128-552: The Volta-Bani War was an anti-colonial rebellion which took place in French West Africa (specifically, the areas of modern Burkina Faso and Mali ) between 1915 and 1917. It was a war between an indigenous African force drawn from a heterogeneous coalition of local peoples who rose against the French Army . At its height in 1916 the rebels mustered from 15,000–20,000 men and fought on several fronts. After about
256-568: 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
384-436: A meta-analysis of 18 African countries found that a third of them experienced increased economic growth post-independence. Scholars including Dellal (2013), Miraftab (2012) and Bamgbose (2011) have argued that Africa's linguistic diversity has been eroded. Language has been used by western colonial powers to divide territories and create new identities, which have led to conflicts and tensions between African nations. In
512-649: 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,
640-567: 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
768-579: 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
896-572: A century. Ferhat Abbas and Messali Hadj 's movements marked the period between the two wars, but both sides radicalised after the Second World War. In 1945, the Sétif massacre was carried out by the French army. The Algerian War started in 1954. Atrocities characterized both sides , and the number killed became highly controversial estimates that were made for propaganda purposes. Algeria
1024-486: A deeper political awareness and the expectation of greater respect and self-determination, which went largely unfulfilled. Because the victorious allied powers had no intention of withdrawing from their colonial holdings at the end of the war, and would instead need to rely on the resources and manpower of their African colonies during postwar reconstruction in Europe, the colonial powers downplayed Africans' contributions to
1152-563: 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
1280-758: 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
1408-447: 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
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#17327732103271536-437: 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
1664-625: A result of their fight for independence. Historian James Meriweather argues that American policy towards Africa was characterized by a middle road approach, which supported African independence but also reassured European colonial powers that their holdings would remain intact. Washington wanted the right type of African groups to lead newly independent states, in other words communist and not especially democratic. Meriweather argues that nongovernmental organizations influenced American policy towards Africa. They pressured state governments and private institutions to disinvest from African nations not ruled by
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
1920-423: A year and several setbacks, the French army defeated the insurgents and jailed or executed their leaders but resistance continued until 1917. The war started after the 1915 rainy season when a group of representatives from around a dozen villages gathered at Bona where they resolved to take up arms against the French occupiers. This took place in the context of World War I and introduction of conscription for
2048-912: Is now known as the Cape Coast Castle . The Colony of Liberia, later the Commonwealth of Liberia, was a private colony of the American Colonization Society (ACS) beginning in 1822. It became an independent nation—the Republic of Liberia —after declaring independence in 1847. Colonialism in the colonial era, mostly refers to Western European countries' colonisation of lands in the Americas, Africa, Asia, and Oceania. The main European countries active in this form of colonization included Spain , Portugal , France ,
2176-607: Is the undoing of colonialism , the latter being 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
2304-613: The Françafrique had replaced formal direct rule. They argued that while de Gaulle was granting independence, on one hand, he was creating new ties with the help of Jacques Foccart , his counsellor for African matters. Foccart supported in particular the Nigerian Civil War during the late 1960s. Robert Aldrich argues that with Algerian independence in 1962, it appeared that the Empire practically had come to an end, as
2432-802: 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
2560-728: The Atlantic Charter , which in part stipulated that they would, "respect the right of all peoples to choose the form of government under which they will live; and they wish to see sovereign rights and self-government restored to those who have been forcibly deprived of them." This agreement became the post-WWII stepping stone toward independence as nationalism grew throughout Africa. Consumed by post-war debt, European powers could no longer afford to maintain control of their African colonies. This allowed African nationalists to negotiate decolonisation very quickly and with minimal casualties. Some territories, however, saw large death tolls as
2688-854: 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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#17327732103272816-574: 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
2944-636: 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
3072-631: The French Community . Only Guinea refused by referendum to take part in the new colonial organisation. However, the French Community dissolved itself amid the Algerian War; almost all of the other African colonies were granted independence in 1960, following local referendums. Some colonies chose instead to remain part of France, under the status of overseas départements (territories) . Critics of neocolonialism claimed that
3200-666: The Gold Coast (present Ghana ) from 22 April 1650 to 20 April 1663, when Fort Carlsborg and the capital Fort Christiansborg were seized by Denmark. In 1652, the Swedes took Cape Coast (in modern Ghana) which had previously been under the control of the Dutch and before that the Portuguese . Cape Coast was centered on the Carolusburg Castle which was built in 1653 and named after King Charles X Gustav of Sweden but
3328-697: 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
3456-724: 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
3584-688: 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
3712-539: The National Liberation Front was able to negotiate a peace accord with French President Charles de Gaulle, the Évian Accords in which Europeans would be able to return to their native countries, remain in Algeria as foreigners or take Algerian citizenship. Most of the one million Europeans in Algeria poured out of the country. The French Union was replaced in the new Constitution of 1958 by
3840-701: 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
3968-593: 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
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4096-683: 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
4224-779: 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
4352-580: The Tsardom of Russia (later Russian Empire and Soviet Union ), the Kingdom of England (later Great Britain ), the Netherlands , Belgium and the Kingdom of Prussia (now mostly Germany), and, beginning in the 18th century, the United States . Most of these countries had a period of almost complete dominance of world trade at some stage in the period from roughly 1500 to 1900. Beginning in
4480-518: 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
4608-704: 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,
4736-545: The colonial police on a protest march. Riots broke out in Accra and though Nkrumah and other Ghanaian leaders were temporarily imprisoned, the event became a catalyst for the independence movement. After being released from prison, Nkrumah founded the Convention People's Party (CPP), which launched a wide-scale campaign in support of independence with the slogan "Self Government Now!" Heightened nationalism within
4864-439: 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
4992-506: 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
5120-418: 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
5248-453: The 1945 Pan-African Congress , the Gold Coast's (modern-day Ghana's) independence leader Kwame Nkrumah made his focus clear. In the conference's declaration, he wrote, "We believe in the rights of all peoples to govern themselves. We affirm the right of all colonial peoples to control their own destiny. All colonies must be free from foreign imperialist control, whether political or economic." In 1948, three Ghanaian veterans were killed by
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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,
5504-462: 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,
5632-480: 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
5760-453: 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
5888-406: The Belgian Congo. The colony was founded in 1908 following the transfer of sovereignty from the Congo Free State , which was the personal property of Belgium's king, Leopold II . The violence used by Free State officials against indigenous Congolese and the ruthless system of economic extraction had led to intense diplomatic pressure on Belgium to take official control of the country. Belgian rule in
6016-408: 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
6144-423: 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
6272-450: The Congo was based on the "colonial trinity" ( trinité coloniale ) of state, missionary and private company interests. During the 1940s and 1950s, the Congo experienced extensive urbanization and the administration aimed to make it into a "model colony". As the result of a widespread and increasingly radical pro-independence movement, the Congo achieved independence, as the Republic of Congo-Léopoldville in 1960. Of Belgium's other colonies,
6400-428: 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
6528-410: 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
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#17327732103276656-455: 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
6784-418: The French Army. There was also widespread optimism that the colonial government could be beaten at this moment of weakness. It went through various phases as the colonial army organised two suppression campaigns but initially failed in its purpose, in the face of fierce opposition and superior tactics. The Volta-Bani War is one of the most significant armed oppositions to colonial government anywhere in Africa. It
6912-474: The Granting of Independence to Colonial Countries and Peoples stated that colonial exploitation is a denial of human rights, and that power should be transferred back to the countries or territories concerned. Colonial economic exploitation involved diverting resource extraction (such as mining) profits to European shareholders at the expense of internal development, causing significant local socioeconomic grievances. For early African nationalists, decolonisation
7040-418: 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
7168-460: 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
7296-400: 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
7424-411: 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
7552-424: The Soviet Union's proletarian internationalism . Many Africans fought in both World War and World War II. In the First World War, African labor was essential on the Western Front, and African soldiers fought in the Egypt and Palestine campaigns. Many Africans were not allowed to bear arms or serve on an equal basis with whites. The sinking of the SS Mendi in 1917 was a particularly tragic incident for Africans in
7680-543: 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
7808-466: 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
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#17327732103277936-475: 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;
8064-440: The United States' sphere of influence, and Ethiopia , which won its independence at the Battle of Adwa but was later occupied by Italy in 1936. Britain and France had the largest holdings, but Germany , Spain , Italy , Belgium , and Portugal also had colonies. By 1977, 50 African countries had gained independence from European colonial powers. The early twentieth century was a time of rising nationalism throughout
8192-404: The Vichy France regime controlled the Empire. One after another, most of the colonies were occupied by foreign powers (Japan in Indochina, Britain in Syria , Lebanon, and Madagascar , the United States and Britain in Morocco and Algeria , and Germany and Italy in Tunisia ). Control was gradually reestablished by Charles de Gaulle , who used the colonial bases as a launching point to help expel
8320-440: The Vichy government from Metropolitan France. De Gaulle, together with most Frenchmen, was committed to preserving the Empire in its new form. The French Union , included in the Constitution of 1946 , nominally replaced the former colonial empire, but officials in Paris remained in full control. The colonies were given local assemblies with only limited local power and budgets. A group of elites, known as evolués, who were natives of
8448-433: 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
8576-433: The allied victory. On February 12, 1941, United States President Franklin D. Roosevelt and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill met to discuss the post-war world. The result was the Atlantic Charter . It was not a treaty and was not submitted to the British Parliament or the Senate of the United States for ratification, but it turned out to be a widely acclaimed document. Clause Three referred to
8704-497: 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
8832-478: 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
8960-416: The basis of military archives documents and an elaborate understanding of the region based on ethnographic fieldwork and oral history. It won the Amaury Talbot Prize of the Royal Anthropological Institute for 2002. A fictional account of the revolt was the subject of one of the important literary works of West Africa, Nazi Boni 's Crépuscule des temps anciens (1962). Decolonization Decolonization
9088-420: 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
9216-494: 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
9344-598: The colonial era, principally the Belgian Congo (modern DRC ) from 1908 to 1960 and Ruanda-Urundi (modern Rwanda and Burundi ) from 1922 to 1962. It also had a small concession in China (1902–1931) and was a co-administrator of the Tangier International Zone in Morocco . Roughly 98% of Belgium's overseas territory was just one colony (about 76 times larger than Belgium itself) – known as
9472-411: 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
9600-670: 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
9728-585: The country grew their power and the political party widely expanded. In February 1951, the CPP gained political power by winning 34 of 38 elected seats, including one for Nkrumah who was imprisoned at the time. The British government revised the Gold Coast Constitution to give Ghanaians a majority in the legislature in 1951. In 1956, Ghana requested independence inside the Commonwealth , which
9856-910: The decolonisation of Africa included the Mau Mau rebellion , the Algerian War , the Congo Crisis , the Angolan War of Independence , the Zanzibar Revolution , and the events leading to the Nigerian Civil War . The " Scramble for Africa " between 1870 and 1914 was a significant period of European imperialism in Africa that ended with almost all of Africa, and its natural resources, claimed as colonies by European powers, who raced to secure as much land as possible while avoiding conflict amongst themselves. The partition of Africa
9984-435: The defeated Central Powers . The independence demands of Egyptian and Tunisian leaders, which would have compromised the interests of the victorious Allies, were not entertained. Though Wilsonian ideals did not endure as the interwar order broke down, the principle of an international order based on the self-determination of peoples remained relevant. After 1919, anti-colonial leaders increasingly oriented themselves toward
10112-667: 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
10240-493: 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
10368-544: The end of World War II, recognised all people as being born free and equal. After World War II , the US and the African colonies put pressure on Britain to abide by the terms of the Atlantic Charter. After the war, some Britons considered African colonies childish and immature. British colonisers introduced democratic government at local levels in the colonies. Britain was forced to agree but Churchill rejected
10496-473: The end of colonialism, and delegates included future presidents of Ghana , Kenya and Malawi among other nationalist activists. Following World War II, rapid decolonisation swept across the continent of Africa as many territories gained their independence from European colonisation. In August 1941, United States President Franklin D. Roosevelt and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill met to discuss their post-war goals. In that meeting, they agreed to
10624-800: The establishment of elected territorial assemblies, representation in Paris in a new "French Federation", and the eventual representation of Sub-Saharan Africans in the French Assembly. However, Independence was explicitly rejected as a future possibility: After the war ended, France was immediately confronted with the beginnings of the decolonisation movement. In Algeria demonstrations in May 1945 were repressed with an estimated 20,000-45,000 Algerians killed. Unrest in Haiphong, Indochina, in November 1945
10752-419: The exclusion of any indigenous languages from administrative (and often, any public) use. An extensive body of literature has examined the legacy of colonialism and colonial institutions on economic outcomes in Africa, with numerous studies showing disputed economic effects . Modernisation theory posits that colonial powers built infrastructure to integrate Africa into the world economy ; however, this
10880-460: The existence of the international economic system. Decolonisation of Africa The decolonisation of Africa was a series of political developments in Africa that spanned from the mid-1950s to 1975, during the Cold War . Colonial governments gave way to sovereign states in a process often marred by violence, political turmoil, widespread unrest, and organised revolts . Major events in
11008-417: 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
11136-696: 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
11264-610: 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 ,
11392-574: 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,
11520-523: 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
11648-694: 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
11776-458: The late 19th century, Imperial Japan also engaged in settler colonization, most notably in Hokkaido and Korea . While some European colonisation focused on shorter-term exploitation of economic opportunities ( Newfoundland , for example, or Siberia ) or addressed specific goals such as settlers seeking religious freedom ( Massachusetts ), at other times long-term social and economic planning
11904-586: 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
12032-516: The majority population. These efforts also helped change American policy towards South Africa, as seen with the passage of the Comprehensive Anti-Apartheid Act of 1986. Occupied by Italy briefly [REDACTED] Togoland South African Border War On 6 March 1957, Ghana (formerly the Gold Coast ) became the first sub-Saharan African country to gain its independence from European colonisation. Starting with
12160-536: The most significant was Ruanda-Urundi , a portion of German East Africa , which was given to Belgium as a League of Nations Mandate , when Germany lost all of its colonies at the end of World War I . Following the Rwandan Revolution , the mandate became the independent states of Burundi and Rwanda in 1962. The French colonial empire began to fall during the Second World War when
12288-511: 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
12416-440: 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
12544-543: The overseas territories but lived in metropolitan France emerged. De Gaulle assembled a major conference of Free France colonies in Brazzaville, in central Africa, in January–February 1944. The survival of France depended on support from these colonies, and De Gaulle made numerous concessions. These included the end of forced labour, the end of special legal restrictions that applied to natives but not to whites,
12672-540: 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
12800-582: 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
12928-677: The remaining colonies were quite small and lacked active nationalist movements. However, there was trouble in French Somaliland ( Djibouti ), which became independent in 1977. There also were complications and delays in the New Hebrides Vanuatu , which was the last to gain independence in 1980. New Caledonia remains a special case under French suzerainty. The Indian Ocean island of Mayotte voted in referendum in 1974 to retain its link with France and forgo independence. Sweden temporarily controlled several settlements on
13056-656: The right to decide what form of government people wanted, and to the restoration of self-government. Prime Minister Churchill argued in the British Parliament that the document referred to "the States and nations of Europe now under the Nazi yoke". President Roosevelt regarded it as applicable across the world. Anticolonial politicians immediately saw it as relevant to colonial empires. The United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948, three years after
13184-410: The rule of King Leopold II of Belgium in the 19th century and Siddharth Kara has described colonial rule and European and Chinese influence in the 20th and 21st centuries. Colonisation may be used as a method of absorbing and assimilating foreign people into the culture of the imperial country. One instrument to this end is linguistic imperialism , or the use of non-indigenous colonial languages to
13312-542: 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,
13440-535: 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 ,
13568-546: The southern and eastern parts of Africa was not a peaceful process. Kenyan independence was preceded by the eight-year Mau Mau Uprising . In Rhodesia , the 1965 Unilateral Declaration of Independence by the white minority resulted in a civil war that lasted until the Lancaster House Agreement of 1979, which set the terms for recognised independence in 1980, as the new nation of Zimbabwe . Belgium controlled several territories and concessions during
13696-581: The struggles for African nationalism . During the Second World War, some local African industries and towns expanded when U-boats patrolling the Atlantic Ocean impeded the shipping of raw materials to Europe. Over time, urban communities, industries, and trade unions grew, improving literacy and education, and leading to the establishment of pro-independence newspapers. By 1945, the Fifth Pan-African Congress demanded
13824-515: 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
13952-437: The universal applicability of self-determination for subject nations. Italy, a colonial power, lost its African empire, Italian East Africa , Italian Ethiopia , Italian Eritrea , Italian Somalia and Italian Libya , as a result of World War II. Furthermore, colonies such as Nigeria , Senegal and Ghana pushed for self-governance as colonial powers were exhausted by war efforts. The United Nations 1960 Declaration on
14080-642: 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
14208-483: The war, with 607 of the 646 crew killed being Black South Africans . In the Second World War, Africans fought in both the European and Asian theatres of war. Approximately one million sub-Saharan Africans served in European armies in some capacity. Many Africans were compelled or even forced into military service by their respective colonial regimes, but some voluntarily enlisted in search of better opportunities than they could find in civilian employment. This led to
14336-530: The world. The end of the First World War saw the breakup of the German , Austro-Hungarian and Ottoman Empires according to the principles espoused in Woodrow Wilson 's Fourteen Points . Though many anti-colonial intellectuals saw the potential of Wilsonian Internationalism to advance their aims, Wilson had no intention of applying the principle of self-determination outside the lands of
14464-771: 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
14592-758: Was a moral imperative around which a political movement could be assembled. In the 1930s, the colonial powers had cultivated, sometimes inadvertently, a small elite of local African leaders educated in Western universities, where they became familiar with ideas such as self-determination . Although independence was not encouraged, arrangements between these leaders and the colonial powers developed, and such figures as Jomo Kenyatta ( Kenya ), Kwame Nkrumah ( Gold Coast , now Ghana ), Julius Nyerere ( Tanganyika , now Tanzania ), Léopold Sédar Senghor ( Senegal ), Nnamdi Azikiwe ( Nigeria ), Patrice Lumumba ( DRC ) and Félix Houphouët-Boigny ( Côte d'Ivoire ) came to lead
14720-540: 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
14848-574: Was a three-way conflict due to the large number of " pieds-noirs " (Europeans who had settled there in the 125 years of French rule ). The political crisis in France caused the collapse of the Fourth Republic, as Charles de Gaulle returned to power in 1958 and finally pulled the French soldiers and settlers out of Algeria by 1962. Lasting more than eight years, the estimated death toll typically falls between 300,000 and 400,000 people. By 1962,
14976-582: Was built mainly for extraction purposes. African economies were structured to benefit the coloniser and any surplus was likely to be 'drained', thereby stifling local capital accumulation . Dependency theory suggests that most African economies continued to occupy a subordinate position in the world economy after independence with a reliance on primary commodities such as copper in Zambia and tea in Kenya . Despite this continued reliance and unfair trading terms,
15104-482: 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
15232-488: Was confirmed at the Berlin Conference of 1885, without regard for the existing political and social structures. Almost all the pre-colonial states of Africa lost their sovereignty. The only exceptions were Liberia , which had been settled in the early 19th century by formerly enslaved African-Americans and was recognized as independent by the United States in 1862 but was viewed by European powers as being in
15360-466: 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
15488-533: 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
15616-416: 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
15744-728: Was granted peacefully in 1957 with Nkrumah as prime minister and Queen Elizabeth II as sovereign. Prime Minister Harold Macmillan gave the famous "Wind of Change" speech in South Africa in February 1960, where he spoke to the country's Parliament of "the wind of change blowing through this continent." Macmillan urgently wanted to avoid the same kind of colonial war that France was fighting in Algeria. Under his premiership decolonisation proceeded rapidly. Britain's remaining colonies in Africa, except for Southern Rhodesia , were all granted independence by 1968. British withdrawal from
15872-620: 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
16000-413: Was involved for both parties, but more on the colonizing countries themselves, based on elaborate theory-building (note James Oglethorpe 's Colony of Georgia in the 1730s and Edward Gibbon Wakefield 's New Zealand Company in the 1840s). In some cases European colonization appeared to be primarily for long-term economic gain, as in the Congo where Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness described life under
16128-688: Was met by a warship bombarding the city. Paul Ramadier 's ( SFIO ) cabinet repressed the Malagasy Uprising in Madagascar in 1947. French officials estimated the number of Malagasy killed from as low as 11,000 to a French Army estimate of 89,000. In Cameroun , the Union of the Peoples of Cameroon 's insurrection which began in 1955 headed by Ruben Um Nyobé , was violently repressed over two years, with perhaps as many as 100,000 people killed. French involvement in Algeria stretched back
16256-516: Was the main reason for the creation of the colony of Haute Volta (now Burkina Faso) after World War I, by splitting off seven districts from the large colony of Haut-Sénégal and Niger. The name "Volta-Bani War" was coined in the book West African Challenge to Empire: Culture and History in the Volta-Bani War (2002) by Mahir Saul and Patrick Royer. The book is an anthropological analysis and detailed description of these confrontations, on
16384-535: 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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