Decolonization

Decolonization is the process by which a colony gains its independence from a colonial power, a process opposite to colonization. Decolonisation could be acheived by attaining independence, integrating with the administering power or another state, or establishing a "free association" status. The UN has stated that in the process of decolonization there is no alternative to the principle of self-determination. Decolonization may involve peaceful negotiation and/or violent revolt by the native population. Decolonization in the strict sense is distinct from the break-up of traditional empires, and in modern academic discourse the period of decolonization generally refers to two major waves of independence from European colonial rule:

History of decolonization

In this chronological overview, not every date is undisputably the decisive moment. Often, the final phase, independence, is mentioned here, though there may be years of autonomy before, e.g. as an Associated State under the British crown. For such details, see each national history.

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Furthermore, note that some cases have been included that were not strictly colonized but rather protectorate, co-dominium, lease ... Changes subsequent to decolonization are usually not included; nor is the dissolution of the Soviet Union.

Related Topics:
Dissolution - Soviet Union

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18th and 19th centuries

Between the World Wars and during the second

Western European colonial powers

The end of the Great War marked the zenith of European colonization. It also marked the acceleration of the trends that would end it. The extraordinary material demands of the conflict had spread economic change across the world (notably inflation), and the associated social pressures of "war imperialism" created both peasant unrest and a burgeoning middle class.

Related Topics:
Great War - Inflation - Peasant - Middle class

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

Related Topics:
Economic growth - Racial - Nationalism

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There were, naturally, other factors, from agrarian change (and disaster – French Indochina), changes or developments in religion (Buddhism in Burma, Islam in the Dutch East Indies, marginally people like John Chilembwe in Nyasaland), and the impact of the depression of the 1930s.

Related Topics:
French Indochina - Religion - Buddhism - Burma - Islam - Dutch East Indies - John Chilembwe - Nyasaland - 1930s

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The Great Depression, despite the concentration of its impact on the industrialized world, was exceptionally damaging in the rural colonies. Agricultural prices fell much harder and faster than those of industrial goods, from around 1925 until the return of War the colonies suffered. The colonial powers concentrated on domestic issues, protectionism and tariffs, disregarding the damage done to international trade flows. The colonies, almost all primary "cash crop" producers, lost the majority of their export income and were forced away from the "open" complementary colonial economies to "closed" systems. While some areas returned to subsistence farming (British Malaya) others diversified (India, West Africa), and some began to industrialise. These economies would not fit the colonial strait-jacket when efforts were made to renew the links. Further, the European-owned and -run plantations proved highly vulnerable to extended deflation than native capitalists, reducing the dominance of "white" farmers in colonial economies and making the European governments and investors of the 1930s co-opt indigenous elites — despite the implications for the future.

Related Topics:
Great Depression - 1925 - Protectionism - Tariff - Trade - Cash crop - Export - Subsistence farming - British Malaya - West Africa - Plantation - Deflation - Capitalist - Farmer - Government - Indigenous

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The efforts at colonial reform also hastened their end — notably the move from non-interventionist collaborative systems towards directed, disruptive, direct management to drive economic change. The creation of genuine bureaucratic government boosted the formation of indigenous bourgeoisie. This was especially true in the British Empire, which seemed less capable (or less ruthless) in controlling political nationalism. Driven by pragmatic demands of budgets and manpower the British made deals with the nationalist elites. They dealt with the white Dominions, retained strategic resources at the cost of reducing direct control in Egypt, and made numerous reforms in the Raj, culminating in the Government of India Act (1935).

Related Topics:
Collaborative - Bureaucratic - Bourgeoisie - British Empire - Dominion - Egypt - Raj - Government of India Act

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Africa was a very different case from Asia between the wars. Tropical Africa was not fully drawn into the colonial system before the end of the 19th century, excluding only the complexities of the Union of South Africa (busily introducing segregation from 1924 and thus catalysing the anti-colonial political growth of half the continent) and the Empire of Ethiopia. Colonial controls ranged between extremes. Economic growth was often curtailed. There were no indigenous nationalist groups with widespread popular support before 1939.

Related Topics:
Africa - Union of South Africa - Segregation - Empire of Ethiopia - 1939

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The Soviet Union

In Eastern Europe, the Soviet Union fought a war with Finland, seizing territories inhabited by Finnish people until the war with Finland reached a standoff. The Soviet Union also dominated several neighboring countries (such as Lithuania, Latvia and Kazakhstan, inter alia), eventually incorporating some of them into the national territory of the Soviet Union by making them constituent Soviet republics.

Related Topics:
Soviet Union - Finland - Finnish people - Lithuania - Latvia - Kazakhstan

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Following World War II, the Soviet Union expelled millions of ethnic Germans from historical Eastern Germany east of the Oder and Neisse rivers, as well as from the Soviet Union itself (see also displaced person). Many of the territories thus seized by the Soviet Union were granted to other Soviet-bloc countries, although the Soviet Union appropriated Königsburg for itself, creating the present-day Russian enclave of Kaliningrad.

Related Topics:
World War II - Historical Eastern Germany - Displaced person - Königsburg - Kaliningrad

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In Asia, the Soviet Union seized the Kuriles from defeated Japan in 1945, making them part of Soviet territory.

Related Topics:
Kuriles - Japan - 1945

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The Americas

At end of the Spanish-American War at the end of the 19th century, the United States of America held several colonial territories seized from Spain, among them the Philippines and Puerto Rico. Although the U.S. had initially embarked upon a policy of colonization of these territories (and had fought to suppress local insurgencies there, such as in the Philippine Insurgency), by the 1930s the U.S. policy for the Philippines had changed toward the direction of eventual self-government. Following the invasion and occupation of the Philippines by Japan during World War II, the Philippines gained independence peacefully from the United States.

Related Topics:
Spanish-American War - United States of America - Spain - Philippines - Puerto Rico - Philippine Insurgency - World War II

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However, other U.S. colonies, such as Puerto Rico, did not gain full independence, despite active independence movements and occasional insurgencies. Puerto Rico remains in commonwealth with the United States, with all the international affairs of Puerto Rico handled by the United States government.

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Japan

As the only Asian nation to become a colonial power during the modern era, Japan had gained several substantial colonial concessions (such as Taiwan and Korea, among others) in east Asia. Pursuing a colonial policy comparable to those of European powers, Japan settled significant populations of ethnic Japanese in its colonies while simultaneously suppressing indigenous ethnic populations by enforcing the learning and use of the Japanese language in schools and public interaction, and attempting to eradicate the use of Korean and Chinese among the indigenous peoples, for example.

Related Topics:
Taiwan - Korea - Japanese language - Korean - Chinese

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World War II gave Japan occasion to conquer vast swaths of Asia, sweeping into China and seizing the European colonies of Vietnam, Hong Kong, the Philippines, Burma and Indonesia (among others), albeit only for the duration of the war. Following its surrender to the Allies in 1945, on the other hand, Japan was deprived of all its colonies; Japan further claims that the southern Kuril Islands are a small portion of its own national territory, colonized by the Soviet Union.

Related Topics:
Vietnam - Hong Kong - Philippines - Burma - Indonesia - Allies - Kuril Islands - Soviet Union

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From World War II to the present