Expert: Dan Smith - 11/21/2004

Question
Emphasis is usually given to the Atlantic Charter of August 1941, in which Franklin D. Roosevelt maneuvered a reluctant Churchill into issuing a joint statement, Article III of which asserted ‘the right of all peoples to choose the form of government under which they will live.'  Scarcely was this declaration made before the British leader began to backtrack by pointing out that the principle only applied in Europe, while simultaneously promoting an alternative ethic of ‘What We Have We Hold.'  Yet the Charter did give an ideological and, as it were, moral respectability to anti-colonialism which it had previously lacked; certainly the self-confidence and maturity evident in the Pan-African Congress held in Manchester in July, 1945, would have been inconceivable six years earlier.  By much the same token, imperial agencies were forced (if only to deflect American criticisms) to adopt more respectable rationales and methods than hitherto; the British Colonial Office, for example, spent much of its time evolving a fresh need for empire summed up in the phrase “Development and Welfare”.

   The war showed the indigenous peoples that the Colonial Whites were not invincible.  In addition, weapons and training that were acquired by the indigenous people were used against the returning colonial powers.  France, Britain and the Netherlands abandoned their colonies after several small wars in Africa showed them that reclaiming their colonies would not come cheaply.  

Answer
I appreciate your comments in the feedback section, but don't you think it's taking advantage a wee bit to float succeeding paragraphs of the same essay by me in this manner? I can help you with this essay at a very reasonable fee, but I can't continue to work on parts of the same project in sequence in this manner. I simply must set and hold to limits on the scale of the pro bono work that I do. This is my livelihood, and though only a small part of it actually comes through this venue, if I allow large-scale projects here to consume my time I'll not be able to pay the rent.

Your topic is an interesting one on which I would enjoy collaborating, but I've just got to set limits.

Thanks for understanding.

You can reach me directly at:

dan@wordsmithofaustin.com