Political Challenges: Many countries emerged from colonialism with little political experience. However, one thing remains important to remember: decolonization is a relatively recent phenomenon. [24] Contemporary decolonial scholarship has critiqued the emancipatory potential of enlightenment thought, highlighting its erasure of Indigenous epistemologies and failure to provide subaltern and Indigenous people with liberty, equality, and dignity. An estimated 20 million Chinese died during the 19311945 war with Japan.[40]. & Smith S. (2001). [5][6], The United Nations (UN) states that the fundamental right to self-determination is the core requirement for decolonization, and that this right can be exercised with or without political independence. And even after independence, leaders faced the challenge of building governments that, ideally, would provide their citizens with physical and economic security along with political rights. Did you think of the American colonies in 1776? Where did decolonization happen after ww2? The first colonial war was in Indochina, where a power vacuum, caused by Japans removal after wartime occupation, gave a unique opportunity to the Communist Viet Minh. This article was most recently revised and updated by, https://www.britannica.com/topic/decolonization, U.S. Department of State - Office of the Historian - Decolonization of Asia and Africa, 19451960. The Balfour Declaration of 1926 declared the British Empire dominions as equals, and the 1931 Statute of Westminster established full legislative independence for them. The process of decolonization largely took place after the end of the Second World War. Some former colonies like South Korea and Taiwan shifted from exporting raw materials to instead producing various industrial goods such as ships and computers. Independence Movements: Long-standing independence movementsbased on the notion of self-rulegained momentum and placed increased pressure on colonial powers following World War II. In 1960, the UN General Assembly voted the Declaration on the Granting of Independence to Colonial Countries and Peoples. At that point Britains Middle Eastern position, which depended on a chain of bases and friendly governments, was imperiled. John Kenneth Galbraith argues that the postWorld War II decolonization was brought about for economic reasons. The chaos of the Napoleonic Wars in Europe cut the direct links between Spain and its American colonies, allowing for the process of decolonization to begin.[28]. Today, fewer than 2 million people live under colonial rule in the 17 remaining non-self-governing territories. In 1885 at the Berlin Conference, the most powerful European countries, the British, French, German, Spanish, and Portuguese, divided the continent amongst themselves. With this new wave of Indian nationalism, Gandhi was eventually able to garner the support needed to push back the British and create an independent India in 1947.[31]. Decolonizing Methodologies: Research and Indigenous Peoples. [30] That country also negotiated on its own and signed bilateral and multilateral treaties and conventions from the early 1900s onward. Britain left India in 1947, Palestine in 1948, and Egypt in 1956; it withdrew from Africa in the 1950s and '60s, from various island protectorates in the 1970s and '80s, and from Hong Kong in 1997. Its massive oil reserves provided about 14 percent of the Dutch national product and supported a large population of ethnic Dutch government officials and businessmen in Jakarta and other major cities. European imperial retreat from sub-Saharan Africa, usually described as decolonization, was one of the most sudden and momentous transformations in the history of the modern world. [15][16], In the two hundred years following the American Revolutionary War in 1783, 165 colonies have gained independence from Western imperial powers. [7] A UN General Assembly Resolution in 1960 characterised colonial foreign rule as a violation of human rights. Puerto Rico became an unincorporated territory of the US, but Cuba became independent in 1902. Decolonization When the United Nations was founded in 1945, some 750 million people, nearly a third of the world's population, lived in Territories that were dependent on colonial Powers.. [45][46] The Netherlands also had one other major colony, Dutch Guiana in South America, which became independent as Suriname in 1975. Local revolts grew in power and finally, the Belgian king suddenly announced in 1959 that independence was on the agenda and it was hurriedly arranged in 1960, for country bitterly and deeply divided on social and economic grounds.[44]. The economic effect in the United States from the granting of independence to the Philippines was unnoticeable, partly due to the Bell Trade Act, which allowed American monopoly in the economy of the Philippines. Eleven Territorieswere placed under this system. After World War II, there was worldwide decolonization as Britain was granting independence to all of its major colonies. After World War II, European countries generally lacked the wealth and political support necessary to suppress faraway revolts; they also faced opposition from the new superpowers, the U.S. and the Soviet Union, both of which had taken positions against colonialism. The African Union includes all 55 African states. three decades following World War II. When the United Nations was formed in 1945, it established trust territories. The Belgian Congo was especially rich, and many Belgian businessmen lobbied hard to maintain control. Between 1945 and 1960, three dozen new . This lack of economic diversification presented challenges for newly independent countries when demand for their primary exports fell. The U.S. relinquished the Philippines in 1946. Subsequent studies of decolonisation addressed economic disparities as a legacy of colonialism as well as the annihilation of people's cultures. By the end of 1954, Gamal Abdel Nasser had induced Britain to accept total withdrawal by June 1956 and set to work to undermine Britains position in Iraq and Jordan. "The Impossible Republic: The Reconquest of Algeria and the Decolonisation of France, 19451962,", Smith, Tony. Source: Dominique Berretty/Gamma-Rapho via Getty Images. Let us know if you have suggestions to improve this article (requires login). In 1945, Africa had four independent countries Egypt, Ethiopia, Liberia, and South Africa. After the war, the Japanese colonial empire was dissolved, and national independence movements resisted the re-imposition of colonial control by European countries and the United States. For example, Syriawhich gained support from the Soviet Union during its fight for independencecontinues to receive critical diplomatic, economic, and military assistance from Moscow amid an ongoing, decade-long civil war. for the viewpoint from London and Paris see Rudolf von Albertini. Source: CIA World Factbook; national government websites. The British pulled out, after dividing the Mandate into Palestine and Jordan.[34]. Indonesia annexed Netherlands New Guinea in 1963, and Portuguese Timor in 1975. Indian medical orderlies attending to wounded soldiers on stretchers outside a dressing station, Mesopotamia, during the First World War. After World War I, France administered the former Ottoman territories of Syria and Lebanon, and the former German colonies of Togoland and Cameroon, as League of Nations mandates. The Monroe Doctrine was expanded by the Roosevelt Corollary in 1904, providing that the United States had a right and obligation to intervene "in flagrant cases of such wrongdoing or impotence" that a nation in the Western Hemisphere became vulnerable to European control. Cold War Challenges: Decolonization did not occur in a vacuum. Demonstrators stand on the statue of Leopold II as one of them holds a national flag of the Democratic Republic of Congo during a protest in central Brussels, Belgium, on June 7, 2020. And in Indonesiaa sprawling Southeast Asian archipelago comprising roughly 6,000 inhabited islands in which more than 260 million citizens speak over 700 languagesthe countrys founding father, Sukarno, attempted to unite the exceedingly diverse country through a national identity based on ideas rather than geography, language, religion, or ethnicity. Compromises were negotiated, but were trusted by neither side. Great Britain took a. It was characterized by massacres of civilians on both sides. During the next 15 years, the Spanish and Royalist on one side, and the rebels on the other fought in South America and Mexico. In 1809, the independence wars of Latin America began with a revolt in La Paz, Bolivia. Please refer to the appropriate style manual or other sources if you have any questions. "French Africa, 194748: Reform, Violence, and Uncertainty in a Colonial Situation.". When Japan formally surrendered to the Allies on September 2, 1945, Ho Chi Minh felt. The colonizer no longer had the burden of obligation, financial or otherwise, to their colony. Driven by pragmatic demands of budgets and manpower the British made deals with the local politicians. The equal dominions were six Canada, Newfoundland, Australia, the Irish Free State, New Zealand, and the Union of South Africa; Ireland had been brought into a union with Great Britain in 1801 creating The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland until the formation of the Irish Free State in 1922. In some areas, it was peaceful, and orderly. With support from Britain, its Monroe Doctrine reserved the Americas as its sphere of interest, prohibiting other states (particularly Spain) from recolonizing the newly independent polities of Latin America. Many other countries have turned to the World Bank and the International Monetary Fundor, more recently, to Chinafor such funding. Cyprus became an independent country in 1960, but ethnic violence escalated until 1974 when Turkey invaded and partitioned the island. Elements of nation-building include creating and promoting symbols of the state like a flag, a coat of arms and an anthem, monuments, official histories, national sports teams, codifying one or more Indigenous official languages, and replacing colonial place-names with local ones. In Cambodia and Madagascar, the promise of democracy faded as dictators seized power amid postcolonial unrest. [80] Some activists have claimed that the attention of the United Nations was "further diverted from the social and economic agenda [for decolonization] towards "firefighting and extinguishing" armed conflicts". In 1950 Indonesia became a centralized, independent republic. It is in this sense that the European Second World War made a contribution to the decolonisation and political liberation of Africa. Libya became an independent kingdom in 1951. The Allied powers divided Korea into two occupation zones, which became the states of North Korea and South Korea. The United States purchased Alaska from the Russian Empire in 1867 and annexed Hawaii in 1898. Then, the 1982 Latin American debt crisis exploded in Mexico first, then Argentina and Brazil, which proved unable to pay back their debts, jeopardizing the existence of the international economic system. In Southeast Asia, the colonial powers returned to their former possessions, while Korea was divided at the 38th Parallel, with the Soviets in the north and the US in the south. South Korea and Taiwan carried out their transformation with economic support from the United States and generous access to the U.S. market for their exports. [36] In 1917, the U.S. purchased the Danish West Indies (later renamed the US Virgin Islands) from Denmark and Puerto Ricans became full U.S. citizens that same year. The world map fundamentally changed during the era of decolonization with roughly a hundred countries coming into existence between 1945 and 1989. The Dutch in the East Indies, and at home, were practically unanimous (except for the communists) that Dutch power and prestige and wealth depended on an extremely expensive war to regain the islands. After World War II, there was uprising decolonization in many countries. The year of decolonization is given chronologically in parentheses.[52]. [96][97][98] Dismantling the feudal structure of global health has been mentioned to be a key decolonisation agenda. These territories had been formally administered under mandates from the League of Nations, or separated from countries defeated in the Second World War, or voluntarily placed under the system by their administering Power. Consumed with post-war debt, European powers were no longer able to afford the resources needed to maintain control of thei r African colonies. Ghana, Guinea, and Mali were so committed to this idea of a United States of Africa that their constitutions allowed their governments to cede partial or total control of their domestic affairs to such an authority. Regarding decolonization, although European powers usually expanded political rights and then granted independence to avoid facing armed rebel groups, power vacuums created by transitioning state authority could trigger war before or . It was to monitor the situation in 11 specific Trust Territories which were subject to separate agreements with administering States. After World War I, several former German and Ottoman territories in the Middle East, Africa, and the Pacific were governed by the UK as League of Nations mandates. From the perspective of language policy (or language politics), "linguistic decolonization" entails the replacement of a colonizing (imperial) power's language with a given colony's indigenous language in the function of official language. An example of decolonization is India becoming independent from England after World War II. He proposed creating a federal system similar to the United States in which a central authority would collect taxes, coordinate foreign policy, promote economic cooperation, and manage an all-African army. Hunt, Lynn, Thomas R. Martin, Barbara H. Rosenwein, R. Po-chia Hsia, and Bonnie G. Smith. Europeans had colonized western Africa in the later 19th and early 20th centuries confident that their civilization was immensely superior to anything Africa had produced or could produce. The process of decolonization in Africa was a long and tedious battle between the imperial powers and the Africans. Examples of such former colonies include South Africa, Australia, Mexico, Brazil, and the United States. In Some Areas, It Was Peaceful, And Orderly. Soviet control of its non-Russian member republics weakened as movements for democratization and self-government gained strength during the late 1980s, and four republics declared independence in 1990 and 1991. A model poses with a Samsung Electronics' Galaxy S8 smartphone during a media event in Seoul, South Korea, on April 13, 2017. In 1933 Japan seized the Chinese province of Rehe, and incorporated it into its Manchurian possessions. The Native Americans were sent to reservations, often unwillingly. Germany, the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and the Ottoman Empire all lost their colonial claims with Great Britain and France receiving the lion's share of their holdings. Hundreds of princely states, states ruled by monarchs in treaty of subsidiary alliance with Britain, were integrated into India and Pakistan. By the time Dutch soldiers returned, an independent government under Sukarno, originally set up by the Japanese, was in power. The Philippines built up a new army, under general Douglas MacArthur, who took leave from his U.S. Army position to take command of the new army reporting to Quezon. Even in Tarzan movies, we would become totally galvanized by the activities of the hero and follow the story from his point of view, completely caught up in the structure of the story. Global Language Politics: Eurasia versus the Rest (pp. Financial, political and military pressure could still be used to achieve goals desired by the colonizer. The end of World War II was not just the end of a war, but also the beginning of a tense and dynamic period that affected society on all levels. The Republic of China regained control of Japanese-occupied territories in Manchuria and eastern China, as well as Taiwan. [2][3] Other scholars extend the meaning to include economic, cultural and psychological aspects of the colonial experience. Eleven Global Issues That Will Shape the Future, conquered more than 80 percent of the worlds landmass between 1492 and 1914, which ruled over two hundred million people across thirteen modern-day countries, attempted to unite the exceedingly diverse country through a national identity based on ideas, pushed for the formation of two separate countries, the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, South Korea has been the beneficiary of American protection. At that time, OPEC nations including many who had recently nationalized their oil industries joined the call for a New International Economic Order to be initiated by coalitions of primary producers. By 1990 all but one of the trust territories had achieved independence, either as independent states or by merger with another independent state; the Northern Mariana Islands elected to become a commonwealth of the United States. Colonialism was both pervasive and persistent. The decolonization of Oceania occurred after World War II when nations in Oceania achieved independence by transitioning from European colonial rule to full independence. Some nationalized industries and infrastructure, and some engaged in land reform to redistribute land to individual farmers or create collective farms. Decolonization is defined as the act of getting rid of colonization, or freeing a country from being dependent on another country. In Asia, kung fu cinema emerged at a time Japan wanted to reach Asian populations in other countries by way of its cultural influence. [83] The UK does not recognize Mauritius' sovereignty claim over the Chagos Archipelago. Indias first prime minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, requested the former British colonial ruler, Lord Louis Mountbatten, stay on to aid the new administration. They faced huge decisions: How should their governments be organized? For hundreds of years, competing, mainly European empires controlled countries or areas around the world and exploited indigenous peoples and resources in territory they ruled. The Europeans were tired of World War II due to the tremendous devastation in Europe, and they could no longer hold on to their colonies in Africa. The Soviet Union declared war on Japan in August 1945, and shortly after occupied and annexed the southern Kuril Islands, which Japan still claims. Tokelau has been on the United Nations list of Non-Self-Governing Territories since 1946. Religion is yet another common colonial carryover. As the process of decolonization continued to advance, the General Assembly, in 1960, adopted its landmarkDeclaration on the Granting of Independenceto Colonial Countries and Peoples. Netherlands: Portugal: Where did rapid decolonization occur after WWII? This led to distrust between the Portuguese and the Brazilian colonists, and finally, in 1822, to the colony becoming independent as the Empire of Brazil, which later became a republic. 15 views, 0 likes, 0 loves, 0 comments, 0 shares, Facebook Watch Videos from Pamppo: Something Has Changed in England| BIDEN FOX BREAKING NEWS - APRIL. When the Indonesian Republic successfully suppressed a large-scale communist revolt, the United States realized that it needed the nationalist government as an ally in the Cold War. The decolonization process was a result of a combination of factors such as nationalism, anti-colonialism, and the changing geopolitical landscape. Decolonization[a] or decolonisation[b] is the undoing of colonialism, the latter being the process whereby imperial nations establish and dominate foreign territories, often overseas. President Woodrow Wilson, a Democrat in office from 1913 to 1921, ignored the Philippines, and focused his attention on Mexico and Caribbean nations. General elections in India in 1946 strengthened the Muslim League. After their 2nd defeat, a Frenchman called Santiague de Liniers was proclaimed a new Viceroy by the local population and later accepted by Spain. "Decolonisation, Democratisation, and Communist Reform: The Soviet Collapse in Comparative Perspective," Journal of World History 12#2 (2001), 375406.
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