The Best Hope

2019 ◽  
pp. 114-148
Author(s):  
Wen-Qing Ngoei
Keyword(s):  
Cold War ◽  
Southeast Asia ◽  
Military Bases ◽  
Colonial Rule ◽  
Left Wing ◽  
British Colonial ◽  
The Creation ◽  
Anglo American ◽  
War Aims ◽  
The Way

This chapter examines how the creation of Malaysia in 1963—the merger of Malaya, Singapore and Britain’s Borneo territories—completed a geostrategic arc of anticommunist states in Southeast Asia, undermined Sukarno’s left-leaning regime in Indonesia, and provided a powerful fillip to U.S. Cold War aims. As Singapore prepared to enter the Malaysian federation, its anticommunist leader, Lee Kuan Yew, incarcerated his main left-wing rivals with repressive policies inherited from British colonial rule. This move ensured Britain’s military bases in Singapore would continue to serve Anglo-American interests. In addition, Britain and Malaysia launched effective diplomatic offensives against Sukarno during the Malaysia-Indonesia Confrontation (Konfrontasi) of the early 1960s, destabilizing the Sukarno regime and paving the way for his ouster and Indonesia’s subsequent alignment America against China and the USSR.

Darkest Moment

2019 ◽  
pp. 17-44
Author(s):  
Wen-Qing Ngoei
Keyword(s):  
Cold War ◽  
Southeast Asia ◽  
Perceived Threat ◽  
Domino Logic ◽  
History Of ◽  
Anglo American ◽  
The Way

This chapter treats Japan’s conquest of Southeast Asia as a window to the longer history of Anglo-American perceptions of the region’s interconnectedness. Japanese victories fuelled what would become the domino logic, entwining race with the struggle for ascendancy in the region, preparing the way for U.S. Cold War fixations with the perceived threat from China and its diaspora to Southeast Asia. At base, the domino theory in U.S. policy toward the region arose from apocalyptic visions of China using its diasporic links across Southeast Asia to repeat Imperial Japan’s shocking wartime triumphs over the colonial powers, the most notable of these being the fall of British-controlled Singapore in 1942.

Global Britain's strategic problem East of Suez

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-19
Author(s):  
William D. James
Keyword(s):  
Cold War ◽  
Southeast Asia ◽  
Alternative Explanation ◽  
Arabian Peninsula ◽  
Labour Party ◽  
Military Bases ◽  
Political Incentives ◽  
The 1960S ◽  
The Cold War ◽  
Permanent Presence

Abstract Why did Britain withdraw from its military bases in the Arabian Peninsula and Southeast Asia midway through the Cold War? Existing accounts tend to focus on Britain's weak economic position, as well as the domestic political incentives of retrenchment for the ruling Labour Party. This article offers an alternative explanation: the strategic rationale for retaining a permanent presence East of Suez dissolved during the 1960s, as policymakers realised that these military bases were consuming more security than they could generate. These findings have resonance for British officials charting a return East of Suez today under the banner of ‘Global Britain’.

Between Idealism and Pragmatism

2019 ◽  
pp. 46-72
Author(s):  
Jing Jing Chang
Keyword(s):  
Hong Kong ◽  
Cold War ◽  
Documentary Film ◽  
Colonial Rule ◽  
Film Culture ◽  
Top Down ◽  
Integral Component ◽  
British Colonial ◽  
The 1950S ◽  
The Cold War

Chapter 2 traces the development of Hong Kong’s official film culture during the 1950s and 1960s within the contexts of the documentary film movement, the imperial legacy of the British Colonial Film Unit, and the colonial rhetoric of film literacy. In particular, it uses such Hong Kong Film Unit-produced short features as Report to the Gods (Dir. Brian Salt, 1967), starring local opera talent Leung Sing-por, as archival sources to argue that the colonial regime’s relationship with Hong Kong’s population was not a static vertical imposition of the “culture of depoliticization,” but one that was shifting and characterized by manipulation, misunderstanding, and negotiation amid bipolarized Cold War tension. I argue here that British Hong Kong’s involvement in filmmaking activities expose the top-down imposition of a colonial regime as well as the transformative nature of colonial rule during the Cold War period of the 1950s through 1960s. Official film culture should not be seen merely as tools of colonial governance or a means of indoctrinating subject audiences, but rather was part of an overall “strategy for survival” as well as an integral component in the process of screening the local Hong Kong “colonial” citizenry during the Cold War.

scholarly journals “Imperium in Imperio”: The Corporation, Mining, and Governance in British Southeast Asia, 1900–1930

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-32
Author(s):  
DAVID BAILLARGEON
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Southeast Asia ◽  
Colonial Period ◽  
State Model ◽  
Colonial Rule ◽  
State Regulations ◽  
Colonial State ◽  
History Of ◽  
British Colonial ◽  
Corporate Ventures

This article examines the history of mining in British Southeast Asia during the early twentieth century. In particular, it focuses on the histories of the Burma Corporation and the Duff Development Company, which were located in British-occupied Burma and Malaya, respectively. It argues that despite being represented as “rogue” corporate ventures in areas under “indirect” colonial rule, the contrasting fates of each company—one successful, one not—reveal how foreign-owned businesses operating in the empire became increasingly beholden to British colonial state regulations during this period, marking a shift in policy from the “company-state” model that operated in prior centuries. The histories of these two firms ultimately demonstrate the continued significance of business in the making of empire during the late colonial period, bridging the divide between the age of company rule and the turn toward state-sponsored “development” that would occur in the mid-twentieth century.

The Impact of the Cold War on the Development of Trade Unionism in Malaya (1948–57)

1992 ◽  
Vol 23 (1) ◽  
pp. 60-73 ◽  
Author(s):  
Leong Yee Fong
Keyword(s):  
Cold War ◽  
Trade Unions ◽  
Left Wing ◽  
World War ◽  
Trade Unionism ◽  
British Colonial ◽  
The Cold War ◽  
Colonial Government ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Political Groups

In the aftermath of World War Two, Malaya saw the emergence of the Malayan Communist Party (MCP) and its attempt to mobilize labour support against the returning British colonial government. The Pan Malayan General Labour Union (PMGLU), later renamed the Pan Malayan Federation of Trade Union (PMFTU), was established as a front organization to harness multiracial labour support and to work in close liaison with other left-wing political groups. Trade unions that mushroomed after the War were invariably dominated by the PMGLU and used as tools for the realization of communist political objectives in Malaya.

Conclusion

2020 ◽  
pp. 163-172
Author(s):  
Nurfadzilah Yahaya
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Southeast Asia ◽  
Islamic Law ◽  
Advisory Board ◽  
Colonial Rule ◽  
Muslim Population ◽  
British Colonial ◽  
Colonial Government ◽  
Sepoy Mutiny ◽  
Legal Arbitrage

This chapter recounts how the members of the Arab diaspora attempted legal arbitrage under colonial rule. It analyses the members' expansion and modification of Islamic law, while at other times they policed the boundaries of Islamic law even as mere translators. The chapter tells the story of the surprising involvement of the outsider — the Arab diaspora — in aiding colonialists to accumulate legislative power. The pace of change from the mid-nineteenth century onward was brisk, and the Arab diaspora capitalized on it while attempting to navigate uncertainty and risk. This chapter also investigates how Arab diaspora in Southeast Asia were able to influence the shape of law to a great extent. It takes a look on how concessions to Arabs in the Straits Settlements, in the form of the Mohamedan Marriage Ordinance, and their appointments as members of the Mohamedan Advisory Board after the Sepoy Mutiny subsequently tied them more closely to the British colonial government, along with the rest of the Muslim population in the colony.

Hong Kong and the Cold War in the 1950s

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tracy Steele
Keyword(s):  
Hong Kong ◽  
Cold War ◽  
Southeast Asia ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
Competing Interests ◽  
British Policy ◽  
East And Southeast Asia ◽  
The 1950S ◽  
Anglo American ◽  
The Cold War

Despite periods of internal agitation and international tension, in the 1950s the British did not fear the imminent loss of Hong Kong, which they believed was of value to the Chinese Communists as it stood. Still, the British were never complacent. During times of tension in East and Southeast Asia, British defense planning for Hong Kong went into high gear, but the inescapable reality was that Hong Kong could not be held without American air cover. The divergent British and American approaches to recognition of the PRC and ROC made matters murkier. Actions by both Chinese governments caused multifarious problems that threatened to divide the British and Americans. Despite entreaties from Colonial officials in Hong Kong to rein in the Americans and their Nationalist allies, throughout the 1950s British policy makers usually placed greater emphasis on preserving harmonious Anglo-American relations. As the British balanced competing interests, while always bearing in mind the goal of retaining Hong Kong, the course they steered to accomplish this often appeared more contradictory and vague than it did clear and decisive. However confusing the tactics, the objective remained the same.

Elphinstone and the Afghan-Pathan Elision

2019 ◽  
pp. 299-318
Author(s):  
Elisabeth Leake
Keyword(s):  
Cold War ◽  
Political Order ◽  
First Century ◽  
Colonial Rule ◽  
Northern Pakistan ◽  
Regional Politics ◽  
Colonial Era ◽  
British Colonial ◽  
Similarities And Differences ◽  
Great Game

Mountstuart Elphinstone's writings on Afghanistan have had lingering effects throughout the twentieth (and into the twenty-first) century. Even with the end of British colonial rule in 1947, western interest in Afghanistan, and particularly the Pathan borderlands spread across southern Afghanistan and northern Pakistan, has remained. Both British and American observers have continued to value this region for its strategic locale, even as both have wrestled with the "tribal" nature of the local Pathan population and its longstanding autonomy from neighboring states. While Cold War competition replaced the rivalry of the Great Game, colonial-era understandings of Afghanistan and local and regional politics continued to color western policies towards this region. This chapter reflects on the legacies of Elphinstone's work for western policymakers, particularly in the aftermath of partition and in the emergent Cold War. Using the works of Olaf Caroe and James W. Spain, it considers how Elphinstone's ideas and rhetoric concerning Afghan politics and tribal society and organization have resounded in western conceptualizations of Afghanistan, and neighboring Pakistan. It compares British and American understandings of Afghanistan and Pakistan, and their relative reliance on Elphinstone's ideas. Ultimately it considers the similarities and differences in the ways that British and American officials have perceived and valued Afghanistan's place in a broader world political order.

scholarly journals Disseminating and Containing Communist Propaganda to Overseas Chinese in Southeast Asia through Hong Kong, the Cold War Pivot, 1949–1960

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-21
Author(s):  
Florence Mok
Keyword(s):  
Hong Kong ◽  
Cold War ◽  
Southeast Asia ◽  
The United States ◽  
Regulatory Regime ◽  
Overseas Chinese ◽  
Left Wing ◽  
Regional Markets ◽  
Printed Materials ◽  
The Cold War

Abstract This article explores an understudied aspect in Asia's Cold War history: how the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) used Hong Kong as a Cold War pivot to produce and disseminate left-wing literature for overseas Chinese living in Southeast Asia. It argues that the CCP's expanding cultural influence can be attributed to the Party's commercial acumen. Operating within a permissive colonial regulatory regime, the CCP expanded its control of local and regional markets for left-wing printed materials. The content of CCP literature was inevitably propagandistic – that is, shaped by the changing demands of the Chinese government's foreign policy and by a need to attract foreign remittances and accommodate socialist transformation at home. Hong Kong's emergence as a pivot in propaganda wars that were global in scope created tensions between the United States and Britain, and led governments in Southeast Asia to strengthen state controls on imported communist media. As such, this article makes an original contribution to Hong Kong colonial history and deepens our understanding of transnational dynamics within Southeast Asia.

scholarly journals Displaying Colonial Relations: from Government House in Fiji to the University of Cambridge Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology

2018 ◽  
Vol 16 (2) ◽  
pp. 279-297
Author(s):  
Anita Herle
Keyword(s):  
Colonial Rule ◽  
University Of Cambridge ◽  
Ethnographic Museums ◽  
British Colonial ◽  
Museum Staff ◽  
The Creation ◽  
Complex Relationships ◽  
The University ◽  
Ethnographic Collections ◽  
Museum Exhibition

AbstractThis paper focuses on the assemblage and display of Fijian collections at Government House during the first few years of British colonial rule and reflexively considers its re-presentation in the exhibition Chiefs & Governors: Art and Power in Fiji (6 June 2013 – 19 April 21014) at the University of Cambridge Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology (MAA).  It moves beyond reductionist accounts of colonial collecting and investigates the specificity and nuances of complex relationships between Fijian and British agents, between subjects and objects, both in the field and in the museum. A focus on the processes of collecting and display highlights multiple agencies within colonial networks and the fluid transactional nature of object histories. The Fijian objects that bedecked the walls of Government House from the mid 1870s were re-assembled in 1883 as the founding ethnographic collections of the University of Cambridge Museum of General and Local Archaeology (now MAA). Ethnographic museums have tended to efface the links between the material on display and their colonial pasts (Edwards and Mead 2013). In contrast, the creation of Chiefs & Governors was used as an opportunity to explore the multiple agencies within colonial relations and the processes of collecting, displaying and governing (Bennett et al.2014; Cameron and McCarthy 2015). The second half of this paper analyses the techniques and challenges involved in displaying colonial relations in a museum exhibition and considers the ongoing value of the collections for Fijian communities, cultural descendants, museum staff, researchers and broad public audiences today.

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