British-ruled Jamaica and the Suez Canal to 1880; the Disraeli government and France set up a Joint Control Board to regulate Egypt's economy; Disraeli and Afghanistan

EMPIRE and EUROPEANS OVERSEAS

British-ruled Jamaica, the Suez Canal and Afghanistan, to 1880

The British Imperial Experience, from 1765 to the Present, by Denis Judd, p. 83.

In 1865 in British-ruled Jamaica, a crowd of some 400 African-Caribbeans, who disliked the decision of a local magistrate, attacked a local courthouse and rescued a fellow black from prosecution. Britain's governor on the island, Edward John Eyre, sought the arrest of some of those involved, and people resisting arrest killed a few of the white volunteers sent against them. Martial law was proclaimed. A white-controlled militia burned down nearly 1,000 homes of blacks and flogged hundreds of captured. Court-martials of captured blacks resulted in the summary execution of 354.[note] The whites targeted a "colored" (half-black and half-white) leader, G.W. Gordon, a Baptist minister and political spokesman for grievances of black peasants, as the man responsible for the rebellion. The white settlers and authorities were afraid of a revolt similar to the massacres that had occurred earlier in the century in Haiti. They believed in British order and justice, but their fear and excitement led them to a hasty and false judgment, and within a few hours of his trial, Gordon was hanged.

The rebellion was defeated, but in England an investigation was held. Eyre was widely condemned and was called to London. Some demanded that he be tried for murder. He was removed from office but a grand jury refused to indict him.

Britain intest in the Suez Canal

It was in Egypt that Britain developed an interest, after penetration there by the French. Egypt was one of the areas of frequent investment of money by French capitalists, and the French and Egyptians had been digging a 106-mile long canal (171 kilometers) between the Mediterranean and Red seas, employing around 1.5 million Egyptian workers -- a ten year project that cost 125,000 lives. The canal was a largely French-owned company, with some shares owned by the Ottoman Empire's viceroy (khedive) in Egypt, Ismail Pasha. Late in 1869 the canal was opened for navigation, with access promised the ships from all nations, for a fee. It provided British merchant and warships a shorter route to India and farther east, including Australia. Giuseppe Verdi wrote an opera for the opening celebration -- Aida.

Economic Fears

Meanwhile, with the arrival of economic depression in 1873, British concerns over their ability to trade internationally increased. The first to industrialize, Britain was holding to older, or outmoded, machinery compared to what was being used by more recently developed economies. The British felt threatened by the rising economies of Germany, France and the United States. German textile and metal industries had become better organized and more technically efficient than those in Britain. British businesses were suffering from reduced profits and price deflation. London financial houses grew in their fear that French and German investments in international markets would depress interest rates, and they were increasingly concerned about government consistency in its willingness to protect British investments abroad. And the British were concerned about inadequate sales of their commodities abroad creating an unfavorable balance of trade. The British believed that they should continue as "the workshop of the world," in other words as the world leader in manufacturing and commerce - a source of their nation's strength and therefore grandeur.

Financial houses favored more control by Britain in international affairs. Some manufacturers involved in large-scale exports, such as metals and textiles, turned to their government for help. And there were missionaries and religious organizations advocating for more British control in the form of interventions in non-European societies.

Britain was concerned about its influence in the world against a newly united Germany, against the weakness of its ally the Ottoman Empire, and fear of Russia expanding eastward into Asia and southward against the Ottomans, the Persians, toward Afghanistan and India. Agitation for independence among the Irish was also disturbing, and trade unions were growing in strength.

Disraeli and the Suez Canal

In 1874, the Conservative Party's leader, Benjamin Disraeli became prime minister again, the Conservative victory made possible by splits among the major opposition party, the Liberals. The Conservative Party was also split on a lot of issues, while Disraeli's government was under pressure to vigorously pursue British interests abroad, and it did so appealing to the grandeur of empire and the patriotism of common people, including those attracted to trade unionism. The conservatives were posing as the guardian of working-class interests against unscrupulous industrialists and lesser bourgeoisie.

In 1875 Britain became part owners in of the Suez Canal enterprise, the British government, through Disraeli's manipulations, managing to acquire the shares of Ismail Pasha, who, while trying to Europeanize Egypt, had borrowed from international bankers and had exhausted his credit, and in 1876 Ismail Pasha declared his government bankrupt. In response, Britain and France set up a Joint Control Board to regulate Egypt's economy, creating cost-saving measures for Egypt such as reducing the size of its army. Many Egyptian army officers lost their jobs - precipitating resentment against the British and French.

The Second Afghan War

Britain Prime Minister, Disraeli, was concerned also about Russia's advance into Turkistan and Samarkand, which had led to British involvement in Afghanistan. Disraeli pressed British authorities in India to secure a defense against Russian expansion into Afghanistan. The Afghanis admitted a Russian envoy but Afghan troops refused entry to a British envoy, Neville Chamberlain. On the throne in Afghanistan was Amir Sher Ali Khan, the son of the former ruler, Dost Mohammad Khan, who had been imprisoned by the British. Sher Ali Khan shared his father's hostility to the British. The British responded by launching the Second Afghan War, sending troops over Afghanistan's high passes. Sher Ali Khan fled. The British occupied Kabul, and the war begun in 1878. The war woud end nded in 1880 with Abdur Rahman as the new amir, Rahman agreeing to British control of Afghanistan's foreign relations. The British decided where Afghanistan's borders would be -- borders that would eventually be recognized by the Russians and remain into the 21st century.

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