Decolonization is defined as the act of getting rid of colonization, or freeing a country from being dependent on another country. "French Africa, 194748: Reform, Violence, and Uncertainty in a Colonial Situation.". 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). Learn about the challenges former colonies faced in building newly independent countries. 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. It was to monitor the situation in 11 specific Trust Territories which were subject to separate agreements with administering States. Economic Challenges: Many empires set up their colonies exclusively to export a small handful of raw materials like cotton, iron, and petroleum. Washington remained baffled why the Dutch were so inexplicably enamored of an obviously hopeless cause. Source: Dominique Berretty/Gamma-Rapho via Getty Images. "[78], 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". However power over the colonies remained concentrated in France, and the power of local assemblies outside France was extremely limited. The first lasted from 1945 to 1955, mainly affecting countries in the Near and Middle East, and South-East Asia. These territories included the League of Nations mandate territories which had not achieved independence by 1945, along with the former Italian Somaliland. In 1807 and 1808, the Viceroyalty of the River Plate was invaded by the British. In Cambodia and Madagascar, the promise of democracy faded as dictators seized power amid postcolonial unrest. [82] 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". The Soviet Union declared war on Japan in August 1945, and shortly after occupied and annexed the southern Kuril Islands, which Japan still claims. The reasons why decolonization took place are many and complex, varying widely from one country to another. European empires, for example, conquered more than 80 percent of the worlds landmass between 1492 and 1914. An election in Belgian Congo, controlled by Belgians, before independence was granted in May 1960 under the name Democratic Republic of the Congo. Some decolonized countries maintain strong economic ties with the former colonial power. Second, the mass revolutionary movements of the colonial world fought colonial wars that were expensive and bloody. The United States purchased Alaska from the Russian Empire in 1867 and annexed Hawaii in 1898. Decolonizing Methodologies: Research and Indigenous Peoples. 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. Days before Napoleon invaded Portugal, in 1807 the Portuguese royal court fled to Brazil. [38] As a result, the UN General Assembly removed Puerto Rico from the U.N. list of non-self-governing territories. European imperial retreat from sub-Saharan Africa, usually described as decolonization, was one of the most sudden and momentous transformations in the history of the modern world. As Edward Said (1994:xii) wrote in the preface to his Culture and imperialism, the dominance of the West 'culminated in the great movement of decolonization all across the Third World'. By 1954 French North Africa was beginning to stir; guerrilla warfare occurred in both Morocco (where the French had deposed and exiled Sultan Muammad V) and Tunisia. In early 1945, Japan ousted the French administration in Vietnam and executed numerous French officials. It was scheduled for 1946 by TydingsMcDuffie Act of 1934. The decolonization of Oceania occurred after World War II when nations in Oceania achieved independence by transitioning from European colonial rule to full independence. 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. [71], Kenyan writer Ngg wa Thiong'o has written about colonization and decolonization in the film universe. "Decolonisation, Democratisation, and Communist Reform: The Soviet Collapse in Comparative Perspective," Journal of World History 12#2 (2001), 375406. [11], Early studies of decolonisation appeared in the 1960s and 1970s. Independence for the colonies in Africa began with the independence of Sudan in 1956, and Ghana in 1957. In 1824, the Spanish forces were defeated in the Battle of Ayacucho. Dutch, Belgian, and Portuguese decolonization After World War II the Dutch tried to regain some of their lost control in Indonesia. In 1885 at the Berlin Conference, the most powerful European countries, the British, French, German, Spanish, and Portuguese, divided the continent amongst themselves. This lack of economic diversification presented challenges for newly independent countries when demand for their primary exports fell. The Muslim rebels depended on help from the Arab world, especially Egypt. The Globalisation of World Politics: An introduction to international relations. When the Democrats returned to power in 1933, they worked with the Filipinos to plan a smooth transition to independence. All Arab spokesmen expressed intransigent opposition to any two-nation solution. 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 the latter in 1965. ", "British and French political institutions and the patterning of decolonization", "Decolonizing global health: what should be the target of this movement and where does it lead us? The Arab chain reaction against Britain started in Egypt, where in July 1952 a group of army officers seized power. In the years following World War II, dozens of countries gained their independence, bringing an end to an age of colonialism in which mostly European empires ruled nearly a third of the worlds population. [81], The sovereignty of the Chagos Archipelago in the Indian Ocean is disputed between the United Kingdom and Mauritius. Maybe you pictured George Washington or Thomas Jefferson on the streets of Philadelphia. "Pieds-noirs": ceux qui ont choisi de rester, "Origins: History of immigration from Zimbabwe Immigration Museum, Melbourne Australia", "Once Outcasts, Asians Again Drive Uganda's Economy", "The man who ran Francafrique French politician Jacques Foccart's role in France's colonization of Africa under the leadership of Charles de Gaulle Obituary", "Milestones: 19451952 Office of the Historian", "Non-Self-Governing Territories | The United Nations and Decolonization", "Third International Decade for the Eradication of Colonialism", "United Nations Should Eradicate Colonialism by 2020, Urges Secretary-General in Message to Caribbean Regional Decolonization Seminar | Meetings Coverage and Press Releases", "Chagos Islands dispute: UK obliged to end control UN", "At last, the Chagossians have a real chance of going back home", "Chagos Islands dispute: UK misses deadline to return control", "Chagos Islands dispute: Mauritius calls US and UK 'hypocrites', "From Black Pain to Rhodes Must Fall: A Rejectionist Perspective", "Perhaps Decoloniality is the Answer? In 1783, the North American colonies were divided between the independent United States, and British North America, which later became Canada. Today, almost all the worlds population lives in independent countries, but that doesnt mean that decolonization is entirely over. The French left Vietnam in 1954 and gave up its North African colonies by 1962. Decolonization allowed the colonizer to disclaim responsibility for the colonized. 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. 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. In 1918, U.S. President Woodrow Wilson delivered a speech on the importance of self-determinationthe idea that people should be governed only with their consent. As a result, when decolonization occurred, countries were often rife with internal division. 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. Indian medical orderlies attending to wounded soldiers on stretchers outside a dressing station, Mesopotamia, during the First World War. Italy had occupied the Dodecanese islands in 1912, but Italian occupation ended after World War II, and the islands were integrated into Greece. Britain left India in 1947, Palestine in 1948, and Egypt in 1956; it withdrew from Africa in the 1950s and 60s, from various island protectorates in the 1970s and 80s, and from Hong Kong in 1997. And in Indonesiaa sprawling Southeast Asian archipelago comprising roughly 6,000 inhabited islands in which more than 260 million citizens speak over 700 languagesthe countrys founding father, Sukarno, attempted to unite the exceedingly diverse country through a national identity based on ideas rather than geography, language, religion, or ethnicity. [84] 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. For instance, Japanwhich ruled over two hundred million people across thirteen modern-day countriesrenounced control of its empire in a 1951 peace treaty. In 1946, the states of French Indochina withdrew from the French Union, leading to the Indochina War (194654). Strayer, Robert. Japan also set up the Imperial Universities in Korea (Keij Imperial University) and Taiwan (Taihoku Imperial University) to compel education. Namibia, Africa's last UN Trust Territory, became independent of South Africa in 1990. The first colonial war was in Indochina, where a power vacuum, caused by Japans removal after wartime occupation, gave a unique opportunity to the Communist Viet Minh. Most former colonies adhere to their colonial-era borders, and many of those countries still use their former colonizers languages: for example, twenty-five African nations list English as an official language and twenty-one list French. Palestine (1988) Japan: Malaysia. Africa was only fully drawn into the colonial system at the end of the 19th century. 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. After the end of WWII, many countries and nations had to rebuild in the wake of such a devastating war, including the U.S., Europe, and Africa. Decolonization[a] or decolonisation[b] is the undoing of colonialism, the latter being the process whereby imperial nations establish and dominate foreign territories, often overseas. Economic Forces: World War II bankrupted much of Europe. In 1820 there was a Constitutionalist Revolution in Portugal, which led to the return of the Portuguese court to Lisbon. Examples of such former colonies include South Africa, Australia, Mexico, Brazil, and the United States. The Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands was transferred from Japanese to US administration. The Indian Rebellion of 1857 was a revolt of a portion of the Indian Army. Encyclopaedia Britannica's editors oversee subject areas in which they have extensive knowledge, whether from years of experience gained by working on that content or via study for an advanced degree. TheSpecial Committeecontinues to monitor the situation in the remaining 17 territories, working to facilitate achieving their decolonization. //-->. The economic monopoly of the metropolis was the main reason why many countries decided to become independent from Spain. Britain left India in 1947, Palestine in 1948, and Egypt in 1956; it withdrew from Africa in the 1950s and '60s, from various island protectorates in the 1970s and '80s, and from Hong Kong in 1997. The world map fundamentally changed during the era of decolonization with roughly a hundred countries coming into existence between 1945 and 1989. After a nine-year war of independence against France, Vietnam split into two countries: a Chinese- and Soviet-backed north and a U.S.-backed south. 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[54] Meanwhile, the Russian Federation continues to apply political, economic, and military pressure on former Soviet colonies. Ngg wa Thiong'o explored the cultural and linguistic legacies of colonialism in the influential book Decolonising the Mind (1986). In two marquee casesthe Nuremberg and Tokyo Trialsthe victors of the war prosecuted German and Japanese leaders for atrocities committed during the conflict.These trials represented the first major efforts to prosecute crimes, including genocide, that occurred across several countries . The decolonization of North Africa and sub-Saharan Africa took place in the mid-to-late 1950s, very suddenly, with little preparation. However, one thing remains important to remember: decolonization is a relatively recent phenomenon. The constitution of the French Fourth Republic provided for token decentralization of colonial rule, and cycles of revolt and repression marked French history for 15 years after the end of World War II. The decolonization of Africa followed World War II as colonized peoples agitated for independence and colonial powers withdrew their administrators from Africa.The only two world powers to officially and actively support decolonization in Africa through the entire 20th century were the Soviet Unionand the People's Republic of China all others !function(){"use strict";window.addEventListener("message",(function(a){if(void 0!==a.data["datawrapper-height"])for(var e in a.data["datawrapper-height"]){var t=document.getElementById("datawrapper-chart-"+e)||document.querySelector("iframe[src*='"+e+"']");t&&(t.style.height=a.data["datawrapper-height"][e]+"px")}}))}(); How Did Decolonization Reshape the World?