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Periodical article Periodical article Leiden University catalogue Leiden University catalogue WorldCat catalogue WorldCat
Title:Region Formation under Crisis Conditions: South vs Southern Africa in the Interwar Period
Author:Martin, William G.ISNI
Year:1990
Periodical:Journal of Southern African Studies
Volume:16
Issue:1
Period:March
Pages:112-138
Language:English
Geographic term:Southern Africa
Subjects:regional economic relations
economic history
history
1900-1949
Inter-African Relations
Economics and Trade
Development and Technology
History and Exploration
colonialism
External link:https://www.jstor.org/stable/2636642
Abstract:In recent years considerable attention has been paid in Africa to the promotion of economic growth through regional economic associations. Yet little scholarship exists on the historical formation of southern Africa as an existing 'region'. This essay explores this subject by analysing conflicts between local political actors over regional economic relationships in the first half of this century. Examining the period as a whole reveals a critical transition during the interwar period. Two factors were critical in the early post-World War I crisis in South Africa: world prices fell for all of South Africa's primary products and a subsequent offensive by employers triggered open warfare by white and black workers against capital and the State. The most important and contentious conflicts in the 1920s erupted between Southern Rhodesia and South Africa over customs and tariff policies. After 1924 South Africa aggressively promoted the development of secondary industry. For the surrounding territories this entailed a radical revision of long-standing relationships: the free trade zone shattered and strongly interdependent and inherently unequal relationships emerged across the economic landscape of southern Africa for the first time. Notes, ref., sum.
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