buy houses or support other family members
- In the 1920s Zambian copper belt, the Northern Rhodesian mining companies encouraged women and families to reside in mining compounds

OCR History B (A2 British Imperialism) - All Possible Part B Essay Plans by Harry Bojakowski (2014)
- This opened up economic opportunities for activities such as beer brewing, selling food, and offering sexual services
- However, the mobility of women in Northern Rhodesia (Zambia) upset many traditional chiefs and elders, who were the allies of the British authorities
- In response regulations were put in place; women were required to possess a marriage certificate issued by the indigenous authorities in order to reside in an urban area; laws against divorce and adultery were enacted and limits on placed on female earning potential
- This shows how female mobility due to economic reasons affected family life, and how traditional authorities used the colonial state in order to limit the impact of change
Nationalist approach
- All-Indian Women’s conference; a nationalist movement in India but sacrificed feminist ideals for those of national interest
- Ghandi saw women as representatives of the Indian nation, those who were able to bear suffering and self-sacrifice
- Anti-nationalists seen as the defilers of women sanctity. In the 1920’s, Muslim men, rather than the colonial state were seen as the gravest threat to Hindu womanhood
- British interference with certain religious practices, which triggered nationalist opposition to British rule - In India, the British first introduced an act that set the age of consent for girls at 12 years. This was difficult to enforce, but their second act, in 1929, set the age of marriage at 14. This directly interfered with the marriage practices, and gained a lot of criticism from various castes and religious groups - The British converted a number of page boys of the ruler of the Uganda (who enjoyed sodomising them) to Christianity. When they refused sex, he had them castrated and burned alive
- Supposedly the British would only intervene to strengthen colonialism. 1891 Consent act drew anger away from the independence movement. This has been challenged as having little evidential backing - Sometimes, the British would try to leave the indigenous peoples alone, as interfering in their local customs could cause problems i.e. colonial officials tried to dissuade Scottish missionaries in Kenya in the 1920’s from campaigning against female circumcision
- Missionaries interfering could lead to horrible consequences. Locals in Kenya allegedly raped and circumcised a 70 year old female missionary in the 1930s
Section 6 – An overall evaluation of the approach.
This is your conclusion but should be much more in depth than a normal conclusion. Issues you will want to consider are:
- What has been learned from this approach that could not be learned from other approaches?
- What new questions have been asked and what new perspectives on empire have been discovered? - How has the approach has changed the way in which empire is now written about?
- What are its shortcomings?
- How it can be used in combination with other approaches to empire to develop an EVEN RICHER
VIEW OF EMPIRE.

OCR History B (A2 British Imperialism) - All Possible Part B Essay Plans by Harry Bojakowski (2014)
The last sentence is the key point.... You want to demonstrate that as with all approaches, the named approach has added much to our understanding... but that no approach on its own is perfect. That by combining elements of this approach with others, we can gradually build a richer, more diverse understanding of Empire – this will never be complete, but the more different approaches that are uncovered, the greater synthesis we may hope to achieve.
Impact on Britain Part B
Introduction
The Impact on Britain approach focuses on how culture influenced people in Britain
Section 1 – Explain the approach in detail
- Becomes more prominent as Empire goes into decline/ post WWII
- Arguably finds it roots in Hobson’s writings of the early 20th century
- Hobson believed that the masses were being manipulated into imperial frenzy; the masses became
‘jingoistic’ (extreme patriotism) because they were easily manipulated by those in power
- Divided perhaps into two main camps; Britain was affected by Empire, and Britain was not affected by Empire – MacKenzie for; Porter against
- The two mainly look at the culture of Britain in the 19th and 20th centuries to gauge the impact of the Empire on Britain, although examinations of politics and international relations are also common
Possible questions
- The impact of Empire on Britain
- How the Empire was maintained
- How was the Empire experienced
Section 2 – Explain how the approach has advanced our understanding of study of empire
British expressed superiority
- These cultural studies can highlight the interaction of Western and Eastern worlds – useful tools in showing how Empire was controlled (look at disagreements here between
Said/Washbrook/Cannadine)
- A focus on discourse and how it was used to reinforce racial stereotypes has added to our understanding of hegemony – Culture could be used to help reinforce “ideological control” and to instil a tacit acceptance of British rule
- Not only discourse, but also the use of ritual symbols were all examples of how culture could be used to legitimise and therefore maintain order in the Empire
- For example the British, in Ceylon, became custodians of Buddha 's tooth
- Said has drawn contrasts between British, Spanish and French imperialism – England, more interested in long-term subjugation... hence ideological control through cultural means
- Could also use popular culture (the press) reacted to other methods of control such as the use of force.... e.g. popular opposition to Amritsar
- Amritsar: 379 killed, 1100 wounded (official estimate: INC estimates 1000 killed; 1,500 casualties total) - Amritsar Massacre: instigated by Brigadier-General Dyer – British response: Dyer relieved of his command Colonial discourse theory
- An analysis of the way Empire was represented influenced by Foucault and post-modernist
- In particular led to the idea that the discourse on Empire had to be “interpreted”
- This hugely influenced the work of Edward Said and lead to the theory of Orientalism which has

OCR History B (A2 British Imperialism) - All Possible Part B Essay Plans by Harry Bojakowski (2014) sparked huge new areas of debate about European imperialism
- Said’s analysis of imperial writings concluded that there was a long running tradition in Western writing to portray the Orient (East) as “the other”… as inferior etc.
- This peaked during the age of Empire as the Europeans represented local people in a negative way to legitimise colonial rule. Said used a huge range of discourse (literature written in the West from
Aeschylus (The Persians), Dante, Austen, Kipling) to support his view
- However, other cultural historians have written stinging criticisms of Said’s work – Mackenzie,
Cannadine, Washbrook, Colley
- “The modern critique of Orientalism has generally committed that most fundamental of historical sins, the reading back of contemporary attitudes and prejudices into historical periods” – MacKenzie
- Historians have argued at great length about the validity of Said’s claims of the existence of an
Orientalist discourse within British (and European culture)
Subaltern studies
- Cultural approaches and colonial discourse theory also led to development of subaltern studies – attempts to study and provide a history from the perspective of less powerful people within indigenous societies
- Look at some examples of this – Case Study – India, birth place of subaltern studies, Ranajit Guha – interest in peasant rebellions as an early from of resistance and nationalism)
- Think about how this has added something by trying to give a voice in the history of Empire to those who previously might not be heard from… Scholars of the subaltern hoped to break away from histories of the elites and the Eurocentric bias of current imperial history – this involved reading
“against the grain” when studying sources to try and infer the views and beliefs of ordinary people. A way of approaching culture to try and understand the unspoken messages... however, methodological problems!
- Emphasis on culture – opened doors to studying religion, sex, gender etc and their impact on
Empire – wrestled the study of imperialism away from economic and political historians who had dominated the subject. – Writing about Empire now far more diverse, richer and dynamic. Could do some case studies on how a cultural approach, in particular has been important in helping to analyse both the role of women in Empire and the role of gender.
Did Empire effect Britain
- A cultural approach has offered a new way of thinking about the impact of Empire on Britain. Again move away from the focus on the economic and political consequences of Empire to the extent to which Empire affected the lives and consciousness of ordinary people. Has led to a stimulating debate e.g. between authors such as Mackenzie and Porter
- MacKenzie argues that Empire was a significant element of metropolitan culture
- The Empire’s impact on British culture was sustained and significant
- This straddled class divides – both the working and upper classes were exposed to culture influenced by imperialism
- Although there were peaks (Boer War) overall this was sustained over a long period from the middle of the 18th century to the middle of the 20th century
- Permeated all forms of culture – from pantomimes to highbrow literature
- On the other hand, Porter has an approach which emphasises how imperialism did not affect popular culture in Britain
- Imperialism did not have a significant impact on British cultural life
- The education system was not a proponent of imperial values
- Empire was ruled by collaboration, and therefore its maintenance had a limited impact on the
British, either financially or by entering into their consciousness
- The working classes were not preoccupied with empire. Dominant cultural values in Britain

OCR History B (A2 British Imperialism) - All Possible Part B Essay Plans by Harry Bojakowski (2014) determined by class not empire
- Britain was an ‘imperial nation’ but not an ‘imperial society’
- However reveals a problem in the cultural approach – the existence of different cultural artefacts do not necessarily tell us how these artefacts were understood and viewed by the wider population?
E.g. lots of literature about Empire... but how do we know how widely this was read... did membership of the Boy scouts really show support for Empire or was it for other reasons... interesting that approaches and methods of Mackenzie, Porter very similar – but come to very different conclusions – reveals how historical writing depends on individual interpretations of evidence Decolonisation occurred due to public opinion
- Cultural approach to the impact of Empire on Britain also reveals much about the process of colonisation and decolonisation! Studying trends in cultural writings might help to reveal how British attitudes towards Empire evolved over time. E.g. Does a study of culture reveal a distinct difference between the ages of anti-imperialism and new imperialism in the C19th – e.g. was there an increase in jingoism etc which supports the discontinuity thesis (Could this be used to challenge Robinson and
Gallagher?). Culture also enables historians to investigate hypotheses such as to what extent the decline of Empire was the result of a change in public opinion – either to indifference or to active opposition to Empire after WWII. What evidence is there for public apathy and antipathy by the mid
C20th?
Section 3 – Disadvantages
- Although valid, doesn’t really address the impact of Empire abroad or in the periphery… narrow view… misses out the big picture… esp. when applied to questions of expansion/decolonisation.
- Does not look at alternative explanations for expansion and contraction. E.g. - What about events on the periphery? – Discuss peripheral explanations for expansion and contraction.
- Focus on culture can be difficult. Can we draw conclusions about the impact of Empire on ordinary people by looking at selected cultural examples… How do we know if people were effected?
- Problems of economic analysis – the concept of counterfactual?
- Generalisations – a singular analysis of the “impact of Empire on Britain is too simplistic unless analysed alongside issues of class/gender/race etc.
Further Ideas:
- Limited in scope of question answering ability i.e. its dick taking ability is pretty low...
- Does not look at the bigger picture, so does not increase our understanding of empire compared to other approaches
- Economic - adds to understanding in a better way - empire 's expansion (South Africa) and decline
(not viable), political relations (Suez Canal and Egypt; relationship with America)
- Strategic – again explains expansion (Scramble for Africa) and decline (Atlantic Charter), political relations - Periphery - help our understanding of how empire was maintained (man on the spot/collaborators), highlighted importance of case studies (Cape Colony with India etc.), new way of looking at empire – looking at sources not from the Metropole
- All add more than the emphasis approach to our understanding of empire as they are greater in scope and focus on a range of aspects in empire, compared to the narrow scope of the emphasis approach OCR History B (A2 British Imperialism) - All Possible Part B Essay Plans by Harry Bojakowski (2014)
Section 3.5 – Explain the advantage and disadvantages of the approach’s methodology
MacKenzie
- Analysis of written and pictorial sources relating to popular culture
- Historiographical survey at the beginning – use of other historians
- Especially historians have argued something similar to his own argument – John Hobson
- Examining Britain’s changing Culture over the 19th and 20th centuries
- Literature – some portrayed stereotypical Imperialist views i.e. Kipling. Others did not
- Societies – Royal foundations following in the footsteps of various explorers
- Exhibitions
- Politics
- Newspapers
- Magazines etc.
Porter
- Other historians – explicitly mentions Mackenzie to argue against him
- Modern cultural sources – even if it is to dismiss them
- Records of proposed architecture
- Novels – ‘canonical literature’
- Public school curriculums – school records, institutional records. Textbooks
- Records of parliament/ testimony of MPs
Said (Orientalism; through literature)
- Focus on individual works but then groups them together to make an overall judgement
- Authors reflect the history of their societies, shaping and shaped by that history and their social experience - Authors aren’t determined by ideology, class or economic history
Study of new evidence
- Has opened up a far wider range of evidence for historians to investigate
- Traditional political and economic approaches have focused on an analysis of economic statistics and research into governmental records etc.
- Cultural approach has introduced a brand new methodology
- Analysis of personal diaries, oral histories, art, architecture, exhibitions, adult literature, school texts, comics, magazines/ juvenile novels, advertising, plays, music hall performances, radio, television and film (The Drum)
Section 4 – What have other approaches have bought to the study of Empire
Orientalism approach (cultural discourse; impact the Empire had on literature not the Empire)
- Orientalism by Said was published in 1978
- Said brought together lots of existing ideas on colonial discourse, with work on literary theory and the arguments of Foucault to accuse western liberal historians of perpetuating the imperialist paradigm. This means writing about and interpreting the empire in such a way so as to continue perceptions which place the imperial powers as superior to their colonial subjects.
- Said’s method was to use Jacque Derrida’s technique of the ‘deconstruction’ of texts - by doing this he showed the European portrayal of Islam and the Orient was an invention which bore no real relation to the real middle east

OCR History B (A2 British Imperialism) - All Possible Part B Essay Plans by Harry Bojakowski (2014)
- Argued that the Enlightenment’s methodology of reason occurred at the same time as imperial expansion was beginning in earnest, and therefore served the imperialist idea. The enlightenment was therefore a vehicle for oppression
- Said argued that throughout Western history, Europe had portrayed the Oriental as the ‘other’ meaning they were opposite (or antithesis) of the virtues of the West. The Orient was backward whereas the Western model was the way to progress. The west defined its own identity by seeing others as inferior.
- Said’s work was incredibly influential – existing vocabulary for scholars studying imperialism had negative connotations, and therefore a new language was developed, borrowing from literary criticism - For example, the imperial discourse became a ‘paradigm’ whilst individual words were ‘signifiers’ or ‘signs’. All ‘knowledge’ was a relative ‘construction’.
- Arguing that this notion of ‘otherness’ and Western superiority not only affected the mind-set of the colonisers, but also those who were being colonised. They were indoctrinated into a feeling of inferiority. This could therefore be applied to the legacy left by empire, since it had implications for the nation states which emerged in the wake of empire.
- Can also mention that he further outlined this thesis in another book – Culture and Imperialism, published in 1993.
- Said justifies his use of examples where imperialism is not a central theme by suggesting that it is so pervasive that it doesn’t need to be mentioned – this is his argument with Dickens
- Said argues that what is most interesting about art is its “worldliness” – both reflects that helps constitute the political realities of a society. Here he is justifying his methodology
Informal approach (impact the Empire had on the periphery not on Britain)
Peripheral Influence
- Takes in to account the role of countries outside of the formal Empire and therefore provides more of broad picture as to the level of influence Britain had over other areas of the globe.
- 1856: Britain begins to build Brazilian rail network
- 1848-49: British naval intervention in Brazil over slave trade
- Tropical Africa – 1840s-1860s= growing involvement. Expeditions to the Niger in 1841 and 1847.
Mission to Dahomey in 1850. Actions against Zanzibar slave trade in 1840s. Emphasis on influence not seizure of colonies
Protect overseas investments
- Builds on the economic approach in explaining why it was necessary not to take full control because of the cost of formally expanding as well as explaining the reasoning for informal expansion being just to gain trade agreements and economic prosperity. At the time there was a general feeling against imperialism however it was still necessary to protect British overseas investments
- Opium War
- First War 1839-42 and the second 1856-60
- For example massive trade in China despite Britain never formally controlling any part of the country - Opium Wars in order to open China up to free trade
- Opium Wars: 1839-42 - Treaty of Nanking provided for 5 treaty ports where Britain could trade
- China: British influence limited for Chinese disinterest in Western goods and a 'buy Chinese ' campaign - British Robert Hart became Head of Chinese Imperial Maritime Customs in 1863
- 1806-07: River Plate invasion
- 1839 – Landings at Callao Latin America

OCR History B (A2 British Imperialism) - All Possible Part B Essay Plans by Harry Bojakowski (2014)
- 1861-1862 – Mexican intrusion; 1848 – threaten Brazil over the slave trade
- Assault on Lagos in 1851 Africa
Encouraged overseas trade
- Suitably explains why trade and investment continued to increase despite a supposed period of anti-imperialism as it explains how Britain was expanding in other way to instead consider informal territory and grow just for the nature of encouraging trade and growth. For example countries such as Columbia, Mexico and Argentina becoming dependent on Britain for financial support, exports and supplies. The development of new chronology contrasts the earlier views of historians such as
A.J.P. Taylor
- Only 40% of £4.1bn British investments abroad in 19thC went to formal empire
- “The British Empire was not limited to the parts of the world coloured red on the map” - R&G
- Free Trade Treaties: Persia, 1836 & 1857; Turkey, 1838 & 1861; Japan, 1858 in order to reduce tariffs - Latin America – By 1913 informal imperialism had become so important for the British economy that £999,000,000, over a quarter of total overseas investment, was invested there
- 1826: £30m invested in Latin America; 1865: £81m
- 1815 – 1880 £1,187,000,000 was invested in the empire. Just 1/6 of this went to areas under formal control
- £3,000,000 exports to Turkey (1850), Turkey 's total imports: £200,000,000

Section 5 – An overall evaluation of the approach.

This is your conclusion but should be much more in depth than a normal conclusion. Issues you will want to consider are:
- What has been learned from this approach that could not be learned from other approaches?
- What new questions have been asked and what new perspectives on empire have been discovered? - How has the approach has changed the way in which empire is now written about?
- What are its shortcomings?
- How it can be used in combination with other approaches to empire to develop an EVEN RICHER
VIEW OF EMPIRE.
The last sentence is the key point.... You want to demonstrate that as with all approaches, the named approach has added much to our understanding... but that no approach on its own is perfect. That by combining elements of this approach with others, we can gradually build a richer, more diverse understanding of Empire – this will never be complete, but the more different approaches that are uncovered, the greater synthesis we may hope to achieve.

Links: - In 1848, New Brunswick was the first colony to receive self-government and Upper and Lower OCR History B (A2 British Imperialism) - All Possible Part B Essay Plans by Harry Bojakowski (2014) countries may have influenced the change in support for the Empire. Used in conjunction with a OCR History B (A2 British Imperialism) - All Possible Part B Essay Plans by Harry Bojakowski (2014)