In the two hundred years following the
American Revolutionary War in 1783, 165 colonies have gained independence from Western imperial powers. Several analyses point to different reasons for the spread of anti-colonial political movements. Institutional arguments suggest that increasing levels of education in the colonies led to calls for popular sovereignty;
Marxist analyses view decolonization as a result of economic shifts toward wage labor and an enlarged
bourgeois class; yet another argument sees decolonization as a diffusion process wherein earlier revolutionary movements inspired later ones. Other explanations emphasize how the lower profitability of colonization and the costs associated with empire prompted decolonization. Some explanations emphasize how colonial powers struggled militarily against insurgents in the colonies due to a shift from 19th century conditions of "strong political will, a permissive international environment, access to local collaborators, and flexibility to pick their battles" to 20th century conditions of "apathetic publics, hostile superpowers, vanishing collaborators, and constrained options". In other words, colonial powers had more support from their own region in pursuing colonies in the 19th century than they did in the 20th century, where holding on to such colonies was often understood to be a burden. Contemporary
decolonial scholarship has critiqued the emancipatory potential of Enlightenment thought, highlighting its
erasure of Indigenous epistemologies and failure to provide
subaltern and
Indigenous people with liberty, equality, and dignity.
American Revolution Great Britain's
Thirteen North American colonies were the first to
declare independence, forming the
United States of America in 1776, and defeating Britain in the
Revolutionary War.
Haitian Revolution The
Haitian Revolution was a revolt in 1789 and subsequent slave uprising in 1791 in the French colony of
Saint-Domingue, on the
Caribbean island of
Hispaniola. In 1804,
Haiti secured independence from France as the
Empire of Haiti, which later became a republic.
Spanish America on 18 February 1818 The chaos of the
Napoleonic Wars in Europe cut the direct links between Spain and its American colonies, allowing for the process of decolonization to begin. With the invasion of Spain by
Napoleon in 1806, the American colonies declared autonomy and loyalty to King Ferdinand VII. The contract was broken and each of the regions of the Spanish Empire had to decide whether to show allegiance to the Junta of Cadiz (the only territory in Spain free from Napoleon) or have a junta (assembly) of its own. The economic monopoly of the metropolis was the main reason why many countries decided to become independent from Spain. In 1809, the independence wars of Latin America began with a revolt in La Paz,
Bolivia. In 1807 and 1808, the
Viceroyalty of the River Plate was invaded by the British. After their 2nd defeat, a Frenchman called Santiague de Liniers was proclaimed a new Viceroy by the local population and later accepted by Spain. In May 1810 in
Buenos Aires, a Junta was created, but in
Montevideo it was not recognized by the local government who followed the authority of the Junta of Cadiz. The rivalry between the two cities was the main reason for the distrust between them. During the next 15 years, the Spanish and Royalist on one side, and the rebels on the other fought in South America and Mexico. Numerous countries declared their independence. In 1824, the Spanish forces were defeated in the
Battle of Ayacucho. The mainland was free, and in 1898, Spain lost
Cuba and
Puerto Rico in the
Spanish–American War. Puerto Rico became an
unincorporated territory of the US, but Cuba became independent in 1902.
Portuguese America proclaims himself Emperor of an independent Brazil on 7 September 1822. The Napoleonic Wars also led to the severing of the direct links between Portugal and its only American colony,
Brazil. Days before Napoleon invaded Portugal, in 1807 the Portuguese royal court
fled to Brazil. In 1820 there was a
Constitutionalist Revolution in Portugal, which led to the return of the Portuguese court to Lisbon. This led to distrust between the Portuguese and the Brazilian colonists, and finally, in 1822, to the colony becoming independent as the
Empire of Brazil, which later became a republic.
British Empire The emergence of Indigenous political parties was especially characteristic of the
British Empire, which was less ruthless than, for example, Belgium, in controlling political dissent. Driven by pragmatic demands of budgets and manpower the British made deals with the local politicians. Across the empire, the general protocol was to convene a constitutional conference in London to discuss the transition to greater self-government and then independence, submit a report of the constitutional conference to parliament, if approved submit a bill to Parliament at Westminster to terminate the responsibility of the United Kingdom (with a copy of the new constitution annexed), and finally, if approved, issuance of an Order of Council fixing the exact date of independence. After
World War I, several former German and Ottoman territories in the Middle East, Africa, and the Pacific were governed by the UK as
League of Nations mandates. Some were administered directly by the UK, and others by British dominions –
Nauru and the
Territory of New Guinea by
Australia,
South West Africa by the
Union of South Africa, and
Western Samoa by
New Zealand. negotiations in December 1921
Egypt became independent in 1922, although the UK retained security prerogatives, control of the
Suez Canal, and effective control of the
Anglo-Egyptian Sudan. The
Balfour Declaration of 1926 declared the British Empire
dominions as equals, and the 1931
Statute of Westminster established full legislative independence for them. The equal dominions were six–
Canada,
Newfoundland, Australia, the
Irish Free State, New Zealand, and the Union of South Africa; Ireland had been brought into a union with Great Britain in 1801 creating the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland until the formation of the Irish Free State in 1922. However, some of the Dominions were already independent de facto, and even de jure and recognized as such by the international community. Thus, Canada was a founding member of the League of Nations in 1919 and served on the council from 1927 to 1930. That country also negotiated on its own and signed bilateral and multilateral treaties and conventions from the early 1900s onward. Newfoundland ceded self-rule back to London in 1934.
Iraq, a League of Nations mandate, became independent in 1932. In response to a growing
Indian independence movement, the UK made successive reforms to the
British Raj, culminating in the
Government of India Act 1935. These reforms included creating elected legislative councils in some of the
provinces of British India.
Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, India's independence movement leader, led a peaceful resistance to British rule. By becoming a symbol of both peace and opposition to British imperialism, many Indians began to view the British as the cause of India's problems leading to a newfound sense of
nationalism among its population. With this new wave of Indian nationalism, Gandhi was eventually able to garner the support needed to push back the British and create an independent India in 1947. Africa was only fully drawn into the colonial system at the end of the 19th century. In the north-east the continued independence of the
Ethiopian Empire remained a beacon of hope to pro-independence activists. However, with the anti-colonial wars of the 1900s (decade) barely over, new modernizing forms of Africa nationalism began to gain strength in the early 20th century with the emergence of Pan-Africanism, as advocated by the Jamaican journalist
Marcus Garvey (1887–1940) whose widely distributed newspapers demanded swift abolition of European imperialism, as well as republicanism in Egypt.
Kwame Nkrumah (1909–1972) who was inspired by the works of Garvey led the
Gold Coast (Ghana) to independence from colonial rule. Independence for the colonies in Africa began with the independence of
Sudan in 1956, and the
Gold Coast (Ghana) in 1957. All of the British colonies on mainland Africa became independent by 1966, although
Rhodesia's unilateral declaration of independence in 1965 was not recognized by the UK or internationally. Some of the British colonies in Asia were directly administered by British officials, while others were ruled by local monarchs as
protectorates or in
subsidiary alliance with the UK. In 1947,
British India was
partitioned into the independent dominions of the
Union of India and
Pakistan. Hundreds of
princely states, states ruled by monarchs in a treaty of subsidiary alliance with Britain, were
integrated into India and Pakistan. India and Pakistan fought several wars over the former princely state of
Jammu and Kashmir.
French India was integrated into India between 1950 and 1954, and India annexed
Portuguese India in 1961, and the
Kingdom of Sikkim merged with India by popular vote in 1975.
Violence, civil warfare, and partition at
Yorktown in 1781 Significant violence was involved in several prominent cases of decolonization of the British Empire; partition was a frequent solution. In 1783, the North American colonies were divided between the independent United States, and
British North America, which later became Canada. The
Indian Rebellion of 1857 was a major uprising in India against British
East India Company. It was characterized by massacres of civilians on both sides. It was not a movement for independence, however, and only a small part of India was involved. In the aftermath, the British pulled back from modernizing reforms of Indian society, and the level of organised violence under the
British Raj was relatively small. Most of that was initiated by repressive British administrators, as in the
Amritsar massacre of 1919, or the police assaults on the
Salt March of 1930. Large-scale communal violence broke out between Hindus and Muslims and between Muslims and Sikhs after the British left in 1947 in the newly independent
dominions of India and Pakistan. Much later, in 1970, further communal violence broke out within Pakistan in the detached eastern part of East Bengal, which became independent as
Bangladesh in 1971.
Cyprus, which came under full British control in 1914 from the Ottoman Empire, was culturally divided between the majority
Greek element (which demanded "
enosis" or union with Greece) and the minority Turks. London for decades assumed it needed the island to defend the Suez Canal; but after the Suez crisis of 1956, that became a minor factor, and Greek violence became a more serious issue. Cyprus became an independent country in 1960, but ethnic violence escalated until 1974 when Turkey invaded and partitioned the island. Each side rewrote its own history, blaming the other.
Palestine became a
British mandate from the
League of Nations after World War I, initially including
Transjordan. During that war, the British gained support from Arabs and Jews by making promises to both (see
McMahon–Hussein Correspondence and
Balfour Declaration). Decades of
ethno—religious violence reached a climax with the
UN Partition Plan and the
ensuing war. The British eventually pulled out, and the former Mandate territory was divided between
Israel,
Jordan and
Egypt.
French Empire " After World War I, the colonized people were frustrated at France's failure to recognize the effort provided by the French colonies (resources, but more importantly colonial troops – the famous
tirailleurs). Although in
Paris the
Great Mosque of Paris was constructed as recognition of these efforts, the French state had no intention to allow
self-rule, let alone grant
independence to the colonized people. Thus,
nationalism in the colonies became stronger in between the two wars, leading to
Abd el-Krim's
Rif War (1921–1925) in
Morocco and to the creation of
Messali Hadj's
Star of North Africa in
Algeria in 1925. However, these movements would gain full potential only after World War II. After World War I, France administered the former Ottoman territories of
Syria and
Lebanon, and the former German colonies of
Togoland and
Cameroon, as League of Nations mandates. Lebanon declared its independence in 1943, and Syria in 1945. In some instances, decolonization efforts ran counter to other concerns, such as the rapid increase of
antisemitism in Algeria in the course of the nation's resistance to French rule. Although France was ultimately a victor of World War II, Nazi Germany's occupation of France and its North African colonies during the war had disrupted colonial rule. On 27 October 1946, France adopted a new constitution creating the
Fourth Republic, and substituted the
French Union for the colonial empire. However power over the colonies remained concentrated in France, and the power of local assemblies outside France was extremely limited. On the night of 29 March 1947, a
Madagascar nationalist uprising led the French government headed by
Paul Ramadier (
Socialist) to violent repression: one year of bitter fighting, 11,000–40,000 Malagasy died. soldiers from
Điện Biên Phủ, escorted by Vietnamese communist troops, 1954 After the end of World War II, the Viet Minh launched the
August Revolution and declared Vietnamese independence in September, although Allied troops reoccupied the territory afterwards. In late 1946, the Viet Minh
attacked French troops in Hanoi, leading to the
Indochina War (1946–54). France later recognized the independence of the
State of Vietnam, the
Kingdom of Laos, and the
Kingdom of Cambodia, while also
recognizing the unity of Vietnam (whose territories has been split into three separate regions under French colonial rule) and supported the anti-communist faction in this country against the
communists who fought in the name of anti-colonialism in 1949. The war thus became part of the world-wide
Cold War. Cambodia and Laos became fully independent in late 1953, Vietnam became fully independent on 4 June 1954, and the
Geneva Accords of 21 July 1954 left Vietnam divided into the
North and
South with the fact that France recognized communists gaining the North. After North Vietnamese
military victory in April 1975, Vietnam would be
de jure united under a communist government on 2 July 1976. In 1956,
Morocco and
Tunisia gained their independence from France. In 1960, eight independent countries emerged from
French West Africa, and five from
French Equatorial Africa. The
Algerian War of Independence raged from 1954 to 1962. To this day, the Algerian war – officially called a "public order operation" until the 1990s – remains a trauma for both France and Algeria. Philosopher
Paul Ricœur has spoken of the necessity of a "decolonisation of memory", starting with the recognition of the
1961 Paris massacre during the Algerian war, and the decisive role of African and especially North African immigrant manpower in the
Trente Glorieuses post–World War II economic growth period. In the 1960s, due to economic needs for post-war reconstruction and rapid economic growth, French employers actively sought to recruit manpower from the colonies, explaining today's
multiethnic population.
After 1918 United States A union of former colonies itself, the United States approached imperialism differently from the other Powers. Much of its energy and rapidly expanding population was directed westward across the North American continent against English and French claims, the
Spanish Empire and Mexico. The
Native Americans were sent to
reservations, often unwillingly. With support from Britain, its
Monroe Doctrine reserved the Americas as its sphere of interest, prohibiting other states (particularly Spain) from recolonizing the newly independent polities of
Latin America. However, France, taking advantage of the American government's distraction during the Civil War, intervened militarily in Mexico and set up a French-protected monarchy. Spain took the step to
occupy the Dominican Republic and restore colonial rule. The Union victory in the Civil War in 1865 forced both France and Spain to accede to American demands to evacuate those two countries. America's only African colony,
Liberia, was formed privately and achieved independence early; Washington unofficially protected it. By 1900, the U.S. advocated an
Open Door Policy and opposed the direct division of China. , the first president of the
Commonwealth of the Philippines (from 1935 to 1944) in
Micronesia administered by the United States from 1947 to 1986 After 1898 direct intervention expanded in Latin America. The United States purchased Alaska from the Russian Empire in 1867 and annexed Hawaii in 1898. Following the
Spanish–American War in 1898, the US added most of Spain's remaining colonies:
Puerto Rico,
Philippines, and
Guam. Deciding not to annex Cuba outright, the U.S. established it as a
client state with obligations including the perpetual lease of
Guantánamo Bay to the U.S. Navy. The attempt of the first governor to void the island's constitution and remain in power past the end of his term provoked a rebellion that provoked a reoccupation between 1906 and 1909, but this was again followed by devolution. Similarly, the
McKinley administration, despite prosecuting the
Philippine–American War against a
native republic, set out that the
Territory of the Philippine Islands was eventually granted independence. In 1917, the U.S. purchased the
Danish West Indies (later renamed the
US Virgin Islands) from
Denmark and Puerto Ricans became full U.S. citizens that same year. The US government declared Puerto Rico the territory was no longer a colony and stopped transmitting information about it to the United Nations Decolonization Committee. As a result, the
UN General Assembly removed Puerto Rico from the
U.N. list of non-self-governing territories. Four referendums showed little support for independence, but much interest in statehood such as Hawaii and Alaska received in 1959. The Monroe Doctrine was expanded by the
Roosevelt Corollary in 1904, providing that the United States had a right and obligation to intervene "in flagrant cases of such wrongdoing or impotence" that a nation in the Western Hemisphere became vulnerable to European control. In practice, this meant that the United States was led to act as a collections agent for European creditors by administering customs duties in the
Dominican Republic (1905–1941),
Haiti (1915–1934), and elsewhere. The intrusiveness and bad relations this engendered were somewhat checked by the
Clark Memorandum and renounced by President
Franklin D. Roosevelt's "
Good Neighbor Policy". The
Fourteen Points were preconditions addressed by President
Woodrow Wilson to the European powers at the
Paris Peace Conference following
World War I. In allowing allies France and Britain the former colonial possessions of the German and Ottoman Empires, the US demanded of them submission to the
League of Nations mandate, in calling for
V. A free, open-minded, and absolutely impartial adjustment of all colonial claims, based upon a strict observance of the principle that in determining all such questions of sovereignty the interests of the populations concerned must have equal weight with the equitable government whose title is to be determined. See also point XII. After
World War II, the U.S. poured tens of billions of dollars into the
Marshall Plan, and other grants and loans to Europe and Asia to rebuild the world economy. At the same time American military bases were established around the world and direct and indirect interventions continued in
Korea,
Indochina, Latin America (
inter alia, the
1965 occupation of the Dominican Republic), Africa, and the Middle East to oppose Communist movements and insurgencies. Since the dissolution of the Soviet Union, the United States has been far less active in the Americas, but invaded
Afghanistan and
Iraq following the
September 11 attacks in 2001, establishing army and air bases in
Central Asia.
Japan , September 1945 Before World War I, Japan had gained several substantial colonial possessions in East Asia such as Taiwan (1895) and Korea (1910). Japan joined the allies in World War I, and after the war acquired the
South Seas Mandate, the former German colony in Micronesia, as a
League of Nations Mandate. 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. Other methods such as public interaction, and attempts to eradicate the use of
Korean,
Hokkien, and
Hakka among the Indigenous peoples, were seen to be used. Japan also set up the
Imperial Universities in Korea (
Keijō Imperial University) and Taiwan (
Taihoku Imperial University) to compel education. In 1931, Japan seized
Manchuria from the Republic of China, setting up a puppet state under
Puyi, the last Manchu emperor of China. In 1933 Japan seized the Chinese province of
Rehe, and incorporated it into its Manchurian possessions. The
Second Sino-Japanese War started in 1937, and Japan occupied much of eastern China, including the Republic's capital at
Nanjing. An estimated 20 million Chinese died during the 1931–1945 war with Japan. In December 1941, the empire of Japan joined
World War II by invading the European and U.S. colonies in Southeast Asia and the Pacific, including
French Indochina,
Hong Kong, the Philippines, Burma,
Malaya,
Indonesia,
Portuguese Timor, and others. Following its surrender to the
Allies in 1945, Japan was deprived of all its colonies with a number of them being returned to the original colonizing Western powers. The
Soviet Union declared war on Japan in August 1945, and shortly after occupied and annexed the southern
Kuril Islands, which Japan
still claims.
After 1945 Planning for decolonization Decolonization was often not extensively planned, instead occurring as a response to politics in the colony, politics at home, and increasing international pressure. Immediately following the war there was a wave of decolonization throughout Asia. This was followed by the Middle East, and in the 1960s sub-Saharan Africa. These waves saw most large colonies become independent, with many remaining colonies being smaller islands. Many of the smallest colonies would not become independent, instead joining either with nearby colonies and countries or becoming full parts of their administering country.
U.S. and Philippines In the United States, the two major parties were divided on the acquisition of the Philippines, which became a major campaign issue in 1900. The Republicans, who favored permanent acquisition, won the election, but after a decade or so, Republicans turned their attention to the Caribbean, focusing on building the
Panama Canal. President
Woodrow Wilson, a Democrat in office from 1913 to 1921, ignored the Philippines, and focused his attention on Mexico and Caribbean nations. By the 1920s, the peaceful efforts by the Filipino leadership to pursue independence proved convincing. When the Democrats returned to power in 1933, they worked with the Filipinos to plan a smooth transition to independence. It was scheduled for 1946 by
Tydings–McDuffie Act of 1934. In 1935, the Philippines transitioned out of territorial status, controlled by an appointed governor, to the semi-independent status of the
Commonwealth of the Philippines. Its constitutional convention wrote a new constitution, which was approved by Washington and went into effect, with an elected governor
Manuel L. Quezon and legislature. Foreign Affairs remained under American control. The Philippines built up a new army, under general
Douglas MacArthur, who took leave from his U.S. Army position to take command of the new army reporting to Quezon. The Japanese occupation 1942 to 1945 disrupted but did not delay the transition. It took place on schedule in 1946 as
Manuel Roxas took office as president.
Portugal special
caçadores advancing in the African jungle in the early 1960s, during the
Angolan War of Independence As a result of its pioneering
discoveries,
Portugal had a large and particularly long-lasting colonial empire which had begun in 1415 with the
conquest of Ceuta and ended only in 1999 with the handover of
Portuguese Macau to China. In 1822, Portugal
lost control of Brazil, its largest colony. From 1933 to 1974,
Portugal was an authoritarian state (ruled by
António de Oliveira Salazar). The regime was fiercely determined to maintain the country's colonial possessions at all costs and to aggressively suppress any insurgencies. In 1961,
India annexed Goa and by the same year nationalist forces had begun organizing in Portugal. Revolts (preceding the
Portuguese Colonial War) spread to
Angola,
Guinea Bissau and
Mozambique.
Lisbon escalated its effort in the war: for instance, it increased the number of natives in the colonial army and built strategic hamlets. Portugal sent another 300,000 European settlers into Angola and Mozambique before 1974. That year,
a left-wing revolution inside Portugal overthrew the existing regime and encouraged pro-Soviet elements to attempt to seize control in the colonies. The result was a very long and extremely difficult multi-party
Civil War in Angola, and lesser insurrections in Mozambique.
Belgium Belgium's empire began with the annexation of the Congo in 1908 in response to international pressure to bring an end to the
terrible atrocities that had taken place under
King Leopold's privately run
Congo Free State. It added
Rwanda and Burundi as League of Nations mandates from the former German Empire in 1919. The colonies remained independent during the war, while Belgium was occupied by the Germans. There was no serious planning for independence, and exceedingly little training or education provided. The
Belgian Congo was especially rich, and many Belgian businessmen lobbied hard to maintain control. Local revolts grew in power and finally, the Belgian king suddenly announced in 1959 that independence was on the agenda – and it was hurriedly arranged in 1960, for country bitterly and deeply divided on social and economic grounds.
Netherlands , 1946 The Netherlands had spent centuries building up its empire. By 1940 it consisted mostly of the
Dutch East Indies, corresponding to what is now Indonesia. Its massive oil reserves provided about 14 percent of the Dutch national product and supported a large population of ethnic Dutch government officials and businessmen in
Batavia (now Jakarta) and other major cities. The Netherlands was overrun and almost starved to death
by the Nazis during the war, and Japan sank the Dutch fleet in seizing the East Indies. In 1945 the Netherlands could not regain these islands on its own;
it did so by depending on British military help and
American financial grants. By the time Dutch soldiers returned, an independent government under
Sukarno was in power, originally set up by the
Empire of Japan. The Dutch both abroad and at home generally agreed that Dutch power depended on an expensive war to regain the islands. Compromises were negotiated, but were trusted by neither side. When the
Indonesian Republic successfully suppressed a large-scale communist revolt, the United States realized that it needed the nationalist government as an ally in the Cold War. Dutch possession was an obstacle to American Cold War goals, so Washington forced the Dutch to grant full independence. A few years later, Sukarno nationalized all
Dutch East Indies properties and expelled all
ethnic Dutch—over 300,000—as well as several hundred thousand ethnic Indonesians who supported the Dutch cause. In the aftermath, the Netherlands prospered greatly in the 1950s and 1960s but nevertheless public opinion was bitterly hostile to the United States for betrayal. The Dutch government eventually gave up on claims to Indonesian sovereignty in 1949, after American pressure. The Netherlands also had one other major colony, Dutch Guiana in
South America, which became independent as
Suriname in 1975.
United Nations trust territories When the United Nations was formed in 1945, it established trust territories. These territories included the
League of Nations mandate territories which had not achieved independence by 1945, along with the former
Italian Somaliland. The
Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands was transferred from Japanese to US administration. By 1990 all but one of the trust territories had achieved independence, either as independent states or by merger with another independent state; the
Northern Mariana Islands elected to become a commonwealth of the United States.
The emergence of the Third World (1945–present) Newly independent states organised themselves in order to oppose continued economic colonialism by former imperial powers. The
Non-Aligned Movement constituted itself around the main figures of
Jawaharlal Nehru, the first Prime Minister of India,
Sukarno, the Indonesian president,
Josip Broz Tito the Communist leader of
Yugoslavia, and
Gamal Abdel Nasser, head of Egypt. In 1955 these leaders gathered at the
Bandung Conference along with
Sukarno, the leader of Indonesia, and
Zhou Enlai, Premier of the People's Republic of China. In 1960, the
UN General Assembly voted on the
Declaration on the Granting of Independence to Colonial Countries and Peoples. The next year, the first Non-Aligned Movement conference was held in
Belgrade (1961), and was followed in 1964 by the creation of the
United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) which tried to promote a
New International Economic Order (NIEO). The NIEO was opposed to the 1944
Bretton Woods system, which had benefited the leading states which had created it, and remained in force until 1971 after the United States' suspension of convertibility from dollars to gold. The main principles of the NIEO are: • The sovereign equality of all States, with non-interference in their internal affairs, their effective participation in solving world problems and the right to adopt their own economic and social systems; • Full sovereignty of each State over its natural resources and other economic activities necessary for development, as well as regulation of transnational corporations; • Just and equitable relationship between the price of raw materials and other goods exported by developing countries, and the prices of raw materials and other goods exported by the developed countries; • Strengthening of bilateral and multilateral international assistance to promote industrialization in the developing countries through, in particular, the provisioning of sufficient financial resources and opportunities for transfer of appropriate techniques and technologies. (HDI) is a quantitative index of development, an alternative to the classic
Gross Domestic Product (GDP), which some use as a proxy to define the
Third World. While the GDP only calculates economic wealth, the HDI includes
life expectancy,
public health and
literacy as fundamental factors of a good
quality of life. Countries in
North America, the
Southern Cone,
Europe,
East Asia, and
Oceania generally have better standards of living than countries in
Central Africa,
East Africa, parts of the
Caribbean, and
South Asia. The UNCTAD however was not very effective in implementing the NIEO, and social and economic inequalities between industrialized countries and the Third World grew throughout the 1960s until the 21st century. The
1973 oil crisis which followed the
Yom Kippur War (October 1973) was triggered by the OPEC which decided an embargo against the US and Western countries, causing a fourfold increase in the price of oil, which lasted five months, starting on 17 October 1973, and ending on 18 March 1974. OPEC nations then agreed, on 7 January 1975, to raise crude oil prices by 10%. At that time, OPEC nations – including many who had recently nationalized their oil industries – joined the call for a New International Economic Order to be initiated by coalitions of primary producers. Concluding the First OPEC Summit in Algiers they called for stable and just commodity prices, an international food and agriculture program, technology transfer from North to South, and the democratization of the economic system. But industrialized countries quickly began to look for substitutes to OPEC petroleum, with the oil companies investing the majority of their research capital in the US and European countries or others, politically sure countries. The OPEC lost more and more influence on the world prices of oil. The
second oil crisis occurred in the wake of the 1979
Iranian Revolution. Then, the 1982
Latin American debt crisis exploded in Mexico first, then Argentina and Brazil, which proved unable to pay back their debts, jeopardizing the existence of the international economic system. The 1990s were characterized by the prevalence of the
Washington consensus on
neoliberal policies, "
structural adjustment" and "
shock therapies" for the former Communist states.
Decolonization of Africa The decolonization of North Africa and sub-Saharan Africa took place in the mid-to-late 1950s, very suddenly, with little preparation. There was widespread unrest and organized revolts, especially in French Algeria, Portuguese Angola, the Belgian Congo and British Kenya. In 1945, Africa had four independent countries – Egypt, Ethiopia, Liberia, and South Africa. After Italy's defeat in World War II, France and the UK occupied the former Italian colonies.
Libya became an independent kingdom in 1951.
Eritrea was merged with Ethiopia in 1952. Italian Somaliland was governed by the UK, and by Italy after 1954, until its independence in 1960. on becoming an overseas department of France, 2009 By 1977, European colonial rule in mainland Africa had ended. Most of Africa's island countries had also become independent, although
Réunion and
Mayotte remain part of France. However the black majorities in
Rhodesia and South Africa were disenfranchised until 1979 in
Rhodesia, which became
Zimbabwe-Rhodesia that year and Zimbabwe the next, and until 1994 in South Africa.
Namibia, Africa's last UN Trust Territory, became independent of South Africa in 1990. Most independent African countries exist within prior colonial borders. However
Morocco merged
French Morocco with
Spanish Morocco, and
Somalia formed from the merger of
British Somaliland and
Italian Somaliland.
Eritrea merged with Ethiopia in 1952, but became an independent country in 1993. Most African countries became independent as
republics.
Morocco,
Lesotho, and
Eswatini remain monarchies under dynasties that predate colonial rule.
Burundi,
Egypt,
Libya, and
Tunisia gained independence as monarchies, but all four countries' monarchs were later deposed, and they became republics. African countries cooperate in various multi-state associations. The
African Union includes all 55 African states. There are several regional associations of states, including the
East African Community,
Southern African Development Community, and
Economic Community of West African States, some of which have overlapping membership. • :
Sudan (1956);
Ghana (1957);
Nigeria (1960);
Sierra Leone and
Tanganyika (1961);
Uganda (1962);
Kenya and
Sultanate of Zanzibar (1963);
Malawi and
Zambia (1964);
Gambia and
Rhodesia (1965);
Botswana and
Lesotho (1966);
Mauritius and
Swaziland (1968);
Seychelles (1976) • :
Morocco and
Tunisia (1956);
Guinea (1958);
Cameroon,
Togo,
Mali,
Senegal,
Madagascar,
Benin,
Niger,
Burkina Faso,
Ivory Coast,
Chad,
Central African Republic,
Republic of the Congo,
Gabon and
Mauritania (1960);
Algeria (1962);
Comoros (1975);
Djibouti (1977) • :
Equatorial Guinea (1968) • :
Guinea-Bissau (1974);
Mozambique,
Cape Verde,
São Tomé and Príncipe and
Angola (1975) • :
Democratic Republic of the Congo (1960);
Burundi and
Rwanda (1962)
Decolonization in the Americas after 1945 • :
Newfoundland (formerly an independent dominion but under direct British rule since 1934) (1949, union with Canada);
Jamaica and
Trinidad and Tobago (1962);
Barbados and
Guyana (1966);
Bahamas (1973);
Grenada (1974);
Trinidad and Tobago (1976, removal of Queen
Elizabeth II as head of state, transition to republic);
Dominica (1978);
Saint Lucia and
St. Vincent and the Grenadines (1979);
Antigua and Barbuda and
Belize (1981);
Saint Kitts and Nevis (1983);
Barbados (2021, removal of Queen
Elizabeth II as head of state, transition to republic). • :
Netherlands Antilles,
Suriname (1954, both becoming constituent countries of the
Kingdom of the Netherlands), 1975 (independence of Suriname) • :
Greenland (1979, became an autonomous territory of the
Kingdom of Denmark).
Decolonization of Asia ,
Pakistan,
Dominion of Ceylon, and
Union of Burma) that gained independence in 1947 and 1948 Japan expanded its occupation of Chinese territory during the 1930s, and occupied
Southeast Asia during World War II. After the war, the
Japanese colonial empire was dissolved, and national independence movements resisted the re-imposition of colonial control by European countries and the United States. The
Republic of China regained control of Japanese-occupied territories in Manchuria and eastern China, as well as Taiwan. Only Hong Kong and Macau remained in outside control until both places were transferred to the
People's Republic of China by the
UK and
Portugal in 1997 and 1999. The Allied powers divided Korea into two occupation zones, which became the states of
North Korea and
South Korea. The
Philippines became independent of the U.S. in 1946. The Netherlands recognized
Indonesia's independence in 1949, after a four-year
independence struggle. Indonesia annexed
Netherlands New Guinea in 1963, and
Portuguese Timor in 1975. In 2002, former Portuguese Timor became independent as
East Timor. The following list shows the colonial powers following the end of hostilities in 1945, and their colonial or administrative possessions. The year of decolonization is given chronologically in parentheses. • :
Transjordan (1946),
British India and
Pakistan (1947);
British Mandate of Palestine,
Burma and
Ceylon (1948);
British Malaya (1957);
Kuwait (1961);
Kingdom of Sarawak,
North Borneo and
Singapore (1963);
Maldives (1965);
Aden (1967);
Bahrain,
Qatar and
United Arab Emirates (1971);
Brunei (1984);
Hong Kong (1997) • :
French India (1954) and
Indochina comprising
Vietnam (1954),
Cambodia (1953) and
Laos (1953) • :
Portuguese India (1961);
East Timor (1975);
Macau (1999) • :
Philippines (1946) • :
Indonesia (1949)
Decolonization in Europe in the
Baltic states Italy had occupied the
Dodecanese islands in 1912, but Italian occupation ended after World War II, and the islands were integrated into Greece. British rule ended in
Cyprus in 1960, and
Malta in 1964, and both islands became independent republics. Referring to the
Revolutions of 1989, the historian Robert Daniels stated: "A special dimension that the anti-Communist revolutions shared with some of their predecessors was decolonization." During the
Russo-Ukrainian war, Ukraine passed
a law in 2023 that banned geographical names associated with Russia. This law in particular has been described by
Volodymyr Viatrovych as providing "a legitimate framework for the
ongoing decolonization processes in Ukraine and effective mechanisms". Scholars of
Russian studies have also renewed awareness of Russian colonialism and interest in decolonizing scholarship in their field.
Decolonization of Oceania The decolonization of Oceania occurred after World War II when nations in Oceania achieved independence by transitioning from European colonial rule to full independence. • :
Tonga and
Fiji (1970);
Solomon Islands and
Tuvalu (1978);
Kiribati (1979) • and :
Vanuatu (1980) • :
Nauru (1968);
Papua New Guinea (1975) • :
Samoa (1962) • :
Marshall Islands and
Federated States of Micronesia (1986);
Palau (1994) == Aspects ==