Britain relinquished the Protectorate almost unconditionally

Evidence

Although the wider aims of the Mission were to reassure Menelik as to Britain’s interests in the context of Anglo-French rivalry on the Nile, and to secure at least Ethiopian neutrality in the war against the Khalifa in the Sudan, the settlement of the British Protectorate’s frontiers was described as one of the principal objects of the negotiations. However, the actual terms in which the Protectorate’s frontiers were to be defined and the concessions which might have to be made were of relatively minor importance if Rodd could succeed in establishing friendly relations with Ethiopia. Britain was not prepared to defend the 1894 frontiers if this would entail any considerable expenditure: indeed the possibility of abandoning the Somaliland Protectorate altogether had already been raised. The Aden authorities, however, had insisted that this drastic course was impossible, and so the problem remained of retaining the Protectorate in a form sufficient to satisfy Aden’s requirements in meat imports but within boundaries acceptable to Menelik. — I.M. Lewis, I. M. Lewis, A Modern History of the Somali_ Nation…, 183 (#corroborates, via linked claim)

British Somaliland had come a long way towards realizing Somali nationalist aims, despite the tardy beginnings of the early 1950s, and with official British approval for eventual union with Somalia already indicated in 1957 and reiterated more strongly in 1959, the territory seemed now set fair on a course of a few years’ final preparation for independence. Few observers, certainly, anticipated that the Protectorate was to be thrust into independence in a matter of months, thus in the event forestalling Somalia. This view which envisaged a calm and gradual final phase of British tutelage, however, seriously underestimated the great surge of nationalist interest generated by Somalia’s forthcoming independence. Already in 1959, delegates from all the parties and political groups in the Protectorate had participated in the formation at Mogadishu of the National Pan-Somali Movement. In its charter this organization embraced the twin aims of campaigning by peaceful means for the independence and unification of all the Somali territories, and of creating firm ties with other African and Asian states. With these political manœuvres towards unification gathering increasing momentum it was evident, in the wider context of Somali affairs, that the Protectorate’s independence could not long be delayed. — I.M. Lewis, I. M. Lewis, A Modern History of the Somali_ Nation…, 405 (#expands, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: France secured total land cession from the ‘Ise while Britain did not; Britain obtained Ethiopian recognition of the Protectorate while ceding no Somali territory to Ethiopia; Britain nearly abandoned its Somaliland Protectorate over cost concerns. — I.M. Lewis, I. M. Lewis, A Modern History of the Somali_ Nation…, 183 (+5 more)

Related

• Britain nearly abandoned its Somaliland Protectorate over cost concerns. (similarity 0.92)
• Britain in 1897 nearly abandoned its Somaliland protectorate (similarity 0.89)
• Britain obtained Ethiopian recognition of the Protectorate while ceding no Somali territory to Ethiopia (similarity 0.87)
• Frontier demarcation with Ethiopia first revealed Britain’s withdrawal of protection (similarity 0.85)
• British goodwill cheaply surrendered its Somaliland Protectorate in 1960. (similarity 0.85)
• Britain’s Somaliland involvement was purely a meat-provisioning auxiliary to Aden’s garrison (similarity 0.84)
• Britain abandoned Somali unification because its strategic stakes there were too low (similarity 0.84)
• Britain valued the Somaliland Protectorate mainly for Aden’s meat supply (similarity 0.84)
• Britain’s Somaliland commitments ballooned far beyond its minimal original aims (similarity 0.83)
• Britain’s nominal treaty stipulation masked its earlier unilateral record in Somaliland. (similarity 0.83)
• Britain’s Somali interest was solely the meat supply for Aden (similarity 0.83)
• Britain ceded 67,000 square miles of the Haud to Ethiopia in 1897 (similarity 0.82)
• Britain promised Somalis during WWII that Somalia would never return to Italian rule. (similarity 0.82)
• Somalia’s impending independence accelerated the Protectorate’s own timetable to independence (similarity 0.81)
• The Second World War consolidated all Somali territories under British control (similarity 0.81)

Broader Connections

• Britain nearly abandoned its Somaliland Protectorate over cost concerns. #corroborates (0.80) — I.M. Lewis, I. M. Lewis, A Modern History of the Somali_ Nation…, 183
• Somalia’s impending independence accelerated the Protectorate’s own timetable to independence #expands (0.70) — I.M. Lewis, I. M. Lewis, A Modern History of the Somali_ Nation…, 405