Decolonization is the undoing ofcolonialism, the latter being the process wherebyimperial nations establish and dominate foreign territories, often overseas.[1] The meanings and applications of the term are disputed. Some scholars of decolonization focus especially onindependence movements in thecolonies and the collapse of globalcolonial empires.[2][3]
As a movement to establish independence for colonized territories from their respectivemetropoles, decolonization began in 1775 inNorth America. Major waves of decolonization occurred in the aftermath of the First World War and most prominently after theSecond World War, due to the rise of the United States andthe Soviet Union. Decolonization would conclude with thecollapse of the latter in 1991 as well as thehandovers of Hong Kongand Macau in 1997 and 1999 respectively.[4][5][6]
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.[7][8] Extending the meaning of decolonization beyond politicalindependence has been disputed and received criticism.[9][10][11]
Early studies of decolonisation appeared in the 1960s and 1970s. An important book from this period wasThe Wretched of the Earth (1961) by Martiniquan authorFrantz 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 the annihilation of people's cultures.Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o explored the cultural and linguistic legacies of colonialism in the influential bookDecolonising the Mind (1986).[7]
"Decolonization" has also been used to refer to theintellectual decolonization from the colonizers' ideas that made the colonized feel inferior.[20][21][22] Issues of decolonization persist and are raised contemporarily. In theAmericas andSouth Africa, such issues are increasingly discussed under the termdecoloniality.[23][24]
In the two hundred years following theAmerican Revolutionary War in 1783, 165 colonies have gained independence from Western imperial powers.[25] 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 a result of economic shifts toward wage labor and an enlargedbourgeois class; yet another argument sees decolonization as a diffusion process wherein earlier revolutionary movements inspired later ones.[25][26][27][28] Other explanations emphasize how the lower profitability of colonization and the costs associated with empire prompted decolonization.[29][30] 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".[31] In other words, colonial powers had more support from their own region in pursuing colonies in the 19th century than they did in the 20th century, where holding on to such colonies was often understood to be a burden.[31]
A great deal of scholarship attributes the ideological origins of national independence movements to theAge of Enlightenment. Enlightenment social and political theories such as individualism andliberalism were central to the debates about national constitutions for newly independent countries.[32] Contemporarydecolonial scholarship has critiqued the emancipatory potential of Enlightenment thought, highlighting itserasure of Indigenous epistemologies and failure to providesubaltern andIndigenous people with liberty, equality, and dignity.[33]
The chaos of theNapoleonic Wars in Europe cut the direct links between Spain and its American colonies, allowing for the process of decolonization to begin.[36]
With the invasion of Spain byNapoleon 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, the independence wars of Latin America began with a revolt in La Paz,Bolivia. In 1807 and 1808, theViceroyalty 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 inBuenos Aires, a Junta was created, but inMontevideo 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 July 1810,Colombia became the first independent nation ofSouth America as well as the third oldest independent in the Americas state afterHaiti and theUnited States.[citation needed] In 1824, the Spanish forces were defeated in theBattle of Ayacucho. The mainland was free, and in 1898, Spain lostCuba andPuerto Rico in theSpanish–American War. Puerto Rico became anunincorporated territory of the US, but Cuba became independent in 1902.
Prince Pedro proclaims himself Emperor of an independent Brazil on 7 September 1822.
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 courtfled to Brazil. In 1820 there was aConstitutionalist 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 theEmpire of Brazil, which later became a republic.
The emergence of Indigenous political parties was especially characteristic of theBritish Empire, which seemed less ruthless than, for example, Belgium, 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 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.[37]
Members of the Irish delegation for theAnglo-Irish Treaty negotiations in December 1921
Egypt became independent in 1922, although the UK retained security prerogatives, control of theSuez Canal, and effective control of theAnglo-Egyptian Sudan. TheBalfour Declaration of 1926 declared the British Empiredominions as equals, and the 1931Statute of Westminster established full legislative independence for them. The equal dominions were six–Canada,Newfoundland, Australia, theIrish 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.[38] 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 growingIndian independence movement, the UK made successive reforms to theBritish Raj, culminating in theGovernment of India Act 1935. These reforms included creating elected legislative councils in some of theprovinces 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 ofnationalism 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.[39]
British Empire in 1952
Africa was only fully drawn into the colonial system at the end of the 19th century. In the north-east the continued independence of theEthiopian Empire 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 Africa nationalism began to gain strength in the early 20th century with the emergence of Pan-Africanism, as advocated by the Jamaican journalistMarcus 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 ledGhana to independence from colonial rule.
Independence for the colonies in Africa began with the independence ofSudan in 1956, andGhana in 1957. All of the British colonies on mainland Africa became independent by 1966, althoughRhodesia'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 asprotectorates or insubsidiary alliance with the UK.
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, andBritish North America, which later became Canada.
TheIndian Rebellion of 1857 was a major uprising in India against BritishEast India Company. It 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 theBritish Raj was relatively small. Most of that was initiated by repressive British administrators, as in theAmritsar massacre of 1919, or the police assaults on theSalt March of 1930.[40] Large-scale communal violence broke out between Hindus and Muslims and between Muslims and Sikhs after the British left in 1947 in the newly independentdominions 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 asBangladesh in 1971.
Cyprus, which came under full British control in 1914 from the Ottoman Empire, was culturally divided between the majorityGreek 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.[41]
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 famoustirailleurs). Although inParis theGreat Mosque of Paris was constructed as recognition of these efforts, the French state had no intention to allowself-rule, let alone grantindependence to the colonized people. Thus,nationalism in the colonies became stronger in between the two wars, leading toAbd el-Krim'sRif War (1921–1925) inMorocco and to the creation ofMessali Hadj'sStar of North Africa inAlgeria in 1925. However, these movements would gain full potential only after World War II.
After World War I, France administered the former Ottoman territories ofSyria andLebanon, and the former German colonies ofTogoland andCameroon, 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 ofantisemitism in Algeria in the course of the nation's resistance to French rule.[43]
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 27 October 1946, France adopted anew constitution[44][45] creating theFourth Republic, and substituted theFrench 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 29 March 1947, aMadagascarnationalist uprising led the French government headed byPaul Ramadier (Socialist) to violent repression: one year of bitter fighting, 11,000–40,000 Malagasy died.[46]
France announced that it would apply a more democratic model toIndochina on March 24, 1945. However, on 19 December 1946, the communistViet Minh led byHo Chi Minh attacked France inHanoi, leading to theFirst Indochina War (1946–54). France began to choose the solution of cooperation with the nationalist and anti-communist faction led byBao Dai from 1947. Left-wing government of France later recognized partial independence ofVietnam,Laos, andCambodia in 1949. France alsorecognized the unity of Vietnam and supported nationalist andanti-communist faction here againstcommunism that was expanding in the name of anti-colonialism, the war thus became part of the world-wideCold War.[47] France gradually granted independence to the three Indochinese countries through negotiations due to pressure from the war and the Americans. Cambodia and Laos became fully independent in late 1953. Vietnam also became fully independent from France on 4 June 1954, ending colonialism in Vietnam. Despite the initial advantage and later support from the United States, France was defeated by the rebels because they were backed by China. French faced military defeat with theGeneva Accords of 21 July 1954, leaving Vietnam divided into theNorth andSouth, when France recognized communists gaining the North. After North Vietnamesemilitary victory against the South in theVietnam War as a Cold War conflict in April 1975, Vietnam would be united under communism on 2 July 1976.[48]
In 1956,Morocco andTunisia gained their independence from France. In 1960, eight independent countries emerged fromFrench West Africa, and five fromFrench Equatorial Africa. TheAlgerian 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. PhilosopherPaul Ricœur has spoken of the necessity of a "decolonisation of memory", starting with the recognition of the1961 Paris massacre during the Algerian war, and the decisive role of African and especially North African immigrant manpower in theTrente 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'smultiethnic 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, theSpanish Empire and Mexico. TheNative Americans were sent toreservations, often unwillingly. With support from Britain, itsMonroe Doctrine reserved the Americas as its sphere of interest, prohibiting other states (particularly Spain) from recolonizing the newly independent polities ofLatin 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 tooccupy 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 anOpen Door Policy and opposed the direct division of China.[49]
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 theSpanish–American War in 1898, the US added most of Spain's remaining colonies:Puerto Rico,Philippines, andGuam. Deciding not to annex Cuba outright, the U.S. established it as aclient state with obligations including the perpetual lease ofGuantánamo 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, theMcKinley administration, despite prosecuting thePhilippine–American War against anative republic, set out that theTerritory of the Philippine Islands was eventually granted independence.[50] In 1917, the U.S. purchased theDanish West Indies (later renamed theUS Virgin Islands) fromDenmark and Puerto Ricans became full U.S. citizens that same year.[51] 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.[52] As a result, theUN General Assembly removed Puerto Rico from theU.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.[53]
The Monroe Doctrine was expanded by theRoosevelt 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 agent for European creditors by administering customs duties in theDominican Republic (1905–1941),Haiti (1915–1934), and elsewhere. The intrusiveness and bad relations this engendered were somewhat checked by theClark Memorandum and renounced by PresidentFranklin D. Roosevelt's "Good Neighbor Policy".
TheFourteen Points were preconditions addressed by PresidentWoodrow Wilson to the European powers at theParis Peace Conference followingWorld 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 theLeague of Nations mandate, in calling forV. 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 sovereigntythe interests of the populations concerned must have equal weight with the equitable government whose title is to be determined. See also point XII.
AfterWorld War II, the U.S. poured tens of billions of dollars into theMarshall 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 inKorea,Indochina, Latin America (inter alia, the1965 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 invadedAfghanistan andIraq following theSeptember 11 attacks in 2001, establishing army and air bases inCentral Asia.
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 theSouth Seas Mandate, the former German colony in Micronesia, as aLeague 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 theJapanese language in schools. Other methods such as public interaction, and attempts to eradicate the use ofKorean,Hokkien, andHakka among the Indigenous peoples, were seen to be used. Japan also set up theImperial Universities in Korea (Keijō Imperial University) and Taiwan (Taihoku Imperial University) to compel education.
In 1931, Japan seizedManchuria from the Republic of China, setting up apuppet state underPuyi, the last Manchu emperor of China. In 1933 Japan seized the Chinese province ofRehe, and incorporated it into its Manchurian possessions. TheSecond Sino-Japanese War started in 1937, and Japan occupied much of eastern China, including the Republic's capital atNanjing. An estimated 20 million Chinese died during the 1931–1945 war with Japan.[54]
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 thePanama Canal. PresidentWoodrow Wilson, 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 byTydings–McDuffie Act of 1934. In 1935, the Philippines transitioned out of territorial status, controlled by an appointed governor, to the semi-independent status of theCommonwealth of the Philippines. Its constitutional convention wrote a new constitution, which was approved by Washington and went into effect, with an elected governorManuel L. Quezon and legislature. Foreign Affairs remained under American control. The Philippines built up a new army, under generalDouglas 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 asManuel Roxas took office as president.[55]
From 1933 to 1974,Portugal was an authoritarian state (ruled byAntónio 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 the same year nationalist forces had begun organizing in Portugal. Revolts (preceding thePortuguese Colonial War) spread toAngola,Guinea Bissau andMozambique.[56]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,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-partyCivil War in Angola, and lesser insurrections in Mozambique.[57]
Belgium's empire began with the annexation of the Congo in 1908 in response to international pressure to bring an end to theterrible atrocities that had taken place underKing Leopold's privately runCongo Free State. It addedRwanda 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. TheBelgian 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.[58]
The Netherlands had spent centuries building up its empire. By 1940 it consisted mostly of theDutch 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 inBatavia (now Jakarta) and other major cities. The Netherlands was overrun and almost starved to deathby 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 andAmerican financial grants. By the time Dutch soldiers returned, an independent government underSukarno was in power, originally set up by theEmpire of Japan. The Dutch both abroad and at home generally agreed that Dutch power depended on an expensive war to regain the islands. Compromises were negotiated, but were trusted by neither side. When theIndonesian 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 allDutch East Indies properties and expelled allethnic 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. The Dutch government eventually gave up on claims to Indonesian sovereignty in 1949, after American pressure.[59][60] The Netherlands also had one other major colony, Dutch Guiana inSouth America, which became independent asSuriname in 1975.
When the United Nations was formed in 1945, it established trust territories. These territories included theLeague of Nations mandate territories which had not achieved independence by 1945, along with the formerItalian Somaliland. TheTrust 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; theNorthern Mariana Islands elected to become a commonwealth of the United States.
The sovereign equality of all States, with non-interference in their internal affairs, their effective participation in solving world problems and the right to adopt their own economic and social systems;
Full sovereignty of each State over its natural resources and other economic activities necessary for development, as well as regulation of transnational corporations;
Just and equitable relationship between the price of raw materials and other goods exported by developing countries, and the prices of raw materials and other goods exported by the developed countries;
Strengthening of bilateral and multilateral international assistance to promote industrialization in the developing countries through, in particular, the provisioning of sufficient financial resources and opportunities for transfer of appropriate techniques and technologies.[69]
The UNCTAD however was not very effective in implementing the NIEO, and social and economic inequalities between industrialized countries and the Third World grew throughout the 1960s until the 21st century. The1973 oil crisis which followed theYom 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 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 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.
Thesecond oil crisis occurred in the wake of the 1979Iranian Revolution. Then, the 1982Latin 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 decolonization 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 organized revolts, especially in French Algeria, Portuguese Angola, the Belgian Congo and British Kenya.[70][71][72][73]
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. Italian Somaliland was governed by the UK, and by Italy after 1954, until its independence in 1960.
Comorians protest againstMayotte referendum on becoming an overseas department of France, 2009
By 1977, European colonial rule in mainland Africa had ended. Most of Africa's island countries had also become independent, althoughRéunion andMayotte remain part of France. However the black majorities inRhodesia and South Africa were disenfranchised until 1979 inRhodesia, which becameZimbabwe-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 African countries became independent asrepublics.Morocco,Lesotho, andEswatini remain monarchies under dynasties that predate colonial rule.Burundi,Egypt,Libya, andTunisia gained independence as monarchies, but all four countries' monarchs were later deposed, and they became republics.
Western European colonial empires in Asia and Africa all collapsed in the years after 1945Four nations (India,Pakistan,Dominion of Ceylon, andUnion of Burma) that gained independence in 1947 and 1948
Japan expanded its occupation of Chinese territory during the 1930s, and occupiedSoutheast Asia during World War II. After the war, theJapanese colonial empire was dissolved, and national independence movements resisted the re-imposition of colonial control by European countries and the United States.
TheRepublic of China regained control of Japanese-occupied territories in Manchuria and eastern China, as well as Taiwan. Only Hong Kong and Macau remained in outside control until both places were transferred to thePeople's Republic of China by theUK andPortugal in 1997 and 1999.
The Allied powers divided Korea into two occupation zones, which became the states ofNorth Korea andSouth Korea. ThePhilippines became independent of the U.S. in 1946.
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.[75]
A protest sign from the second half of the 20th century calling on the U.N. to abolishSoviet colonialism in theBaltic states
Italy had occupied theDodecanese islands in 1912, but Italian occupation ended after World War II, and the islands were integrated into Greece. British rule ended inCyprus in 1960, andMalta 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. TheSoviet coup d'état attempt in August 1991 accelerated the breakup of the USSR, which formally ended on 26 December 1991. TheRepublics of the Soviet Union became sovereign states—Armenia,Azerbaijan,Belarus (formerly called Byelorussia,)Estonia,Georgia,Kazakhstan,Kyrgyzstan,Latvia,Lithuania,Moldova,Russia,Tajikistan,Turkmenistan,Ukraine andUzbekistan. Historian Robert Daniels says, "A special dimension that the anti-Communist revolutions shared with some of their predecessors was decolonization."[76] Moscow's policy had long been to settle ethnic Russians in the non-Russian republics. After independence, minority rights have been an issue for Russian-speakers in some republics and fornon-Russian-speakers in Russia; seeRussians in the Baltic states.[77] Meanwhile, the Russian Federation continues to apply political, economic, and military pressure on former Soviet colonies. In 2014, itannexed Ukraine's Crimean peninsula, the first such action in Europe since the end of the Second World War. In March 2023, following the2022 Russian invasion and subsequent Russian occupation of parts of Ukraine, Ukraine passeda law that did forbid to have toponymy with names associated with Russian ("the occupying state").[78] This law in particular has been described by Ukrainian media as providing "a legitimate framework and effective mechanisms" for thedecolonization of Ukraine.[79]
After the 2022 Russian invasion, scholars of Eastern Europe and Central Asia Studies ("Russian studies") have renewed awareness of Russian colonialism and interest in decolonizing scholarship in their field,[80][81] with academic conferences organized on the theme by the Centre for Baltic and East European Studies (CBEES) in Stockholm in December 2022,[82] the British Association for Slavonic and Eastern European Studies (BASEES) in April 2023,[83] the Aleksanteri Institute in October,[84] and theAssociation for Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies (ASEEES) in Philadelphia in November–December.
The decolonization of Oceania occurred after World War II when nations in Oceania achieved independence by transitioning from European colonial rule to full independence.
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 organizations after independence, varied greatly between colonial powers, and between individual colonies.[85]
TheBlack Star Monument inAccra, built byGhana's first presidentKwame Nkrumah to commemorate the country's independence
Nation-building is the process of creating a sense of identification with, and loyalty to, the state.[86][87] 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, a coat of arms and an anthem, monuments, official histories, national sports teams, codifying one or more Indigenousofficial languages, and replacing colonial place-names with local ones.[85] Nation-building after independence often continues the work began by independence movements during the colonial period.
From the perspective oflanguage policy (orlanguage politics), "linguistic decolonization" entails the replacement of a colonizing (imperial) power's language with a given colony's indigenous language in the function ofofficial language. With the exception of colonies inEurasia, linguistic decolonization did not take place in the former colonies-turned-independent states on the other continents ("Rest of the World").[88]Linguistic imperialism is the imposition and enforcement of one dominant language over other languages, and one response to this form of imperialism is linguistic decolonization.[89][90]
Decolonization is not an easy matter in colonies with large settler populations, particularly if they have been there for several generations. When settlers remain in former colonies after independence, colonialism is ongoing and takes the form ofsettler colonialism, which is highly resistant to decolonisation.[91] Repatriation of existing colonizers or prevention of immigration of additionalcolonizers can be seen asopposition to immigration.[92]
In a few cases, settler populations have beenrepatriated. For instance, the decolonization ofAlgeria by France was particularly uneasy due to the large European population (see alsopied noir),[93] which largely evacuated to France when Algeria became independent.[94] InZimbabwe, formerRhodesia,Robert Mugabe seized property from white African farmers, killing several of them, and forcing the survivors to emigrate.[95][96] A large Indian community lived inUganda as a result of Britain colonizing both India and East Africa, andIdi Aminexpelled them for domestic political gain.[97]
Kenyan writerNgũgĩ wa Thiong'o has written about colonization and decolonization in the film universe. Born in Ethiopia, filmmakerHaile Gerima describes the "colonization of the unconscious" he describes experiencing as a child:[98]
...as kids, we tried to act out the things we had seen in the movies. We used to play cowboys 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".[98]
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 promoteindustrialization. Some nationalized industries and infrastructure, and some engaged inland reform to redistribute land to individual farmers or create collective farms.
Some decolonized countries maintain strong economic ties with the former colonial power. TheCFA 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.
John Kenneth Galbraith argues that the post–World War II decolonization was brought about for economic reasons. InA Journey Through Economic Time, he writes:
"The engine of economic well-being was now within and between the advanced industrial countries. Domesticeconomic 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 theBell 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 (seeSuez 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, butwithout its burdens.
Plane crash. Some believe that the crash was a deliberate and suspect that expatriate businessmen, possibly aided by theFrench secret service, were responsible.
TheUnited Nations, under "Chapter XI: Declaration Regarding Non-Self Governing Territories" of theCharter of the United Nations, definesNon-Self Governing Nations (NSGSs) as "territories whose people have not yet attained a full measure of self-government"—the contemporary definition ofcolonialism.[102] 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.[103] As of 2020, 17 territories remain under Chapter XI distinction:[104]
"On 26 February 1976,Spain informed theSecretary-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."[104]
On 10 December 2010, theUnited Nations published its officialdecree, announcing theThird 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".[105] 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".[106] 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[sic] of colonialism".[107] Furthermore, on 19 May 2015,UN Secretary-GeneralBan 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".[107]
The sovereignty of theChagos Archipelago in the Indian Ocean isdisputed between the United Kingdom andMauritius. In February 2019, theInternational Court of Justice inThe Hague ruled that the United Kingdom must transfer the islands to Mauritius as they were not legally separated from the latter in 1965.[108] On 22 May 2019, theUnited Nations General Assembly debated and adopted a resolution that affirmed that the Chagos Archipelago "forms an integral part of the territory of Mauritius".[109] The UK does not recognize Mauritius' sovereignty claim over the Chagos Archipelago.[110] In October 2020, Mauritian Prime MinisterPravind Jugnauth described the British and American governments as "hypocrites" and "champions of double talk" over their response to the dispute.[111]
Some authors contend that even in countries that have become politically independent from a former colonial power, indigenous peoples may still in effect be living under the impacts of colonization. In a 2023 paper on the political theory of settler colonialism, Canadian academics Yann Allard-Tremblay and Elaine Coburn posit that: "In Africa, the Middle East, South America, and much of the rest of the world, decolonization often meant the expulsion or departure of most colonial settlers. In contrast, in settler colonial states likeNew Zealand,Australia,Canada, and theUnited States, settlers have not left, even as independence from the metropole was gained... The systemic oppression and domination of the colonized by the colonizer is not historical — firmly in the past — but ongoing and supported by radically unequal political, social, economic, and legal institutions."[112]
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."[113]
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."[114]
David Strang writes that the loss of their empires turned France and Britain into "second-rate powers".[115]
^Note however discussion of (for example) the Russian and Nazi empires below.
^Hack, Karl (2008).International Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences. Detroit: Macmillan Reference. pp. 255–257.ISBN978-0028659657.
^John Lynch, ed.Latin American Revolutions, 1808–1826: Old and New World Origins (1995).
^abStrayer, Robert W. (2001). "Decolonization, Democratization, and Communist Reform: The Soviet Collapse in Comparative Perspective".Journal of World History.12 (2):375–406.doi:10.1353/jwh.2001.0042.S2CID154594627.
^"Residual Colonialism In The 21St Century".United Nations University. Archived fromthe original on 17 July 2021. Retrieved18 October 2019.The decolonization agenda championed by the United Nations is not based exclusively on independence. There are three other ways in which an NSGT can exercise self-determination and reach a full measure of self-government (all of them equally legitimate): integration within the administering power, free association with the administering power, or some other mutually agreed upon option for self-rule. [...] It is the exercise of the human right of self-determination, rather than independence per se, that the United Nations has continued to push for.
^abStrang, David (December 1991). "Global Patterns of Decolonization, 1500-1987".International Studies Quarterly.35 (4):429–454.doi:10.2307/2600949.JSTOR2600949.
^Strang, David (1990). "From Dependency to Sovereignty: An Event History Analysis of Decolonization 1870–1987".American Sociological Review.55 (6):846–860.doi:10.2307/2095750.JSTOR2095750.
^Strang, David (1991). "Global Patterns of Decolonization, 1500–1987".International Studies Quarterly.35 (4):429–454.doi:10.2307/2600949.JSTOR2600949.
^Boswell, Terry (1989). "Colonial Empires and the Capitalist World-Economy: A Time Series Analysis of Colonization, 1640–1960".American Sociological Review.54 (2):180–196.doi:10.2307/2095789.JSTOR2095789.
^Spruyt, Hendrik (2018).Ending Empire: Contested Sovereignty and Territorial Partition. Cornell University Press.ISBN978-1-5017-1787-1.[page needed]
^abMacDonald, Paul K. (April 2013). "'Retribution Must Succeed Rebellion': The Colonial Origins of Counterinsurgency Failure".International Organization.67 (2):253–286.doi:10.1017/S0020818313000027.S2CID154683722.
^Kelly, John D.; Kaplan, Martha (2001). "Nation and decolonization: Toward a new anthropology of nationalism".Anthropological Theory.1 (4):419–437.doi:10.1177/14634990122228818.S2CID143978771.
^Clement, Vincent (2019). "Beyond the sham of the emancipatory Enlightenment: Rethinking the relationship of Indigenous epistemologies, knowledges, and geography through decolonizing paths".Progress in Human Geography.43 (2):276–294.doi:10.1177/0309132517747315.S2CID148760397.
^Robert R. Palmer,The age of the Democratic Revolution: a political history of Europe and America, 1760–1800 (1965)[page needed]
^Richard B. Morris,The emerging nations and the American Revolution (1970).[page needed]
^Bousquet, Nicole (1988). "The Decolonization of Spanish America in the Early Nineteenth Century: A World-Systems Approach".Review.11 (4). Fernand Braudel Center:497–531.JSTOR40241109.
^Verzijl, J. H. W. (1969).International Law in Historical Perspective. Vol. II. Leyden: A. W. Sijthoff. pp. 76–68.
^Hunt, Lynn; Martin, Thomas R.; Rosenwein, Barbara H.;Hsia, R. Po-chia; Smith, Bonnie G. (2008).The Making of the West Peoples and Cultures. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin's.
^On the nonviolent methodology seeMasselos, Jim (1985). "Audiences, actors and congress dramas: Crowd events in Bombay city in 1930".South Asia: Journal of South Asian Studies.8 (1–2):71–86.doi:10.1080/00856408508723067.
^Heuman, J. (2023). The silent disappearance of Jews from Algeria: French anti-racism in the face of antisemitism in Algeria during the decolonization. Journal of Modern Jewish Studies, 22(2), 149-168.
^"Constitution de la République française" [Constitution of the French Republic] (in French). 28 October 1946. JO1946. Retrieved8 March 2025. in:Journal officiel de la République française (in French). Vol. 78. 28 October 1946. pp. 9166, 9175.
^Levinson, Sanford; Sparrow, Bartholomew H. (2005).The Louisiana Purchase and American Expansion: 1803–1898. New York: Rowman and Littlefield. pp. 166, 178.ISBN978-0-7425-4983-8.U.S. citizenship was extended to residents of Puerto Rico by virtue of the Jones Act, chap. 190, 39 Stat. 951 (1971) (codified at 48 U.S.C. § 731 (1987))
^Torres, Kelly M. (2017). "Puerto Rico, the 51st state: The implications of statehood on culture and language".Canadian Journal of Latin American and Caribbean Studies.42 (2):165–180.doi:10.1080/08263663.2017.1323615.S2CID157682270.
^Laszlo, Ervin; Baker, Robert Jr.; Eisenberg, Elliott; Raman, Venkata (1978).The Objectives of the New International Economic Order. New York, NY: Pergamon Press.
^John Hatch,Africa: The Rebirth of Self-Rule (1967)
^William Roger Louis,The transfer of power in Africa: decolonisation, 1940–1960 (Yale UP, 1982).
^John D. Hargreaves,Decolonisation in Africa (2014).
^for the viewpoint from London and Paris see Rudolf von Albertini,Decolonisation: the Administration and Future of the Colonies, 1919–1960 (Doubleday, 1971).
^Kirch, Aksel; Kirch, Marika; Tuisk, Tarmo (1993). "Russians in the Baltic States: To be or Not to Be?".Journal of Baltic Studies.24 (2):173–188.doi:10.1080/01629779300000051.JSTOR43211802.
^Cybriwsky, Roman Adrian.Capital Cities around the World: An Encyclopedia of Geography, History, and Culture. ABC-CLIO, LLC 2013.ISBN978-1610692472 pp. 54–275.
^abKato, M. T. (2012).From Kung Fu to Hip Hop: Globalization, Revolution, and Popular Culture. State University of New York Press.ISBN978-0-7914-8063-2.[page needed]
^Gabriel Périès and David Servenay,Une guerre noire: Enquête sur les origines du génocide rwandais (1959-1994) (A Black War: Investigation into the origins of the Rwandan genocide (1959-1994)), Éditions La Découverte, 2007, p. 88. (Another account claims, without supporting citation, that Nyobe "was killed in a plane crash on September 13, 1958. No clear cause has ever been ascertained for the mysterious crash. Assassination has been alleged with the FrenchSDECE being blamed.")
^"Power of the dead and language of the living: The Wanderings of Nationalist Memory in Cameroon",African Policy (June 1986), pp. 37-72
^Lee, Alexander; Paine, Jack (2019). "What Were the Consequences of Decolonization?".International Studies Quarterly.63 (2):406–416.doi:10.1093/isq/sqy064.
^Strang, David (1994). "British and French political institutions and the patterning of decolonization".The Comparative Political Economy of the Welfare State. pp. 278–296.doi:10.1017/CBO9781139174053.012.ISBN978-0-521-43473-7.
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: 541–557.
Gerits, Frank.The Ideological Scramble for Africa: How the Pursuit of Anticolonial Modernity Shaped a Postcolonial Order (1945–1966) (Cornell University Press, 2023). ISBN13: 9781501767913. Major scholarly coverage of British, French and Portuguese colonies.see online reviews and reply by author
Grimal, Henri.Decolonisation: The British, Dutch, and Belgian Empires, 1919–1963 (1978).
Hyam, Ronald (2007).Britain's Declining Empire: The Road to Decolonisation, 1918–1968. Cambridge University Press.ISBN978-1-316-02565-9.
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
Jones, Max, et al. "Decolonising imperial heroes: Britain and France."Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth History 42#5 (2014): 787–825.
MacQueen, Norrie.The Decolonisation of Portuguese Africa: Metropolitan Revolution and the Dissolution of Empire (1997).
Milford, Ismay.African Activists in a Decolonising World: The Making of an Anticolonial Culture, 1952–1966 (Cambridge University Press, 2023)online reviews of this book
Monroe, Elizabeth. Britain's Moment in the Middle East, 1914–1956 (1963)
O'Sullivan, Christopher. FDR and the End of Empire: The Origins of American Power in the Middle East (2012).
Rothermund, Dietmar.The Routledge companion to decolonisation (Routledge, 2006), comprehensive global coverage; 365pp
Rothermund, Dietmar (2015).Memories of Post-Imperial Nations. Cambridge University Press.ISBN978-1-107-10229-3. 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 (January 1978). "A Comparative Study of French and British Decolonization".Comparative Studies in Society and History.20 (1):70–102.doi:10.1017/S0010417500008835.S2CID145080475.
Strayer, Robert. "Decolonisation, Democratisation, and Communist Reform: The Soviet Collapse in Comparative Perspective," Journal of World History 12#2 (2001), 375–406.onlineArchived 2015-02-24 at theWayback Machine
Thomas, Martin, Bob Moore, and Lawrence J. Butler.Crises of Empire: Decolonisation and Europe's imperial states (Bloomsbury Publishing, 2015)
White, Nicholas (2013).Decolonisation: The British Experience since 1945. Routledge.ISBN978-1-317-88789-8.
.svg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
.png)
.jpg)
