The legacy of colonial rule
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Flip to reveal answersWhat are 'continuities' from colonial rule?
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Question
What are 'continuities' from colonial rule?
Answer
Features left behind by the empire that carried on largely unchanged after independence — its administration, law, language and elites.
Question
Name the four main colonial continuities (A-L-L-E).
Answer
Administration, Law, Language and Elites — the state machinery new nations kept.
Question
Why were colonial borders a source of later conflict?
Answer
Empires drew them for their own convenience, ignoring local peoples — so new states forced rival groups together or split communities apart.
Question
Define neo-colonialism.
Answer
Political independence combined with continued economic control by former imperial powers and foreign capital.
Question
What was the economic legacy of colonial rule?
Answer
Economies built to export cheap raw materials and depend on the former ruler — leaving many states in single-crop dependence and debt.
Question
What was the social legacy of colonial rule?
Answer
Entrenched hierarchies, unequal land ownership held by a wealthy few, and unresolved ethnic or religious divisions.
Question
What was the Partition of India (1947)?
Answer
The division of British India into a mostly Hindu India and a mostly Muslim Pakistan, causing massive violence and migration.
Question
Why does Kashmir matter as a colonial legacy?
Answer
It was a state both India and Pakistan claimed at Partition; the unresolved dispute has caused several wars and remains a flashpoint.
Question
Who were the creoles in Spanish America?
Answer
People of Spanish descent born in the Americas who topped the colonial social pyramid.
Question
What was Spanish America's key colonial legacy?
Answer
The creole elite replaced Spanish officials but kept the social hierarchy and land — producing long-term instability, coups and caudillos.
Question
Compare India's and Spanish America's colonial legacies.
Answer
India's defining legacy was a divisive border (Partition/Kashmir); Spanish America's was a frozen social hierarchy (creole dominance).
Question
How should you structure a Paper 2 essay on the colonial legacy?
Answer
Use three strands — political (borders/administration), economic (neo-colonial dependence) and social (hierarchy/land/divisions) — then judge.
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Topic 13.3 hub
Challenges after independence
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