Colonial Rule Quotes
Churchill, out of power at that time, was outraged that the Labour government was about to grant India self-government and independence removing half of the British Empire which he revered. His passion for maintaining the empire was so extreme that it affected his usual great powers of political analysis and prediction. The Congress Party Leaders led India to become the largest democracy the world had ever known, and leaders like Nehru and Gandhi became almost as famous and remembered as was Churchill himself.
This was written more than a year before the “blows” began. It took time to ship the men and supplies to America and the British did not handle that task with much efficiency.
The code provided for trial by jury and for proportional taxation on property. It was called “The Duke’s Laws” in recognition of the English Duke of York from whom authority in the colony then derived as the English supplanted the Dutch.
The previous year the Japanese had committed to maintaining the independence of Korea. ({613110}). The Japanese then abrogated their treaty, forced Sunjong to abdicate, assassinated his wife, and annexed the country.
Hobson, like Mark Twain in America, was a major critic of imperialism.
Thompson sailed into Phnom Phen in a gunboat. With armed “bodyguards” he forced his way into the palace, manhandled the king’s secretary who tried to prevent him from seeing King Norodom, and presented the treaty to the king who signed it. Cambodia had sought French “protection” from the two great powers adjacent, Vietnam and Thailand—see {601401}. In addition to the pressure of the two large neighbors, Norodum’s government was extremely weak and the French were ready to back a rival Sisowath. One of the ironies of this egregious example of gunboat diplomacy is that one of the first things the French did under the clause was to abolish Cambodian slavery. There were a few good things that occurred with most colonialism. The argument has always been was the good worth the bad that inevitably came with an undemocratic form of government.
