WAR - Decolonization (Lesson)

Decolonization

Since the formation of the United Nations, more than eighty former colonies have gained independence. Part of that is due to the special organ within the UN designed to aid decolonization—but a larger reason for that statistic stems from the anti-colonial movements that sprung up within those nations following World War II. When World War II ended in 1945 CE, the world was divided into independent nation-states and colonies and it looked like this...

For years, colonies around the world led various anti-colonial movements, but conditions at the end of World War II allowed for many of these movements to become successful. [We will briefly discuss post-war decolonization here; but most of this history will be addressed in the next module.]

 

India

Following World War II, Great Britain decided that it was time to remove its presence from India and, in 1945, announced that they would withdraw and allow the nationalist movements to take over. The only problem was that there was a split among the nationalists. The division fell along regional and religious divisions. The Indian National Congress represented the Hindu nationalists and the Muslim League represented the Muslim nationalists. Fear of being underrepresented in a new government that reflected the majority Hindu population, the Muslim League pushed for a separate nation of their own. Therefore, on August 15, 1947, the British government partitioned India and created Pakistan. Muslims moved out of India into Pakistan and Hindus moved out of Pakistan into India. A great deal of violence accompanied this movement of over a million people to new homes. Each nation developed their own form of government with different leaders. Muhammad Ali Jinnah, an instrumental leader in creating Pakistan, became the newborn nation's first Governor-General. Jawaharlal Nehru, instrumental in securing India's independence from Great Britain, became India's first Prime Minister.

Unfortunately, the first year of India's and Pakistan's independence was marked by war and the deaths of beloved political figures. When India and Pakistan split into two nations, the states along the new border were given an opportunity to choose which side of the border to join. Kashmir, a state in northwest India, was mostly populated with Muslims but was led by a Hindu maharajah. The maharajah chose for Kashmir to remain a part of India and within days of independence Pakistani troops marched into the region causing a year-long war. As for the deaths mentioned earlier—in January 1948, an assassin's bullet struck down the peaceful Mohandas Gandhi. The man who pulled the trigger was an Indian Hindu who blamed Gandhi for the partition of Indian land and the creation of Pakistan. Nine months later, Muhammad Ali Jinnah succumbed to tuberculosis and passed away.

 

Vietnam

Prior to World War II and Japanese occupation, Vietnam was part of France's colonial empire named French Indochina. During World War II, Ho Chi Minh—the leader of the Vietnamese Communist Party (and the former ignored kitchen worker in Paris who requested Vietnamese independence during the Paris Peace Conference)—set up the League for the Independence of Vietnam as it was known in English. In Vietnamese, members of the League were called the Vietminh. Their purpose was to fight against the occupying Japanese and to resist the return of French rule following the end of the war. They were only partially successful. The Vietminh were able to take control of northern Vietnam and establish a government there. They named their new state the Democratic Republic of Vietnam. But the French retained control over southern Vietnam. France attempted to regain control of northern Vietnam causing a war to break out in 1946 between the French and the Vietminh. Eight years later, the French-controlled city of Dien Bien Phu fell to the Vietminh and a cease-fire and peace treaty were soon drawn up. The border between the Democratic Republic of Vietnam and South Vietnam was drawn along the 17th Parallel- the Democratic Republic of Vietnam established a communist government under Ho Chi Minh north of the parallel and France pulled out of South Vietnam handing over the reins to the local Vietnamese who did not establish a communist government. We will discuss what form of government they did make in the next module.

 

Indonesia

At first, Indonesia experienced something very similar to Vietnam after World War II. After Japan surrendered, the Netherlands tried to reinstate its rule over Indonesia. But the Dutch soon found that their colonists were not interested in reinstating Dutch rule. Nationalists in Indonesia formed a revolutionary government following the war. But unlike their neighbors in North Vietnam who set up a communist government, the rebels in Indonesia structured their government as a presidential democracy. The new Indonesian government fought against the Dutch and were finally successful in 1949. However, that did not mean that peace finally came to Indonesia. But that too is a story for later—as are the stories for the rest of the Middle East and Africa.

 

 

RESOURCES IN THIS MODULE ARE OPEN EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES (OER) OR CREATED BY GAVS UNLESS OTHERWISE NOTED. SOME IMAGES USED UNDER SUBSCRIPTION.