Chapter 39 Decolonization and the Decline of the European World Order
I.
Introduction
Shaken by the events of twentieth-century colonialism, leaders in Asia and Africa began to reevaluate
what needed to be kept from their own cultures and what accommodations with the West needed to
be made. Reinvigoration of traditional beliefs and political structures was critical to the process of
decolonization. The beginnings of decolonization lay in the development of Western-educated middle
classes in colonized Africa and Asia. Relying on primarily peaceful means, indigenous leaders
expelled colonial regimes. World War I served to sufficiently weaken the Western colonialists so that
anticolonialist movements became possible. World War II crushed the ability of the European powers
to maintain the colonial structure.
II.
Prototypes for the Independence Struggles: The First Phase of Decolonization in India and
Egypt
A.
Introduction
Colonized long before Africa, India and Asian colonies were the first to establish
independence movements. Western- educated minorities organized politically to bring about
the end or modification of colonial regimes. India and Egypt provide examples of early
decolonization movements.
B.
India: The Makings of the Nationalist Challenge to the British Raj
Regional associations of Western-educated Indians located in major cities coalesced to form
the Indian National Congress party in 1885. Without a base of mass support, the primary
function of the early party was to present grievances to the British colonial administration.
Most of the issues concerned the Indian elite, not the poor. Despite its limited aims, the
Congress party did allow the formation of a sense of Indian identity.
C.
Social Foundations of a Mass Movement
British economic and social policies helped the Congress party attract a mass following.
Indians supported the massive costs for the colonial army, high-salaried bureaucrats, and the
importation of British manufactured goods. Problems among the peasantry, including
shortfalls of food supplies, induced nationalists to blame the British policies that encouraged
peasants to shift from the production of food to commercial crops.
D.
The Rise of Militant Nationalism
Some nationalists, such as B. G. Tilak, emphasized the Hindu basis of the mass movement.
Tilak and his supporters used Hindu religious festivals as a means of recruitment. Tilak urged
the boycott of British manufactured goods. Tilak's conservative Hinduism frightened
moderates, Muslims, and Sikhs. When evidence of Tilak's support for violence against the
British regime surfaced, he was arrested and deported to Burma. Some Hindus embraced
terrorism as a means of ending British rule. Terrorist groups favored secret organizations that
targeted British officials and public buildings. British suppression and lack of mass support
reduced threats from terrorism prior to World War I. Peaceful schemes for protest against the
British rule, such as those developed by Mohandas Gandhi, drew support from the more
violent movements of Tilak and the terrorists. With the repression of the latter groups, lawyers
within the Congress party emerged as leaders of the nationalist movement.
E.
Egypt and the Rise of Nationalism in the Middle East
British occupation following the rebellion of Ahmad Orabi left the Egyptians with both the
Turkish khedives and the British as overlords. Lord Cromer directed British policy in Egypt. He
attempted economic reforms to reduce the khedival debts and to improve irrigation and other
public works. The masses of the Egyptian population realized little benefit from the changes.
The ayan, the greater landlords, were able to extend their control farther into the countryside
under the British administration. The great estates came to monopolize most Egyptian land,
with small landholders reduced to tenancy. Resistance to the British administration of Egypt
emerged from within the ranks of the Egyptian business classes.
Journalists were particularly prominent in the nationalist movement. As journalists attacked
the British administration and British racial attitudes, three nationalist parties were created. To
forestall more violent nationalist movements, the British granted a new constitution to Egypt
that included parliamentary representation. When World War I broke out, the British
suspended the constitution and imposed martial law.
III.
World War I and the Postwar Crisis of the European Empires
A.
Introduction
World War I bolstered nationalist movements by weakening the European powers. Hundreds
of thousands of African and Asian troops were conscripted for European armies during the
war. Colonies also served as important sources of food and raw materials. During the course
of the war, European vulnerability became evident. As troops were withdrawn from the
colonies for the European fronts and administrative personnel were recalled, Africans and
Asians began to fill posts previously reserved for European masters. To maintain support,
European nations made many promises for future independence, but often failed to fulfill them
after the war.
B.
India: Gandhi and the Nationalist Struggle
The White Dominions and India within the British Empire all played significant roles in World
War I. Even the nationalist leaders of India supported the war effort. Wartime inflation reduced
standards of living among the Indian peasants and produced famine in some regions.
Following the war, nationalists were frustrated by British refusal to move directly toward
independence. The initial promise of the Montagu-Chelmsford reforms of 1919 was offset by
the Rowlatt Act, which limited Indian civil rights.
Frustrations permitted Gandhi to build a nation-wide protest against colonialism. Gandhi
combined the qualities of a Hindu mystic with the acumen of a Western-educated lawyer.
Both peasants and the middle classes supported his leadership. His boycotts and campaigns
of civil resistance made him acceptable to both radical and moderate nationalists. As a Hindu
mystic, Gandhi could mobilize widespread support for his movement.
C.
The Rise of Communalism and the Beginnings of Political Fragmentation
The one group that Gandhi found hard to convince were the Muslims, who in 1906 formed a
separate organization, the Muslim League. Just as the Muslims frustrated Gandhi's attempt to
create a broad-based opposition to British rule, so did Hindu extremists opposed to religious
toleration. Gandhi's attempts to repeal the Rowlatt Act revealed the strengths and
weaknesses of his movement. When Gandhi's non- violent opposition turned increasingly
violent, he called off the campaign. The British then imprisoned Gandhi. Civil disobedience
was renewed in response to the Simon Commission, which considered British responses to
nationalist movements. The depression, occurring just after the Simon Commission, led to the
revival of mass movements for nationalism. Gandhi started the renewed campaign with the
Salt March of 1931, which forced the colonial government to make concessions. The British
opened all provincial governments to Indian leaders in the Government of India Act of 1935.
D.
The Middle East: Betrayal and the Growth of Arab Nationalism
In the years after World War I, the Entente powers broke promises made to Arabs for
independence in the Middle East. Instead, British and French forces occupied mandates
created artificially within the League of Nations. In Syria, Iraq, and Lebanon, Arab resistance
to the mandate system was common. More serious was Arab concern over the British
mandate in Palestine, which was coupled with the creation of a Jewish homeland. Lord
Balfour had promised Zionists in 1917 that the British would support a Jewish homeland in
Palestine after the end of the war.
Pogroms against Jewish communities, particularly in Eastern Europe, accelerated the
creation of Zionist planning for migration to the proposed Middle Eastern homeland. Zionism
remained a largely East European movement until 1894, when Theodor Herzl mobilized West
European Zionism and formed the World Zionist Organization. Zionism and the British
takeover of Palestine both seemed to violate assurances to the Arabs of nationalist
independence. Rising Arab opposition caused the British to limit Zionist settlement in
Palestine. Zionists thus began to arm in order to resist both British government and Arab
opposition to further settlement. Arabs in Palestine remained virtually without a voice in the
diplomatic negotiations concerning the fate of their region.
E.
Revolt in Egypt, 1919
The imposition of martial law in Egypt during World War I imposed great hardships on the
peasantry. When the war ended, British refusal to allow an Egyptian delegation to attend the
Versailles peace conferences touched off a rebellion. The British were able to regain control,
but were forced to recognize the nationalist Wafd party under Sa'd Zaghlul. Between 1922
and 1936, British forces were progressively withdrawn to the Suez Canal zone, although they
reserved their right to defend their interests in Egypt. Although they had achieved a degree of
independence, the Wafd party failed to enact significant social or economic reforms.
F.
The Beginnings of the Liberation Struggle in Africa
During World War I, most Western-educated African elites remained loyal to the colonial
regimes. The war effort disrupted African economies and drew heavily on African manpower.
After the war, the Europeans kept few promises of economic improvement leading to strikes
and civil disobedience. As the depression took hold during the 1930s, dissatisfaction with
colonialism spread.
The first nationalist movements appeared in Africa in the 1920s in the guise of unworkable
pan-African organizations. Charismatic African-American leaders had significant roles in the
formation of pan-African movements. In French Africa, a literary genre, negritude, celebrated
black culture as an attack on European racist attitudes. In British colonies, there was more
direct political organization. Although actual political parties were slow to emerge, political
associations did begin the process of developing a mass base and agitating for political
reform.
IV.
Another Global War and the Collapse of the European World Order
A.
Introduction
World War II proved fatal to the European colonial empires. Rapid collapse of the Allies in
Europe and Asia destroyed illusions of colonial strength. Even though the Allies recovered
sufficiently to defeat the Axis powers, they were unable to restore the validity of their colonial
governments. The war drained European resources. Because the U.S. viewed World War II
as a war of liberation, they supported nationalist movements in the colonies. The Soviet Union
also condemned colonialism.
B.
The Winning of Independence in South and Southeast Asia
During World War II, Indian resistance to the British government produced a campaign of civil
disobedience called the Quit India movement. Only the Muslim League under Muhammad Ali
Jinnah supported the war effort. Economic disruption during the war increased support for the
nationalist party. When a Labour government replaced Winston Churchill's wartime ministry in
1945, the new British ministers began negotiations for independence. The Muslim League
insisted on the creation of separate Muslim and Hindu states. Fearing a possible sectarian
bloodbath, Congress party leaders agreed to the partition of India in 1947. Congress emerged
as the political leaders of independent India, while Jinnah took over in Muslim Pakistan. Until
the borders of the new nations could be secured, sectarian violence marred the
independence movement.
In 1948, a radical Hindu assassinated Gandhi. With India gone, the British rapidly arranged
for independence in the other Asian colonies Burma and Ceylon. With the British withdrawal
from colonialism, the French, Dutch, and the United States also began the process of
decolonization in Asia. The U.S. granted independence to the Philippines. Although they
resisted nationalist movements, the Dutch withdrew from Indonesia in 1949. The French
continued to hold Indochina, until forced to withdraw.
C.
The Liberation of Nonsettler Africa
World War II shattered the image of the colonizers in Africa, while producing some
industrialization. There were two primary paths to decolonization in Africa. Kwame Nkrumah
led a more radicalized independence movement based on confrontation with the colonial
government of the Gold Coast through boycotts, mass rallies, and strikes. Nkrumah's ability to
construct mass support for his Convention Peoples party eventually led the British to
recognize him as prime minister of independent Ghana in 1957. Other nonsettler colonies
within the British Empire also received independence during the 1960s.
France followed a more gradual path to independence marked by political concessions to
African leaders who wished to retain ties to the mother country. Between 1956 and 1960,
most French colonies in Africa achieved independence. The Belgians simply abandoned their
colony in the Congo in 1960 in the absence of any nationalist movement. Only Portugal
attempted to retain control of its African possessions.
D.
Repression and Guerrilla War: The Struggle for the Settler Colonies
Settler colonies with substantial white populations resisted the process of decolonization.
When it became apparent that nonviolent political movements could not succeed, African
groups turned to violent revolution. Radicals in Kenya, discouraged with the Kenya African
Union under Jomo Kenyatta, formed the Land Freedom Army in the 1950s and began a
guerrilla war against white settlers and the British colonial government. Although the British
were able to defeat the military threat, the British agreed to negotiations for decolonization
with Kenyatta. Kenya achieved independence in 1963.
In Algeria, the struggle for independence was longer and bloodier. The National Liberation
Front began a guerrilla war against the French in the 1950s, but independence negotiations
did not begin until 1958. Even after negotiations began, the violence in Algeria was sustained
by white settlers organized in the Secret Army Organization against Arabs and Berbers. The
OAS attempted to assassinate Charles de Gaulle and overthrow the French government to
undo the independence agreements. Independence was finally granted in 1962.
E.
The Persistence of White Supremacy in South Africa
Only in South Africa was a white minority able to hold onto power into the 1990s. With a larger
white population than elsewhere, the Afrikaner population of South Africa had no European
homeland for retreat. They regarded themselves as white Africans. To maintain their political
superiority, the Afrikaners depended on blatantly racist systems of social and political
organization. In the 1930s and 1940s, the Afrikaner National party dominated the political
scene. Under its direction, South Africa achieved independence in 1961. Imposing apartheid,
a rigid system of racial discrimination, the Afrikaner minority imposed economic and political
discrimination on blacks, mixed-race peoples, and Indians living in South Africa. A police state
enforced the dictates of apartheid.
F.
Conflicting Nationalisms: Arabs, Israelis and the Palestinian Question
The fate of Palestine, more than liberation of other Arab states, continued to be a source of
difficulty in the Middle East. In the aftermath of the Holocaust, many supported Zionist
demands for creation of a Jewish state. Increasing Arab resistance to additional Jewish
settlement in Palestine forced the British to limit Jewish immigration. The Zionist military force,
the Haganah, then began a violent resistance to British government. In 1937, a British
commission proposed partition of Palestine, which was endorsed by the United Nations in
1948. The Arab states surrounding the newly formed Israel immediately attacked. Despite
being outnumbered, the Israelis were able to defend their new nation and expand at the
expense of their Arab neighbors.
V.
Conclusion: The Limits of Decolonization
In many parts of the world, decolonization was not a revolutionary procedure. Power passed from one
class of elites to another. Little social and economic reform was involved. Decolonization also did little
to disrupt Western economic dominance of the system of global trade.