This article review will focus on Philippa Levine's article "Battle Colors: Race, Sex, and Colonial Soldiery in World War I." It will summarize her article as well as critique her main argument and her views expressed.
Philippa Levine's main argument is that "racism was functionally necessary to the stability of imperial rule." She supports this argument through many points. The First World War's size and duration required Britain to utilize the strength of all her colonies to protect her land, therefore troops from Canada, Australia, New Zealand, India and South Africa were imported to defend the crown. "In addition to the 1.3 million colonial soldiers from the white Dominions (Canada, Australia, New Zealand) over 800,000 Indians fought for the British and over 20,000 South African blacks served in the South African Native Labour Contingent (SANLC)." Britain also formed smaller forces on the Gold Coast, in Southern Rhodesia, Nigeria, Kenya and the West Indies. World War I brought with it Britain's large measures of constraint directed at the white working-class women and at black soldiers, especially Indians. While British and Dominion (white) troops were granted a sufficient amount of freedom away from the battlefields, black soldiers and working-class women's physical and sexual freedoms were limited. Venereal disease was running rampant among troops who allegedly contracted it from the working class white women. VD control became the main justification for wartime restrictions on these already disadvantaged groups. "The war brought with it a startling link between racial mistrust and a vision of sexual disorder in which "unruly" women and potentially disloyal colonials were subject to far more rigorous controls than other groups." SANLC members were kept in closed compounds and were strictly forbidden to enter the home of a European while CAHT (Cape Auxiliary Horse Transport) companies were not even allowed to speak to a white woman and were only allowed alcohol one hour a day supervised by a non-commissioned officer present.
