1920s–1930s: (Part IV — Colonialisms: The Core Objectives of Taxation and Labor, the Transport Revolution as the Most Transformative Colonial Legacy, the Amb…

1920s–1930s: (Part IV — Colonialisms: The Core Objectives of Taxation and Labor, the Transport Revolution as the Most Transformative Colonial Legacy, the Ambiguity of a System That Brought Both Dislocation and the Technological Power to Address It, the 1920s as an Era When Some Africans Believed the System Could Improve Their Lives, and the 1930s Depression Cracking the Edifice and Pushing Colonial Thinking Toward Greater Intervention and Political Inclusiveness): Colonial administrations across the continent shared core objectives: creating a revenue base through poll or head taxes — for many Africans the first real sign of lost sovereignty — compelling Africans into a labor pool, and expanding cash-crop production and mining. Until the 1920s, education and healthcare remained largely in mission hands, and the state was often insignificant in many walks of life. Colonialism’s most important legacy was tying the continent to the international economy through a transport revolution — railways and roads making production for global markets viable. In the 1920s, some Africans believed colonial rule offered progress: the pax colonia had reduced violence, opened economic opportunities in cash crops and migration, and population growth followed the catastrophes of the 1890–1920 period. The ambiguity of colonialism lay in the fact that it brought massive dislocation and new diseases but also possessed technological power to address these crises — through medicine, for example, to control African bodies and souls more effectively. Things changed in the 1930s — the Great Depression engendered heightened political consciousness and new forms of protest as disillusionment set in. Older indirect-rule chiefs found themselves out of step with an increasingly commercialized peasantry and expanding urban population. Colonial officials bemoaned the system’s directionlessness and inherent brutality. An important outcome was a move toward greater colonial intervention and enlargement of the state itself, accompanied by recognition of the need for greater political inclusiveness. Indirect rule was seen as increasingly archaic, and colonial rulers were unwittingly paving the way for incorporation of the new educated elites they had long excluded. The Second World War would prove a turning point, after which new conversations between colonizer and colonized would be required.