Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Maps, Photographs & Tables
- Acknowledgements
- Abbreviations
- Note on Terminology
- Glossary
- Map 1 Malawi Region, late 19th century
- Map 2 Malawi, mid-twentieth century
- Map 3 Southern Malawi
- Introduction
- 1 The Land & the People
- 2 Commerce, Christianity & Colonial Conquest
- 3 The Making of the Colonial Economy, 1891–1915
- 4 Religion, Culture & Society
- 5 The Chilembwe Rising
- 6 Malawi & the First World War
- 7 Planters, Peasants & Migrants: the Interwar Years
- 8 The Great Depression & its Aftermath
- 9 Contours of Colonialism
- 10 The Age of Development
- 11 The Urban Experience
- 12 Peasants & Politicians, 1943–1953
- 13 The Liberation Struggle, 1953–1959
- 14 The Making of Malawi, 1959–1963
- 15 Prelude to Independence: Unity & Diversity
- 16 Revolt & Realignment, 1964–1966
- Bibliography
- Index
8 - The Great Depression & its Aftermath
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 February 2013
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Maps, Photographs & Tables
- Acknowledgements
- Abbreviations
- Note on Terminology
- Glossary
- Map 1 Malawi Region, late 19th century
- Map 2 Malawi, mid-twentieth century
- Map 3 Southern Malawi
- Introduction
- 1 The Land & the People
- 2 Commerce, Christianity & Colonial Conquest
- 3 The Making of the Colonial Economy, 1891–1915
- 4 Religion, Culture & Society
- 5 The Chilembwe Rising
- 6 Malawi & the First World War
- 7 Planters, Peasants & Migrants: the Interwar Years
- 8 The Great Depression & its Aftermath
- 9 Contours of Colonialism
- 10 The Age of Development
- 11 The Urban Experience
- 12 Peasants & Politicians, 1943–1953
- 13 The Liberation Struggle, 1953–1959
- 14 The Making of Malawi, 1959–1963
- 15 Prelude to Independence: Unity & Diversity
- 16 Revolt & Realignment, 1964–1966
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
Historians are divided on the impact of the Great Depression on third world societies. One view, expressed most eloquently by John Iliffe for Tanganyika, is that the period originating with the onset of the world depression in 1929 and continuing up to 1945 was a turning point, marking both the emergence of colonial society in its most complete form and the beginning of its dissolution. The alternative argument, advanced most vigorously in a collection of essays edited by Ian Brown, is that the impact of the depression on non–Western societies was much less damaging than is conventionally believed. Peasants suffered from the world-wide fall in prices for primary products between 1929 and 1933 but they benefited from the admittedly shallower fall in the price of manufactured imports and were often better equipped than settlers to adapt to the new economic conditions.
In this chapter, I follow Iliffe in suggesting that the depression was an event of great importance, exposing in a particularly vivid manner the contradictory interests that were involved in the shaping of Nyasaland's economy. But I also suggest that its effects tended to be muted, partly because, in many instances, peasants were able to ride out the storms to which they were exposed; partly because the new policies to which the colonial government resorted in the 1930s could not be put effectively into practice because of a shortage of funds. The 1930s, therefore, mark the beginnings of important new developments, economic and political, in the relations of Malawians with their colonial rulers. But it was not until the late 1940s and the early 1950s that the real crisis of colonial society emerged.
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- Information
- A History of Malawi1859-1966, pp. 193 - 214Publisher: Boydell & BrewerPrint publication year: 2012