East African Federation Plan From 1898 To 1967

East African Federation Plan was firstly proposed and advanced by Britain during colonialism,it aimed at strengthening the Britain'rule of colonialism in East Africa and maximizing the interests of the white.However,the plan had met obstacles twice during the process and was thus shelved.In 1950s,under the influence of Pan-Africanism and civil independent movements,the leaders of newly-independent east countries were starting to try establishing a kind of federation which was bestowed with east African features and could represent the interests of East Africans themselves.Nevertheless,once the declaration of federation was signed,it went into trouble and could hardly be advanced,under the common impact of internal and external factors,the hypothesis of East African Federation finally failed.The paper tries to comber the development process of East African Federation from 1898 to 1967 and concludes the difficulties in pushing forward the plan during the period,the paper will put emphasis on analyzing the critical reasons why East African Federation had failed,based on that,explore the possibility of re-establishing East African Plan on the basis of East African Community and finally,propose some possible suggestions.The first part of the paper mainly talks about the advancement of East African Federation Plan led by the British government,analyze the reasons why British government pushed forward East African Federation,combs the development process of British's efforts in pushing forward cooperation in East Africa and analyzes the attitudes of different territories in East Africa towards East African Federation.In order to protect the colonialism interests in East Africa,British government wanted to forge East Africa into an East Africa empire under the control of British white people.After the World War One,Britain had sent investigation committees to East Africa several times,to evaluate the establishment of East African Federation,however,they were all rejected by the local territories,therefore,the committees thought it was premature to establish an East African Federation.After the World War Two,Britain formed a high committee of East Africa,it aimed to strengthen the cooperation of territories in East Africa and mentioned the East African Plan again,still,the proposal was strongly boycotted by East Africa especially Buganda kingdom,it once aroused Kabaka crisis and thus postponed.The second part of the paper mainly discusses the development of East African Federation led by East Africans.During the peak of national independent movements,the territories in East Africa were about to get independence,some East African leaders headed by Nyerere proposed East African Federation Plan again,they claimed DE-British and established a federation by East Africans themselves,and after that,realized Pan-Africanism unity and established United States of Africa through the regional integration.East African leaders actively proposed East African Federation Plan by means of Pan-Africanism Liberty Movement Organization of East Africa and Central Africa,East African Common Affairs Organization,common market and currency alliance,they also signed The Deceleration of East African Federation and formed a work group for preparing the Constitution of East African Federation.The third part of the paper mainly talks about the difficulties and obstacles during the process of pushing forward the federation plan after the signing of the declaration,the attitude of Uganda towards the federation turned from merely supportive to conservative,even against.Uganda thought that joining the federation would further worsen its fragile position in the common market of East Africa,adding the influence of Kabaka crisis in Buganda,Uganda's enthusiasm to the federation gradually faded.Uganda was unwilling to make concessions to some fundamental issues concerning power during the preparation of federation constitution,which once led to the stagnation of work group and the draft of federation constitution was aborted.After Tanzania' pulling out of currency alliance,the currency alliance of East Africa was finally announced dissolution,the essential foundation for establishing East African Federation had disappeared,and after East Africa Cooperation Treaty was signed which announced the establishment of East African Community,East African Federation Plan eventually failed.Then the paper puts emphasis on discussing the reasons why East African Plan has failed.The long-standing unfair economic distribution existing in the common market of East Africa led to a prudent attitude held by East African leaders towards the federation at the later stage,and the differences in pursuing the path of political development,especially in the ideologies,made it harder and harder for three East African countries to reach an agreement.Actually,the differences and disputes surrounding the federation constitution were also the disputes on power distributions,including the power distribution of the member states' leaders,power configuration between federal government and governments of member states,they all reflected the obsession of East African leaders or officials with power.And the inherent sovereign issues behind regional integration,conflict between international interests and goal of regional integration,were two essential reasons why the federation plan had failed,the newly-independent countries were guided by nationalism and focused on rebuilding country and maintaining national interests,therefore,the task of realizing regional integration was not among top priorities.The fourth part of the paper mainly concludes the experiences of East African Federation Plan and provides some suggestions in order to rebuild East African Federation.During the process of regional integration,economic interests and political power are core inevitable issues,either the early East African Federation Plan or realizing the plan by economic integration,only if an agreement on interests and power distribution is reached,can the federation plan be finally realized.