1914–1920s: (The War’s Aftermath — Colonial Economies Suffering Setback, the First World War Marking the Last High Point of Crude Force, the Experience Polit…

1914–1920s: (The War’s Aftermath — Colonial Economies Suffering Setback, the First World War Marking the Last High Point of Crude Force, the Experience Politicizing Africans Who Had Witnessed Europeans Killing Each Other, the South African Native National Congress Petitioning for Representation at Versailles, and the Egyptian Wafd Movement Erupting in Territory-Wide Violent Protest in 1919): Nascent colonial economies suffered during the war — trade declined, export prices fell, governments controlled prices and wages, and the prices of imports climbed steadily. Combined with requisitioning, forced labor, compulsory crop cultivation, and conscription, millions of Africans experienced straitened circumstances. The war marked the last high point of crude force — from the 1920s onward, soldiers repaired to barracks and market forces became more important than machine-guns. Those Africans who had witnessed Europeans killing one another would not easily forget the brutal ambiguity of colonial rule and the deeply flawed humanity of European civilization. The experience gave rise to the earliest quasi-political associations and protest identities. In South Africa, the South African Native National Congress, founded in 1912 and later the ANC, petitioned King George V for representation at Versailles, invoking the principle of self-determination. In Egypt, the Wafd movement erupted when the British detained the nationalist Sa’ad Zaghlul, prompting territory-wide violent protest in 1919. Post-war talk of self-determination also stirred movements in Algeria, Tunisia, Morocco, and Libya.