Ashley Jackson
- Published in print:
- 1999
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198207641
- eISBN:
- 9780191677762
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198207641.003.0002
- Subject:
- History, World Modern History
When the war broke out, the British moved that the Bechuanaland Protectorate be mobilized for the British army, as about 11,000 soldiers were recruited to serve abroad. Although one of the universal ...
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When the war broke out, the British moved that the Bechuanaland Protectorate be mobilized for the British army, as about 11,000 soldiers were recruited to serve abroad. Although one of the universal assumptions about this event entails how the Africans refused to join the army, and that they avoided various efforts made for their involvement, this chapter considers several different underlying motives to such actions of the British Administration, and looks into how ordinary people participated in this movement, regardless of whether they willingly supported the war or whether they served as ‘conscripted volunteers’. It also examines how and why the African Chiefs within the territory and the British Administration of Bechuanaland were able to strongly reinforce such recruitment measures.Less
When the war broke out, the British moved that the Bechuanaland Protectorate be mobilized for the British army, as about 11,000 soldiers were recruited to serve abroad. Although one of the universal assumptions about this event entails how the Africans refused to join the army, and that they avoided various efforts made for their involvement, this chapter considers several different underlying motives to such actions of the British Administration, and looks into how ordinary people participated in this movement, regardless of whether they willingly supported the war or whether they served as ‘conscripted volunteers’. It also examines how and why the African Chiefs within the territory and the British Administration of Bechuanaland were able to strongly reinforce such recruitment measures.
