Gust: to what extent where the British forced to decolonize? The British Empire was the largest and most extensive the world has ever seen, encompassing a quarter of the world’s population on which “the sun never set” . Yet whilst it reached its peak after the First World War shortly after the end of the Second, a mere 27 years later, the process of nationalism and decolonization had started to occur throughout many of its colonies. Indeed, by 1964 most of its former territories had branched away from their former empire and gained independence. Yet can we cite this rapid and short collapse of the world’s largest empire as a reason for forced decolonization in favour of a more natural devolving of power? This essay will evaluate this point through analysing several case studies of former territories in the form of India, Kenya and the Middle East. It will also examine and consider a variety of factors, predominately during or after 1945, that may have contributed to the collapse both domestically and internationally to ascertain the cause of forced decolonization. To fully answer this question, we must first establish as to what ideology the British had adopted in terms of its imperialism during this period. Whilst it can certainly be argued that the seeds for decolonization had been sewn in the 1920s and 1930s they never came into fruition until after the Second World War. This in turn gave way to enlightened thinking amongst the colonies in the form of nationalism, which
The British ideals slowly began to drift away from the American colonist’s ideals after the French and Indian War. The British had only one focus at the time and that was making money. All that King George III wanted from the colonies was pure profit to Britain. The colonies wanted all the freedoms and rights as they had in Britain and it was
Tom: Australian forces had quite a lot of involvement in the war in Iraq. They were involved primarily in three operations; Operation Bastille, Operation Slipper, and Operation Falconer.
The process of decolonization proved to have its own struggles within those who were seeking their independence from imperialist powers. Evidently, these nationalist movements were different in many regions, but they generally shared the sentiment that “Westernization” had taken something away from them. This proved to be the case in Africa and Asia, where the colonization movement from imperialist powers was of strong presence, and that had trouble weakening during and after the Cold War. Part of this struggle was due to the forms of government that were imposed, and because many of these colonies had been in this position for such long time that they were not able to predict upcoming conflicts after their independence. However, in many cases, the problems were more complicated and often implied a combination of reaction to westernization and internal conflicts. Undoubtedly,
The Indian resistance against the British empire is one example of opposition against imperialism. Until 1858, India was controlled by the British East India Company. Thereafter, the crown rule replaced the company rule until 1947. “The slow expansion of the Indian role in public affairs would not have occurred without mounting political pressure from Indian society” (Findley 188). The people of India had tried to cause a reform through a political channel, evident through the slow yet steady participation in political affairs from 1858-1947. In this resistance,
The study of British colonialism is a rather new field with much to discuss and a lot more to debate. The recent recognition of new nation-states that were once under the control of Britain was a growing phenomenon and one that continues to play a large role in today’s global politics. Since the rather recent period of these new nations, new study’s have been done into the history of a) the peoples that inhabited the land before Britain, b) the way Britain occupied and control and land, and now c) post-Britain. This is a growing topic in the historical field because seventy-five years ago there was no thought that Britain would relieve control of India or Nigeria. That is why post-British colonialism is important to today, because it is a
Industrialization added to Britain’s desire for raw materials and new markets and the British were motivated by this desire and looked for colonies to obtain. Adopting the policy of imperialism was economically beneficial for Britain, since it helped supply Britain with raw materials for industrial development, along with cheap food for Britain’s developing population. Britain chose to become imperialistic, because it would bring them prudent and economic benefits.
Erez Manela’s The Wilsonian Moment Self-Determination and the International Origins of Anticolonial Nationalism is a monograph that attempts to reconstruct the story of colonial world at the end of Wilsonian moment. The book’s title, The Wilsonian Moment is alluding to the crucial period that lasted from autumn of 1918 to spring of 1919, when the Allied victory were confident that President Woodrow Wilson’s ideas for a new world will become successful until the terms of the Treaty of Versailles became public and the failure of the Wilson’s promise became evident. Erez Manela says, “The focus of this book is on the specific significance of Wilsonian moment in the colonial world, defined broadly as the dependent or semi dependent territories that encompassed at the time almost all of Asia and Africa”(8). Manela demonstrates how Woodrow Wilson’s post-war rhetoric on self-determination, a concept that firmly believes all nations should be able to determine for their futures and governance impacted several anti colonial movements by using Egypt, India, China, and Korea as case studies. In these case studies, Manela explicitly exhibits how colonized countries received and interpreted Wilson’s rhetoric, and applied it to their local struggle for independence. These four countries actively fought for their independence, but their arguments were dismissed at the Paris Peace Conference for different reasons. Manela tells us,” The “revolt against the West,” emerged “not from the
Throughout the years many historians have compilated and examined why Indian people were so desperate to gain back their independence from the British Empire during their rule over India, from 1612 to 1947. The reasoning can most definitely be found as the British discriminated against Indian people as they believe that they were inferior; it is no surprise that Indian people fought so hard for their independence. Throughout the British Raj, they placed and put forward unbelievably racist acts and laws which discriminated against Indian people. Which of course led to Indians to rebel against the British rule and which the British reacted with causing massacres. Explaining the nationalistic many India’s felt during the British Raj.
Decolonization is the undoing of colonialism, where a nation establishes and maintains its domination over dependent territories. In the words of Fanon, in the reading The Wretched of the Earth, “National liberation, national reawakening, restoration of the nation to the people or Commonwealth, whatever the name used, whatever the latest expression, decolonization is always a violent event.” (Fanon, 1). Frantz Fanon was one of many authors who supported decolonization struggles occurring after World War II. He breaks down decolonization into two senses: one being the physical act of freeing a territory from external control of a colonizer, and the other being the psychological act of freeing the consciousness of the native from the alienation caused by colonization. Fanon particularly advocated that violence was justified by overthrowing colonial oppression. In his reading, The Wretched of the Earth, Fanon wrote on why and how colonialism must be stopped. Fanon argued that the colonial infrastructure must be destroyed. “Decolonization, which sets out to change the order of the world, is clearly an agenda for total disorder. But it cannot be accomplished by the wave of a magic wand, a natural cataclysm, or a gentleman’s agreement. Decolonization, we know, is an historical process: In other words, it can only be understood, it can only find its significance and become self coherent insofar as we can discern the history-making movement which gives it form and substance,”
The New Imperialism during the 19th century throughout Africa and Asia was an influential prompt to the rise of colonialism and powerful European empires. Consisting of raw materials, markets for European business, and provided resources made the African and Asian colonies extremely ingenious for European empires. However, as the 20th century emerged, imperialism suddenly faded and became a sentiment of the past. Surely even one of the most influential empires at a certain point in time – Britain, gradually came at ease with dropping its imperial rule over some colonies. Likewise, following gory and extensive battles, a parallel approach was taken by France. Nevertheless, the utmost spark to the 20th century decolonization was primarily
The cultural ties to empire are not so easy to efface as the political ones. This is perhaps one of the most important lessons the world has learned from the mass movement towards independence on the part of European colonies in the past half-century. Even we Americans, more than two hundred years after having rejected the British monarchy and all it stands for, are forever poking our noses in the
Decolonisation may have given a country its freedom but also caused isolation in society and mass emigration. The effects of decolonisation created many issues including economic uncertainty and a clash of beliefs leading to violent outbursts between religious groups. Although India benefitted from decolonisation in the long run, it has had an effect on the generations of Indian people growing up in Britain today who deal with the consequences on a daily basis. World War II was a changing point for Britain and led them to prioritise themselves over their colonies, which lead to the neglect of India and her people. India is only one example of how decolonisation created more problems than it solved after 1945, most of the British colonies experienced somewhat of similarities in their decolonisation. Although decolonisation had many negative effects on the country of India, their independence was an important milestone in history and solved many issues, including financial issues, Britain were facing after the
The ideological reasons for the Age of Imperialism pertained to all of the European countries. However, Britain was the most influential, because they were strongest. They believed that they were the superiority of the world
Imperialism began in the 1870s, European states established vast empires mainly in Africa, but also in Asia and the Middle East. Imperialism can be used as an act of expanding used as an act of developing a country’s empire through the use of force, colonization, or coercion. This method can be used to benefit one or both sides of the process. By means of benefiting one side would be considered as being a world bully because the nation is trying to expand or develop with the help of others without doing the other nation any good. As a result of advancing both nations can give a nation the name of a world leader with it helping both sides, everyone is developing in a way to help not just themselves, but others as well. America used imperialism for the good or bad as long as they got something out of it in some way. Many in the U.S. thought that country must be able to compete and saw the opportunity to take its own colonies before European countries got them all. Colonial powers often struggled with each other over the best potential features. These motives tend to believe its purpose is gaining additional wealth, power, and control. America used this approach as an intimidator to get economic growth, expand their political power, spread of the culture’s religion, and build military and naval bases.
Middle East was seen as the central junction for the communication of the British global empire. The British were clearly the dominant powerhouse of the late 30's throughout much of Europe and the Middle East. The shortest sea connection between Britain and India was through the Suez Canal, while the air and land routes connected Africa and Egypt to Palestine and the Middle East. This area was also a major source of oil. Oil was to become one of the most useful chemicals needed by the economy of a country both in peace and most importantly for war. The British commitment to a Jewish National Home in Palestine, agreed upon in the Balfour Declaration of 1917, created a series of conflicts