Origins and rise of independence movements

A colonial system where officials sent from the imperial country govern the colony themselves, replacing local rulers (the French model).

A colonial system where the imperial power keeps local chiefs or princes in place and rules through them — cheaper and needing fewer officials (often the British model).

A settler colony has many permanent incomers who seize land and demand rights (e.g. Algeria, Kenya); an administrative colony has few settlers and is run by a small elite mainly to extract resources (e.g. British India).

Economic, Political, Social and Cultural (remember E-P-S-C).

Extraction of raw materials, land seizure, heavy taxation, forced labour, and de-industrialisation (destroying local industry).

Native populations were excluded from real government, with a racial hierarchy reserving the highest administrative posts for the imperial power's own people.

British Crown rule over India, 1858–1947. It began after the 1857 rebellion, when Britain abolished the East India Company and the Crown took direct control.

The nationalist argument (associated with Dadabhai Naoroji) that India's wealth was being steadily drained to Britain through taxes, salaries and profits, keeping India poor.

British troops under General Dyer fired on an unarmed crowd, killing hundreds. It destroyed faith in British reform and pushed moderates toward mass resistance under Gandhi.

Peninsulares were Spaniards born in Spain who held the top offices; criollos were American-born people of Spanish descent — wealthy but shut out of the highest posts, which bred resentment.

A system forcing colonies to trade only with Spain, at prices Spain set, blocking them from richer markets and fuelling economic resentment.

From the 1760s the Spanish Bourbon kings tightened control, raised taxes, and handed more posts to peninsulares — sharpening criollo anger just as revolutionary ideas spread.

Pride in your nation and the belief that it should govern itself — the single most unifying idea behind independence movements.

The moment people become aware of a shared national identity and begin to act on it politically.

Ideas of popular sovereignty, self-determination and natural rights — arguments that foreign rule was illegitimate.

The principle that the people, not a king or empire, are the true source of political power.

The right of a people to decide its own future and choose its own government.

The American Revolution (1776), which showed a colony could beat an empire, and the French Revolution (1789), which spread 'liberty, equality, fraternity'.

Wars drained and distracted empires — e.g. Napoleon's invasion of Spain in 1808 collapsed royal authority and gave Spanish American colonies their opening.

Shared faith gave ready networks and a sacred cause, but when one community organised, another often felt threatened, sharpening communal divisions.

1885 — an educated, mostly Hindu-led movement that grew into the main vehicle of Indian nationalism.

1906 — to defend Muslim political interests, as many Muslims feared being outvoted in a Hindu-majority nation.

People of Spanish descent born in the colonies — rich but blocked from top jobs reserved for Spain-born officials and angered by Spain's trade monopoly.

A letter written in exile arguing Spanish Americans were a distinct people ready for self-government — it spread creole nationalism across the continent.

Articulate grievances, build organisation, and inspire mass support (A-O-I).

Leadership whose authority comes from a leader's personal magnetism that makes people want to follow — e.g. Gandhi's saintly image, Bolívar as 'the Liberator'.

Leadership whose authority comes from a set of ideas — e.g. Nehru's socialism and demand for full independence, or Bolívar's vision of a united Spanish America.

He reorganised it into a mass movement with cheap membership and village branches, and introduced satyagraha (non-violent resistance) that peasants, women and the poor could join.

Gandhi's method of non-violent resistance, meaning 'truth-force' or 'soul-force'.

'Complete independence' — adopted by Congress at the Lahore session in 1929 under Nehru, replacing the goal of dominion status.

Simón Bolívar ('the Liberator') led the northern campaign; José de San Martín led the southern campaign. They met at Guayaquil in 1822.

Bolívar's speech setting out his vision: independence from Spain plus a strong central government, because he feared disunity and anarchy in the new republics.

A single, united Spanish-American nation (his 'Gran Colombia') strong enough to resist Spain and Europe — but it collapsed by 1830.

They fused national, ideological and economic grievances — Gandhi used the salt tax and poverty; Bolívar promised freedom to the enslaved and land to soldiers.

Gandhi was mainly charismatic and organisational (mass action, satyagraha); Nehru was mainly ideological (socialism, secularism, the goal of purna swaraj).

That charisma and vision can win independence but struggle to build lasting unity — Bolívar himself said governing Spanish America was like 'ploughing the sea'.