The Nyasaland High Court in 1903 exempted the original inhabitants of estates from thangata and gave them some security. Legislation allowing other tenants to pay rent rather than thangata, and to receive cash wages if they performed more than the required thangata was enacted in 1908, but not implemented. Soon after the outbreak of the First World War, in December 1914, the Nyasaland government introduced a Nyasaland Defence Ordinance, requiring men to serve as porters in support of local armed forces. This service was equated with thangata, as those conscripted were forced to work on something that did not benefit them. The harshness of thangata, including the conscription of porters was at least one of the reasons underlying the 1915 uprising led by John Chilembwe. Following this revolt, a new attempt to abolish thangata in favour of cash rent was made, but it failed because of the political influence of the estate owners that opposed the measure. The thangata system was a bar to progress and impoverished people by limiting the amount of time they could work for themselves. There was no place for crafts or skills in thangata: ot reduced all tenants to unskilled manual labour, and was likened to a form of serfdom.