1. Decolonization Post World War II
6.2, 6.3

2. Why now? Hasn’t colonialism been going on for a long time?
Yes! The short answer is because of World War II. This was the first time many colonial subjects saw “poor Europeans.”
Surge of anti-colonial nationalism after Leaders used lessons in mass politicization and mass mobilization of the 1920s and 1930s.
Three major patterns:
Civil War (China)
Negotiated independence (India and much of Africa)
Incomplete decolonization (Algeria, Southern Africa, Vietnam)

3. Global Events influential in Decolonization
Imperialism (1800’s)
Growing Nationalism
World War I ( )
World War II ( )
Cold War ( )

4. Colonies as of 1914

5. World War I
Promises of self-determination- Remember Wilson’s 14 points?
Use of colonial soldiers in trenches- First time seeing poor Europeans, vulnerabilities
Locals filled posts left by colonial powers during war- Lack of structure
Financial strain on empire- Colonies cost money
Treaty of Versailles

6. World War II
Increased nationalist uprisings following WWI and as a result of the global depression
Costs of empire- It’s all about the money!
US support of anti-colonial liberation movements- Remember self- determination despite being an imperial nation themselves
Atlantic Charter (1941) “right of all people to choose the form of government under which they live”
Soviets condemned colonialism

7. Atlantic Charter, 1941 Churchill signs FDR is Sick

8. Cold War
Provided inspiration a blend of capitalist and socialist economies and agendas.
Provided arms to those who sided with one or the other (proxy wars and arms races).
Encouraged violent recourse for some as a result of the power politics of cold war competition.

9. Colonialism in China

10. Chairman Mao Zedong

11. China in 1949

12. India During the Raj

13. Ganghi on the Salt March

14. French Indochina

15. Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, and Thailand

16. Colonialism in Africa

17. British Empire in Africa

18. End of World War II
1941: Atlantic Charter written by Roosevelt and Churchill, affirming all other nations have the right to self determination.
By the end of World War II, colonialism seemed to contradict the spirit of the Allies fight against Nazi Germany and fascist Italy.
Africans had fought in Europe and Asia for the Allies’ freedom and democracy, and most noticed the contradiction.

19. “Stretched Around the World”
Political cartoon, 1941.

21. A World At War
Jagama Kello, left, was fifteen when he raised a force of guerrilla fighters and led them against the Italian forces occupying Ethiopia in World War II.

22. African Forces in World War II

23. End of World War II
Pan-Africanism: Movement in early 1900’s to support African pride and decolonization of Africa. Early promotors included Jamaican Marcus Garvey to unite all humans of African descent o support African culture and question West’s “civilizing mission”
In 1945, the 5th Pan-African Congress met and discussed the prospect of independence. In attendance were a number of leaders who would eventually lead their nations.
W.E.B. DuBois (United States)
Kwame Nkrumah (Ghana)
Jaja Wachuku and Obafemi Awolowo (Nigeria)
Dudley Thompson (Jamaica)
Jomo Kenyatta (Kenya)
In the years immediately after the war, several colonies had achieved independence or were on the road to independence in north-east Africa– some peacefully, some not.

24. W.E.B. Dubois in 1945

25. End of World War II
Started a new pan-African nationalism that would spread throughout the continent
In 1960 the United Nations General Assembly passed Resolution 1514 that supported the end of colonization.

26. Africa Under Colonial Rule

27. Africa Under Colonial Rule
Africa under imperial rule
Harsh treatment of African peoples
Artificial borders
Divided cultural groups
United long-standing enemies
Vestiges of the Berlin Conference
Africa’s Natural Resources:
Majority of world’s diamonds
Vast oil reserves
75% of world’s cobalt
25% of world’s copper
50% of world’s gold
33% of world’s manganese and uranium

29. French Colonial Holdings

30. French Colonies
Immediately after World War II, France attempted to reassert dominance in colonies.
Violation of Atlantic Charter?
The French saw violent reactions to this tactic in Tunisia and Algeria.
Algerian Decolonization was especially violent. Frantz Fannon was an Algerian psychiatrist who wrote about this effects of colonialism in his book, The Wretched of the Earth. Member of the Algerian Liberation Front.
He argues violence against the colonial power is necessary in decolonization. He died tragically at 36 of leukemia in months before independence in his country was reached. The US even flew him to Maryland for treatment.
Fannon’s work influenced civil rights leaders like Malcom X in the United States and Che Guevara in Cuba

31. French Colonies
Though limited, the French colonies were given representation in the French parliament in the Fourth French Republic in 1947.
Despite a slight increase of advantages, most nationalists still sought full independence.

32. French Colonies
Unlike other African colonies, Algeria was a settler’s colony with nearly one million French immigrants.
Clashes between white settlers and Africans would result in the death of thousands before independence was gained.

33. French Empire in Africa: Summary
– French Union – organization of French colonial possessions
1956 – Morocco and Tunisia independent
– French Community succeeded French Union – ended in with most French colonial possessions independent
1962 – Algeria independent
Circa 115,000,000 French speakers in Africa (2009)

34. West African Independence

35. West Africa
Interaction with Europeans date back to the 1400s. What were those interactions like?
West Africans had adopted many elements of Western civilization.
Early ties allowed more opportunities for education and modernization.
Nationalists in West Africa drew from their own history and western influences.

36. West Africa
As a result, independence in West Africa was more “natural” (read: slightly less painful) for both the Africans and European powers.
Once Ghana (formerly the Gold Coast) became the first republic in West Africa, the movements in neighboring British and French colonies intensified.
Nigeria will become independent in 1960 and early on was pointed to as an example of decolonization but the Biafran conflict and the role of humanitarian aid complicates this.

37. Southern Africa

38. Southern Africa South Africa gained independence from Britain in 1910.
White minority dominated political and economic institutions.
Educated Africans began movements to gain power.

39. Southern Africa
The African National Congress (ANC) tried to reason with the government.
In 1960, after a riot, the government instituted strict measures to formally separate the races in a segregated system known as apartheid.

40. Central Africa

41. Central Africa
The colonies in central Africa were far less prepared for independence in the material sense.
Colonial practices had severely restricted access to education, sanitary conditions, and public infrastructure
Educational opportunities had been severely limited for Africans– in the Belgium Congo, fewer than 120 Africans had a college education.

42. Central Africa
In 1956, Belgium had only a vague 30 year plan for Congo’s independence.
By 1960, the Belgians had turned control over to Patrice Lumumba. Twelve weeks later, the new leader of the Republic of the Congo was deposed in a coup, and executed by a firing squad.

43. Central Africa
Prime Minister Lumumba had hoped to reform the Congo and take advantage of its vast natural resources.
Two mineral rich provinces did not wish to be ruled by the republic and therefore declared their own independence.
When the U.N. and Western powers would not support the halting of the secessionists, Lumumba turned to the Soviet Union, which sent military equipment and advisors.
Fearing a communist takeover, the United States encouraged General Joseph Mobutu to take over.

44. Central Africa
Over the years, Mobutu would be rewarded by loans and payments from the West for his strong anti-communist rhetoric.
As a dictator, Mobutu also embezzled millions of dollars, stifled economic development, and oppressed his people.

45. Rwanda
Rwanda had been colonized by the Germans and then the Belgians. They became independent in 1962.
The Belgians, in their scientifically racist minds had favored one ethnic group in colonial administration (The Tutsis) over another (The Hutus).
This racism created by European Imperialism lead to the Rwandan Genocide of 1994.
Hutu nationalism grew during independence and in 1994 the Rwandan president’s plane was shot down and he was therefore assassinated.
Hutu groups then used state radio.
Failures of Humanitarian Aid and non intervention- 800,000 estimated deaths.

46. East Africa

47. Kenya Presence of settlers prevented smooth transition of power.
Kenya (20,000 Europeans only) led to violent revolt.
Mau-Mau Revolt, 1952, led by Kikuyus suppressed by British.
1963 independence granted to black majority, led by Jomo Kenyatta.
Kikuyu

48. Decolonization in South Asia

49. Negotiated Independence in India and Africa
Independence with little bloodshed in India and much of colonial Africa in decades following World War II.
Why? At what cost?

50. India Case Study Background
India and other Asian colonies were the first to establish independence movements.
Western-educated minorities organized politically to bring about the end of modification of colonial regimes.

51. India: History of the Movement
Indian National Congress party founded in (Elite group not mass movement)
Growth of Indian national identity- presented grievances to the British.
Congress party attracted mass following which opposed shift from the production of food to commercial crops.
Gandhi and Congress leadership tried to prevent mass peasant uprising (as was happening in China) by keeping power centered on middle class leaders.

53. Peaceful Protests
Mohandas Gandhi and other western educated lawyers led peaceful alternative. British Colonialism education, experiences in South Africa
Nation-wide protest against colonialism through boycotts and campaigns of civil resistance. This will late influence Dr. Martin Luther King in the civil rights movement
His efforts were not well received by the Muslims who formed a separate organization in 1906, The Muslim League.
Muhammad Ali Jinnah (Muslim League) insisted on partitioned state (Hindu and Muslim).

54. Continued Indian Resistance
Salt March, 1931
Government of India Act 1935

56. Indian Independence
August 1947 Pakistan and India gained independence.
Mass killings of Muslims and Hindus (1 million) followed by mass migrations (12 million). (Gandhi fasted to prevent war-> assassination)
Jawaharlal Nehru, first Prime Minister,began modernization campaign.

57. Vestiges of Colonialism
Or My introduction between you and post-colonial studies

58. Fall of Empire: Fall out and Legacy
Colonial footprint, Berlin Conference
Problems of Transition, Unstable Governments
Problems of Identity, Place Matters

59. Challenges of Independence
Ethnic disputes
Dependent economies
Growing debt
Cultural dependence on west-> religious revivalism as backlash
Widespread social unrest
Military responses to restore order
Population growth
Resource depletion
Lack of middle class in some locales
Education deficit and later, brain drain.
Neo-colonialism through economic debt.

60. Conclusions
Decolonization was sometimes a violent process- dependent in large part on how many settlers had come to the colony.
In many parts of world, decolonization was not revolutionary. Power passed from one class of elites to another. Little economic and social reform occurred.
Significant challenges faced independent nations.
Western economic dominance of the global trade system continued unabated. WHY?