Britain, Northern Rhodesia and the First World War

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-xxi

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2. Pre-War Northern Rhodesia: The Structural Weaknesses of Colonial Control

   • Edmund James Yorke

   Pages 1-29

3. War Labour Recruitment and Mobilisation: The Roots of Crisis

   • Edmund James Yorke

   Pages 30-63

4. Advent of a ‘White Man’s War’: Early Implications for the Survival of White Supremacy

   • Edmund James Yorke

   Pages 64-95

5. Colonial Dependence and African Opportunity: The Indigenous Response to War Exigencies

   • Edmund James Yorke

   Pages 96-124

6. Crumbling Foundations of the Colonial Edifice: Chiefs and Headmen at War

   • Edmund James Yorke

   Pages 125-153

7. The Strain of Total War: A Colonial State in Retreat

   • Edmund James Yorke

   Pages 154-185

8. The Nadir of Colonial Power in Northern Rhodesia

   • Edmund James Yorke

   Pages 186-211

9. Reconquest and Reconstruction

   • Edmund James Yorke

   Pages 212-255

10. Back Matter

    Pages 256-337

    PDF

An insightful account of the devastating impact of the Great War, upon the already fragile British colonial African state of Northern Rhodesia. Deploying extensive archival and rare evidence from surviving African veterans, it investigates African resistance at this time.

• African resistance
• Africa
• Holocaust
• Colonial State Collapse
• World War
• Spanish influenza
• Colonial Crisis
• African
• construction
• crisis
• First World War
• foundation
• reconstruction
• resistance
• time

“The author has filled a gap in the early years of Northern Rhodesia dominated by WWI. No-one before has brought together so much relevant material in such a concentrated form. … The author is to be warmly congratulated for his contribution to such an important part of Northern Rhodesia’s social, imperial and military history and on the painstaking research entailed.” (Roland A. Hill, The Overseas Pensioner, Issue 111, April, 2016)

"The ideas of "total war" may have been developed on the back of the First World War in Europe, but this book shows how relevant many were to the war outside Europe. Edmund Yorke weaves together economic, imperial and military history to show the impact of war in ways that each, in isolation, cannot begin to convey. He provides context and illumination from one to the others. Here in microcosm is a case study of the effects of "total" and protracted warfare in sub-Saharan Africa." - Hew Strachan, Chichele Professor of War Studies, University of Oxford, UK.

• Royal Military Academy, Sandhurst, UK

  Edmund James Yorke

Edmund Yorke is currently Senior Lecturer in the War Studies Department at the Royal Military Academy, Sandhurst, UK. He has authored works on British Imperial and Commonwealth political and military affairs and his recent books include The New South Africa (1998), Playing the Great Game (2012), Battle Story's Rorkes Drift and Isandlwana (2011 and 2012), and Mafeking (2014).

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