Look for the following terms as they appear in this section. You will need to know them for the section quiz.
Atlantic Charter
Partition
Civil Disobedience
Cochin-China
Abdicate
Third World
Protectorates
Insurrection
Capitulation
Inalienable
Secession
Introduction
The Second World War dealt a serious blow to the colonial powers, depriving them of their former prestige. The Netherlands, Belgium and France had been defeated and occupied, while the United Kingdom was seriously depleted. The peoples under colonial rule, often employed to fill the ranks of Allied armies in wartime, were determined to break the ties that still bound them to Europe, now ruined and stripped of its resources.
Furthermore, the emergence of two anti-colonialist superpowers, the United States and the Soviet Union, and the new international climate after 1945 encouraged the colonies to make a bid for independence. The Charter of the United Nations affirmed its ‘respect for the principle of equal rights and self-determination of peoples’. The US President, Franklin Roosevelt, and the British Prime Minister, Winston Churchill, had already subscribed to this principle in the Atlantic CharAugusta, off Newfoundland. You can see the two world leaders aboard the Augusta in the photo to the left. In item 3 of this declaration the two Heads of State set out the following principle: ‘They respect the right of all peoples to choose the form of government under which they will live; and they wish to see sovereign rights and self government restored to those who have been forcibly deprived of them.’
Aware of the new favourable international context in which they found themselves, colonised peoples began their fight for independence. For some, this colonial liberation would take place through negotiation; for others, it would occur by force.
Decolonisation unfolded in two phases. The first lasted from 1945 to 1955, mainly affecting countries in the Near and Middle East, and South-East Asia. The second phase started in 1955 and mainly concerned North Africa and sub-Saharan Africa. In 1955, the Bandung Conference, which assembled 29 delegates from African and Asian countries for the first time, heralded the process of decolonisation in Africa and the emergence of Third-World countries on the international stagIt was in this context that the fledgling European Community was forced to reflect on its future relations with the European colonies.
Text in this section from the University of Luxembourg - Decolonisation https://www.cvce.eu/en
Crash Course - Decolonization
Watch the following video in which John Green teaches you about the post-World War II breakup of most of the European empires.
As you likely know by now, Europeans spent several centuries sailing around the world creating empires, despite the fact that most of the places they conquered were perfectly happy to carry on alone. After World War II, most of these empires collapsed. This is the story of those collapses. In most places, the end of empire was not orderly, and violence often ensued. While India was a (sort of) shining example of non-violent change, in places like The Congo, Egypt, Rwanda, Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos, things didn't go smoothly at all. John brings you all this, plus pictures of Sea Monkeys. Sadly, they don't look anything like those awesome commercials in the comic books.
Since John Green tends to talk quickly, it is a good idea to read the transcript below.
The colonized peoples of South-East Asia were the first to demand the departure of the Europeans and to claim independence. In the space of a few years, all the colonies, except the Portuguese possessions of Goa and Timor, became independent.
In February 1947, the British decided to leave India. Some months later, India gained its independence, although it was subjected to a partition which created the new state of Pakistan. In 1948, the United Kingdom also granted independence to Burma and Ceylon, and in 1957 to Malaya.
Meanwhile Indonesia endured four years of military and diplomatic confrontation with the Netherlands before the Dutch Government recognised the independence of the Dutch East Indies in December 1949.
France also had to cope with demands for independence from its colonies. In 1946 it became embroiled in a colonial war in Indo-China. Eight years later the conflict ended with the victory of the Viet Minh (League for Independence of Vietnam) over the French forces, which were obliged to leave the country. Laos and Cambodia also gained independence.
Decolonizing British India
The campaigns of civil disobedience led by Gandhi in India during the interwar years had worn Great Britain out. India, a poor country but one with a large population, intended to play a role on the world stage by advocating for its independence. However, at the end of the Second World War the British Government did not have the means to face a new colonial war. It eventually decided to grant independence to the Indian subcontinent in August 1947, but the period was marked by violent clashes between the Hindu and Muslim communities.
While Gandhi and Nehru, the main leaders of the Congress Party, advocated Indian unity, the Muslim League, directed by Ali Jinnah, called for the creation of an independent Muslim state. The violence between the two sides escalated and turned into a civil war. In February 1947, the British decided to evacuate the country, and on 15 August 1947 it was divided into two independent states: India, with a Hindu majority, and Pakistan, with a Muslim majority. The Republic of India was proclaimed in January 1950, once the constitution had been drawn up, but it remained a member of the British Commonwealth.
Watch the video below which is a compilation of clips from the 1982 film Gandhi. The video illustrates how Gandhi used civil disobedience to force the British to leave India. You will need some context to understand this, however.
This clip covers the Salt March of 1930 which was an act of civil disobedience which Gandhi chose to protest British rule in India. Traditionally, the Indian people had made salt from seawater but the British had made this illegal in order to control and to tax the salt trade. Gandhi led a 300 km march from his ashram in northwestern India to the Indian Ocean. Along the way he spoke and picked up protesters. Upon reaching the ocean, he illegally gathered naturally crystallized salt. Eventually he was arrested along with 60,000 others.
The independence of the Dutch East Indies
After the Second World War, the Netherlands tried to reconquer their former colony, which they had been forced to abandon to the Japanese in 1942. But Indonesian nationalists claimed independence for the archipelago.
When Japan surrendered on 17 August 1945, the Indonesian leader, Sukarno, proclaimed the independence of Indonesia. Between 1947 and 1948, the Netherlands launched two major military interventions, but the nationalists held firm, and the Dutch, under pressure from the United Nations and the United States, had to yield.
Below, Indonesian resistance fighters are taken prioner by the Dutch in 1948.
In December 1949, after four years of military and diplomatic confrontation with the Netherlands, the Dutch Government finally recognised the independence of the Dutch East Indies, which became the Republic of the United States of Indonesia.
Decolonization of French Indo-China
France also had to cope with demands for independence from its colonies which you studied in when you looked at the American War in Vietnam. You might remember that in 1945 Ho Chi Minh, head of the communist nationalist movement the Viet Minh, seized power and decreed the country’s independence on behalf of the provisional government, officially proclaiming the birth of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam. Emperor Bao Dai was forced to abdicate.
In 1945, French troops reoccupied Cochin-China. The next year, the French Commissioner of the Republic, signed an agreement with Ho Chi Minh that provided for the recognition of Vietnam as a free state within an Indo-Chinese Federation and as part of the French Union.
North Vietnam 1948 - Gutted houses left standing in village, in French Indo China.
From 1949 onwards, Tonkin, Annam and Cochin-China were grouped together in the new state of Vietnam, part of the French Union and ruled from the city of Saigon by Emperor Bao Dai, who had returned to Vietnam in April 1949.
From late 1949, the Chinese positioned troops along the Vietnamese border. The Soviet Union and Mao Tse-Tung’s communist China stepped up their support to the Viet Minh troops by sending weapons, equipment, instructors, etc. In response to this threat and with the Korean War beginning in June 1950, the United States declared that it was willing to give material aid to the French war effort by supplying arms. The war in Indo-China was in line with the US policy of containment and became a front line in the struggle against communist expansion.
The Geneva Accords of 21 July 1954 put an end to the conflict and France was obliged to leave the country. Vietnam was divided into two parts: whilst northern Vietnam fell under the communist control of Ho Chi Minh, a nationalist dictatorship took power south of the 17th parallel. Laos and Cambodia were officially recognised after proclaiming their independence in 1953. But unlike France, the United States refused to accept the outcome of the Geneva Conference and remained firmly behind the cause of independence for South Vietnam.
Once France had freed itself from the powder keg that was Indo-China, it lost an important part of its colonial prestige, fuelling the independence movements already active in French North Africa.
The emergence of the Third World
The independence movement led to the emergence of a series of countries that did not belong to the Western bloc or the Soviet bloc. These countries had various features in common and they became known collectively as the ‘Third World’, an expression coined by French economist and demographer Alfred Sauvy in 1952.
In the 1950s, five newly independent Asian countries (India, Pakistan, Ceylon, Burma and Indonesia) took the initiative to rally the Third-World countries to form a united front against colonization. In 1955, the first Afro–Asian Conference was held in a bid by Third-World countries to consolidate their position on the international stage.
The 1956 Suez Crisis illustrated these new international power relationships. In 1956, Egypt announced the nationalization of the Suez Canal Company. The Suez Crisis directly threatened the interests of France, the United Kingdom and Israel, leading to a trial of strength that culminated in a joint military operation by the three countries against the former British protectorate in October 1956. The dogged efforts by France and Britain to safeguard their economic and financial interests at the expense of a developing country prompted the involvement of the international community.
Decolonization in Africa
In North Africa, France had to face a serious crisis which began in Algeria with the uprising of the National Liberation Front in 1954. The war then spread to Morocco and Tunisia and eventually even threatened the French Republic itself. The protectorates of Morocco and Tunisia were granted independence in March 1956 without any armed struggle. Algeria, on the other hand, was considered to be an integral part of France, and events took a different turn. It was only after a painful eight-year-long war, which lasted from the 1954 insurrection to the Évian Accords of March 1962, that Algeria became an independent state.
From 1957 onwards, it was the turn of the former British, French, Belgian and Portuguese possessions in sub-Saharan Africa to gradually gain independence.
Cartoon (C) Frenz Behrendt 1957
Morocco and Tunisia
Morocco
When the Treaty of Fez was signed in 1912, Morocco became a French protectorate. But after the Second World War, calls for independence grew stronger. As early as 1943, US President Franklin Roosevelt had encouraged the Sultan of Morocco in his quest for independence.
However, France was not yet ready to abandon the country.
But this did not curb the efforts of the nationalists, and they decided to form the Moroccan National Front. Tensions continued to rise over the ensuing months. In 1952 and 1953, several anti-French demonstrations were repressed with bloodshed. In December 1952, the Arab states managed to place the Moroccan question on the UN agenda. From that point on, the nationalists stepped up their action and the attacks increased.
Morocco officially gained independence on 2 March 1956 after the signing of a joint declaration in Paris to replace the Treaty of Fez that had established the protectorate in 1912. Tunisia’s turn would come just a few weeks later.
Tunisia
During the Second World War, Tunisia became a theatre of confrontation between the Allies and the Axis powers. After several months of fighting, the Allied forces successfully repelled the enemy troops, and the capitulation of Germany in 1943 confirmed the withdrawal of the Axis powers from North Africa. In May, authority in Tunisia was transferred to Free France. The Tunisian monarch was immediately deposed on the ground that he had collaborated with the Germans.
The Neo Destour Party took advantage of the post-war climate of discontent and demanded reforms, calling for the formation of a responsible government.
While the French Government advocated a system of joint sovereignty within the French Union, the nationalists stepped up their campaign for Tunisian independence, supported by the Tunisian General Labour Union (see photo below). In 1952, France launched a crackdown on political leaders. But a series of terrorist attacks in Tunisia forced France to react. In 1954, Pierre Mendès France granted Tunisia internal autonomy.
Caption above translates as "Demonstration of the Tunisian General Labor Union"
In 1955, a government composed entirely of Tunisians was finally formed, and in 1956, negotiations between France and Tunisia resulted in full independence for Tunisia. The first parliamentary elections in Tunisia’s history resulted in a sweeping victory for Neo Destour and Habib Bourguiba, who became President of the Tunisian Republic. In 1956, Tunisia was admitted to the United Nations.
The Algerian powder keg
Algeria, annexed to France since 1834 and divided into administrative départements, was considered to be an inalienable part of French national territory. But after the end of the Second World War, the country witnessed a series of demonstrations by nationalists calling for independence. The existence of a powerful minority of European colonists (1 million out of a total of 9 million inhabitants in 1954) who were opposed to the creation of an Islamic Algerian Republic prevented the emergence of any easy solution.
In 1954, Algeria was rocked by a series of thirty terrorist attacks. This was the first action by the National Liberation Front (FLN). The FLN and its armed wing, the National Liberation Army (ALN), became increasingly radical, using guerrilla methods and terrorism to achieve their ends.
From 1956 onwards, the government in France, which had originally advocated a policy of negotiation, stepped up its military action in Algeria, sending a contingent of more than 400 000 conscript soldiers. France was militarily the stronger party, but it remained unable to restore order. Support for the FLN among the Algerian population continued to grow.
The conflict took on an increasingly international dimension. Relations with Arab states became more and more tense, and the diplomatic offensives mounted by African and Asian countries forced the French Government to justify its Algerian policy to the United Nations General Assembly.
In France, the government was in a state of paralysis and was facing worsening financial difficulties. Rioting in Algiers by supporters of French Algeria in 1958 led to the return to power of General de Gaulle. He was seen as the only man capable of avoiding civil war and restoring national unity.
By 1958, General de Gaulle began to realise that nothing would be possible without negotiating with the nationalist movement. In 1959 he recognised the Algerians’ right to self-determination. In a decisive address, de Gaulle offered the Algerian people a choice between three possible solutions: secession, francisation (meaning integration or assimilation) or association.
On 8 January 1961, 75 % of the French electorate voted in favour of the self-determination of the Algerian people in a referendum. Public opinion, which had initially favoured war, now chose the path of peace.
But those who had fought for French Algeria felt betrayed. Their anger led to political crises, uprisings and power grabs. Back in January 1960, militants had staged a week of riots, known as the ‘week of barricades’.
France agreed to withdraw its troops after three years and secured trade cooperation with Algeria, thereby protecting its economic interests, particularly with regard to the area’s oil reserves. On 1 July 1962, 99.7 % of Algerians voted in favour of their country’s independence.
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Over the summer of 1962, hundreds of thousands of pieds-noirs, people of European origin living in Algeria, left the country and returned to France.
The emancipation of sub-Saharan Africa
The decolonization of English-speaking Africa
The decolonization of sub-Saharan Africa was a gradual process. The British colonies were the first to gain independence. In 1957, the Gold Coast achieved independence and was renamed Ghana.
Nigeria became independent in 1960, Sierra Leone and Tanganyika in 1961 and Uganda in 1962. In 1964, Tanganyika joined with Zanzibar to form Tanzania.
Decolonization proved more difficult in Kenya, where the Mau Mau Uprising began in 1952. This militant movement was opposed to British colonial law. Nationalist leader Jomo Kenyatta, accused of being a member of the Mau Mau movement, was arrested by the British authorities. He became a symbol of national unity, and was released in 1961. Kenya was finally granted independence in September 1963, and Jomo Kenyatta became the first president of the new republic.
In southern Africa, Nyasaland proclaimed its independence and took the name Malawi in 1964. , That same year, Northern Rhodesia became independent as Zambia. In 1965, the white minority in power in Southern Rhodesia unilaterally proclaimed independence and established an apartheid regime. The white colonists remained in power until 1979, and in 1980, the British granted independence to Southern Rhodesia, which became Zimbabwe. Robert Mugabe was appointed Prime Minister.
Take a look at the map of African Independence below to help you sort out where these countries are situated in relation to one another. Also note that there are other countries on the map not listed in this course. This topic could make a course unto itself.
The decolonization of French sub-Saharan Africa
Change was also afoot in the French colonies in sub-Saharan Africa. In 1946, the constitution granted these territories a measure of autonomy and the right to elect representatives in the French assemblies. In 1958, General de Gaulle allowed them to choose between secession leading to independence, and membership of the French Community under the presidency of de Gaulle. With the exception of Guinea, all the colonies in French sub-Saharan Africa opted for the second solution. This gave them a large measure of internal autonomy, with only national defence and foreign policy remaining under the control of the French Government. Gradually, all these colonies asked France to transfer these responsibilities. Several new independent states were therefore born in 1960: Cameroon, Congo (also referred to as Congo-Brazzaville), Côte d’Ivoire, Dahomey, Gabon, Upper Volta, Madagascar, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Central African Republic, Senegal, Chad and Togo.
The independence of the Belgian Congo
With its gold, copper and uranium resources, the Belgian Congo was the richest of all the European colonies in sub-Saharan Africa, and this vast territory was coveted by major companies. In 1960, riots broke out and Belgium abruptly granted independence to the Congo. But no sooner had it gained its independence than the country became the scene of massacres, mainly targeting Europeans, and fell into the grip of a civil war. These divisions rapidly degenerated into bloody battles, and the Congolese conflict took on an international dimension with the intervention of UN peacekeepers.
In 1962, two other territories under Belgian authority, Rwanda and Urundi (which became Burundi) gained sovereignty.
