Between the 1920s and 1980s, many regions in Africa, Asia, and the Middle East gained independence from European colonial rule through various means such as revolution, non-violent protest movements, and withdrawal. Decolonization led to the creation of many new nation-states but also left ongoing problems including economic dependency on former colonial powers, wealth inequality, and conflicts along tribal, racial, or religious lines.
Imperialism is very similar to colonialism, with one major difference: colonial powers settle the countries of which they gain control, while imperial powers do not. The term “imperialism” does not seem to exist prior to the 1800s. Nineteenth-century imperialism was spurred in large part by the Industrial Revolution. The development of new industrial economies in the 1700s and 1800s necessitated the acquisition of raw materials and the desire to gain control of marketplaces; thus, by the mid-1800s, imperialistic actions of strong nations (most notably European nations) started to become policy.
1 Definition is from America: Pathways to the Present (New Jersey: Pearson Prentice Hall, 2005, p. 981).
Muhammad Saud Kharal PhD in Social Science, Department of Sociology Faculty of Social and Political Sciences, Universitas Airlangga, Surabaya Indonesia
Imperialism is very similar to colonialism, with one major difference: colonial powers settle the countries of which they gain control, while imperial powers do not. The term “imperialism” does not seem to exist prior to the 1800s. Nineteenth-century imperialism was spurred in large part by the Industrial Revolution. The development of new industrial economies in the 1700s and 1800s necessitated the acquisition of raw materials and the desire to gain control of marketplaces; thus, by the mid-1800s, imperialistic actions of strong nations (most notably European nations) started to become policy.
1 Definition is from America: Pathways to the Present (New Jersey: Pearson Prentice Hall, 2005, p. 981).
Muhammad Saud Kharal PhD in Social Science, Department of Sociology Faculty of Social and Political Sciences, Universitas Airlangga, Surabaya Indonesia
Sub-Saharan Africa Post-Independence Starting in t.docxhanneloremccaffery
Sub-Saharan Africa: Post-Independence
Starting in the late 1950s, Sub-Saharan Africans intensified the struggle for independence from their European colonizers, and the
white rulers. So came to Sub-Saharan Africa the process known as
decolonization. Following World War II, the region’s European rulers
came to realization that their control over the colonies could not
continue as usual. Two main forces emerged to challenge the
European domination of Africans. First, challenges came from
African nationalists who wanted something so simple yet so difficult
to realize: Africa for Africans. Second, after World War II, which was
framed as epic battle against undemocratic tyranny of
totalitarianism, Africans began to challenge why the allies could not
uphold the same democratic values in Africa. To many African
nationalists, it was an example of supreme irony that nations that
defeated Nazism and Fascism were doing something Hitler’s
Germany wanted to do in Europe, conquest and exploitation. (The
above is a picture of the founding members of the anti-apartheid
organization later became African National Congress.) They
obviously felt justified in resisting European colonization more aggressively after World War II, which, by the way, destroyed and
weakened European societies.
This decolonization process was relatively peaceful in countries like Kenya, Tanzania, and Ivory Coast. However, independence did
not come easily in southern part of Africa. In Rhodesia, a formal British colony, 250,000 white
residents who owned the country’s farmlands refused to let their power and domination pass away
peacefully. Instead of accepting the black majority rule, they
declared Rhodesia independent as a white-supremacist state.
The blacks in turn declared war against the white rulers and
the civil war continued until 1975 when the Rhodesian
government capitulated. So came the birth of Zimbabwe, but
at a heavy human and material cost.
Something similar happened in Angola and Mozambique,
both Portuguese colonies. When Lisbon refused to grant
independence to these countries, people of Angola and
Mozambique turned to guerrilla warfare. The war in Angola
became even more violent, when the U.S. and the Soviet Union turned that civil war into a theater
of their own superpower competition. The Marxist groups within guerrilla movement, supported by the Soviet Union and Cuba,
eventually succeeded in forcing Portugal to leave Angola and Mozambique, and setup leftist governments. The U.S. and South Africa
perceived the leftist governments in Angola and Mozambique as thereat to their interests and financed guerrilla forces seeking to
topple the Marxist government of Angola and Mozambique. The fighting continued
well into the 1980s. The war ended at least in Mozambique due in large part to the
Soviet Union and the U.S. losing interest in it following the end of the cold war. In
Angola, low intensity war drags on, however. .
3. Overview
By the mid-20th century, many
REGIONS in Africa, Asia & the
Middle East had “freed”
themselves from European
Imperial dominance.
Decolonization is the term
historians have used to describe
this process
4.
5.
6. What happened?
European withdrawal
Revolutions overthrew
Europeans
Non-violent Independence
Movements
7. Causes of Decolonization
Education & information
acquired by Asians & Africans.
World Wars
Asians & Africans questioned
European superiority
War in the colonies
Nationalism!
