AP World History

Decolonization and the Decline of the European World Order
A. India
1. The Indian National Congress Party, formed in 1885, led the Indians to independence and has governed through most of the postcolonial era. It conducted meetings regarding issues that plagued the nation. Most members were loyal to the British (despite growing English racism).
2. Muslims and Hindus entered conflict. B. G. Tilak, an Indian nationalist leader, was a fierce advocate of Hinduism, hoping to bring back ancient traditions. Other nationalists were more or less terrorists.
3. Morley-Minto reforms (1909) provided educated Indians with greater opportunities to vote for and serve local and all-India legislative councils.
4. After the outbreak of World War I, India rallied to support British troops; however, as Indians continued to die on the battlefields or went hungry at home to sustain a conflict that had little to do with them, signs of unrest spread throughout the subcontinent, which intensified when the British failed to honor wartime promises.
5. Montagu-Chelmsford reforms of 1919 increased powers of Indian legislators at the all-India level and placed much of the provincial administration of India under their control, but these concessions was later offset by the Rowlatt Act of the same year which placed sever restrictions on key Indian civil rights such as freedom of the press.
6. Gandhi led peaceful boycotts, strikes, noncooperation, and mass demonstrations called satyagraha (truth force) and eventually weakened British control.
7. To better support their demands for separate electorates and legislative seats, several educated and well-to-do Muslims founded a rival party, the Muslim League in 1906.
8. British formed the Simon Commission in 1927 to deal with nationalist demands—mostly focused on tactics of repression, which wound up stirring up more unrest.
9. Government of India Act of 1935 made major concessions to nationalist demands; the British agreed to return provincial governments over Indian leaders, who were elected through an expanded electorate.
10. Muhammad Ali Jinnah, a former Congress party politician, won favor from the British for its wartime support. He built a mass following among the Muslims who demanded a Muslim state called Pakistan be created from areas in northwest and east India where Muslims were most numerous.
B. Africa
1. Lord Cromer was high commissioner of Egypt, and he oversaw reforms in bureaucracy and construction of irrigation systems and other public works projects.
2. Resistance of British occupation was left largely to the Egyptian middle class.
3. Orabi’s revolt in 1882 led the way to Egyptian independence.
4. Egyptian writers and journalists attacked the British for their racist arrogance and exposed the corruption of the khedival regime.
5. Dinshawai Incident of 1906 occurred when British hunters accidentally shot the wife of the prayer leader of the local mosque. The angry villagers mobbed the shooting party, who in turn fired at the crowd. The British officials handed out severe punishments to those who were linked to the incident. This led to a storm of protests and fixed Egyptian resolve for independence.
6. During the World Wars European powers recruited colonies for troops, and the colonized people witnessed for the first time the fallacy of the Western powers. Also, agitation was further stirred when the people had to place the needs of European soldiers first.
7. Egyptian revolt in 1919 led to some concessions. British withdrawal occurred in stages. The khedival regime was preserved and the British reserved the right to reoccupy Egypt should it be threatened by a foreign aggressor.
8. Europe kept few of its promises and honors.
9. Kwame Nkrumah led decolonization in nonsettler Africa in the nation of Ghana, which became the first independent black African state in 1957.