The Arabs without Alienating British Empire - Assignment Example

Britain could not support a Jewish without alienating the Arabs; she could not impose a settlement acceptable to the Arabs without alienating the United   British Empire was considered to be the leading recognized empire that the world had ever known. The powers of British Empire and its control were long-drawn-out all around the world. This paper is analyzing the history of the British Empire; the humiliations, the loss of its dignity, the good and the bad that it brought. British Empire had a considerable shock on the history of the world. It was the adventure, culture, domination and the life of the peoples that made the Empire such a powerful institution. British Empire was recognized in Africa after it established its territories at other place. The contact of British Empire with Africa became extensive from 1740 onwards. British traders used to make huge income and profits by exchanging manufactured goods for slaves in Africa and then selling slaves further in North America. These traders further amplified their profits by bringing cotton, sugar and tobacco back to Britain. British control bit by bit increased in South Africa and it took control of the Cape of Good Hope in 1795. In 1807, Britain outlawed slavery and hence its relations with Africa enhanced. Britain continued to follow its trial and error method of allying with local rulers and then amalgamating in conflicts between its cronies and their enemies. In the mean while, British gained ever-increasing influence in West Africa and in North Africa. In the 1830s and 1840s Britain increased its involvement in controlling a larger area of southern Africa. And in 1844 Britain was successful in taking the control of the Gold Coast of West Africa. Nevertheless during that period, missionaries and traders like David Livingstone were coming into contact with new African people. They were opening up trade routes and were establishing political alliances. This course of action speeded up when gold and diamonds were found in South Africa in the 1870s and 1880s. Then British came into a clash with the Boers and in due course it resulted in the Boer War of 1899-1902. And it helped the British to enjoy the overall control of the country which today is South Africa. There after from 1870 to 1900 Britain took control of increasingly large areas of West and North Africa. As West Africa was an important, helpful and valuable supply of gold and other trading goods. By 1890s, much of the coastal area of West Africa and parts of the lands which now are the parts of Nigeria, were under British control. In 1880s Britain successfully took control of Egypt. North Africa was an important area for Britain because it was on the trade route between Britain and it’s most important and precious territory, India. In the time of 1929 British wanted to keep Jewish immigration limited, inadequate and restricted. Zionists, at that time were worried about the problem that immigration imposed on available resources in Palestine. They acknowledged their Migration to Palestine as an economic suffering. In the nineteen-twenties, Zionists bought some piece of land for agriculture in Palestine but poor and landless Muslims resented it. The Grand Mufti, al-Huseini along with other Muslim aristocrats tried to make money by selling this land to Zionist organizations at prices higher as compared to those prices at which they could sell to their fellow Muslims. At the same time they complained about Jews. Zionists increased aggression against the Jews where as Muslim leaders promoted calm, harmony and peace rather than aggression and hostility. At that time a conflict blows up between Arabs and Jews in Jerusalem. Huseini hold Jews accountable of having seized Muslim holy places in Jerusalem that were Al Aqsa and Al-Hara. In reaction to it they exasperated Arab mobs and they attacked Jews in Jerusalem and looted their homes. The attacks and looting was so extensive that it then broadened to other cities. The Jews living in Hebron suffered the mainly. Majority of the Jews were killed and others were wounded. The attackers did not even standby aged, children and the women. Hebron was considered to be a holy city for the Jews but its settlement of almost seven hundred people came to an end. Those who were able to survive run off to Jerusalem. At the beginning of the twentieth century the total number of Jews in Palestine was almost seventy thousand. They were about ten percent of the total population. Where as the number of Jews in Jerusalem was greater than the total number of the Arab Muslims and Christians.  They were ruled by the Ottoman Turks still neither the Jews nor the Arab Muslims had the desire and longing for national independence. Somehow Jews had the sense of independence (Balfour, 1991). There was a Zionist movement during the times of Dreyfus Affair in 1890s. At that time the French mobs stormed through the streets while shouting a slogan ‘Down the Jews”. Racial superiority and the social Darwinism was at its peak in the first few years of the twentieth century. From there onwards the Zionist organizations started supporting Jews for a homeland that could provide them shield against the discrimination in Christian dominated areas. World War I was considered to be troublemaking for the Jews in Palestine as it brought a new surprise that was the British. Britain issued its Balfour Declaration in 1979 that declared that Palestine was to be "a national home for the Jewish people". The British wanted it in order to make trouble for Germany that had a sizable Jewish population. In the end the allies were successful in the war. They started ruling over Iraq, Palestine and Transjordan that passed from the Turks to the British. The rule in Lebanon and Syria conceded to the French. The peace treaty signed in 1919 got the title of League of Nations mandates. Jews suffered a lot during World War I and after that war they increased the violence against Jews by Russians and Ukrainians. It contributed to an increase in the migration of Jews to Palestine. Arabs were gloomy and depressed about being ruled by foreigners. They believed that the British favored Jews from outside Palestine and they favored the Zionists at their cost. They were not certain about the Balfour Declaration of Britain and its indication to them as existing non-Jewish communities. They were also upset about being referred to in the League of Nations Mandate Agreement as ‘the other sections’. The result of Arab frustrations was that they attacked Jews as it was an easier target than the British army. Jews were killed and some of them were wounded. Then Jews in Jerusalem had to organize a self-defense league. Jews established a surreptitious organization for defense, called the Haganah. This organization faced only minor successes in 1921 when Arab attacks became more concentrated, intense and powerful. At that time there were more Arab attacks against Jews in Jerusalem. Arabs killed a lot of Jews in Jaffa and injured the rest of them. The attacks on Jews then stretch to other towns. The British were alarmed and anxious about the minds of the Arabs across their immense holdings in the Middle East. They act in response to the conflict and disturbances by trying to give pleasure to the Arabs rather than the Jews. They poised Jewish immigration and redefined the Balfour Declaration. By the time of 1922 British named al-Hajj Amin al-Huseini the everlasting president and mufti of a newly created Supreme Muslim Council. And then the British rule under the Mandate of the League of Nations became official. The British moved from a military administration to a civilian administration in the Plestine. Soon after that the British gave a constitution and a legislative body of the Arabs and Jews to the Palestinians. Since the beginning of the century, Jewish population had just risen only around one percent. Then there came the Great Depression with Hitler in power. At that time the aggression toward Jews strengthen in Germany, Poland and Romania. Palestine was a refuge place for many Jews. The Great Depression was burdened by the financial support of the Jews but still it continued (Heyman, 2007). Jewish migrants that migrated from Germany to Europe took their entrepreneurship and skills with them. Their immigration peaked in 1935. Soon after their migration Palestine became a place of economic dynamism while economies were ready to face a decline in Britain, France and the United States. Jews advanced itself in citrus plantations, new industries and urban development. The economic growth in Palestine had to go with the shortage of workers. Then Arabs had to go to the lands outside of Palestine to take jobs as laborers. They had to contribute to something that continued to be an Arab majority. By the time of 1936 attacks on Jews were strengthened. Jewish homes were set afire, orchards destroyed and shops were looted. In order to maintain the order British soldiers killed most of the Arabs and suffered few deaths in return. Then British sent Charles Wingate to Palestine in order to put in order a Jewish defense. People think that decolonization was preplanned where as policy makers of Britain regarded as reorganization rather than the admission of defeat. The main strategy of the decolonization of British was “"the preservation of post-colonial influence, as opposed to the complete negation of empire"(Louis, Page 35). Colonial Officials could achieve this main target by the economic and political advancement of colonial subjects. Colonial system that came into subsistence during the time period 1880-1914 matched the world politics after WWII. Soon after the war United States maintained British imperialism in Africa, Middle East and the Southeast Asia. Then in the mid of 1950s Americans came "to view controlled decolonization as an essential element in Cold War strategy; the continuance of European imperialism would only drive nationalist movements into the arms of the Soviet Union" (Louis, page 68). The cold war of America and the imperial policy of British smashed in 1956 at Suez crisis. They collided because United States could not hold up the British attack in Egypt. Prime Minister Anthony Eden wrote: "[W]e must review our world position and our domestic capacity more searchingly in the light of the Suez experience, which has not so much changed our fortune as revealed realities" (Louis, page 129). Where as Roger Louis state it by saying that, "the goal was not that Britain should sustain the Empire but that the Empire, in a new form, should continue to sustain Britain."(Louis) Basically the interest of Britain in Palestine expressed itself in the capitulations won from the Turks. It allowed them to find charitable works such as exploratory surveys, hospitals and like those of the Conder. In the nineteenth century there were over a thousand British surveys. These exploratory travels like Burton and Livingston preceded British imperial involvement in the region. British interest in the Middle East increased by the end of the nineteenth century for the reason that it guards the route to India and assured the stability of the Turkish Empire against Russian.  Settlement of Jews in Palestine was accessible first as a way to strengthen the vacillating Turks and help guarantee the security of the Suez Canal. The idea which had seemed utopian became a more or less respectable and acceptable project. Therefore, in order to achieve the project successfully British had to alienate Arabs and please the Jews. Decline of the British Empire Britain’s Empire reached its peak in the time of Cecil Rhodes and afterwards it began, barely and easily to decline in power (Heyman, 2007). When Britain was ceased to be a free-trade country under the leadership of Mr. Baldwin it began to depend on quotas, horsepower taxes, preferential trade agreements and tariffs. They were doing so in order to shield British manufacturers against foreign competition in Britain’s own home market, which was the beginning of the end. Here are some of the reasons for the decline of the British Empire (Breden, 2007). They are: Sluggish aggregates like the competition in world markets and performance in innovation. The dispersion and transmission of technology. Collegial, mutually respectful and weighty industries such as coal mining had slow technological improvements. Britain’s Geographical factor.   The British economic and financial dominance was also coming to an end. Before World War I, the major characteristic and feature of British dominance was the use of the international gold standard that was sporadically interpreted as the sterling standard.    British decline could also be due to the experimental and pragmatic roles that it had to play. From 1895 to 1905, decisive, grave and significant questions of finance, military defense, the Royal Navy and trade with India beleaguered and overwhelmed the British government. The biggest reason for the decline of the British Empire in my opinion was the Death of Queen Victoria. As it seemed that upon the death of the Queen Victoria, Australia, New Zeland and The South African Union were to some extent self governing. Soon after that came WWI and the fall of many governments that was lead by Monarchies. These were the thrones upon which some of Victorias children and grandchildren sat. Tsar Nicholas II was married to Alix of Hesse, Queen Victorias Granddaughter; King Edward VII was married to Alexandra of Denmark. Her sister, Marie was married to Tsar Alexander III, father of Nicholas II. Kaiser Wilhelm was the son of Victorias Eldest daughter. With the fall of these monarchies, particularly ones which were ruled by Victorias relatives, came the loss of many close allies and had less support for the British Throne. And WWII further smashed the British Empire. In order to conclude, I would say that the backwardness of their educational system at that time and the lack of the entrepreneurial abilities lead to the decline of England. Then the Sun has, unfortunately, set on the British Empire.   The British Yesterday and Today In the beginning of the 20th century, Britain began to experience and undergo rising competition in both manufacturing and trade. Now days, United Kingdom is considered to be a world leader in only a few areas like chemical products, defense equipment and luxury goods. However, the constituency does endure determined and relentless problems of high unemployment. Although London has become a principal money market, it has some problems of its own. The City, the main financial district in the heart of London but still it is under pressure to maintain its international position as it has to face competition from Frankfurt, New York and Tokyo.   Even after the decline of the British Empire, hastened by the great devastation and disbursement of the two World Wars, Great Britain still remains a major player on the European economic arena. It is still the largest investor abroad, predominantly in the United States. Foreign money flow in to the nation mainly from Japan. The economy is transforming itself from the manufacturing industries to the services.   Today British people live in the UK. These are people who reside in England, Northern Ireland, Scotland or Wales. Britain is a country of assorted cultures. London has the prevalent non-white population of any European city and more than 250 languages are spoken there. Therefore not all British people are White or Christians. To be pleased about the success that Europeans have achieved through their fifty-year process of integration, one just need do is to distinguish Europe in 2007 with Europe in 1907. Measured in U.S. dollars, Europe’s per capita gross domestic product in 1907 was about $750. Where as currently it is estimated to go beyond $6,650 in 2007. An increase in per capita standard of living of 800 percent regardless of an enormous increase in the population is incredible. In 1907 average European life expectancy was about forty-five years because of disease, high infant mortality and poor health care. In 2007 Europe’s life expectancy is well greater than seventy in every state. During the time in 1907, literacy rates among the population ranged from eighty percent in Britain, France, and Germany to less than forty percent in most of Eastern Europe. Where as in 2007 literacy rates range from ninty-five percent to hundred percent in every state. In 1907 civil rights, the rule of law and the representative government were privileged, recognized and became well known only in northwestern Europe. Today, they are taken for granted every where outside Russia. Europe bestrode most of the world as its industrial, imperial center in 1907 with only the U.S., Europe’s offspring that posed an impending challenge. Europe at that time was simply a developing region of the world. Today Europe’s statistics for equal employment, higher education, labor productivity, leisure time, medical care, nutrition, per capita energy consumption, self-improvement and spending on entertainment has shown a dramatic change. Europe in 1907 was a crowded continent facing tensed situations. Where as Europe in 2007 is a pastry shop. Today, it sees no wars on the horizon. Now its militaries are appropriate and well-matched with the peace-keeping as compared to with war-fighting. Europe today seems to have arrived at the end of the history now found it indeed a very happy ending. Now many Americans look up to Europe’s success story appreciation, esteem and wonder. They are still motivated and provoked by the ambition, aspirations and ideas that were developed by the Europe. Where dissatisfied, future-oriented and restless Americans spend their lives striving for happiness but in most cases remain overwhelmingly unhappy. Europeans are satisfied with who they are and what they have, live for the here and now and imagine themselves integral parts of the whole human race. Today, where more parts of the world are becoming dark and leaving majority of the human beings without clear direction, the European history is acting as a beacon of light in this anxious, distressed and worried world. It is taking us towards the era of deep play, diversity, inclusivity, quality of life, sustainability and universal human rights. Bibliography 1- Piers Bredon (2007) The Decline and fall of the british Empire, Cape. 2- John Darwin (1988) Britain and Decolonization. The retreat from empire in the post-war period. Macmillan. 3- Ronald Hyman, (2007) Britain’s Declining Empire: The Road to Decolonization. Cambridge University Press. 4- Sanders. Losing an Empire: Finding a Role. Macmillan London. 5- Darwin. (!991) The End of the British Empire. Oxford 6- Gallagher, J.A (1982), The Decline, Revival and Fall of the British Empire. Cambridge Up. 7- Balfour-Paul (1991), The End of Empire in the Middle East. Britain’s’ languishment of power in her last three Arab Dependencies. Cambridge University Press. 8- Bethell, Nicholas. (1979).The Palestine Triangle. The Struggle between the British, the Jews and the Arabs. London. 9- Cohen (1987).Palestine to Israel: From mandate to Independence. Cass London. 10- Jones. (1986). Failure in Palestine: British and United States Policy after the Second World War. Mansell. 11- Ovendale (1984). The Origins of the Arab-Israeli Wars. Longman London 12- Bernard (1991) The British in Palestine: The Mandatory Government nad the Arab-Jewish Conflict. London. 13- James Lawrence. (2004)The Rise and Fall of the British Empire. Time Warner Book Group Uk. 14- Ferguson Niell. (2004). Empire: How Britain Made the Modern World. London 15- Jhonson Rob. (2003). British Imperialism (Histories & Controversies). Palgrave Macmillan 16- Frank McDonough. The British Empire, 1815-1914 (Access to History) 17- Louis, "Dissolution," 330. Read More