After the January 1964 revolution in newly-independent Zanzibar, East and West alike saw the former British colony as a potential ‘African Cuba’, a bridgehead to communist infiltration of the wider continent. By foregrounding and contextualising British policy-making towards Zanzibar in ways overlooked in the existing literature, this thesis examines the difficulties Britain faced in extricating itself from colonial rule and attempting to sustain post-colonial influence. Britain contended with virulently racialised local politics, multifaceted Cold War dynamics, intense pressure from Washington, and conflicts within both Whitehall and the Conservative Party. A series of crises across the Empire-Commonwealth also impinged on Anglo-Zanzibari relations: the most significant was the threat of a Unilateral Declaration of Independence by Southern Rhodesia. By viewing British policy towards Zanzibar through a Commonwealth as well as a Cold War lens, new insights are gained into Britain’s delay in granting diplomatic recognition to the revolutionary regime and Britain’s contingency plans for military intervention in the islands. The ways in which Zanzibari and Tanganyikan leaders perceived British motives are also examined, helping explain Zanzibar’s break with the West, its turn to the East, and its merger with neighbouring Tanganyika. Hence, with its microhistorical focus on the extraordinary density of activity and influences in Anglo-Zanzibari relations after the revolution, this thesis illuminates the wider set of local, regional, global and metropolitan challenges facing British policy-makers in this historical moment.
Date of Award | 1 Oct 2024 |
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Original language | English |
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Awarding Institution | |
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Supervisor | Sarah Stockwell (Supervisor) & Toby Green (Supervisor) |
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‘A splendid weapon to those who dispute our motives in the ex-imperial world’: Britain’s response to the 1964 Zanzibar Revolution
Pugh, M. (Author). 1 Oct 2024
Student thesis: Doctoral Thesis › Doctor of Philosophy