3/8/22, 7:53 PM Decolonization - Wikipedia

Decolonization
Decolonization (American and Oxford English) or decolonisation (other British English) is the
undoing of colonialism, the latter being the process whereby a nation establishes and maintains its
domination of foreign territories, often overseas territories.[1] The concept particularly applies to the
dismantlement, during the second half of the 20th century, of the colonial empires established prior
to World War I throughout the world.[2] Some scholars of decolonization focus especially on the
movements in the colonies demanding independence, such as Creole nationalism.[3]

The end-result of successful decolonization may equate to a form of Indigenous utopianism – given
the widespread nature of colonialism, neo-colonialism, and cultural colonialism the goal of full
decolonization may seem elusive or mythical.[4] Indigenous scholars state that an important aspect of
decolonization is the ongoing critique of Western worldviews and the uplifting of Indigenous
knowledge.[5][6]

Contents
Scope
Methods and stages
The Five Stages of Decolonization
Theories for trends in decolonization
Western History
Haitian Revolution
Spanish America
Portuguese America
Ottoman Empire
British Empire
French Empire
After 1918
After 1945
Challenges
State-building
Language policy
Nation-building
Economic development
Cultural
Post-colonial organizations
Assassinated anti-colonialist leaders
Current colonies
United Nations NSGS list
Indigenous decolonization theory
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Consequences of decolonization
See also
References
Further reading
Primary sources
External links

Scope
The fundamental right to self-determination is identified by the United Nations as core to
decolonization, allowing not only independence, but also other ways of decolonization.[7] The United
Nations Special Committee on Decolonization has stated that in the process of decolonization there is
no alternative to the colonizer but to allow a process of self-determination.[8] Self-determination
continues to be claimed within independent states, demanding decolonization, as in the case of
Indigenous Peoples.[9]

Decolonization may involve either nonviolent revolution or national liberation wars by pro-
independence groups. It may be intranational or involve the intervention of foreign powers acting
individually or through international bodies such as the United Nations. Although examples 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 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 colonial empires following World War II; and of the Soviet Union at the end of the Cold
War.[10]

Decolonization has been used to refer to the intellectual decolonization from the colonizers' ideas that
made the colonized feel inferior.[11][12][13] Issues of decolonization persist and are raised
contemporarily. In Latin America and South Africa, such issues are increasingly discussed under the
term decoloniality.[14][15]

Methods and stages

As world opinion began to favour independence for colonies
following World War I, there was an institutionalized collective
effort towards decolonization through the League of Nations.
Under Article 22 of the Covenant of the League of Nations, a
number of mandates were created. The expressed intention was to
prepare these countries for self-government, but the mandates are
often interpreted as a mere redistribution of control over the
former colonies of the defeated powers, mainly the German
Comorians protest against Mayotte
Empire and the Ottoman Empire. This reassignment work referendum on becoming an
continued through the United Nations, with a similar system of
overseas department of France,
trust territories created to adjust control over both former 2009
colonies and mandated territories.[16]

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The United Nations' 1960 declaration on the "Declaration on the Granting of Independence to
Colonial Countries and Peoples" was a crucial landmark in decolonization.[17]

The Five Stages of Decolonization

There are five proposed stages to decolonization. These are the most commonly found stages in the
method of decolonization with Hawaii (post 1959) being a prime example of how these stages
manifest themselves.[18]

1. The first is called rediscovery and recovery, where a colonized or previously colonized region
actively rediscovers its roots in order to reclaim the superiority of its own culture, history and
traditions of its own particular region. This stage, for example, has been observed in Hawaii
beginning around the 1960s, with new movements in Hawaiian music and literature.[19]
2. The second stage is labelled as the stage of mourning, where people as a community process
and understand any victimization that the colony may have experienced. This is often expressed
in the form of frustration and protest.
3. The third stage of decolonization, often labeled as the most crucial, is the process of building the
future of the proposed independent colony. This takes place most commonly through debate or
consultation where discussions involve the future of the colony, the governing procedures and
body and the reestablishment of culture.
4. The fourth stage comes as a result of a successful third stage, where the fourth stage is about
commitment to a single decided cause and direction for the colony. This stage is a collection of all
of the people's voices that are unified in a direction so clear cut that the colony can proceed to the
final stage.
5. The fifth and most commonly final stage of decolonization is the action towards said unified goal,
which can express itself in a variety of ways, namely through violence and reclaiming what was
once a colony. The process of the previous four stages sometimes cannot be afforded to a colony
if they are under serious threat, in which case the fifth stage tends to manifest itself faster.
Although often unavoidable, this could lead to potential issues, such as a lack in unification of
further future goal of the colony.

After the end of World War II, the British public had other priorities than the Empire after 1945. With
a new welfare state to finance, they had little enthusiasm for military action to hold onto overseas
territories against their will.[20]

In referendums, some dependent territories have chosen to retain their dependent status, such as
Gibraltar and French Guiana. There are even examples, such as the Falklands War, in which a
geopolitical power goes to war to defend the right of a dependent territory to continue to be such.
Colonial powers have sometimes promoted decolonization in order to shed financial, military, and
other burdens that tend to grow in those colonies where the colonial governments have become more
benign.

The final phase of decolonization may concern handing over responsibility for foreign relations and
security, and soliciting de jure recognition for the new sovereignty. However, even following the
recognition of statehood, a degree of continuity can be maintained through bilateral treaties between
now equal governments involving practicalities such as military training, mutual protection pacts, or
even a garrison and/or military bases.

Theories for trends in decolonization

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Scholars have proposed various explanations for trends in decolonization. Two prominent
explanations emphasize the state of the world economy (such as whether there is hegemony and
economic growth or stagnation) and World Polity theory (which emphasizes the diffusion of the
nation-state model from Western Europe to its dependencies and contagion processes whereby
decolonization in one instance prompts subsequent decolonizations in other cases).[21][22][17] Other
explanations emphasize how the lower profitability of colonization and the costs associated with
empire prompted decolonization.[23][24] Some explanations emphasize how colonial powers struggled
militarily against insurgents in 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."[25]

Western History
Beginning with the emergence of the United States in the 1770s, decolonization took place in the
context of Atlantic history, against the background of the American and French revolutions.
Decolonization became a wider movement in many colonies in the 20th century, and a reality after
1945.[26]

The historian William Hardy McNeill, in his famous 1963 book The Rise of the West, appears to have
interpreted the post-1945 decline of European empires as paradoxically being due to Westernization
itself, writing that

Although European empires have decayed since 1945, and the separate nation-states of
Europe have been eclipsed as centres of political power by the melding of peoples and
nations occurring under the aegis of both the American and Russian governments, it
remains true that, since the end of World War II, the scramble to imitate and appropriate
science, technology, and other aspects of Western culture has accelerated enormously all
round the world. Thus the dethronement of western Europe from its brief mastery of the
globe coincided with (and was caused by) an unprecedented, rapid Westernization of all
the peoples of the earth.[27]: 566

In the same book, McNeill wrote that "The rise of the West, as intended by the title and meaning of
this book, is only accelerated when one or another Asian or African people throws off European
administration by making Western techniques, attitudes, and ideas sufficiently their own to permit
them to do so".[27]: 807

Great Britain's Thirteen North American colonies were the first colonies to break from their colonial
motherland by declaring independence as the United States of America in 1776, and being recognized
as an independent nation by France in 1778 and Britain in 1783.[28][29]

Haitian Revolution

The Haitian Revolution 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.

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Spanish America

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.[30]

With the invasion of Spain by Napoleon in 1806, the American

colonies declared autonomy and loyalty to King Ferdinand VII.
The contract was broken and the regions of the Spanish Empire
had to decide whether to show allegiance to the Junta of Cadiz
The Chilean Declaration of
(the only territory in Spain free from Napoleon) or have a junta Independence on 18 February 1818
(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, 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 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 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.

Portuguese America

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 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 Dom Pedro proclaims himself
became a republic. Emperor of an independent Brazil
on 7 September 1822

Ottoman Empire

Cyprus

Cyprus was invaded and taken over by the Ottoman Empire in 1570. It later passed de facto from the
Ottoman Empire to the British Empire in 1878.[31] The Cypriots expressed their true disdain for
Ottoman rule through revolts and nationalist movements. The Ottomans suppressed these revolts in
the harshest of fashion, but that only ended up fuelling the revolts and desire for independence.[32]
The indigenous Cypriots, who constituted the overwhelming majority on the island, were ethnically
Greek. Accordingly, they desired liberation from foreign rule and to join their counterparts in the
nascent Greek state - an aspiration shared with their peers in other historically and predominantly
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Greek islands, like Crete. Being dissatisfied with three centuries of Turkic rule they openly expressed
their desire for enosis. They abandoned Ottoman architecture and showed little respect for Ottoman
rule.[33] All these acts of defiance could be attributed to decolonization. When the Cypriots made acts
of nationalism, they were participating in a form of decolonization, trying to move away from the
Turko-Islamic legacy they associated with colonization and foreign oppression.[34] The Greek War of
Independence had major affects on Cyprus and after the Ottomans had left, Cyprus continued
strengthening their cultural ties to Greece.[35]

A number of people (mainly Christians in the Balkans) previously conquered by the Ottoman Empire
were able to achieve independence in the 19th century, a process that peaked at the time of the
Ottoman defeat in the Russo-Turkish War of 1877–78.

The Ottoman Empire had failed to raise revenue and a monopoly of effective armed forces.[36] This
may have caused the fall of the Ottoman Empire.

Egypt

In the wake of the 1798 French Invasion of Egypt and its subsequent expulsion in 1801, the
commander of an Albanian regiment, Muhammad Ali, was able to gain control of Egypt. Although he
was acknowledged by the Sultan in Constantinople in 1805 as his pasha, Muhammad Ali, and
eventually his successors, were de facto monarchs of a largely independent state managing its own
foreign relations. However, despite this de facto independence, Egypt did remain nominally a vassal
state of the Ottoman Empire obliged to pay a hefty annual tribute to the Sultan. Throughout the 'long
19th century', Muhammad Ali would send scores of Azhar scholars to France and other European
countries to be educated in the empirical sciences (due to the heavy inferiority complex ingrained
from French defeat); however, such scholars would unwittingly participate in their country's
intellectual colonization throughout this century and establish the national public educational system
on Secular Humanist (Enlightenment) philosophy and principles and Western culture in general to
this day.[12] Upon declaring war on Turkey in November 1914, Britain unilaterally declared the
Sultan's rights and title over Egypt abolished and proclaimed its own protectorate over the country.

Greece

The Greek War of Independence (1821–1829) was fought to

liberate Greece from three centuries of Ottoman occupation.
Independence was secured by the intervention of the British and
French navies and the French and Russian armies, but Greece was
limited to an area including perhaps only one-third of ethnic
Greeks, that later grew significantly with the Megali Idea project.
The war ended many of the privileges of the Phanariot Greeks of
Constantinople. After nine years of war, Greece was finally
Greek War of Independence
recognized as an independent state under the London Protocol of
February 1830. Further negotiations in 1832 led to the London
Conference and the Treaty of Constantinople; these defined the
final borders of the new state.

Bulgaria

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Following a failed Bulgarian revolt in 1876, the subsequent Russo-

Turkish war ended with the provisional Treaty of San Stefano
established a huge new realm of Bulgaria including most of
Macedonia and Thrace. The final 1878 Treaty of Berlin allowed the
other Great Powers to limit the size of the new Russian client state
and even briefly divided this rump state in two, Bulgaria and
Eastern Rumelia, but the irredentist claims from the first treaty
would direct Bulgarian claims through the first and second Balkan
Wars and both World Wars.
Russian and Bulgarian defence of
Shipka Pass against Turkish troops
Romania was crucial for the independence of
Bulgaria.
Romania fought on the Russian side in the Russo-Turkish War
and in the 1878 Treaty of Berlin, Romania was recognized as an
independent state by the Great Powers.[37][38]

Serbia

Centuries[39][40] of armed and unarmed struggle ended with the

recognition of Serbian independence from the Ottoman Empire at
the Congress of Berlin in 1878.
Romanian War of Independence

Montenegro

The independence of the Principality of Montenegro from the

Ottoman Empire was recognized at the congress of Berlin in 1878.
However, the Montenegrin nation has been de facto independent
since 1711 (officially accepted by the Tsardom of Russia by the
order of Tsar Petr I Alexeyevich-Romanov. In the period 1795–
1798, Montenegro once again claimed independence after the
Battle of Krusi. In 1806, it was recognized as a power fighting
against Napoleon, meaning that it had a fully mobilized and Serbian War of Independence
supplied army (by Russia, through Admiral Dmitry Senyavin at
the Bay of Kotor). In the period of reign of Petar II Petrović-
Njegoš, Montenegro was again colonized by Turkey, but that changed with the coming of Knyaz
Danilo I, with a totally successful war against Turkey in the late 1850s ending with a decisive victory
of the Montenegrin army under Grand Duke Mirko Petrović-Njegoš, brother of Danilo I, at the Battle
of Grahovac. The full independence was given to Montenegro, after almost 170 years of fighting the
Turks, Bosniaks, Albanians and the French (1806–1814) at the Congress of Berlin.

British Empire

The emergence of Indigenous political parties was especially characteristic of the British Empire,
which seemed less ruthless in controlling political dissent. Driven by pragmatic demands of budgets
and manpower 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

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parliament, if approved submit a bill to Parliament at Westminster to terminate the responsibility of

the United Kingdom (with a copy of the new constitution annexed), and finally, if approved, issuance
of an Order of Council fixing the exact date of independence.[41]

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 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,
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 the League of Nations in 1919 and served on the council from 1927 to 1930.[42]
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 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 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.[43]

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 Empire of Ethiopia remained a beacon of
hope to pro-independence activists. However, with the anti-
colonial wars of the 1900s (decade) barely over, new
modernizing forms of African Nationalism began to gain
strength in the early 20th-century with the emergence of Pan- British Empire in 1952
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 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 the UK.

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In 1947, British India was partitioned into the independent dominions of India and Pakistan.
Hundreds of princely states, states ruled by monarchs in 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 the Kingdom of Sikkim merged with India by
popular vote in 1975.

Violence, civil warfare and partition

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 revolt of a portion of the

Indian Army. It was characterized by massacres of civilians on
Surrender of Lord Cornwallis at
both sides. It was not a movement for independence, however,
Yorktown in 1781
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 the police
assaults on the Salt March of 1930.[44] Large-scale communal violence broke out between Muslims
and Hindus and 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 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 the island. Each side rewrote its own history, blaming the other.[45]

Palestine became a British mandate from the League of Nations, and during the war the British
gained support from both sides by making promises both to the Arabs and the Jews. (See Balfour
Declaration). Decades of ethno—religious violence resulted. The British pulled out, after dividing the
Mandate into Palestine and Jordan.[46]

French Empire

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 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.

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After World War I, France administered the former Ottoman territories of Syria and Lebanon, and the
former German colonies of Togoland and Cameroon, as League of Nations mandates. Lebanon
declared its independence in 1943, and Syria in 1945.

Although France 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 October 27, 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 was extremely limited. On the night of March 29, 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). Ho Chi Minh,
who had been a co-founder of the French Communist Party in
1920 and had founded the Vietminh in 1941, declared
independence from France, and led the armed resistance against
France's reoccupation of Indochina. Cambodia and Laos became
independent in 1953, and the 1954 Geneva Accords ended
France's occupation of Indochina, leaving North Vietnam and
South Vietnam independent. Captured French soldiers from Điện
Biên Phủ, escorted by Vietnamese
In 1956, Morocco and Tunisia gained their independence from troops, 1954
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, 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 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.

After 1918

Western European colonial powers

The New Imperialism period of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, which included the scramble
for Africa and the Opium Wars, marked the zenith of European colonization. It also accelerated the
trends that would end colonialism. The extraordinary material demands of the conflict had spread
economic change across the world (notable inflation), and the associated social pressures of "war
imperialism" created both peasant unrest and a burgeoning middle class.

Economic growth created stakeholders with their own demands, while racial issues meant these
people clearly stood apart from the colonial middle-class and had to form their own group. The start
of mass nationalism, as a concept and practice, would fatally undermine the ideologies of imperialism.

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There were, naturally, other factors, from agrarian change (and

disaster – French Indochina), changes or developments in religion
(Buddhism in Burma, Islam in the Dutch East Indies, marginally
people like John Chilembwe in Nyasaland), and the impact of the
1930s Great Depression.

The Great Depression, despite the concentration of its impact on the

industrialized world, was also exceptionally damaging in the rural
colonies. Agricultural prices fell much harder and faster than those of Czechoslovak anti-colonialist
industrial goods. From around 1925 until World War II, the colonies propaganda poster: "Socialism
suffered. The colonial powers concentrated on domestic issues, opened the door of liberation for
protectionism and tariffs, disregarding the damage done to colonial nations."
international trade flows. The colonies, almost all primary "cash
crop" producers, lost the majority of their export income and were
forced away from the "open" complementary colonial economies to "closed" systems. While some
areas returned to subsistence farming (British Malaya) others diversified (India, West Africa), and
some began to industrialize. These economies would not fit the colonial straitjacket when efforts were
made to renew the links. Further, the European-owned and -run plantations proved more vulnerable
to extended deflation than native capitalists, reducing the dominance of "white" farmers in colonial
economies and making the European governments and investors of the 1930s co-opt Indigenous elites
– despite the implications for the future. Colonial reform also hastened their end; notably the move
from non-interventionist collaborative systems towards directed, disruptive, direct management to
drive economic change. The creation of genuine bureaucratic government boosted the formation of
Indigenous bourgeoisie.

United States

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, 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 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 US advocated an Open Door Policy and opposed the direct division of China.[47]

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
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 the Territory of the Philippine Islands was eventually granted independence.[48] In 1917,
the US purchased the Danish West Indies (later renamed the US Virgin Islands) from Denmark and

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Puerto Ricans became full U.S. citizens that same year.[49] 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.[50] As a result, the UN General Assembly
removed Puerto Rico from the U.N. list of non-self-governing territories.
Four referenda showed little support for independence, but much interest
in statehood such as Hawaii and Alaska received in 1959.[51]

The Monroe Doctrine was expanded by the Roosevelt Corollary in 1904,

providing that the United States had a right and obligation to intervene
"in flagrant cases of such wrongdoing or impotence" that a nation in the
Western Hemisphere became vulnerable to European control. In
practice, this meant that the United States was led to act as a collections Manuel L. Quezón, the first
agent for European creditors by administering customs duties in the president of the
Dominican Republic (1905–1941), Haiti (1915–1934), and elsewhere. The Commonwealth of the
intrusiveness and bad relations this engendered were somewhat checked Philippines (from 1935 to
by the Clark Memorandum and renounced by President Franklin D. 1944)
Roosevelt's "Good Neighbor Policy."

The Fourteen Points were preconditions addressed by President

Woodrow Wilson to 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 the interests of the Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands
populations concerned must have equal weight with the in Micronesia administered by the
equitable government whose title is to be determined. See also United States from 1947 to 1986
point XII.

After 1947, 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. Washington pushed hard to accelerate
decolonization and bring an end to the colonial empires of its Western allies, most importantly during
the 1956 Suez Crisis, but American military bases were established around the world and direct and
indirect interventions continued in Korea, Indochina, Latin America (inter alia, the 1965 occupation
of the Dominican Republic), Africa, and the Middle East to oppose Communist invasions 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.

Japan

Before World War I, Japan had gained several substantial colonial possessions in East Asia such as
Taiwan (1895) and Korea (1910). Japan joined 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

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such as public interaction, and attempts to eradicate 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 the Chinese province of Jehol, and
incorporated it into its Manchurian possessions. The Second Sino- U.S. troops in Korea, September
Japanese War started in 1937, and Japan occupied much of 1945
eastern China, including the Republic's capital at Nanjing. An
estimated 20 million Chinese died during the 1931–1945 war with
Japan.[52]

In December 1941, the Japanese Empire joined World War II by invading the European and US
colonies in Southeast Asia and 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 returned to the original colonizing
Western powers. The Soviet Union declared war on Japan in August 1945, and shortly after occupied
and annexed the southern Kuril Islands, which Japan still claims.

Central Europe

The Russian, German, and Austro-Hungarian empires collapsed at the end of World War I, and were
replaced by republics. Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, and Czechoslovakia became
independent countries. Yugoslavia and Romania expanded into former Austro-Hungarian territory.
The Soviet Union succeeded the Russian empire in the remainder of its former territory, and
Germany, Austria, and Hungary were reduced in size.

In 1938, Nazi Germany annexed Austria and part of Czechoslovakia, and in 1939, Nazi Germany and
the USSR concluded a pact to occupy the countries that lie between them; the USSR occupied
Finland, Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania, and Germany and the USSR split Poland in two. The
occupation of Poland started World War II. Germany attacked the USSR in 1941. The USSR allied
with the UK and USA, and emerged as one of the victors of the war, occupying most of central and
eastern Europe.

After 1945

Planning for decolonization

U.S. and Philippines

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, a Democrat in office from 1913 to 1921,
ignored the Philippines, and focused his attention on Mexico and Caribbean nations. By the 1920s,

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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, 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 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.[53]

Portugal

As a result of the Portuguese discoveries, Portugal had a

significantly large and long-lasting colonial empire. Starting in
1415, with the conquest of Ceuta and ending in 1999 with the
handover of Portuguese Macau to China. In 1822 Portugal lost
control of a newly independent Brazil.

From 1933 to 1974, Portugal became an authoritarian state (ruled

by António de Oliveira Salazar). There was a fierce determination to
maintain the colonial possessions at all costs, and aggressively
defeat any insurgencies. In 1961 India annexed Goa and by the Portuguese Army special
same year nationalist forces began organizing in Portugal, and the caçadores advancing in the
revolts (preceding the Portuguese Colonial War) spread to Angola, African jungle in the early 1960s,
Guinea Bissau and Mozambique.[54] Lisbon escalated its effort in during the Angolan War of
the war: for instance, it increased the number of natives in the Independence.
colonial army and built strategic hamlets. Portugal sent another
300,000 European settlers into Angola and Mozambique until
1974. In 1974, a left-wing revolution inside Portugal destroyed the old system 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.[55]

Belgium

Belgium had an empire forced upon by international demand in 1908 in response to the malfeasance
of its King Leopold in greatly mistreating the Congo. 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 itself was occupied by the Germans. There was no serious planning for
independence, and exceedingly little training or education provided. The Belgian Congo 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.[56]

The Netherlands

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The Netherlands, a small rich country in Western Europe, had

spent centuries building up its empire. By 1940 it consisted mostly
of the Dutch East Indies (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 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 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, originally set up by the
Japanese, was in power. The Dutch in the East Indies, and at home, Dutch soldiers in the East Indies
were practically unanimous (except for the Communists) that during the Indonesian National
Dutch power and prestige and wealth depended on an extremely Revolution, 1946
expensive war to regain the islands. Compromises were negotiated,
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 seized all Dutch properties and expelled all ethnic Dutch—over 300,000—as well as several
hundred thousand ethnic Indonesians who supported 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. Washington remained baffled why the Dutch were so
inexplicably enamoured of an obviously hopeless cause.[57][58] The Netherlands also had one other
major colony, Dutch Guiana in South America, which became independent as Suriname in 1975.

United Nations Trust Territories

When 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; the
Northern Mariana Islands elected to become a commonwealth of the United States.

The emergence of the Third World (1945–present)

The term "Third World" was coined by French demographer Alfred Sauvy in 1952, on the model of the
Third Estate, which, according to Abbé Sieyès, represented everything, but was nothing: "...because at
the end this ignored, exploited, scorned Third World like the Third Estate, wants to become
something too" (Sauvy). The emergence of this new political entity, in the frame of the Cold War, was
complex and painful. Several tentative attempts were made to organize newly independent states in
order to oppose a common front towards both the US's and the USSR's influence on them, with the
consequences of the Sino-Soviet split already at works. Thus, 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 who successfully opposed the French and British imperial powers during the 1956 Suez
crisis. After the 1954 Geneva Conference which put an end to the First Indochina War, the 1955
Bandung Conference gathered Nasser, Nehru, Tito, Sukarno, the leader of Indonesia, and Zhou Enlai,
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Premier of the People's Republic of China. In 1960, the UN General

Assembly voted the Declaration on the Granting of Independence to
Colonial Countries and Peoples. The next year, the Non-Aligned
Movement was officially created 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 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 tenets of the NIEO were:

1. Developing countries must be entitled to regulate and control the

activities of multinational corporations operating within their
territory.
2. They must be free to nationalise or expropriate foreign property Czechoslovak anti-colonialist
on conditions favourable to them. propaganda poster: "Africa – in
3. They must be free to set up associations of primary commodities fight for freedom".
producers similar to the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting
Countries, created on September 17, 1960, to protest pressure
by major oil companies (mostly owned by U.S., British, and Dutch nationals) to reduce oil prices
and payments to producers); all other states must recognise this right and refrain from taking
economic, military, or political measures calculated to restrict it.
4. International trade should be based on the need to ensure stable, equitable, and remunerative
prices for raw materials, generalised non-reciprocal and non-discriminatory tariff preferences, as
well as transfer of technology to developing countries; and should provide economic and technical
assistance without any strings attached.

The UNCTAD however wasn't very effective in

implementing this New International Economic
Order (NIEO), and social and economic
inequalities between industrialized countries
and the Third World kept on growing
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 The UN Human Development Index (HDI) is a quantitative
US and Western countries, causing a fourfold index of development, alternative to the classic Gross
increase in the price of oil, which lasted five Domestic Product (GDP), which some use as a proxy to
months, starting on October 17, 1973, and define the Third World. While the GDP only calculates
ending on March 18, 1974. OPEC nations then economic wealth, the HDI includes life expectancy, public
agreed, on January 7, 1975, to raise crude oil health and literacy as fundamental factors of a good
prices by 10%. At that time, OPEC nations – quality of life. Countries in North America, the Southern
including many who had recently nationalized Cone, Europe, East Asia, and Oceania generally have
their oil industries – joined the call for a New better standards of living than countries in Central Africa,
International Economic Order to be initiated by East Africa, parts of the Caribbean, and South Asia.
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

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quickly began to look for substitutes to OPEC petroleum, with 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 the existence of the international economic system.

The 1990s were characterized by the prevalence of the Washington consensus on neoliberal policies,
"structural adjustment" and "shock therapies" for the former Communist states.

Decolonization of Africa

The decolonisation of North Africa, and sub- Saharan Africa took

place in the mid-to-late 1950s, very suddenly, with little
preparation. There was widespread unrest and organised revolts,
especially in French Algeria, Portuguese Angola, the Belgian
Congo and British Kenya.[59][60][61][62]

In 1945, Africa had four independent countries – Egypt, Ethiopia,

Liberia, and South Africa.

After Italy's defeat in World War II, France and the UK occupied
the former Italian colonies. Libya became an independent
kingdom in 1951. Eritrea was merged with Ethiopia in 1952.
British decolonisation in Africa
Italian Somaliland was governed by the UK, and by Italy after
1954, until its independence in 1960.

By 1977 European colonial rule in mainland Africa had ended. Most of Africa's island countries had
also become independent, although Réunion and Mayotte remain part of France. However the black
majorities in Rhodesia and South Africa were disenfranchised until 1979 in Rhodesia, which became
Zimbabwe-Rhodesia that year and Zimbabwe the next, and until 1994 in South Africa. Namibia,
Africa's last UN Trust Territory, became independent of South Africa in 1990.

Most independent African countries exist within prior colonial borders. However Morocco merged
French Morocco with Spanish Morocco, and Somalia formed from the merger of British Somaliland
and Italian Somaliland. Eritrea merged with Ethiopia in 1952, but became an independent country in
1993.

Most African countries became independent as republics. Morocco, Lesotho, and Swaziland remain
monarchies under dynasties that predate colonial rule. Burundi, Egypt, Libya and Tunisia gained
independence as monarchies, but all four countries' monarchs were later deposed, and they became
republics.

African countries cooperate in various multi-state associations. The African Union includes all 55
African states. There are several regional associations of states, including the East African
Community, Southern African Development Community, and Economic Community of West African
States, some of which have overlapping membership.

United Kingdom: Sudan (1956); Ghana (1957); Nigeria (1960); Sierra Leone and Tanganyika
(1961); Uganda (1962); Kenya and Sultanate of Zanzibar (1963); Malawi and Zambia (1964);

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Gambia and Rhodesia (1965); Botswana and Lesotho (1966); Mauritius and Swaziland (1968);
Seychelles (1976)
France: Morocco and Tunisia (1956); Guinea (1958); Cameroon, Togo, Mali, Senegal,
Madagascar, Benin, Niger, Burkina Faso, Ivory Coast, Chad, Central African Republic, Republic
of the Congo, Gabon and Mauritania (1960); Algeria (1962); Comoros (1975); Djibouti (1977)
Spain: Equatorial Guinea (1968)
Portugal: Guinea-Bissau (1974); Mozambique, Cape Verde, São Tomé and Príncipe and
Angola (1975)
Belgium: Democratic Republic of the Congo (1960); Burundi and Rwanda (1962)

Decolonization in the Americas after 1945

United Kingdom: Newfoundland (formerly an independent dominion but under direct British
rule since 1934) (1949, union with Canada); Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago (1962); Barbados
and Guyana (1966); Bahamas (1973); Grenada (1974); Dominica (1978); Saint Lucia and St.
Vincent and the Grenadines (1979); Antigua and Barbuda and Belize (1981); Saint Kitts and Nevis
(1983); Barbados (Removal of Queen Elizabeth II as head of state, transition to Republic)
(2021).[63]
Netherlands: Netherlands Antilles, Suriname (1954, both becoming constituent countries of
the Kingdom of the Netherlands), 1975 (independence of Suriname)
Denmark: Greenland (1979, became an autonomous territory of the Kingdom of Denmark).

Decolonization of Asia

Japan expanded its occupation of Chinese territory

during the 1930s, and occupied Southeast Asia
during World War II. After the war, the Japanese
colonial empire was dissolved, and national
independence movements resisted the re-
imposition of colonial control by European
countries and the United States.
Western European colonial empires in Asia and Africa
The Republic of China regained control of
all collapsed in the years after 1945
Japanese-occupied territories in Manchuria and
eastern China, as well as Taiwan. Only Hong Kong
and Macau remained in outside control.

The Allied powers divided Korea into two occupation zones, which became the states of North Korea
and South Korea. The Philippines became independent of the US in 1946.

The Netherlands recognized Indonesia's independence in 1949, after a four-year independence

struggle. Indonesia annexed Netherlands New Guinea in 1963, and Portuguese Timor in 1975. In
2002, former Portuguese Timor became independent as East Timor.

The following list shows the colonial powers following the end of hostilities in 1945, and their colonial
or administrative possessions. The year of decolonization is given chronologically in parentheses.[64]

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United Kingdom: Transjordan (1946), British India and

Pakistan (1947); British Mandate of Palestine, Burma and
Ceylon (1948); British Malaya (1957); Kuwait (1961); Kingdom
of Sarawak, North Borneo and Singapore (1963); Maldives
(1965); Aden (1967); Bahrain, Qatar and United Arab Emirates
(1971); Brunei (1984); Hong Kong (1997)
France: French India (1954) and Indochina comprising
Vietnam (1945), Cambodia (1953) and Laos (1953)
Portugal: Portuguese India (1961); East Timor (1975);
Macau (1999)
United States: Philippines (1946)
Four nations (India, Pakistan,
Netherlands: Indonesia (1949)
Dominion of Ceylon, and Union of
Burma) that gained independence in
Decolonization in Europe 1947 and 1948

Italy had occupied the Dodecanese islands in 1912, but Italian

occupation ended after World War II, and the islands were integrated into Greece. British rule ended
in Cyprus in 1960, and Malta in 1964, and both islands became independent republics.

Soviet control of its non-Russian member republics weakened as movements for democratization and
self-government gained strength during the late 1980s, and four republics declared independence in
1990 and 1991. The Soviet coup d'état attempt in August 1991 accelerated the breakup of the USSR,
which formally ended on December 26, 1991. The Republics of the Soviet Union become sovereign
states—Armenia, Azerbaijan, Byelorussia (later Belarus), Estonia, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan,
Latvia, Lithuania, Moldova, Russia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Ukraine and Uzbekistan. Historian
Robert Daniels says, "A special dimension that the anti-Communist revolutions shared with some of
their predecessors was decolonization."[65] Moscow's policy had long been to settle ethnic Russians in
the non-Russian republics. After independence, minority rights has been an issue for Russian-
speakers in some republics and for non-Russian-speakers in Russia; see Russians in the Baltic
states.[66] Meanwhile, the Russian Federation continues to apply political, economic, and military
pressure on former Soviet colonies. In 2014 it annexed Ukraine's Crimean peninsula, the only such
action in Europe since the end of the Second World War.

Decolonization of Oceania

The decolonization of Oceania occurred after World War II when nations in Oceania achieved
independence by transitioning from European colonial rule to full independence.

United Kingdom: Tonga and Fiji (1970); Solomon Islands and Tuvalu (1978); Kiribati (1979)
United Kingdom and France: Vanuatu (1980)
Australia: Nauru (1968); Papua New Guinea (1975)
New Zealand: Samoa (1962)
United States: Marshall Islands and Federated States of Micronesia (1986); Palau (1994)

Challenges
Typical challenges of decolonization include state-building, nation-building, and economic
development.
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State-building

After independence, the new states needed to establish or strengthen the institutions of a sovereign
state – governments, laws, a military, schools, administrative systems, and so on. The amount of self-
rule granted prior to independence, and assistance from the colonial power and/or international
organisations after independence, varied greatly between colonial powers, and between individual
colonies.[67]

Except for a few absolute monarchies, most post-colonial states are either republics or constitutional
monarchies. These new states had to devise constitutions, electoral systems, and other institutions of
representative democracy.

Language policy

From the perspective of language policy (or language politics), "linguistic decolonization" entails the
replacement of a colonizing (imperial) power's language with a given colony's indigenous language in
the function of official language. With the exception of colonies in Eurasia, linguistic decolonization
did not take place in the former colonies-turned-independent states on the other continents ("Rest of
the World").[68] The persistent absence of linguistic decolonization is known as linguistic
imperialism.[69]

Nation-building

Nation-building is the process of creating a sense of identification

with, and loyalty to, the state.[70][71] Nation-building projects seek
to replace loyalty to the old colonial power, and/or tribal or
regional loyalties, with loyalty to the new state. Elements of
nation-building include creating and promoting symbols of the
state like a flag and an anthem, monuments, official histories,
national sports teams, codifying one or more Indigenous official
languages, and replacing colonial place-names with local ones.[67]
Nation-building after independence often continues the work The Black Star Monument in
began by independence movements during the colonial period. Accra, built by Ghana's first
president Kwame Nkrumah to
commemorate the country's
Settled populations
independence
Decolonization is not an easy matter in colonies where a large
population of settlers lives, particularly if they have been there for
several generations. This population, in general, was often repatriated, often losing considerable
property. For instance, the decolonization of Algeria by France was particularly uneasy due to the
large European population (see also pied noir),[72] which largely evacuated to France when Algeria
became independent.[73] In Zimbabwe, former Rhodesia, Robert Mugabe targeted white African
farmers, seizing their property by force, and many either died or emigrated.[74][75] Other ethnic
minorities that are also the product of colonialism may pose problems as well. A large Indian
community lived in Uganda – as in most of East Africa – as a result of Britain colonizing both India
and East Africa. As many Indians had considerable wealth Idi Amin expelled them for domestic
political gain.[76]

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Economic development

Newly independent states also had to develop independent economic institutions – a national
currency, banks, companies, regulation, tax systems, etc.

Many colonies were serving as resource colonies which produced raw materials and agricultural
products, and as a captive market for goods manufactured in the colonizing country. Many
decolonized countries created programs to promote industrialization. Some nationalized industries
and infrastructure, and some engaged in land reform to redistribute land to individual farmers or
create collective farms.

Some decolonized countries maintain strong economic ties with the former colonial power. The CFA
franc is a currency shared by 14 countries in West and Central Africa, mostly former French colonies.
The CFA franc is guaranteed by the French treasury.

After independence, many countries created regional economic associations to promote trade and
economic development among neighbouring countries, including the Association of Southeast Asian
Nations (ASEAN), the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), and the Gulf
Cooperation Council.

Effects on the colonizers

John Kenneth Galbraith argues that the post–World War II decolonization was brought about for
economic reasons. In A Journey Through Economic Time, he writes:

"The engine of economic well-being was now within and between the advanced industrial
countries. Domestic economic growth – as now measured and much discussed – came to
be seen as far more important than the erstwhile colonial trade.... The economic effect in
the United States from the granting of independence to the Philippines was unnoticeable,
partly due to the Bell Trade Act, which allowed American monopoly in the economy of the
Philippines. The departure of India and Pakistan made small economic difference in the
United Kingdom. Dutch economists calculated that the economic effect from the loss of
the great Dutch empire in Indonesia was compensated for by a couple of years or so of
domestic post-war economic growth. The end of the colonial era is celebrated in the
history books as a triumph of national aspiration in the former colonies and of benign
good sense on the part of the colonial powers. Lurking beneath, as so often happens, was a
strong current of economic interest – or in this case, disinterest."

In general, the release of the colonized caused little economic loss to the colonizers. Part of the reason
for this was that major costs were eliminated while major benefits were obtained by alternate means.
Decolonization allowed the colonizer to disclaim responsibility for the colonized. The colonizer no
longer had the burden of obligation, financial or otherwise, to their colony. However, the colonizer
continued to be able to obtain cheap goods and labor as well as economic benefits (see Suez Canal
Crisis) from the former colonies. Financial, political and military pressure could still be used to
achieve goals desired by the colonizer. Thus decolonization allowed the goals of colonization to be
largely achieved, but without its burdens.

Cultural
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Kenyan writer Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o has written about colonization and decolonization in the film
universe. Born in Ethiopia, filmmaker Haile Gerima describes the "colonization of the unconscious"
he describes experiencing as a child:[77]

...as kids, we tried to act out the things we had seen in the movies. We used to play
cowbows and Indians in the mountains around Gondar...We acted out the roles of these
heroes, identifying with the cowboys conquering the Indians. We didn't identify with the
Indians at all and we never wanted the Indians to win. Even in Tarzan movies, we would
become totally galvanized by the activities of the hero and follow the story from his point
of view, completely caught up in the structure of the story. Whenever Africans sneaked up
behind Tarzan, we would scream our heads off, trying to warn him that 'they' were
coming".

In Asia, kung fu cinema emerged at a time Japan wanted to reach Asian populations in other
countries by way of its cultural influence. The surge in popularity of kung fu movies began in the late
1960s through the 1970s. Local populations were depicted as protagonists opposing "imperialists"
(foreigners) and their "Chinese collaborators".[77]

Post-colonial organizations
Due to a common history and culture,
former colonial powers created
institutions which more loosely
associated their former colonies.
Membership is voluntary, and in some
cases can be revoked if a member state
loses some objective criteria (usually a
requirement for democratic
governance). The organizations serve
cultural, economic, and political
purposes between the associated Four international organizations whose membership largely follows
countries, although no such organisation the pattern of previous colonial empires.
has become politically prominent as an
entity in its own right.

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Former Colonial Power Organisation Founded

United Kingdom Commonwealth of Nations 1931
French Union 1946
France French Community 1958
La Francophonie 1970
Spain & Portugal Organisation of Ibero-American States 1991
Portugal Community of Portuguese Language Countries 1996
Russia Commonwealth of Independent States 1991
Commonwealths 1934
United States
Freely Associated States 1982
De Nederlandse Unie 1949
Netherlands
De Nederlandse Taalunie 1980

Assassinated anti-colonialist leaders

A non-exhaustive list of assassinated leaders would include:

Tiradentes was a leading member of the Brazilian seditious

movement known as the Inconfidência Mineira, against the
Portuguese Empire. He fought for an independent Brazilian
republic.
Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, nonviolent leader of the
Indian independence movement was assassinated in 1948 by
Nathuram Godse. Gandhi in 1947, with Lord Louis
Ruben Um Nyobé, leader of the Union of the Peoples of Mountbatten, Britain's last Viceroy of
Cameroon (UPC), killed in a plane crash on September 13, India, and his wife Vicereine Edwina
1958. No clear cause has ever been ascertained for the Mountbatten.
mysterious crash. Assassination has been alleged with the
French SDECE being blamed.
Barthélemy Boganda, leader of a nationalist Central African
Republic movement, who died in a plane-crash on March 29,
1959, eight days before the last elections of the colonial era.
The French SDECE or his wife are the main suspects.
Félix-Roland Moumié, successor to Ruben Um Nyobe at the
head of the Cameroon's People Union, assassinated in
Geneva in 1960 by the SDECE (French secret services).[78]
Patrice Lumumba, the first Prime Minister of the Democratic
Republic of the Congo, was assassinated on January 17,
1961.
Burundi nationalist Louis Rwagasore was assassinated on
Patrice Lumumba, first
October 13, 1961, while Pierre Ngendandumwe, Burundi's first
Hutu prime minister, was also murdered on January 15, 1965. democratically elected Prime
Minister of the Congo-Léopoldville,
Sylvanus Olympio, the first president of Togo, was
was murdered by Belgian-supported
assassinated on January 13, 1963.
Katangan separatists in 1961

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Mehdi Ben Barka, the leader of the Moroccan National Union of Popular Forces (UNPF) and of
the Tricontinental Conference, which was supposed to prepare in 1966 in Havana its first meeting
gathering national liberation movements from all continents – related to the Non-Aligned
Movement, but the Tricontinal Conference gathered liberation movements while the Non-Aligned
were for the most part states – was "disappeared" in Paris in 1965, allegedly by Moroccan agents
and French police officers.
Nigerian leader Ahmadu Bello was assassinated in January 1966 during a coup which toppled
Nigeria's post-independence government.
Eduardo Mondlane, the leader of FRELIMO and the father of Mozambican independence, was
assassinated in 1969. Both the Portuguese intelligence or the Portuguese secret police
PIDE/DGS and elements of FRELIMO, have been accused of killing Mondlane.
Mohamed Bassiri, Sahrawi leader of the Movement for the Liberation of Saguia el Hamra and
Wadi el Dhahab was "disappeared" in El Aaiún in 1970, allegedly by the Spanish Legion.
Amílcar Cabral was killed on January 20, 1973, by PAIGC rival Inocêncio Kani, with the help of
Portuguese agents operating within the PAIGC.

Current colonies
The United Nations, under "Chapter XI: Declaration Regarding Non-Self Governing Territories" of
the Charter of the United Nations, defines Non-Self Governing Nations (NSGSs) as "territories whose
people have not yet attained a full measure of self-government"—the contemporary definition of
colonialism.[79] After the conclusion of World War II with the surrender of the Axis Powers in 1945,
and two decades into the latter half of the 20th-century, over three dozen "states in Asia and Africa
achieved autonomy or outright independence" from European administering powers.[80] As of 2020,
17 territories remain under Chapter XI distinction:[81]

United Nations NSGS list

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Year Listed as NSGS Administering Power Territory

1946 United Kingdom Anguilla
1946 United Kingdom Bermuda
1946 United Kingdom British Virgin Islands
1946 United Kingdom Cayman Islands
1946 United Kingdom Falkland Islands
1946 United Kingdom Montserrat
1946 United Kingdom Saint Helena
1946 United Kingdom Turks and Caicos Islands
1946 United Kingdom Gibraltar
1946 United Kingdom Pitcairn
1946 United States American Samoa
1946 United States United States Virgin Islands
1946 United States Guam
1946 New Zealand Tokelau
1963 Spain Western Sahara
1946-47, 1986 France New Caledonia
1946-47, 2013 France French Polynesia

"On 26 February 1976, Spain informed the Secretary-General that as of that date it had terminated its
presence in the Territory of the Sahara and deemed it necessary to place on record that Spain
considered itself thenceforth exempt from any responsibility of any international nature in connection
with the administration of the Territory, in view of the cessation of its participation in the temporary
administration established for the Territory. In 1990, the General Assembly reaffirmed that the
question of Western Sahara was a question of decolonization which remained to be completed by the
people of Western Sahara."[81]

On 10 December 2010, the United Nations published its official decree, announcing the Third
International Decade for the Eradication of Colonialism wherein the United Nations declared its
"renewal of the call to States Members of the United Nations to speed up the process of decolonization
towards the complete elimination of colonialism".[82] According to an article by scholar John
Quintero, "given the modern emphasis on the equality of states and inalienable nature of their
sovereignty, many people do not realize that these non-self-governing structures still exist".[83] Some
activists have claimed that the attention of the United Nations was "further diverted from the social
and economic agenda [for decolonization] towards "firefighting and extinguishing” armed conflicts".
Advocates have stressed that the United Nations "[remains] the last refuge of hope for peoples under
the yolk of colonialism".[84] Furthermore, on 19 May 2015, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon
addressed the attendants of the Caribbean Regional Seminar on Decolonization, urging international
political leaders to "build on [the success of precedent decolonization efforts and] towards fully
eradicating colonialism by 2020".[84]

The sovereignty of the Chagos Archipelago in the Indian Ocean is disputed between the United
Kingdom and Mauritius. In February 2019, the International Court of Justice in The Hague ruled that
the United Kingdom must transfer the islands to Mauritius as they were not legally separated from

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the latter in 1965.[85] On 22 May 2019, the United Nations General Assembly debated and adopted a
resolution that affirmed that the Chagos Archipelago "forms an integral part of the territory of
Mauritius."[86] The UK does not recognise Mauritius' sovereignty claim over the Chagos
Archipelago.[87] In October 2020, Mauritian Prime Minister Pravind Jugnauth described the British
and American governments as "hypocrites" and "champions of double talk" over their response to the
dispute.[88]

Indigenous decolonization theory

Indigenous decolonization theory views Western Eurocentric historical accounts and political
discourse as an ongoing political construct that attempts to negate Indigenous peoples and their
experiences around the world. Indigenous people of the world precede and negate all Eurocentric
colonization projects and the resulting historical constructs, popular discourse, conceptualizations,
and theory. In this view, the independence of European-styled former Western-European colonies,
such as the United States, Australia, and Brazil, is conceptualized as ongoing neo-colonization
projects of settler colonialism and not as decolonization. The creation of these states merely continued
ongoing European colonialism. Any former European colony not free of Western European influence,
such as South Africa, Australia, Mexico, Brazil, USA, etc. fit such a conceptualization.[89]

Consequences of decolonization
A 2019 study found that "democracy levels increased sharply as colonies gained internal autonomy in
the period immediately before their independence. However, conflict, revenue growth, and economic
growth did not systematically differ before and after independence."[90]

According to political theorist Kevin Duong, decolonization "may have been the century’s greatest act
of disenfranchisement", as numerous anti-colonial activists primarily pursued universal suffrage
within empires rather than independence: "As dependent territories became nation-states, they lost
their voice in metropolitan assemblies whose affairs affected them long after independence."[91]

David Strange writes that the loss of their empires turned France and Britain into "second-rate
powers."[92]

See also
Blue water thesis Organisation internationale de la
Coloniality of power Francophonie
Commonwealth of Independent States Organisation of Ibero-American States
Commonwealth of Nations Partition (politics)
Freely Associated States Political history of the world
Creole nationalism Postcolonialism
Decoloniality Repatriation (cultural heritage)
Decolonization of knowledge Repatriation and reburial of human remains
Exploitation colonialism Secession
De Nederlandse Taalunie Separatism
Imperialism Settler colonialism
Neocolonialism Timeline of national independence

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United Nations list of Non-Self-Governing

Territories

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ive-political-economy-of-the-welfare-state/british-and-french-political-institutions-and-the-patternin
g-of-decolonization/FB81EB9A940F63CDF5077D3EF78BAE86), The Comparative Political
Economy of the Welfare State, Cambridge University Press, p. 292, ISBN 978-0-521-43473-7

Further reading
Bailey, Thomas A. A diplomatic history of the American people (1969) online free ([Link]
rg/details/diplomatichistor00bail_0)
Betts, Raymond F. Decolonisation (2nd ed. 2004)
Betts, Raymond F. France and Decolonisation, 1900–1960 (1991)
Butler, Larry, and Sarah Stockwell, eds. The Wind of Change: Harold Macmillan and British
Decolonisation (2013) excerpt ([Link]
Colonial/dp/023036103X)
Chafer, Tony. The end of empire in French West Africa: France's successful decolonisation
(Bloomsbury, 2002).
Chamberlain, Muriel E. ed. Longman Companion to European Decolonisation in the Twentieth
Century (Routledge, 2014)
Clayton, Anthony. The wars of French decolonisation (Routledge, 2014).
Cooper, Frederick. "French Africa, 1947–48: Reform, Violence, and Uncertainty in a Colonial
Situation." Critical Inquiry (2014) 40#4 pp: 466–478. in JSTOR ([Link]
6/676416)
Darwin, John. "Decolonisation and the End of Empire" in Robin W. Winks, ed., The Oxford History
of the British Empire - Vol. 5: Historiography (1999) 5: 541–57. online ([Link]
rary/117192922/the-oxford-history-of-the-british-empire) Archived ([Link]
180910204147/[Link]
e) 2018-09-10 at the Wayback Machine
Grimal, Henri. Decolonisation: The British, Dutch, and Belgian Empires, 1919–1963 (1978).

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Hyam, Ronald. Britain's Declining Empire: The Road to Decolonisation, 1918–1968 (2007)
excerpt ([Link]
685559/)
Ikeda, Ryo. The Imperialism of French Decolonisation: French Policy and the Anglo-American
Response in Tunisia and Morocco (Palgrave Macmillan, 2015)
Jansen, Jan C. & Jürgen Osterhammel. Decolonisation: A Short History (Princeton UP, 2017).
online ([Link]
Jones, Max, et al. "Decolonising imperial heroes: Britain and France." Journal of Imperial and
Commonwealth History 42#5 (2014): 787–825.
Klose, Fabian (2014), Decolonization and Revolution ([Link]
-world/european-overseas-rule/fabian-klose-decolonization-and-revolution?set_language=en&-C
=), EGO - European History Online ([Link] Mainz: Institute of European History
([Link] retrieved: March 17, 2021 (pdf ([Link]
112594/34)).
Lawrence, Adria K. Imperial Rule and the Politics of Nationalism: Anti-Colonial Protest in the
French Empire (Cambridge UP, 2013) online reviews ([Link]
al-rule-nationalism)
McDougall, James. "The Impossible Republic: The Reconquest of Algeria and the Decolonisation
of France, 1945–1962," The Journal of Modern History 89#4 (December 2017) pp 772–811
excerpt ([Link]
MacQueen, Norrie. The Decolonisation of Portuguese Africa: Metropolitan Revolution and the
Dissolution of Empire (1997).
Monroe, Elizabeth. Britain's Moment in the Middle East, 1914–1956 (1963) online ([Link]
[Link]/library/954023/britain-s-moment-in-the-middle-east-1914-1956) Archived ([Link]
[Link]/web/20180921121807/[Link]
middle-east-1914-1956) 2018-09-21 at the Wayback MachineParameter error in {{ISBN}}: Missing ISBN.
Rothermund, Dietmar. The Routledge companion to decolonisation (Routledge, 2006),
comprehensive global coverage; 365pp
Rothermund, Dietmar. Memories of Post-Imperial Nations: The Aftermath of Decolonisation,
1945–2013 (2015) excerpt ([Link]
-Decolonization/dp/1107102294/); Compares the impact on Great Britain, the Netherlands,
Belgium, France, Portugal, Italy and Japan
Shepard, Todd. The Invention of Decolonisation: The Algerian War and the Remaking of France
(2006)
Simpson, Alfred William Brian. Human Rights and the End of Empire: Britain and the Genesis of
the European Convention (Oxford University Press, 2004).
Smith, Simon C. Ending empire in the Middle East: Britain, the United States and post-war
decolonisation, 1945–1973 (Routledge, 2013)
Smith, Tony. "A comparative study of French and British decolonisation." Comparative Studies in
Society and History (1978) 20#1 pp: 70–102. online ([Link]
opean/Smith%20Compartive%20French%20and%20British%destabilization's)
Smith, Tony. "The French Colonial Consensus and People's War, 1946–58." Journal of
Contemporary History (1974): 217–247. in JSTOR ([Link]
Strayer, Robert. “Decolonisation, Democratisation, and Communist Reform: The Soviet Collapse
in Comparative Perspective,” Journal of World History 12#2 (2001), 375–406. online ([Link]
[Link]/courses/worldhistory/support/reading_26_3.pdf) Archived ([Link]
0150224051615/[Link] 2015-02-
24 at the Wayback Machine

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Thomas, Martin, Bob Moore, and Lawrence J. Butler. Crises of Empire: Decolonisation and
Europe's imperial states (Bloomsbury Publishing, 2015)
White, Nicholas. Decolonisation: the British experience since 1945 (2nd ed. Routledge, 2014)
excerpt online ([Link]
1408245639)

Primary sources
‘’Decolonisations’’, TV Series, Arte, 3 X 52’, the European culture TV Channel, director: Karim
Miské, Marc Ball, Pierre Singaravélou, Grand URTI Prize for arthouse documentary (2020)
Le Sueur, James D. ed. The Decolonisation Reader (Routledge, 2003)
Madden, Frederick, ed. The End of Empire: Dependencies since 1948 : Select Documents on the
Constitutional History of the British Empire and Commonwealth – Vol. 1 (2000) online at Questia
([Link]
Archived ([Link]
34/the-end-of-empire-dependencies-since-1948-select) 2018-08-19 at the Wayback Machine,
596pp
Mansergh, Nicholas, ed. Documents and Speeches on Commonwealth Affairs, 1952–1962 (1963)
online at Questia ([Link]
nwealth-affairs-1952-1962) Archived ([Link]
[Link]/library/1817157/documents-and-speeches-on-commonwealth-affairs-1952-1962)
2018-08-19 at the Wayback Machine
Wiener, Joel H. ed. Great Britain: Foreign Policy and the Span of Empire, 1689–1971: A
Documentary History – Vol. 4 (1972) online at Questia ([Link]
0/great-britain-foreign-policy-and-the-span-of-empire) Archived ([Link]
0425033322/[Link]
of-empire) 2018-04-25 at the Wayback Machine 712 pp; Covers 1872 to 1968.

External links
Media related to Decolonization at Wikimedia Commons
Quotations related to Decolonization at Wikiquote
Works related to United Nations General Assembly Resolution 66 at Wikisource
Works related to United Nations Trusteeship Agreements listed by the General Assembly as
Non-Self-Governing at Wikisource
Works related to United Nations General Assembly Resolution 1514 at Wikisource
Works related to United Nations General Assembly Resolution 1541 at Wikisource
James E. Kitchen: Colonial Empires after the First World War/Decolonisation ([Link]
[Link]/article/colonial_empires_after_the_wardecolonisation/), in: 1914–1918-
online. International Encyclopedia of the First World War ([Link]
et/[Link]/).

Retrieved from "[Link]

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