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112-463: The term "wars of national liberation" is most commonly used for those fought during the decolonization movement. Since these were primarily in the third world , against Western powers and their economic influence, and a major aspect of the Cold War , the phrase has often been applied selectively to criticize the foreign power involved. Some of these wars were either vocally or materially supported by

224-568: A New International Economic Order (NIEO). The NIEO was opposed to the 1944 Bretton Woods system , which had benefited the leading states which had created it, and remained in force until 1971 after the United States' suspension of convertibility from dollars to gold. The main principles of the NIEO are: The UNCTAD however was not very effective in implementing the NIEO, and social and economic inequalities between industrialized countries and

336-530: A pan-ethnicity consisting of people of different ethnic and national backgrounds. As a result, some Latin Americans do not take their nationality as an ethnicity , but identify themselves with a combination of their nationality , ethnicity and their ancestral origins. In addition to the indigenous population, Latin Americans include people with Old World ancestors who arrived since 1492. Latin America has

448-649: A Democrat in office from 1913 to 1921, ignored the Philippines, and focused his attention on Mexico and Caribbean nations. By the 1920s, the peaceful efforts by the Filipino leadership to pursue independence proved convincing. When the Democrats returned to power in 1933, they worked with the Filipinos to plan a smooth transition to independence. It was scheduled for 1946 by Tydings–McDuffie Act of 1934. In 1935,

560-567: A French-protected monarchy. Spain took the step to occupy the Dominican Republic and restore colonial rule . The Union victory in the Civil War in 1865 forced both France and Spain to accede to American demands to evacuate those two countries. America's only African colony, Liberia , was formed privately and achieved independence early; Washington unofficially protected it. By 1900, the U.S. advocated an Open Door Policy and opposed

672-579: A beacon of hope to pro-independence activists. However, with the anti-colonial wars of the 1900s (decade) barely over, new modernizing forms of Africa nationalism began to gain strength in the early 20th century with the emergence of Pan-Africanism, as advocated by the Jamaican journalist Marcus Garvey (1887–1940) whose widely distributed newspapers demanded swift abolition of European imperialism, as well as republicanism in Egypt. Kwame Nkrumah (1909–1972) who

784-475: A few groups in the country's highlands. In Bolivia , Aymara , Quechua and Guaraní hold official status alongside Spanish. Guarani is, along with Spanish, an official language of Paraguay , and is spoken by a majority of the population (who are, for the most part, bilingual), and it is co-official with Spanish in the Argentine province of Corrientes . In Nicaragua , Spanish is the official language, but, on

896-812: A ground offensive to liberate Kuwait from Iraqi occupation . The 1991 breakup of Yugoslavia led to fewer wars of independence in part of the Yugoslav Wars , including the Ten-Day War and the Croatian War of Independence . The aftermath of the Rwandan genocide saw the AFDL invade Zaire , overthrowing the regime of Mobutu and reverting its name to the Democratic Republic of the Congo . In

1008-425: A larger context of great power politics and are often proxy wars . These strategies explain why they are quite successful against foreign regimes and quite unsuccessful against indigenous regimes. Foreign regimes usually have a threshold beyond which they would prefer to go home rather than to fight the war. By contrast, an indigenous regime has no place to which they can retreat, and will fight much harder because of

1120-511: A left-wing revolution inside Portugal overthrew the existing regime and encouraged pro-Soviet elements to attempt to seize control in the colonies. The result was a very long and extremely difficult multi-party Civil War in Angola , and lesser insurrections in Mozambique. Belgium's empire began with the annexation of the Congo in 1908 in response to international pressure to bring an end to

1232-698: A majority; some are dominated by inhabitants of European ancestry; and some countries' populations are primarily mulatto . Black , Asian , and zambo (mixed black and native American) minorities are also identified regularly. White Latin Americans are the largest single group, accounting for more than one-third of the population. The Latinobarómetro surveys have asked respondents in 18 Latin American countries what race they considered themselves to belong to. The figures shown below are averages for 2007 through 2011. Don't know/No response. Weighted using 2011 population. Spanish and Portuguese are

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1344-758: A nation in the Western Hemisphere became vulnerable to European control. In practice, this meant that the United States was led to act as a collections agent for European creditors by administering customs duties in the Dominican Republic (1905–1941), Haiti (1915–1934), and elsewhere. The intrusiveness and bad relations this engendered were somewhat checked by the Clark Memorandum and renounced by President Franklin D. Roosevelt 's " Good Neighbor Policy ". The Fourteen Points were preconditions addressed by President Woodrow Wilson to

1456-447: 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. The Japanese occupation 1942 to 1945 disrupted but did not delay the transition. It took place on schedule in 1946 as Manuel Roxas took office as president. As a result of its pioneering discoveries , Portugal had a large and particularly long-lasting colonial empire which had begun in 1415 with

1568-459: A predominance of mixed indigenous and European descent or mestizo , population; in others, native Americans are a majority; some are mostly inhabited by people of European ancestry; others are primarily mulatto . The largest single group are white Latin Americans . Together with the people of part European ancestry, they combine for almost the totality of the population. Latin Americans and their descendants can be found almost everywhere in

1680-437: A result of economic shifts toward wage labor and an enlarged bourgeois class ; yet another argument sees decolonization as a diffusion process wherein earlier revolutionary movements inspired later ones. Other explanations emphasize how the lower profitability of colonization and the costs associated with empire prompted decolonization. Some explanations emphasize how colonial powers struggled militarily against insurgents in

1792-587: A result, the UN General Assembly removed Puerto Rico from the U.N. list of non-self-governing territories . Four referendums showed little support for independence, but much interest in statehood such as Hawaii and Alaska received in 1959. 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

1904-702: A series of campaigns in the war of independence (1919-1922), which resulted in the subsequent withdrawal of Allied forces and establishment of the Republic of Turkey . The Indonesian War of Independence (1945-1949) followed with the Liberation of Irian Jaya (1960-1962), the First Indochina War (1946–54), Vietnam War (1959–75), Bangladesh Liberation War (1971) and the Algerian War (1954–62) were all considered national liberation wars by

2016-551: Is general agreement among all states today in principle that the use of force to frustrate a people's legal right to self-determination is unlawful. Wars of national liberation are usually fought using guerrilla warfare. The main purpose of these tactics is to increase the cost of the anti-guerrilla forces past the point where such forces are willing to bear. Wars of national liberation generally depend on widespread public support, with ordinary civilians providing crucial support. Finally, wars of national liberation are often embedded in

2128-628: Is primarily spoken in the Lesser Antilles. It is a French-based creole, that is the local language spoken among the natives of the Caribbean islands of Saint Lucia and Dominica and also in Martinique and Guadeloupe . Creole languages of mainland Latin America, similarly, are derived from European languages and various African tongues. The vast majority of Latin Americans are Christians (90%), mostly Roman Catholics . About 71% of

2240-858: The 1965 occupation of the Dominican Republic ), Africa, and the Middle East to oppose Communist movements and insurgencies. Since the dissolution of the Soviet Union, the United States has been far less active in the Americas, but invaded Afghanistan and Iraq following the September 11 attacks in 2001, establishing army and air bases in Central Asia . Before World War I, Japan had gained several substantial colonial possessions in East Asia such as Taiwan (1895) and Korea (1910). Japan joined

2352-854: The Bandung Conference along with Sukarno , the leader of Indonesia, and Zhou Enlai , Premier of the People's Republic of China. In 1960, the UN General Assembly voted on the Declaration on the Granting of Independence to Colonial Countries and Peoples . The next year, the first Non-Aligned Movement conference was held in Belgrade (1961), and was followed in 1964 by the creation of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) which tried to promote

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2464-574: The British Raj , culminating in the Government of India Act 1935 . These reforms included creating elected legislative councils in some of the provinces of British India . Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi , India's independence movement leader, led a peaceful resistance to British rule. By becoming a symbol of both peace and opposition to British imperialism, many Indians began to view the British as

2576-516: The Caribbean region, creole languages are spoken. The most widely spoken creole language in the Caribbean and Latin America in general is Haitian Creole , the predominant language of Haiti ; it is derived primarily from French and certain West African tongues with indigenous, English, Portuguese and Spanish influences as well. The other most spoken Creole is Antillean Creole French that

2688-549: The Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico in the Caribbean —in summary, Hispanic America , plus Brazil and Haiti . Canada and the United States , despite having sizeable Romance-speaking communities, are almost never included in the definition, primarily for being predominantly English-speaking Anglosphere countries. Latin America, therefore, can be defined as all those parts of the Americas that were once part of

2800-636: The Dutch East Indies , corresponding to what is now Indonesia. 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 Batavia (now Jakarta) and other major cities. The Netherlands was overrun and almost starved to death by the Nazis during the war, and Japan sank the Dutch fleet in seizing

2912-750: The Great Mosque of Paris was constructed as recognition of these efforts, the French state had no intention to allow self-rule , let alone grant independence to the colonized people. Thus, nationalism in the colonies became stronger in between the two wars, leading to Abd el-Krim 's Rif War (1921–1925) in Morocco and to the creation of Messali Hadj 's Star of North Africa in Algeria in 1925. However, these movements would gain full potential only after World War II. After World War I, France administered

3024-724: 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. However, some of the Dominions were already independent de facto, and even de jure and recognized as such by the international community. Thus, Canada was a founding member of

3136-688: The Kingdom of Sikkim merged with India by popular vote in 1975. Significant violence was involved in several prominent cases of decolonization of the British Empire; partition was a frequent solution. In 1783, the North American colonies were divided between the independent United States, and British North America , which later became Canada. The Indian Rebellion of 1857 was a major uprising in India against British East India Company . It

3248-701: The Northern Mariana Islands elected to become a commonwealth of the United States. Newly independent states organised themselves in order to oppose continued economic colonialism by former imperial powers. The Non-Aligned Movement constituted itself around the main figures of Jawaharlal Nehru , the first Prime Minister of India, Sukarno , the Indonesian president, Josip Broz Tito the Communist leader of Yugoslavia , and Gamal Abdel Nasser , head of Egypt. In 1955 these leaders gathered at

3360-790: The OAU at that time included the African National Congress (ANC) and Pan Africanist Congress of Azania (PAC). It is the only non-African national liberation movement to hold observer status in the OAU, and was one of the first national liberation movements granted permanent observer status by the United Nations General Assembly pursuant to a 1974 resolution. The PLO also participates in UN Security Council debates; since 1988, it has represented

3472-511: The Palestinian people at the UN under the name " Palestine ". The following current conflicts have sometimes also been characterized as wars or struggles of national liberation (such a designation is often subject to controversy): Conflicts which have been described as national liberation struggles: Decolonization Decolonization is the undoing of colonialism , the latter being

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3584-637: The Soviet Bloc , and thus a form of imperialism itself. The People's Republic of China criticized the Soviet Union as being social imperialist . In turn, China presented themselves as models of independent nationalist development outside of Western influence, particularly as such posturing and other long-term hostility meant they were regarded as a threat to Western power and regarded themselves as such, using their resources to politically, economically and militarily assist movements such as in Vietnam . When

3696-538: The Soviet Union at the end of the Cold War . Early studies of decolonisation appeared in the 1960s and 1970s. An important book from this period was The Wretched of the Earth (1961) by Martiniquan author Frantz Fanon , which established many aspects of decolonisation that would be considered in later works. Subsequent studies of decolonisation addressed economic disparities as a legacy of colonialism as well as

3808-464: The Soviet Union , which claimed to be an anti-imperialist power, supporting the replacement of western-backed governments with local communist or other non pro-western parties. In January 1961 Soviet premier Nikita Khrushchev pledged support for "wars of national liberation" throughout the world. On the other hand, the Soviet involvement was often viewed as a way to increase the size and influence of

3920-509: The Spanish , Portuguese or French colonial empires, namely Spanish America , Colonial Brazil and New France . . The population of Latin America comprises a variety of ancestries, ethnic groups and races, making the region one of the most diverse in the world. The specific composition varies from country to country: many have a predominance of mixed European and native American, or mestizo , population; in others, native Americans are

4032-572: The Spanish Empire and Mexico. The Native Americans were sent to reservations , often unwillingly. 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 . However, France, taking advantage of the American government's distraction during the Civil War, intervened militarily in Mexico and set up

4144-779: The Territory of the Philippine Islands was eventually granted independence. 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 US government declared Puerto Rico the territory was no longer a colony and stopped transmitting information about it to the United Nations Decolonization Committee. As

4256-518: The UN Partition Plan and the ensuing war . The British eventually pulled out, and the former Mandate territory was divided between Israel , Jordan and Egypt . After World War I, the colonized people were frustrated at France's failure to recognize the effort provided by the French colonies (resources, but more importantly colonial troops – the famous tirailleurs ). Although in Paris

4368-704: The Union of South Africa , and Western Samoa by New Zealand . Egypt became independent in 1922, although the UK retained security prerogatives, control of the Suez Canal , and effective control of the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan . 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 equal dominions were six– Canada , Newfoundland , Australia,

4480-400: The Vietnam War , Soviet premier Nikita Khrushchev would pledge support for "wars of national liberation" throughout the world. In the same decade, Cuba , led by Fidel Castro , would support national liberation movements in Angola and Mozambique . The Portuguese colonial wars finally led to the recognition of Angola, Mozambique and Guinea-Bissau as independent states in 1975, following

4592-439: The conquest of Ceuta and ended only in 1999 with the handover of Portuguese Macau to China. In 1822, Portugal lost control of Brazil , its largest colony. From 1933 to 1974, Portugal was an authoritarian state (ruled by António de Oliveira Salazar ). The regime was fiercely determined to maintain the country's colonial possessions at all costs and to aggressively suppress any insurgencies. In 1961, India annexed Goa and by

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4704-413: The first Libyan Civil War (2011), an uprising developed into a rebellion , toppling the regime of Muammar Gaddafi and the National Transitional Council declared the liberation of Libya from 42 years of his rule. The Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) is a national liberation movement, meaning that it holds official recognition of its legal status as such. Other national liberation movements in

4816-506: The fundamental right to self-determination is the core requirement for decolonization, and that this right can be exercised with or without political independence. A UN General Assembly Resolution in 1960 characterised colonial foreign rule as a violation of human rights. In states that have won independence, Indigenous people living under settler colonialism continue to make demands for decolonization and self-determination. Although discussions of hegemony and power, central to

4928-421: The royalists , which resulted in the formation of new Latin American states. The Siege of Patras (1821) led to the Greek War of Independence , ending Ottoman domination in the establishment of the Kingdom of Greece . The Easter Rising (1916) in Dublin eventually led to the Irish War of Independence (1919-1921), ending in the establishment of the Irish Free State . In the aftermath of World War I and

5040-418: The terrible atrocities that had taken place under King Leopold 's privately run Congo Free State . It added Rwanda and Burundi as League of Nations mandates from the former German Empire in 1919. The colonies remained independent during the war, while Belgium was occupied by the Germans. There was no serious planning for independence, and exceedingly little training or education provided. The Belgian Congo

5152-488: The world's second largest Christian population , after Europe . According to the 2005 Colombian census or DANE, about 3,331,107 Colombians currently live abroad. The number of Brazilians living overseas is estimated at 2 million people. An estimated 1.5 to two million Salvadorians reside in the United States. At least 1.5 million Ecuadorians have gone abroad, mainly to the United States and Spain. Approximately 1.5 million Dominicans live abroad, mostly in

5264-414: The 1917 Russian Revolution the Bolsheviks unsuccessfully fought a number of independence movements until Finland , Estonia , Latvia , Lithuania , and Poland gained independence. The Ukrainian People's Republic fought its war of independence (1917-1921), which resulted in being absorbed into a Soviet republic . Following the defeat of the Ottoman Empire , the Turkish National Movement fought

5376-407: The 1954 Geneva Accords ended France's occupation of Indochina, leaving South Vietnam independent and North Vietnam independence recognized. In 1956, Morocco and Tunisia gained their independence from France. In 1960, eight independent countries emerged from French West Africa , and five from French Equatorial Africa . The Algerian War of Independence raged from 1954 to 1962. To this day,

5488-462: The 1960s, due to economic needs for post-war reconstruction and rapid economic growth, French employers actively sought to recruit manpower from the colonies, explaining today's multiethnic population . A union of former colonies itself, the United States approached imperialism differently from the other Powers. Much of its energy and rapidly expanding population was directed westward across the North American continent against English and French claims,

5600-480: The 19th century than they did in the 20th century, where holding on to such colonies was often understood to be a burden. A great deal of scholarship attributes the ideological origins of national independence movements to the Age of Enlightenment . Enlightenment social and political theories such as individualism and liberalism were central to the debates about national constitutions for newly independent countries. Contemporary decolonial scholarship has critiqued

5712-453: The Algerian war – officially called a "public order operation" until the 1990s – remains a trauma for both France and Algeria. Philosopher Paul Ricœur has spoken of the necessity of a "decolonisation of memory", starting with the recognition of the 1961 Paris massacre during the Algerian war, and the decisive role of African and especially North African immigrant manpower in the Trente Glorieuses post–World War II economic growth period. In

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5824-405: The April Carnation Revolution . The Rhodesian Bush War became a scene of guerrilla warfare by factors of the ZANLA and ZAPU against Rhodesia until white-majority rule came to an end in 1979 and the Lancaster House Agreement led to the independence of Zimbabwe in April 1980. In February 1991, six months after the outbreak of the Gulf War , the coalition led by the United States launched

5936-408: The British made deals with the local politicians. Across the empire, the general protocol was to convene a constitutional conference in London to discuss the transition to greater self-government and then independence, submit a report of the constitutional conference to parliament, if approved submit a bill to Parliament at Westminster to terminate the responsibility of the United Kingdom (with a copy of

6048-412: The Caribbean. Dutch is the official language of some Caribbean islands and in Suriname on the continent; however, as Dutch is a Germanic language , these territories are not considered part of Latin America. Indigenous languages are widely spoken in Peru , Guatemala , Bolivia and Paraguay , and, to a lesser degree, in Mexico , Chile and Ecuador . In Latin American countries not named above,

6160-423: The Chinese province of Rehe , and incorporated it into its Manchurian possessions. The Second Sino-Japanese War started in 1937, and Japan occupied much of eastern China, including the Republic's capital at Nanjing . An estimated 20 million Chinese died during the 1931–1945 war with Japan. In December 1941, the empire of Japan joined World War II by invading the European and U.S. colonies in Southeast Asia and

6272-428: The Dutch cause. In the aftermath, the Netherlands prospered greatly in the 1950s and 1960s but nevertheless public opinion was bitterly hostile to the United States for betrayal. The Dutch government eventually gave up on claims to Indonesian sovereignty in 1949, after American pressure. The Netherlands also had one other major colony, Dutch Guiana in South America , which became independent as Suriname in 1975. When

6384-410: The East Indies. In 1945 the Netherlands could not regain these islands on its own; it did so by depending on British military help and American financial grants . By the time Dutch soldiers returned, an independent government under Sukarno was in power, originally set up by the Empire of Japan . The Dutch both abroad and at home generally agreed that Dutch power depended on an expensive war to regain

6496-455: The European powers at the Paris Peace Conference following World War I . In allowing allies France and Britain the former colonial possessions of the German and Ottoman Empires, the US demanded of them submission to the League of Nations mandate , in calling for V. A free, open-minded, and absolutely impartial adjustment of all colonial claims, based upon a strict observance of the principle that in determining all such questions of sovereignty

6608-432: The Highest Stage of Capitalism . For example, Ho Chi Minh — who founded the Viet-Minh in 1941 and declared the independence of Vietnam on September 2, 1945, following the 1945 August Revolution — was a founding member of the French Communist Party (PCF) in 1921. In January 1961, over three years before the Gulf of Tonkin incident which would mark the United States government 's increased involvement in

6720-686: The Latin American population consider themselves Catholic. Membership in Protestant denominations is increasing, particularly in Brazil , Guatemala and Puerto Rico . Argentina hosts the largest communities of both Jews and Muslims in Latin America. Indigenous religions and rituals are practiced in countries with large indigenous populations, especially Bolivia, Guatemala, Mexico and Peru, and Afro-Latin American religions such as Santería , Candomblé , Umbanda , Macumba and Vodou are practiced in countries with large Afro-Latin American populations, especially Cuba, Brazil, Dominican Republic and Haiti. Latin America constitutes, in absolute terms,

6832-418: The League of Nations in 1919 and served on the council from 1927 to 1930. That country also negotiated on its own and signed bilateral and multilateral treaties and conventions from the early 1900s onward. Newfoundland ceded self-rule back to London in 1934. Iraq , a League of Nations mandate, became independent in 1932. In response to a growing Indian independence movement , the UK made successive reforms to

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6944-460: The Ottoman Empire, was culturally divided between the majority Greek element (which demanded " enosis " or union with Greece) and the minority Turks. London for decades assumed it needed the island to defend the Suez Canal; but after the Suez crisis of 1956, that became a minor factor, and Greek violence became a more serious issue. Cyprus became an independent country in 1960, but ethnic violence escalated until 1974 when Turkey invaded and partitioned

7056-400: The Pacific, including French Indochina , Hong Kong , the Philippines, Burma, Malaya , Indonesia , Portuguese Timor , and others. Following its surrender to the Allies in 1945, Japan was deprived of all its colonies with a number of them being returned to the original colonizing Western powers. The Soviet Union declared war on Japan in August 1945 , and shortly after occupied and annexed

7168-411: The Philippines transitioned out of territorial status, controlled by an appointed governor, to the semi-independent status of the Commonwealth of the Philippines . Its constitutional convention wrote a new constitution, which was approved by Washington and went into effect, with an elected governor Manuel L. Quezon and legislature. Foreign Affairs remained under American control. The Philippines built up

7280-543: The Third World grew throughout the 1960s until the 21st century. The 1973 oil crisis which followed the Yom Kippur War (October 1973) was triggered by the OPEC which decided an embargo against the US and Western countries, causing a fourfold increase in the price of oil, which lasted five months, starting on 17 October 1973, and ending on 18 March 1974. OPEC nations then agreed, on 7 January 1975, to raise crude oil prices by 10%. At that time, OPEC nations – including many who had recently nationalized their oil industries – joined

7392-466: The UK. In 1947, British India was partitioned into the independent dominions of India and Pakistan . Hundreds of princely states , states ruled by monarchs in a treaty of subsidiary alliance with Britain, were integrated into India and Pakistan. India and Pakistan fought several wars over the former princely state of Jammu and Kashmir . French India was integrated into India between 1950 and 1954, and India annexed Portuguese India in 1961, and

7504-475: The United Nations was formed in 1945, it established trust territories. These territories included the League of Nations mandate territories which had not achieved independence by 1945, along with the former Italian Somaliland . The Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands was transferred from Japanese to US administration. By 1990 all but one of the trust territories had achieved independence, either as independent states or by merger with another independent state;

7616-696: The United States. More than 1.3 million Cubans live abroad, most of them in the United States. It is estimated that over 800,000 Chileans live abroad, mainly in Argentina, Canada, United States and Spain. Other Chilean nationals may be located in countries like Costa Rica, Mexico and Sweden. An estimated 700,000 Bolivians were living in Argentina as of 2006 and another 33,000 in the United States. Central Americans living abroad in 2005 were 3,314,300, of which 1,128,701 were Salvadorans , 685,713 were Guatemalans , 683,520 were Nicaraguans , 414,955 were Hondurans , 215,240 were Panamanians and 127,061 were Costa Rica . As of 2006, Costa Rica and Chile were

7728-433: The aftermath of the First World War and most prominently after the Second World War. Critical scholars extend the meaning beyond independence or equal rights for colonized peoples to include broader economic, cultural and psychological aspects of the colonial experience. Extending the meaning of decolonization beyond political independence has been disputed and received criticism. The United Nations (UN) states that

7840-497: The allies in World War I, and after the war acquired the South Seas Mandate , the former German colony in Micronesia, as a League of Nations Mandate . Pursuing a colonial policy comparable to those of European powers, Japan settled significant populations of ethnic Japanese in its colonies while simultaneously suppressing Indigenous ethnic populations by enforcing the learning and use of the Japanese language in schools. Other methods such as public interaction, and attempts to eradicate

7952-478: The annihilation of people's cultures. Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o explored the cultural and linguistic legacies of colonialism in the influential book Decolonising the Mind (1986). "Decolonization" has also been used to refer to the intellectual decolonization from the colonizers' ideas that made the colonized feel inferior. Issues of decolonization persist and are raised contemporarily. In the Americas and South Africa , such issues are increasingly discussed under

8064-543: The call for a New International Economic Order to be initiated by coalitions of primary producers. Concluding the First OPEC Summit in Algiers they called for stable and just commodity prices, an international food and agriculture program, technology transfer from North to South, and the democratization of the economic system. But industrialized countries quickly began to look for substitutes to OPEC petroleum, with

8176-494: The cause of India's problems leading to a newfound sense of nationalism among its population. 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. Africa was only fully drawn into the colonial system at the end of the 19th century. In the north-east the continued independence of the Ethiopian Empire remained

8288-411: The colonies due to a shift from 19th century conditions of "strong political will, a permissive international environment, access to local collaborators, and flexibility to pick their battles" to 20th century conditions of "apathetic publics, hostile superpowers, vanishing collaborators, and constrained options". In other words, colonial powers had more support from their own region in pursuing colonies in

8400-670: The concept of decolonization, can be found as early as the writings of Thucydides , there have been several particularly active periods of decolonization in modern times. These include the decolonization of Africa , the breakup of the Spanish Empire in the 19th century; of the German , Austro-Hungarian , Ottoman , and Russian Empires following World War I ; of the British , French , Dutch , Portuguese , Belgian , Italian , and Japanese Empires following World War II ; and of

8512-456: The country's Caribbean coast English and indigenous languages such as Miskito , Sumo , and Rama also hold official status. Colombia recognizes all indigenous languages spoken within its territory as official, though fewer than 1% of its population are native speakers of these. Nahuatl is one of the 62 native languages spoken by indigenous people in Mexico that are officially recognized by

8624-667: The direct division of China. After 1898 direct intervention expanded in Latin America. The United States purchased Alaska from the Russian Empire in 1867 and annexed Hawaii in 1898. Following the Spanish–American War in 1898, the US added most of Spain's remaining colonies: Puerto Rico , Philippines , and Guam . Deciding not to annex Cuba outright, the U.S. established it as a client state with obligations including

8736-493: 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. Great Britain's Thirteen North American colonies were the first to declare independence , forming the United States of America in 1776, and defeating Britain in the Revolutionary War . The Haitian Revolution

8848-573: The existence of the international economic system. Latin American Latin Americans ( Spanish : Latinoamericanos ; Portuguese : Latino-americanos ; French : Latino-américains ) are the citizens of Latin American countries (or people with cultural, ancestral or national origins in Latin America). Latin American countries and their diasporas are multi-ethnic and multi-racial . Latin Americans are

8960-616: The first wars of national liberation. It pitted self-liberated slaves against Imperial France , coming about during a period in history where interconnected movements such as the American and French Revolutions had caused a rise of national consciousness in the Atlantic world. At the same time during the Spanish American wars of independence (1808-1833), the patriots launched a series of complex wars of independence against

9072-472: The former Ottoman territories of Syria and Lebanon , and the former German colonies of Togoland and Cameroon , as League of Nations mandates. Lebanon declared its independence in 1943, and Syria in 1945. In some instances, decolonization efforts ran counter to other concerns, such as the rapid increase of antisemitism in Algeria in the course of the nation's resistance to French rule. Although France

9184-1085: The government as "national languages" along with Spanish. Other European languages spoken in Latin America include: English , by some groups in Argentina , Chile , Costa Rica , Nicaragua , Panama and Puerto Rico , as well as in nearby countries that may or may not be considered Latin American, such as Belize and Guyana ; English is also used as a major foreign language in Latin American commerce and education. Other languages spoken in parts of Latin America include German in southern Brazil , southern Chile , Argentina, portions of northern Venezuela and Paraguay; Italian in Brazil , Argentina, Uruguay and Venezuela; Polish , Ukrainian and Russian in southern Brazil; and Welsh in southern Argentina. Hebrew and Yiddish are used by Jewish diasporas in Argentina and Brazil. In several nations, especially in

9296-696: The independence wars of Latin America began with a revolt in La Paz, Bolivia . In 1807 and 1808, the Viceroyalty of the River Plate was invaded by the British. After their 2nd defeat, a Frenchman called Santiague de Liniers was proclaimed a new Viceroy by the local population and later accepted by Spain. In May 1810 in Buenos Aires , a Junta was created, but in Montevideo it was not recognized by

9408-610: The interests of the populations concerned must have equal weight with the equitable government whose title is to be determined. See also point XII. After World War II , the U.S. poured tens of billions of dollars into the Marshall Plan , and other grants and loans to Europe and Asia to rebuild the world economy. At the same time American military bases were established around the world and direct and indirect interventions continued in Korea , Indochina , Latin America ( inter alia ,

9520-574: The invasion of Spain by Napoleon in 1806, the American colonies declared autonomy and loyalty to King Ferdinand VII. The contract was broken and each of the regions of the Spanish Empire had to decide whether to show allegiance to the Junta of Cadiz (the only territory in Spain free from Napoleon) or have a junta (assembly) of its own. The economic monopoly of the metropolis was the main reason why many countries decided to become independent from Spain. In 1809,

9632-523: The island. Each side rewrote its own history, blaming the other. Palestine became a British mandate from the League of Nations after World War I, initially including Transjordan . During that war, the British gained support from Arabs and Jews by making promises to both (see McMahon–Hussein Correspondence and Balfour Declaration ). Decades of ethno—religious violence reached a climax with

9744-694: The islands. Compromises were negotiated, but were trusted by neither side. 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. Dutch possession was an obstacle to American Cold War goals, so Washington forced the Dutch to grant full independence. A few years later, Sukarno nationalized all Dutch East Indies properties and expelled all ethnic Dutch —over 300,000—as well as several hundred thousand ethnic Indonesians who supported

9856-529: The lack of alternatives. Moreover, foreign regimes usually have fewer active supporters in the theater, and those that exist can often be easily identified, making it possible for guerrilla armies to identify their targets. By contrast, indigenous regimes often have much more popular support, and their supporters are often not easily recognized as such, making it much harder to conduct operations against them without also causing harm to neutral parties. The Haitian Revolution (1791-1804) can be considered to be one of

9968-543: The largest diasporas of Spaniards , Portuguese , Africans , Italians , Lebanese and Japanese in the world. The region also has large German (second largest after the United States), French , Palestinian (largest outside the Arab states), Chinese and Jewish diasporas . The specific ethnic and/or racial composition varies from country to country and diaspora community to diaspora community: many have

10080-586: The local government who followed the authority of the Junta of Cadiz. The rivalry between the two cities was the main reason for the distrust between them. During the next 15 years, the Spanish and Royalist on one side, and the rebels on the other fought in South America and Mexico. Numerous countries declared their independence. In 1824, the Spanish forces were defeated in the Battle of Ayacucho . The mainland

10192-598: The nation is defined in ethnic terms, wars fought to liberate it have often entailed ethnic cleansing or genocide in order to rid the claimed territory of other population groups. International law generally holds that a people with a legal right to self-determination are entitled to wage wars of national liberation. While Western states tend to view these wars as civil wars , Third World and communist states tend to view them as international wars. This difference in classification leads to varying perceptions of which laws of war apply in such situations. However, there

10304-511: The new constitution annexed), and finally, if approved, issuance of an Order of Council fixing the exact date of independence. 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 . Some were administered directly by the UK, and others by British dominions – Nauru and the Territory of New Guinea by Australia , South West Africa by

10416-440: The oil companies investing the majority of their research capital in the US and European countries or others, politically sure countries. The OPEC lost more and more influence on the world prices of oil. The second oil crisis occurred in the wake of the 1979 Iranian Revolution . Then, the 1982 Latin American debt crisis exploded in Mexico first, then Argentina and Brazil, which proved unable to pay back their debts, jeopardizing

10528-540: The perpetual lease of Guantánamo Bay to the U.S. Navy. The attempt of the first governor to void the island's constitution and remain in power past the end of his term provoked a rebellion that provoked a reoccupation between 1906 and 1909, but this was again followed by devolution. Similarly, the McKinley administration , despite prosecuting the Philippine–American War against a native republic , set out that

10640-582: The police assaults on the Salt March of 1930. Large-scale communal violence broke out between Hindus and Muslims and between Muslims and Sikhs after the British left in 1947 in the newly independent dominions of India and Pakistan. Much later, in 1970, further communal violence broke out within Pakistan in the detached eastern part of East Bengal, which became independent as Bangladesh in 1971. Cyprus , which came under full British control in 1914 from

10752-405: The population of speakers of indigenous languages is small or non-existent. In Peru , Quechua is an official language, alongside Spanish and any other indigenous language in the areas where they predominate. In Ecuador , while holding no official status, the closely related Quichua is a recognized language of the indigenous people under the country's constitution; however, it is only spoken by

10864-700: The predominant languages of Latin America. Spanish is the official language of most of the countries on the Latin American mainland, as well as in Puerto Rico (where it is co-official with English), Cuba and the Dominican Republic . Portuguese is spoken only in Brazil , the biggest and most populous country in the region. French is spoken in Haiti , as well as in the French overseas departments of French Guiana in South America and Guadeloupe and Martinique in

10976-557: The process whereby imperial nations establish and dominate foreign territories, often overseas. The meanings and applications of the term are disputed. Some scholars of decolonization focus especially on independence movements in the colonies and the collapse of global colonial empires . As a movement to establish independence for colonized territories from their respective metropoles , decolonization began in 1775 in North America . Major waves of decolonization occurred in

11088-650: The rebelling sides of the conflicts. The African National Congress (ANC)'s struggle against the apartheid regime is also another example. Most of these rebellions were in part supported by the Soviet Union . Since the Russian Revolution the revolutionary objectives of communism and socialism were shared by many anticolonialist leaders, thus explaining the objective alliance between anticolonialist forces and Marxism . The concept of " imperialism " itself had been theorized in Lenin's 1916 book, Imperialism,

11200-542: The same year nationalist forces had begun organizing in Portugal. Revolts (preceding the Portuguese Colonial War ) spread to Angola , Guinea Bissau and Mozambique . Lisbon escalated its effort in the war: for instance, it increased the number of natives in the colonial army and built strategic hamlets. Portugal sent another 300,000 European settlers into Angola and Mozambique before 1974. That year,

11312-478: The southern Kuril Islands , which Japan still claims . In the United States, the two major parties were divided on the acquisition of the Philippines, which became a major campaign issue in 1900. The Republicans, who favored permanent acquisition, won the election, but after a decade or so, Republicans turned their attention to the Caribbean, focusing on building the Panama Canal . President Woodrow Wilson ,

11424-515: The term decoloniality . In the two hundred years following the American Revolutionary War in 1783, 165 colonies have gained independence from Western imperial powers. Several analyses point to different reasons for the spread of anti-colonial political movements. Institutional arguments suggest that increasing levels of education in the colonies led to calls for popular sovereignty; Marxist analyses view decolonization as

11536-642: The use of Korean , Hokkien , and Hakka among the Indigenous peoples, were seen to be used. Japan also set up the Imperial Universities in Korea ( Keijō Imperial University ) and Taiwan ( Taihoku Imperial University ) to compel education. In 1931, Japan seized Manchuria from the Republic of China, setting up a puppet state under Puyi , the last Manchu emperor of China. In 1933 Japan seized

11648-967: The world, particularly in densely populated urban areas. The most important migratory destinations for Latin Americans are found in the United States , Spain , France , Canada , Italy and Japan . Latin America ( Spanish : América Latina or Latinoamérica ; Portuguese : América Latina ; French : Amérique latine ) is the region of the Americas where Romance languages (i.e., those derived from Latin )—particularly Spanish and Portuguese , as well as French —are primarily spoken. It includes 21 countries or territories: Mexico in North America ; Guatemala , Honduras , El Salvador , Nicaragua , Costa Rica and Panama in Central America ; Colombia , Venezuela , Ecuador , Peru , Bolivia , Brazil , Paraguay , Chile , Argentina and Uruguay in South America ; and Cuba , Haiti ,

11760-771: Was a Constitutionalist Revolution in Portugal, which led to the return of the Portuguese court to Lisbon. 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. The emergence of Indigenous political parties was especially characteristic of the British Empire , which seemed less ruthless than, for example, Belgium, in controlling political dissent. Driven by pragmatic demands of budgets and manpower

11872-537: Was a revolt in 1789 and subsequent slave uprising in 1791 in the French colony of Saint-Domingue , on the Caribbean island of Hispaniola . In 1804, Haiti secured independence from France as the Empire of Haiti , which later became a republic. 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. With

11984-482: Was characterized by massacres of civilians on both sides. It was not a movement for independence, however, and only a small part of India was involved. In the aftermath, the British pulled back from modernizing reforms of Indian society, and the level of organised violence under the British Raj was relatively small. Most of that was initiated by repressive British administrators, as in the Amritsar massacre of 1919 , or

12096-466: Was especially rich, and many Belgian businessmen lobbied hard to maintain control. 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. The Netherlands had spent centuries building up its empire. By 1940 it consisted mostly of

12208-533: Was extremely limited. On the night of 29 March 1947, a Madagascar nationalist uprising led the French government headed by Paul Ramadier ( Socialist ) to violent repression: one year of bitter fighting, 11,000–40,000 Malagasy died. In 1946, the states of French Indochina withdrew from the French Union, leading to the Indochina War (1946–54). Cambodia and Laos became independent in 1953, and

12320-416: Was free, and in 1898, Spain lost Cuba and Puerto Rico in the Spanish–American War . Puerto Rico became an unincorporated territory of the US, but Cuba became independent in 1902. The Napoleonic Wars also led to the severing of the direct links between Portugal and its only American colony, Brazil . Days before Napoleon invaded Portugal, in 1807 the Portuguese royal court fled to Brazil . In 1820 there

12432-673: Was inspired by the works of Garvey led Ghana to independence from colonial rule. Independence for the colonies in Africa began with the independence of Sudan in 1956, and Ghana in 1957. All of the British colonies on mainland Africa became independent by 1966, although Rhodesia 's unilateral declaration of independence in 1965 was not recognized by the UK or internationally. Some of the British colonies in Asia were directly administered by British officials, while others were ruled by local monarchs as protectorates or in subsidiary alliance with

12544-588: Was ultimately a victor of World War II, Nazi Germany's occupation of France and its North African colonies during the war had disrupted colonial rule. On 27 October 1946, France adopted a new constitution creating the Fourth Republic , and substituted the French Union for the colonial empire. However power over the colonies remained concentrated in France, and the power of local assemblies outside France

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