Lesson video

Hello welcome.

My name is Ms Apps, and if you haven't already guessed from the historic documents and the wives of Henry VIII behind me, I am a history teacher, but we will not be going back to the Tudor period today.

In fact, today we will be looking at the modern periods in history.

So we will be looking at the process by which different countries became independent in the 20th century.

And I'm really excited to teach you this because other than the Tudor period, which is my favourite bit of history, this is another bit of history that I really, really enjoy.

I really find independence and the movement of independence fascinating.

So without further ado, let's get started.

Make sure you've got a pen.

Make sure you've got some paper and let's get started.

I will meet you at our title.

Okay, well done.

So you've grabbed your pen, you've grabbed your paper and now let's begin.

We're starting on a brand new inquiry and we are going to be investigating this question Who decolonized in the 20th century? Now do not worry if you do not understand what that word decolonized or decolonization means right now, it will all become clear in the fullness of time as my grandma would say.

So for now, let's just worry about our title.

So grab your pen and your paper and write it down for me please now.

what is decolonization? Get that title written down for me now, put a pause on the video if you need to, and I will see you in a second.

Okay so let's begin this lesson the way that I would like to with most of our lessons, which is with an interesting image.

So in front of you, you can see a photograph from 1915.

What would like you to do to start off with today is spend a minute once you've paused the video, writing down everything that you can see in this image.

Put a pause on the video now and get started.

Okay so what can you see? What first will this figure is a woman called Constance Markievicz, which I didn't tell you but now you know.

Let's have a think though about what you may have written down, and you can give yourself a tick a cross, you can add to your list as we go.

So the first thing that I would have noticed when I looked at this image was the pistol.

And I might have noticed if I have done a little bit of reading around World War I or looked at images from that era or seeing the film 1917, that perhaps this gun looks like it's a World War I era gun.

I may then have also looked at the face of the figure and the funky hat with all the feathers, and I might have realised that actually this is a female figure.

What then would have really, really intrigued me is the fact that we see a female figure in a World War I or just a military style uniform.

And that also, she seems to be in a crouched position behind a prop.

So between sorry behind a piece of concrete.

So we have a female figure with a pistol in her hand, in a military style uniform, but wearing a rather fancy hat.

She's in a crouch position, which looks a little bit like a military star position for fighting.

But when we look at the image and when we look at what's behind her, we can see a painted backdrop that tells us that this was actually taken in a photography studio.

So this isn't a figure or an image of a soldier at war, but instead this is an image of a woman with a pistol in a military style uniform, taken in a photography studio.

And that raises lots of questions.

Why would a woman want to have a photograph taken in this way? Women did not take part in the main fighting of world war I, So why does she look this way? Why does she have a gun? What is going on? Well it becomes a lot clearer when we understand who this figure is.

You can see her hair in a very, very different style.

This is another photograph taken in a photography studio, but here we can see the dress that she would ordinarily have worn as a young woman.

She was a privileged woman, a wealthy woman, so she would have worn traditional Edwardian dress corsets, all the beautiful flowing gowns of that era.

And you can see her in this photograph with her children.

And this figure in this image, is Constance Markievicz, who we can see here.

And Constance Markievicz was a member of the Anglo Irish aristocracy.

That meant that she was a wealthy privileged woman from a wealthy family who owned land and estates.

So big houses in both England and Ireland.

She'd been born in London, but lived most of her life in Ireland.

And she was a very, very wealthy privileged woman.

She in fact herself married account was known as Countess Constance Markievicz or Countess Markievicz in her life.

She was an interesting figure though, because her father as a landlord in Ireland street had seen the struggles of ordinary Irish people under the British government and under British landlords.

And through him, she'd become quite politically active and quite empathetic towards the plight of ordinary people.

And so she became very political.

She became a suffragette, so she became a woman who campaigned for women's rights to vote.

She became an activist and she also eventually became an Irish revolutionary, fighting in an event called the Easter Rising against British rule in Ireland.

So the Easter Rising was a rebellion in Easter 1916 against British rebellion, sorry against British rule in Ireland.

And it was a rebellion that wished for independence and Constance Markievicz was one of the leaders of the soldiers in that particular Rising.

And you can see in this image, a picture of Dublin in 1916, after the rebellion.

We are going to learn about that event in more detail in our coming lesson.

But for now, let's come to our image of Constance.

What I would like you to do is get down what you now know in a mini paragraph.

So what I would like you to do is answer my sentences or finish my sentences.

So in this picture, I can see, tell me who you can see.

You can see Constance Markievicz, How is she dressed? What is she wearing?, What does she have in our hands? And then afterwards, tell me what this picture suggests about her or what this picture suggests about women in this period in Ireland.

Put a pause on the video now and have a go.

Okay, how did you do? So let's have a look at my model answer.

I might have said in this picture, I can see Constance Markievicz, a politician and activist dressed in military uniform.

This picture suggests Constance Markievicz and other women took part in fighting for Irish independence.

Now you may have not written exactly what I have.

You might have written similar words and have the basic gist, as long as the basic idea is there, you've done brilliantly.

So you can put a pause on the video now if you want to improve what you've written, but if you have gotten the general idea well done.

Okay.

So the figure of Constance Markievicz.

The reason I wanted to start with her is one, because she's one of my history heroes I would like to name my daughter Constance after her being Anglo Irish myself.

I would also just love for you to understand her story because her story and the Easter rising opens up our understanding of this process called decolonization.

So the independence movements around the world.

But before we get there, we need to understand the British empire.

So if you look at this map in front of you, this is the British empire in 1914.

And all the areas in red are areas which were controlled by the British.

And so you can see in 1914, the British empire was vast.

All these areas were controlled from London by Britain.

And so at the end of World War I, we call this the high point of the British empire because when the war ends, lots of nations end up handing over their own sections of empire that own colonies to the British.

And so after 1918, the British actually take on 25% more of the world surface in informal and formal control.

However, the costs of World War I, the inter-war years, economic issues, and then World War II.

mean that from 1914 onwards from sorry, from 1918 onwards or from the end of World War I going forward, there was an increasing weakness of British control all over their vast empire.

It's become too big.

There isn't necessarily a feeling anymore that empires are a good thing.

And so slowly, we start to see this process called decolonization.

On decolonization, I'll get rid of my face so that you can see my definition.

Decolonization is this process by which colonies, so areas controlled by the British in this instance, we're slowly granted their own independence.

So my dictionary definition is, de-colonization, to release an area from the status of being a colony.

To become self-governing or independent.

Now this word is quite controversial.

One, because when we talk about decolonization, it makes it sound like the British very kindly just handed out independence to all the different areas of their empire.

That's not the case, there was often violence involved, there was often a need for protest for hardships, from the people in the areas controlled by the British, before they were given their rights.

It's also a tricky word because decolonization, the process is not the same everywhere.

It doesn't always follow the same path.

Ireland's path to independence is very different from Ghana's path to independence, is very different from Jamaica's path to independence.

And so through these lessons, we'll look at the differences in those independence movements.

However, for now I've given you quite a lot of information here.

So we're going to do some multiple choice questions to check that you're still with me.

So you can write your answer on your piece of paper.

So beginning with question number one, Constance Markievicz is most famously known for being what? Is it option one, an Irish revolutionary, option two, a teacher in England, option number three, an activist in England, or option number four, an aristocrat.

Pause the video now if you need to and have a goat writing down your answers to that question.

Okay, the answer was option one.

She was an Irish revolutionary though she was also an aristocrat, a wealthy privileged person.

Number two, World war I is known for being the what of empire? Is it option one, the low point of empire? Option two, the high point of empire? Option three, the best point of empire? Or option four, the greatest point of empire? Pause the video now and have a go.

How did we do, it was option two, the high point of empire.

Okay so coming back to this process of decolonization.

Decolonization occurred really from the end of World War II onwards.

And there were lots of reasons for decolonization.

There was lots of reasons for the British giving independence to the different areas they controlled.

One main reason was economic weaknesses.

The British just could not afford to control their empire anymore.

World War I had cost them lots of money as had world war II.

At the end of World War II, the British owed 350,000 million pounds in loans.

And so as a consequence of this in the 1950s and the 1960s, the politicians of Britain decided to do an audit of empire.

So they decided to look around the British empire and work out how much money was brought in by the empire and how much money left.

And they actually realised it would cost about the same amount of money to keep the empire as to get rid of it.

However, if they kept it for too long, it might cost them more than just getting rid of that.

So in the 1950s and 60s, there was idea of giving away the empire, giving across independence to different nations that were controlled by the British as a way of saving costs.

At the same time through out the 20th century, from start of World War I onwards, and even before then, if we look at the case of Ireland, there are nationalist movements.

So in lots of areas controlled by the British, there are these nationalists movements who wanted to push for independence.

And these will often led by educated local figures and nationalist movements were really key to independence in Ireland, Kenya, Ghana, Jamaica, where nationalist groups campaigned and fought against the British for their independence.

Finally, suddenly after World War II, the idea of colonialism of controlling other countries against their will, and the idea of holding empires at a time when there is increasing consciousness of racism, et cetera, makes colonialism and empire seem really, really old fashioned.

And so the British are really concerned about looking dreadful.

Basically, particularly in the in the context of after World War II, when we have the cold war going on between the USA and Russia.

The two powers, the two superpowers in the world.

After World War II the USA and Russia, and both countries are very, very anti-empire.

And so the British are really concerned about their international reputation and how they will look if they want to continue to have an empire or to continue to suppress nationalists who wanted their independence.

So let's again put a pause on it because I've given you again, quite a lot of information there.

So let's again pick up our pens and have a go at these multiple choice questions.

So decolonization is option one, the process of giving independence to former colonies, option two, the process of taking over areas and making them colonies option three, the process of making colonies less English or option four, the process of making colonies more English.

Put pause on the video and write down your option.

Okay, it was option one, the process of giving independence to former colonies.

Now the colony's words might seem tricky.

I might not have yet defined it to you, but a colony is basically an area of the world controlled by another country.

So decolonization was a process by which the British gave independence to those colonies, those areas of the world they have controlled.

So coming back to decolonization then, so the process of decolonization is the process of undoing.

Colonisation is the process of giving self-governance of giving independence to areas of the world that have been controlled by the British.

And it's a really complex process because in some regions it happens really quickly and without a lot of bloodshed.

For example, Canada is given dominion status and it's just handed the ability to govern itself while still retaining the queen as the ultimate head of state.

Whereas in the areas of Ghana that we'll look at, it takes an awful lot of protests.

In the areas of Ireland that will look at, it takes Wars and fighting and death and violence to get to the position where the South of Ireland is given independence.

So it's not a single process.

It changes all around the world.

It's different in different areas.

And it's different depending on the way that the British perceive the people in those regions to be.

So in regions like Canada, where there's a sense of the Canadians being similar to the British, the British are much happier to just hand them governance.

They trust them.

Whereas there's an aspect of almost racism that comes into when we look at the colonies in India and Africa trying to achieve their independence.

But this process of decolonization means that between the 1940s and the 1950s through to 1960s, the British empire shrinks massively to the point you can see here.

By 1969, the British empire is pretty much nonexistent.

It's nothing like it had been at 1914 at the high point of empire.

And for the most part, these nations that are still exist.

They're part of the Commonwealth.

So they're loosely affiliated with Britain, but they largely have their own self government by this point.

Okay, again loads of information being talked to you.

So let's see if we have gotten what I've taught you so far.

So nationalists wanted, did they want option one, to be able to govern themselves? Option two, to be able to control their empire? Option three, to be able to travel throughout the rest of the empire? Or option four to boost the reputation of the British empire.

Write down your option now.

Okay, So nationalists wanted the ability to be able to govern themselves.

So coming back to decolonization then, over these coming lessons, we are going to look at the process of independence in Ireland, Ghana, sorry and Jamaica.

And by the end of our four lessons, we are going to compare the process of independence and decolonization in these different regions.

We will look at how similar they were and how different they were, who were the people fighting for independence in these regions? Who were the people who gain control afterwards? What we're going to do now though, is we are going to look in more detail at Irish independence.

So what I would like you to do is pause the video, read the slides on the next page and answer the comprehension questions.

Resume the video once you're finished.

So pause the video now, have a go at that and I will meet you at the answers.

Good luck.

Okay, we're back you are extremely lucky that you are being taught by me online and not in my classroom because I love the Easter Rising.

It is one of my favourite events in history.

I'm fascinated by it.

I actually So the 100 year anniversary of the Easter Rising in 2016.

I paid for loads of Irish newspapers to be shipped to my house because I was so excited about the river.

I studied it when I was a little bit older than you guys actually and I just became really, really fascinated with it.

And the freedom fighting, it really struck a chord with me and I became really interested in those particular figures.

So you're very lucky that you've had to read about it because if you were in my classroom, I would just be waffling on about it.

So how did you do, I'm going to go through our answers now.

What I would like you to do is give yourself a tick, give yourself a cross, improve your answers if you'd like to, but as always remember with these model answers, if you haven't quite written what I have, but you've got the basic gist.

It's absolutely fantastic, well done you.

So question one, what was Home Rule? So an acceptable answer would have been, Home Rule was giving Island some independence, a really, really good answer, that would have been more specific.

So Home Rule was the process of allowing the Island of Ireland to have its own parliament in Dublin.

So it was Home Rule.

It was the idea of having a parliament at home, a parliament in Ireland.

Number two, why did people in Ulster call Home rule 'Rome Rule'? So an acceptable answer would have been the people of Ulster called Home Rule 'Rome Rule' because they were scared of the Catholics.

So they were scared of the majority of the population being Catholics.

A really good answer that would have expanded on that a little bit though.

So a good answer would have been, the people have also called Home Rule 'Rome Rule' because they were concerned as a minority group that they would not have much say in an Irish parliament as most of the Island was Catholic.

So when you got outside of Ulster, which is in the North of the Island, which is majority in that particular region protestant For the rest of the Island, there is a mix between Protestantism and Catholicism, but for the most part, the majority of the Irish population who are still Catholic.

Option three, what happened in Easter 1916? Again, I'm going to try not to waffle about this because I love the Easter rising, an acceptable answer would have been Irish people rebelled against British rule in Ireland.

A really good answer that would have been, groups of Irish nationalists because there were multiple groups.

There was the Irish citizens army, the Irish volunteer force, Cumann na mBan, who were the women's movement, led an arm's rebellion against English rule in Ireland.

Number four, Did the Easter Rising end the violence in Ireland.

Acceptable answer, it did not end the violence in Ireland.

Violence in Ireland continued for decades.

A good answer that would have been the Easter Rising did not end violence in Ireland after it.

So after the Easter Rising in 1916, there was also the war of independence and then the Irish civil war too.

So when we talk about the process of independence in Ireland, it is quite a violent process.

Lastly challenge.

What did partition do to the Island of Ireland? An acceptable answer would have been, partition divided Ireland.

I really good answered that would have been, partitioned divided Ireland between the Irish free state So the South of Ireland, what is today the Republic of Ireland in the South and Northern Ireland in the North and Northern Ireland in the North remains part of Britain.

People in Northern Ireland to this day who are pro remaining in Britain are known as unionists.

They're pro the union with Britain.

Okay, so when we think about this question over these coming lessons, we will be considering the de-colonization processes in Ireland, Ghana, and Jamaica, and comparing them.

So we need to think about who decolonized in Ireland.

So in Ireland, initially from the 19th century onwards, there were a series of Irish politicians who had campaigned for Home Rule.

So they were campaigning to remain as part of the British Isles.

However, they wanted more of a say in their own government in Ireland by having the creation of their own parliament in Dublin.

However, when this continually was put off by the British, by the British parliament.

In 1916, nationalist groups were willing to use violence to force the British into granting them some form of self government or full independence.

And so actually in Ireland, we see Irish politicians attempt to create a sense of self government within the law of Britain, but then when that's frustrated and when it's frustrated by World War I, we see nationalist groups willing to use violence to achieve independence.

And as part of these nationalists groups, there were a wide range of people.

So one of my favourite figures, Constance Markievicz, she was an aristocrat.

She was a wealthy Anglo Irish woman.

There were also teachers.

One of the main leaders of the Rising was Patrick Pearse, He was a Irish headmaster who taught at a school which specialised in teaching Gaelic.

So he was part of this movement called the Gaelic revival, which tried to revive the use of Gaelic, which disappeared after the English from the 17th century onwards had banned its speaking in Ireland.

There were also trade unionists.

So men like James Connolly, who were pro the rights of the working class pro the rights of working people.

So it was a wide range of people who fell underneath the nationalist umbrella.

So it wasn't necessarily a rebellion or a movement for decolonization from below.

It wasn't that ordinary people who just Rose up in 1916, it was actually mainly sort of middle class of quite educated people who were behind this movement.

And then after Ireland achieves independence, the politicians who take control of Ireland tend to be men who are veterans of both the Easter Rising or the war of independence and the civil war.

So in Ireland, we have nationalists who forced movement towards independence.

They achieve independence via violence, and then after de-colonization after independence, it tends to be these men that then take control.

Okay, last thing that we will do today is a little bit of an extension activity.

So I've got this question for you.

Was the decolonization of Ireland forced upon the British? What I would like you to do is pause the video and I would just like you to write down your initial answers to that question for me now.

It should take you one or two minutes.

Well done for having a go at that.

Remember, I'm going to take you through what I would have written.

You might not have written exactly the same thing, but if you have the basic gist well done, you can always pause the video and improve what you've written.

Okay, so was the decolonization of Ireland forced upon the British? I would have said this, decolonization in Ireland was forced upon the British.

British politicians had attempted to keep Ireland within the British Isles and British empire by offering Home Rule.

Providing Ireland independence was though forced on Britain by the violence of the Easter Rising of 1916.

This Rising changed Irish opinions with Britain and led to the Irish war of independence.

The British government was forced to create the Irish free state in 1921 to 1922.

So partition becomes official in 1922.

So when we go forward and we look at Ghana and Jamaica, it's important that we remember in Ireland, the process towards independence was one of violence and it was one pushed forward by nationalists.

And it eventually caused the division of the Ireland between the unionist North in the North of Ireland, which remain part of the British Isles and the South which first became the Irish free state.

And then eventually became the Republic of Ireland.

Really well done for all your work today.

I hope I haven't waffled on too much about Irish history.

I do love it.

I would love for you to share your work with me.

So if you'd like to please ask your parent or carer to share your work on Instagram, Facebook, or Twitter, tagging at Oak National and hashtag learn with Oak.

I've been Miss Apps.

Thank you so much for today.

And I will see you soon goodbye.