Decolonization

Indian anti-colonial leader, Mahatma Gandhi, stated:

India's successful decolonization from the British Empire in 1947 offered hope and inspiration to other independence movements around the world. But not all examples of decolonization were relatively peaceful like this one. The decolonization of Africa, Asia, and Latin America in the 20th century, especially after World War II, came with wars, political strife, and socio-economic inequality.

Decolonization: Definition

Decolonization is not a single event but rather a process. This process describes how a former colony gains political independence from a formal empire or a simply more powerful country. Decolonization surpasses political independence and includes regaining control over one's own economy and natural resources. It also involves the way the native population of a formerly colonized area reasserts control over one's own society, culture, traditions, and the documentation of history. In other words, decolonized people seek to dismantle colonial rule beyond the formal external political power.

Fig. 1 - A Korean girl with her brother on her back in front of stalled M-46 tank during the Korean War, Haengju, Korea, 1951.

Decolonization Theory

There are a number of decolonization theories. One theory describes the stages of decolonization mixing the political and psychological aspects:

• Attaining formal political independence.
• Mourning the loss of one’s history, culture, and sovereignty in the past.
• Setting goals for reclaiming one’s cultural identity within the framework of political sovereignty.
• Taking concrete steps to carry out decolonization beyond the already achieved political independence such as removing the hidden traits of colonialism such as the control over the way one’s history is written.

Another theory differentiates the types of decolonization:

These theories also differentiate between old colonialism and neocolonialism.

Decolonization: Causes and Effects

Decolonization has many complex causes and effects in the late 19th and 20th centuries.

Causes

The main causes of decolonization include:

• imperial dissolution
• world wars
• international pressure
• independence movements

19th Century

Throughout the 19th century, decolonization began in Europe where the Ottoman Empire (Turkey) grew weaker. After a series of wars with the Russian Empire, especially the Russo-Turkish War (1877–1878), and Russia's protection of Orthodox Christians in the region, a number of states gained independence:

• Bulgaria
• Greece
• Montenegro
• Romania
• Serbia

In Latin America, many countries gained independence from Spain in the early part of the century, during the Spanish American Wars of Independence (1808-1833), including:

• Bolivia
• Costa Rica
• El Salvador
• Guatemala
• Honduras
• Mexico
• Nicaragua
• Venezuela

World War I and the 20th-century Interwar Period

The early 20th century and the First World War brought along the dissolution of the Ottoman Empire along with the Austro-Hungarian and Russian Empires. This new political reality led to the establishment of newly independent states in Europe, including Poland, Hungary, Finland, and others.

Fig. 2 - “No dialogue, no negotiations until termination of the mandate” protest by Arab women against Britain’s mandate in Palestine, Jerusalem, 1930

In the Middle East, only some states gained independence before World War II, such as Iraq and Saudi Arabia. Others, like Syria, Lebanon, and Palestine remained under French and British mandates until the 1940s.

• The postwar settlement reached the Paris Peace Conference (1919-1920) included an international body called the League of Nations. The League was meant to foster peace around the world and was a predecessor of the United Nations. This organization developed a mandate system that gave European colonial powers like Britain and France partial control—mandates—over the former territories of the Ottoman Empire in the Middle East. As a result, Syria remained under the French mandate until 1946 and Palestine was under British mandate until 1948. These examples show the limits of decolonization in this period.

Decolonization after WW2

Colonial empires like France and Britain emerged weak and overextended out of the Second World War. The United Nations, established in 1945, replaced the League of Nations and put international pressure to continue the decolonization process. The Soviet Union, which came out of this war as a superpower, also supported anti-imperialist movements around the world in line with its Communist ideology rooted in Marxism.

Effects

The effects of decolonization varied. Some countries, like India, relatively peacefully gained political independence (1947). Indeed, Gandhi's non-violent resistance was famous because of this fact. However, India's long history of the struggle for independence included anti-colonial uprisings, such as the Indian Rebellion of 1857, which the British Empire crushed.

Other countries, like Vietnam, attained independence from France in 1945. Yet this country ended up in a prolonged and costly international conflict, the Vietnam War (1955-1975), split into North and South Vietnam, within the framework of the Cold War. It was not until 1976 that the country was reunited as the Socialist Republic of Vietnam.

Others yet found themselves formally independent but under direct military control or indirect neocolonial rule. The United States perceived the western hemisphere as its own backyard since the Monroe Doctrine (1823). And since the Roosevelt Corollary (1904), Americans deemed it necessary to intervene in regional developments, including military involvement.

Other effects of decolonization included:

• civil wars and ethnic and religious strife, in part, due to the arbitrary colonial redrawing of borders
• socio-economic inequalities
• political strife including assassinations

Fig. 3 - Wells Missionary Map Co. Africa. [?, 1908] Map

Decolonization: Examples

There are many examples of decolonization in the 20th century. These examples display specific political, social, economic, and cultural aspects making each case somewhat different.

Decolonization of Africa

European powers controlled most of Africa on the eve of the First World War. Only after World War II did large-scale decolonization begin.

Angola

Angola was a Portuguese colony until 1975. But before this event, the country was embroiled in the Angolan War of Independence (1961–1974). The war involved multiple domestic factions, such as the People's Movement of Liberation of Angola (MPLA). At the same time, this conflict occurred in the context of the Cold War. As a result, it also involved the United States opposed by Cuba and the Soviet Union.

South Africa

South Africa gained nominal independence from Britain in 1910 and full independence in 1931 through the Statute of Westminster becoming a republic 30 years later. South Africa's key problem was the fact that it was settlers of European descent that controlled its politics, institutions, and land. Indeed, between 1948 and the 1990s, the country practiced formal Apartheid by segregating the races at an institutional level. In other words, South Africa is an apt example of initial decolonization from imperial control while treating the indigenous African population as second-class citizens for decades. African leader Nelson Mandela, who was a political prisoner for 27 years, was one of the key players who helped remove the Apartheid system.

Fig. 4 - "Reserved for the sole use of members of the white race group" sign, a beach in Durban, 1989

Decolonization of Asia

Decolonization in Asia ranged from relatively peaceful examples, such as India and Hong Kong, to international conflicts like the Korean and Vietnam Wars.

In some cases, colonies went from one ruler to another.

Hong Kong

Britain colonized Hong Kong in 1841 as it became a crown colony after the First Opium War (1839-1942). The war resulted from the British Empire facilitating the sale of narcotics in China, while China tried to ban this harmful trade. Britain also leased other parts of Hong Kong for 99 years in 1860 and 1898. It was only in 1997 that Hong Kong reunited with China while maintaining some autonomy.

Fig. 5 - Chinese opium smokers, in the context of Britain’s Opium Wars in China, 19th century.

Korea

Europeans were not the only ones to have colonial empires in the 20th century. Japan is another example, colonizing Korea in 1910. Korea gained independence at the end of World War II along with other parts of Asia that the Japanese captured and colonized in the 1930s and early 1940s from the Europeans. However, the Korean War broke out in 1950 and lasted until 1953. Since then, the country has been split into North and South Korea along the 38th parallel. Because this conflict occurred during the Cold War, China and the Soviet Union supported the North, whereas the United States supported the South.

Decolonization in the 21st Century

Many countries gained formal political independence from the European colonial empires in the 19th and 20th centuries. However, some believe that the process of decolonization must continue not only in the realm of achieving socio-economic equality but also by decolonizing the mind.