Hello, and welcome to this lesson on the world wars and colonial migrants.

This lesson is part of a broader inquiry, looking at how far migrants were welcomed in modern Britain.

As part of this inquiry, we'll cover lots of different things across the 20th century and also into the present day.

However, for this lesson, we're just going to be focusing on the world wars and the contributions of colonial migrants.

Now in order to do that, you're going to need a piece of paper and a pen.

If you don't have one, that's absolutely fine, just pause the video now, go and get everything you need and then come back and press play when you're ready to go.

Great.

Now you've got everything you need, we can get started on today's lesson.

And to start off with, we're going to be looking at our lesson outcome.

And for today, I am hoping that by the end of this lesson, you'll be able to say that you can explain the role colonial migrants played in the world wars and how this impacted migration to Britain and the experiences of migrants in the early 20th century.

And in order to do that, we're going to need some keywords.

And for today, we've got four, colony, which is somewhere under the full control of another country, usually occupied by settlers of that country, a standing army, which is an army ready to be mobilised for war at any time.

We also have the word demobilised, and that's the word to use to describe troops that are outta service typically at the end of a war.

And finally, we have race riots.

These are riots that break out between groups that identify as different races.

For example, it might break out between groups that identify as either black or white.

Now we've got our keywords, we can get started on today's lesson.

And the first thing we're going to be looking at is the British Empire in the First World War.

So on the 4th of August, 1914, Britain declared war on Germany, beginning Britain's involvement in the Great War, later known as the First World War.

However, the British army was small with a total of only 700,000 soldiers, they simply could not compare to the huge German, French and Russian armies, and conscription, which was forced participation in the armed forces wouldn't solve the issue.

It just wouldn't get them enough soldiers to be able to compete with the other very large European armies.

So the answer was clearly not conscription, but the answer did lay abroad across the British empire because although the British army was small in size, by 1914, the British Empire was quite the opposite.

Many historians argued that the British Empire was at its peak by 1914, and British officials intended to use this to their advantage.

As many British colonies already had standing armies used to maintain control and stop rebellions in the colonies, these armies were therefore ready to be mobilised for the British war effort.

So when war broke out in 1914, these armies were ordered to join the British War effort, and they often had very little say whether they took up the order or not.

So remember, Britain had a very small army in 1914, although 700,000 may sound like a lot, it didn't compare to the millions that would be found in the French or German or Russian armies.

And conscription wouldn't solve the issue because there were not enough people in Britain who would sign up to join the army to make it large enough to compete, but the answer would be found in the standing armies used in the colonies.

And remember, they didn't necessarily have a choice whether they were going to follow this order because as standing armies, they were set up to be prepared to mobilise at any time.

Remember, that's one of our key words.

So before we go on to look in a little bit more detail about the contributions of these armies, we're just gonna pause, 'cause I have a couple of questions.

First, I would like you to tell me whether this statement is true or false.

Britain needed the support of colonial migrants in World War I.

pause the video now, make a decision, and then come back and press play when you've got an answer for me, please.

Brilliant.

We know that this statement is true, but we need to think about why.

So again, take a minute and I'd like you to have a go at quickly writing down an explanation, or you can say out loud if you'd prefer to explain why this statement is true.

Brilliant.

So I'm hoping you said, "This statement is true because Britain had a total 100,000 soldiers", and that absolutely did not compare to the huge German, French and Russian armies.

Really well done.

Second question, I'd like you to have a go at telling me which of the following statements explains why Britain was able to get the support of so many colonial troops.

Was it a, that many colonies could quickly gather and train troops for war.

B that all colonial soldiers were willing to join the fight to support Britain.

Or c, many colonies had large standing armies ready to be mobilised.

Pause the video, make a decision, and come back and press play when you have an answer for me.

Brilliant, hopefully you said c, it's because many of these colonies had large standing armies ready to be mobilised and used for the British War effort.

So as we've already learned, Britain used her colonies across the world in order to support their war effort in the hopes of being able to compete with the sizable French, German and Russian armies.

And there were nearly 3 million men brought from British colonies to fight for Britain in battlefields across the world.

India contributed the most soldiers with one and a half million troops from the colony fighting for Britain during World War I.

There were also troops from the Caribbean, from Canada, South Africa and New Zealand.

And when the war ended in 1918, many of these soldiers did return home, however, some had begun to settle and established lives in Britain during the four years of war.

And so there were a number of them who found themselves living in Britain after the war was over.

So before we on to look at what these years after the first World War were like for these soldiers who remained in Britain, we've got a quick question and we're gonna put what we've learned about the British Empire in the First World War into practise first.

So first I'd like you to tell me which British colony contributed the most colonial troops to the British War effort, was it a, the British Caribbean, b, British India, or c, the Gold Coast colony? You can pause the video now, make a decision, and then come back and press play when you have an answer for me.

Brilliant, hopefully you said b, British India.

You might remember that they contributed one and a half million troops.

That was nearly half of all colonial troops who fought to Britain in the First World War.

Now we're gonna put what we've learned so far into practise.

And in order to do that, I'd like you to explain how the British colonies supported Britain in the First World War, trying to include the following in your answers, 700,000 soldiers, large standing armies, and nearly 3 million.

So pause the video now, give yourself five to 10 minutes to complete this task and come back when you're done for me please.

Brilliant.

So hopefully your answer looks a little something like this, "When the first World War broke out, Britain had a small army of only 700,000 soldiers.

This did not compare to the huge German, Russian and French armies.

And so Britain needed the support of its colonies who were able to quickly answer the call because they had large standing armies that were ready to be mobilised at short notice.

This meant that when the war broke out in 1914, these armies could be ordered to join the war effort whether they wanted to or not.

This led to nearly 3 million colonial troops joining the British War effort during the First World War with one and a half million coming from India alone." If you were able to remember all of those details, really, really well done.

You've done brilliant in this part of the lesson, and now we can move on to look at Britain in the interwar years.

So once the first World War was over, the colonial soldiers in Britain became demobilised with many of them staying in the country to find other forms of work.

In larger port cities such as London and Liverpool, there were larger numbers of demobilised soldiers from across Britain's colonies in Africa, Asia, and the Caribbean.

However, they were often competing for the same jobs as British men who were also now demobilised too.

As the numbers of black and Asian people across these cities increased, hostility and racism towards them also increased.

Some members of the local population and the white demobilised soldiers blamed the newly arrived migrants for the lack of available work and for the hardships they faced as a result of continued unemployment.

And many white workers also refused to work alongside black workers, this created further tension.

So we've got marked on here Liverpool on a map of Europe.

We can see that's one of the places where there were growing numbers of black and Asian demobilised soldiers.

And as we've just looked at the hostility and racism towards them grew as the numbers of them who settled in these larger cities also grew.

They were blamed for the growing unemployment, but in fact, there were actually large numbers of white demobilised soldiers as well, and they were all looking for jobs, often the same jobs.

Now before we go on to how this tension erupted in 1919, I've got a quick question for you.

So Andeep has been sitting in our lesson and he says that black and Asian migrants face greater hostility in the interwar years than in the pre-war years.

And he's correct.

He's done a great job so far, and he's clearly been paying so much attention.

But what I'd like you to do is have a go at supporting this statement by explaining why it's correct.

So pause the video now.

Give yourself a minute or two just to jot down some quick ideas, and then come back and press play when you're done.

Brilliant.

Hopefully you said that large numbers of demobilised black and Asian troops led to increasing hostility from the local population, but also that white British demobilised troops blamed black and Asian migrants for the lack of work available and the hardship they faced as a result.

Now we've looked at why there was increasing tension and growing hostility towards black and Asian demobilised soldiers.

But as I've already suggested, this hostility exploded, it spilled into violent race rights between black and white demobilised soldiers in many cities across Britain, particularly in Liverpool and Cardiff in June, 1919.

As the race riots in Liverpool turned into uncontrollable chaos, the police arrived to try and resolve the situation.

Amidst the riot, a former Royal Navy sailer from Bermuda named Charles Wootton attempted to escape the violence, but he was chased by police officers as he attempted to escape the violence.

Now despite the police trying to arrest him, the angry white mob wrestled Wootton from the police and threw him over into the dock.

The mob then attacked Rutin with stones until he drowned.

The police blamed the migrants for the race riots and tragic accident, but the court showed less prejudice and did convict members of the white mob for their involvement in the riots.

But unfortunately, nobody has ever been charged for Woottons murder.

So we can see that the Liverpool race riots are an example of this tension building up because the police were involved, the police were present, and although that the police tried to arrest Wootton, not because he'd been involved in the riot, he was simply trying to escape the violence.

We know that the way his murder played out shows the result of the increasing tension and violent hostility that black and Asian demobilised soldiers were facing in these larger port cities especially.

Now the government that the solutions for race riots was to have these demobilised black and Asian soldiers return to the colonies as soon as possible and took measures to make life in Britain much less appealing to black and Asian migrants.

For example, in 1925, a special restrictions order was introduced, which forced all non-white sailors to carry a special registration certificate and report regularly to the police.

Similarly, in 1930, the British authorities limited the number of passports issued to Indian workers.

So we can see that they were facing great hostility from the local communities where we've seen instances of that hostility and racism turning very violent, but also from the government whose solution was to encourage them to return to the colonies by making life as unappealing as possible.

Now before we go on to consider what would happen when the Second World War broke out in 1939, I've got a couple of questions for you and our second task for today.

So first, I'd like you to have a discussion.

Now if you're doing this lesson by yourself, not to worry, I'd love for you to have a go at articulating a response out loud.

If you're doing this lesson in a classroom or with someone else, I'd like you to have a go at having this discussion in pairs, making sure that both of you have time to contribute and filling in any missing information that you feel that your partner hasn't quite got in their response.

So pause the video now and give yourself enough time to either articulate a response out loud yourself or for both of you to contribute if you're doing this in pairs.

Brilliant.

So hopefully you mention these points, that the riots broke out because of tensions between unemployed demobilised men and white British men were angry about competing for work with black migrants and refused to work alongside them, that the police arrived as the riots escalated, that Charles Wootton, a former of Royal Navy sailor from Bermuda attempted to escape the riots and was chased by police officers that the angry white mob took Wootton from the police, threw him from the dock and attacked him with stones until he drowned.

And that members of the white mob were convicted for their role in the riots, but no one was charged with Wootton's murder.

If there's any points you didn't quite get there, but you'd like them to make a note of them so you don't forget next time.

Absolutely fine, just pause and get those down now.

Right.

We've also had Laura sitting in.

Laura said, "Hostility towards black and Asian migrants from the government became clear after the 1919 Liverpool race riots." We know that's true because we just discussed some laws and changes that were introduced after the race riots.

Now I'd like you to have a go at remembering what we just spoke about.

So pause the video now and jot down a couple of quick ideas that will explain why Laura's statement is correct.

Brilliant.

So hopefully you mentioned these two things, that in 1925, the special restriction order forced all soldiers who were not white to carry a special registration certificate and report regularly to the police, but also that in 1930 British authorities limited the number of passports issued to Indian workers.

If you managed to get those down, really, really well done.

Now, what I'd like you to do for our practise task here is to complete the table by adding a detail or example to support each statement.

So for example, our first detail, many demobilised troops were in need of work after the war ended.

Now there's much more you could tell me about that.

So I'd like you to give me a bit more detail to help elaborate on that statement.

For example, you might tell me where these demobilised settled in looking for work or who these demobilised troops were.

Pause the video now, give yourself five to 10 minutes to complete this table and then come back when you're done, please.

Brilliant.

Let's have a look at what your completed table might have looked like.

So for the first statement, like I said, your detail might have been, demobilised troops were not just colonial migrants, but also white British troops.

The second statement there was increasing tension between black and white workers in Liverpool.

You might have added that local white British workers blamed migrants for the lack of available work.

The third statement, race riots broke out in Liverpool in 1919.

You might have added that Charles Wootton was murdered at the docks during the rioting.

The fourth, the British government became increasingly hostile to black and Asian migrants.

You might have said the special restriction order of 1925 for sailors who are not white to carry a special registration certificate.

Really, really well done if you were able to get those details down.

If there's any that you weren't you would like to add, not to worry, you can just pause the video now, and make a note very quickly.

Now in the final part of today's lesson, we're going to be looking at the Second World War.

Now by 1939, the world had changed.

We are not talking about the same context that we were at the beginning of this lesson when we were looking at the world in 1914.

Now the British Empire still controlled a quarter of the world's population and a third of all landmass in the world.

But the conditions in these colonies had changed.

It was not the same as 1914 like I've already said.

That's because demands for independence were breaking out across the empire, and the British government was losing control.

Many colonies had believed that their independence would follow the contributions that they made in the First World War, but what this did not prove to be the case, tensions increased as people became increasingly willing to turn to radical means of protest in order to achieve their independence from the British Empire.

Now despite the tensions within these colonies, when World War II broke out in 1939, Britain once again called on their colonial armies.

And almost immediately there were millions of colonial soldiers serving in the British war effort.

Many of these colonial troops were not conscripted, instead, they volunteered to fight for Britain out of a sense of pride and nationalism for their motherland and a belief in the cause against Nazi Germany.

However, this may seem slightly strange given everything I've said about the fight for independence, but it does make sense when you then consider that they didn't all destroy because of a sense of pride and nationalism and the belief in the motherland.

There were many who believed that if they fought in the Second World War, that their efforts might win them independence in the aftermath of the war.

So the conditions were very different in 1939, protests and calls for independence were breaking out across the colonies, and Britain were slowly losing control.

But like in the first World War, there were many who joined the fight in order to support what they believed was their motherland, but there were also many who believed that this time round it may grant them their independence.

Now before we move on, I'd like you to have our second discussion for today.

And what I'd like you to do is explain to the person next to you or have a go articulating it out loud, how the conditions in the colonies had changed by 1939.

Just give yourself enough time to respond out loud or for both of you to contribute to the discussion if you're doing this lesson in the classroom or with someone else.

Brilliant.

So hopefully you've said that demands for independence were breaking out across the empire.

You might also have added that the British government was slowly losing control of the empire.

You may also have added that many colonies believed that independence would follow their contributions to World War I, and that tensions only further increased when this didn't happen, but also that colonies were subsequently more willing to turn to more radical means of protest to fight for their independence after the war.

Now I'd like you to tell me which two of the following statements explains why colonial soldiers joined the British War effort again given everything you just discussed about why tensions were rising.

Is it a, all soldiers joined in the hopes that their efforts would win their independence? B, all soldiers joined out of a sense of nationalism and pride for their motherland.

C, some soldiers chose to join out of a sense of nationalism and pride for their motherland.

Or d, some soldiers joined in the hope that their efforts would win them their independence.

Pause the video now, make a decision and come back and press play when you've got an answer for me.

Brilliant.

Hopefully you said c and d.

It's about understanding that some soldiers chose to join out of a sense of nationalism and pride, but there will also others that hope their efforts would win their independence.

To say that all soldiers joined for either reason would simply be incorrect because it just wasn't that straightforward.

Now we've looked at why tensions were increasing, but also why colonial soldiers joined the war in 1913 again.

Now in the six years of war, eight million colonial troops were recruited to fight on the battlefields, but also to work on the home front.

For example, there were 10,000 Jamaicans who joined the war effort, and a 1000 of them were Caribbean technicians who were recruited to work in Liverpool and in Lancashire.

By the time the Second World War ended in 1914, there were growing numbers of African Caribbean, Asian migrants who looked to settle in Britain.

Unlike in 1918, Britain was in need of a significant number of workers if they hoped to rebuild after the damage the war had fought.

And subsequently, the government was more willing to allow these black and Asian migrants to settle in Britain.

Now we're not gonna move on to look at what happened after the war, but it is important that we know that many of these soldiers who came from the colonies weren't just fighting on the battlefronts, they were also working in different places across Britain and contributing to the economy as they did so.

For example, if we look at this photo, we can see British and colonial troops in World War II, and this was a bomber crew who worked in Lancaster during the war.

Now, before we move on to our final practise task, I'd like you to tell me whether this statement is true or false, all colonial troops were sent to fight on the battlefields during World War II.

Pause the video, make a decision, and then come back and press play when you're done.

Brilliant.

Hopefully you said it's false.

Now I need you to have a go at explaining why.

Just jot down a couple quick ideas or a sentence if you prefer, and then come back and press play when you're done.

Brilliant.

Hopefully you said that some were recruited to work on the British home front.

For example, a 1000 Caribbean workers were recruited to work in Liverpool and Lancashire.

Really well done, especially if you remember the specific locations.

Now for our final task today, I'd love you to have a look at what Alex has said here.

He says, "In World War II, eight million colonial troops fought for Britain in the front lines of the war hoping that it would win independence for their colonies." Now I'd like you to explain how far you agree with Alex's explanation for migrant contributions in the Second World War.

If you agree with him, great.

Make sure to explain why somebody might come to your argument and present the alternative side.

If you partially agree with him, it's worth explaining why.

What do you think Alex is correct about and what do you think he maybe might have missed out? Either way, pause the video now, give yourself about 10 minutes and come back when you've completed your response.

Brilliant.

So hopefully your answer looks a little something like this, "I partially agree with Alex, this is because he acknowledges that many colonial troops fought for Britain when war broke out in 1939, hoping that their efforts in the war would lead to independence for their colony." He also acknowledges that many of the eight million colonial troops who fought for Britain fought on the front lines.

However, Alex fails to mention other reasons for colonial soldiers joining the British War effort.

He does not mention that there were still soldiers from Britain's colonies who fought for Britain out of a sense of pride and nationalism for their motherland.

Alex also fails to mention that colonial troops also served on the home front.

For example, 1000 Caribbean technicians were recruited to work in Liverpool and Lancashire to support the war effort in Britain.

So really well done, especially if you were able to acknowledge what Alex got spot on, but the things that he also missed out.

Now before we finish for today, I'd love us to look at a summary of what we've learned because we have covered so much.

First of all, we learned that the British Empire reached its peak in 1914, and millions of colonial soldiers fought for Britain in both world wars.

Post World War I, some black and Asian demobilised soldiers settled in Britain.

We also learned that during it inter-war period, race became an increasingly defining feature of the experiences of migrants.

For example, the race riots in Liverpool in 1919 resulted in the death of Bermuda war veteran, Charles Wootton.

By 1939, many colonies were calling for independence, and many colonial soldiers fought in World War II with the hopes of earning this.

Colonial soldiers fought on the front line, but also on the home front, and some settled in Britain post-war.

So really, really well done, you've done a brilliant job today.

I'm very impressed with the work you've done, and you should be too.