“Declaro ante todos ustedes que dedicaré toda mi vida, sea esta larga o corta, a su servicio y al servicio de esta gran familia imperial a la que todos pertenecemos”. Se cuenta que la princesa Isabel lloró cuando leyó su discurso por primera vez. Esas palabras, pronunciadas cuando cumplió 21 años, y retransmitidas por la radio en 1947 desde un jardín repleto de buganvillas en Ciudad del Cabo, proclamaban la futura encarnación del Reino Unido y su imperio y la Mancomunidad de Naciones en la joven integrante de la realeza.
En aquel momento, las demandas de independencia surgían por todo el Imperio de la posguerra.… Seguir leyendo »
On June 26, the United Nations celebrates its seventy-fifth birthday. The initiative that led to that moment in 1945 began nearly four years earlier, at an August 1941 meeting between President Roosevelt and Prime Minister Churchill, on a boat moored off the coast of Newfoundland, a British colony. For FDR, winning the war would necessarily mean a new, post-imperial world order. “I can’t believe that we can fight a war against fascist slavery, and at the same time not work to free people all over the world from a backward colonial policy,” he told Churchill. The British leader, an unrepentant imperialist for whom Canada, just across the water, was a recently lost British dominion, was apoplectic—but he desperately needed the United States first to get into the war (Pearl Harbor was still months away), and the two leaders signed their “Atlantic Charter.”… Seguir leyendo »
On April 13, 1919, Gen. Reginald Dyer led a group of British soldiers to Jallianwala Bagh, a walled public garden in the Sikh holy city of Amritsar. Several thousand unarmed civilians, including women and children, had gathered to celebrate the Sikh New Year.
Viewing the gathering as a violation of the prohibitory orders on public assembly, General Dyer ordered his troops to fire without warning. According to official figures, the 10 minutes of firing resulted in 379 dead and more than a thousand injured.
As news of the massacre became public, many British officials and public figures hailed General Dyer’s actions as necessary to keep an unruly subject population in order.… Seguir leyendo »
The sun may have long ago set on the British Empire (or on all but a few tattered shreds of it), but it never seems to set on the debate about the merits of empire. The latest controversy began when the Third World Quarterly, an academic journal known for its radical stance, published a paper by Bruce Gilley, an associate professor of political science at Portland State University in Oregon, called “The Case for Colonialism.” Fifteen of the thirty-four members on the journal’s editorial board resigned in protest, while a petition, with more than 10,000 signatories, called for the paper to be retracted.… Seguir leyendo »
Los indios no suelen obsesionarse con el pasado colonial de su país. Sea por fortaleza nacional, o por debilidad civilizacional, India siempre se negó a guardar rencor a Gran Bretaña por los 200 años de servidumbre imperial, saqueo y explotación. Pero esta ecuanimidad no anula lo que pasó.
La caótica retirada británica de la India en 1947 tras dos siglos de dominio imperial fue seguida de una feroz separación de la que nació Pakistán. Pero curiosamente, todo ocurrió sin animosidad a Gran Bretaña. India eligió convertirse en una república y quedarse en la Commonwealth, y su relación con sus antiguos señores ha sido cordial.… Seguir leyendo »
'Africans make up stories." I heard this refrain over and again while researching imperial history in Kenya. I was scarcely surprised when it came from former settlers and colonial officials living out their days in the country's bucolic highlands. But I was concerned to find that this position took on intractable proportions among some historians.
At the time of decolonisation, colonial officials destroyed and removed tons of documents from Kenya. To overcome this, I collected hundreds of oral testimonies and integrated them with fragments of remaining archival evidence to challenge entrenched views of British imperialism.
My methods drew sharp criticism. Revising the myths of British imperial benevolence cut to the heart of national identity, challenging decades-old scholarship and professional reputations.… Seguir leyendo »
Richard Gott is author of Cuba: A New History, and is writing a book about imperial resistance (THE GUARDIAN, 22/07/06):
Many of the present conflicts in the world take place in the former colonial territories that Britain abandoned, exhausted and impoverished, in the years after the second world war. This disastrous imperial legacy is still highly visible, and it is one of the reasons why the British empire continues to provoke such harsh debate. If Britain made such a success of its colonies, why are so many in an unholy mess half a century later, major sources of violence and unrest?… Seguir leyendo »
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