Decolonization: Chapter 39

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Decolonization Chapter 39
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Decolonization and the Third World

• The Third World consisted of nations in Latin
  America, Asia, Africa, and the Middle East that
  had
• lagged behind countries in the West in economic
  and political development
• or had been kept under the political and economic
  thumb of foreign powers
• or had been directly colonized.

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Factors Leading to Decolonization

• After World War II, decolonization and national
  liberation became major agents of change in Asia,
  the Middle East, and Africa.
• After the world struggle against dictatorship,
  many leaders argued that no country should
  control another nation.
• Others questioned the high cost and commitment of
  holding colonies.
• Nationalist movements among native peoples.

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Factors that Impacted the Economic and Political
Success of Newly Liberated Nations

• Did the nation fight to become free?
• How enlightened had the colonizing power been?
  Had it educated a native elite, leaving behind
  politicians, economists, and trained personnel
  with practical skills?
• Were there serious ethnic, cultural, or religious
  divisions?
• Did a country have natural resources to exploit?
  Did the government exploit them efficiently or
  were they unable to diversify its economy?
• Did a newly liberated country take sides in the
  Cold War, i.e. the United States or the Soviet
  Union? Superpowers often intervened in the
  affairs of decolonized nations.

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India

• Britain handed over power freely to India.
• Mohandas Gandhi used passive resistance to
  accomplish his goals.
• In 1935, the British Parliament passed the
  Government of India Act which increased suffrage
  and turn provincial governments over to Indian
  leaders.
• In 1947, the British granted India its
  independence.
• India followed a path of nonalignment with either
  superpower.

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India

• Although the British did not have to be expelled
  by force, independence still led to violence.
• Hindu-Muslim conflict cost at least a million
  lives.
• In 1948, Mohandas Gandhi, spiritual leader of the
  Indian freedom movement, was assassinated by a
  Hindu extremist who opposed his rhetoric of
  tolerance between the two faiths.

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What factors led to the division of India?

• Muhammad Ali Jinnah led the Muslim League in
  pushing for the division of Indian into two
  separate nations Pakistan (Muslim) and India
  (Hindu)
• Pakistan was then divided into eastern and
  western regions separated by Indian territory.
• Unequal distribution of wealth between the two
  Pakistans ended in civil war in the early 1970s.
  East Pakistan became the independent nation of
  Bangladesh.

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What were the goals of the nonaligned movement?

• Led by Indian Prime Minister Nehru
• Bandung Conference (1955)
• Leaders from 23 Asian and six African nations met
  in Bandung, Indonesia.
• Goal Find a path, a third alternative between
  choosing between the U.S. and the Soviet Union
  maintain neutrality.
• Stressed struggle against colonialism and racism
• first international conference of coloured
  peoples in the history of mankind.

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Nonaligned Movement

• The preservation of peace forms the central aim
  of Indias policy. It is in the pursuit of this
  policy that we have chosen the path of
  nonalignment in any military or like pact of
  alliance. Nonalignment does not mean passivity
  of mind or action, lack of faith or conviction.
  It does not mean submission to what we consider
  evil. We believe that each country has not only
  the right to freedom but also to decide its own
  policy and way of life. Only thus can true
  freedom flourish and a people grow according to
  their own genius.
• Nehrus Speech at
  Bandung Conference

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Patterns in the Postwar Middle East

• The regions strategic and economic importance as
  the worlds key source of petroleum. Two-thirds
  of the worlds crude oil is produced in the
  Middle East.
• Contradictions between the urge to modernize and
  a desire to preserve Islamic tradition. One of
  the difficult questions facing the Middle East is
  how to balance Islamic heritage with progressive
  social and political practices. In particular
  how women are treated depends on how this issue
  is resolved.
• Competition between the United States and the
  U.S.S.R. for influence in the region during the
  Cold War.
• Authoritarianism. Dictatorship and human rights
  abuses have persisted.
• The destabilizing effect of the Arab-Israeli
  conflict since 1948.

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What events contributed to the Arab-Israeli
conflict?

• The land called Palestine now consists of Israel,
  the West Bank, and the Gaza Strip.
• To Jews, their claim to the land dates back 3,000
  years, when Jewish kings ruled the region.
• To Palestinians (both Muslims and Christian), the
  land has belonged to them since the Jews were
  driven out around 135 C.E.

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What events contributed to the Arab-Israeli
conflict?

• After being forced out of Palestine during the
  second century, the Jewish people were not able
  to establish their own state and lived in
  different countries throughout the world.
• The global dispersal of Jews is known as the
  Diaspora.
• During the late 19th and 20th centuries, a group
  of Jews began returning to the regions. They
  were known as Zionists, people who favored a
  Jewish homeland in Palestine.

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What events contributed to the Arab-Israeli
conflict?

• At the time, Palestine was still part of the
  Ottoman Empire, ruled by Islamic Turks.
• After the defeat of the Ottomans in World War I,
  the League of Nations asked Britain to oversee
  Palestine until it was ready for independence
• In 1917, British Foreign Secretary Sir Arthur
  Balfour promoted the idea of creating a Jewish
  homeland in Palestine.
• Despite the Balfour Declaration, efforts to
  create a Jewish state failed.
• Hostility between Palestinians and Jews continued
  to grow.

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What events contributed to the Arab-Israeli
conflict?

• In 1947, the Untied Nations voted for a partition
  of Palestine into a Palestinian state and a
  Jewish state.
• The terms of the agreement gave Jews 55 percent
  of the area even though they made up only 34
  percent of the population.
• In the wake of the war and the Holocaust, the
  U.S. and many Europeans felt great sympathy for
  the Jews.
• All of the Islamic countries voted against the
  partition.
• On May 14, 1948, the state of Israel was
  established.
• The day after it was proclaimed a state, six
  Islamic statesEgypt, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon,
  Saudi Arabia, and Syriainvaded Israel. This was
  the first of many Arab-Israeli wars.

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What factors have united the Arab nations since
independence? What factors have divided them?

• Egypt became an independent republic in 1952.
• Egyptian president Gamal Abdel Nasser encouraged
  Arab nationalism.
• Nasser was a proponent of pan-Arabism. He wanted
  to create a United Arab Republic to join all Arab
  nations together.
• Nasser also condemned states that joined with
  foreign powers in military alliances.
• Nasser dedicated himself to ridding Egypt and the
  Arab world of imperial interference

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Describe the Suez crisis of 1956. What was the
outcome?

• The Suez Cana, which runs along Egypts eastern
  border, was controlled by British interests for
  many years.
• In 1956, Egypt declared ownership of the Suez
  Canal.
• French, British and Israeli troops tried to seize
  the canal.
• The United States and USSR, however, did not want
  a conflict and forced the British, French and
  Israelis to withdraw, leaving the canal in
  Egyptian hands.
• The end result was a huge blow to the diplomatic
  prestige of France and Britain.

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Revolution in Iran

• Since the 1920s Iran has been ruled by the
  secular, modernizing shahs.
• The last shah of Iran ruled form 1941 to 1979.
  He used Irans oil wealth to industrialize and
  modernize.
• Like the Turkish government, the shahs regime
  opposed Islamic traditionalism, encouraging
  Western dress, Western education, the unveiling
  of women, and the eradication of Islamic law. He
  became an ally of the United States.
• Unfortunately, the shah relied on repression to
  carry out modernization.
• By 1979, the shah was in poor health, and his
  popularity had plummeted. He was viewed as an
  American puppet.

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Revolution in Iran

• In 1979, Ayatollah Khomeini, an Islamic
  fundamentalist the shah had exiled years before,
  returned to Iran and took control of the country.
• This Iranian Revolution transformed the country
  into an anti-Western (anti-U.S.) dictatorship.
• The new regime held American hostages captive for
  many months from 1979 to 1981.
• At the same time, Iran went to war with Iraq.
• The Iran-Iraq War lasted from 1980 to 1988 and
  devastated both countries.
• The Iranian Revolution is unusual in that it is
  anti-modern and religiously based.

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What about Iraq?

• Iraq came under control of Saddam Hussein in
  1979.
• Hussein was one of the most powerful dictators.
• Hussein turned his brutality against hiw own
  people, his neighbors, and the United States.
• During the war with Iran, he used poison gas,
  drafted teenaged children to fight, and killed
  many civilians.

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Decolonization in Africa

• Decolonization began in Africa mainly during the
  1950s and 1960s.
• By the late 1990s, Africa would contain 46
  countries.
• Security and economic stability in most of them
  are still affected by the legacy of colonialism.

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National Liberation in North Africa

• North African states had several advantages over
  sub-Saharan Africa when it came to
  decolonization.
• They were largely homogeneous in terms of
  religion, ethnicity, and language.
• They had existed as meaningful political units
  for a long time, making the transition to
  nation-state easier.
• Their colonizing powers left behind technology
  and industrial infrastructures (railroads,
  telegraphs, canals, roads, etc.)

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Decolonization in North Africa.

• Egypt and Libya declared independence in 1952.
• Morocco and Tunisia gained freedom from France in
  1956.
• The long and painful Algerian War of Independence
  against France completed the process of
  independence in North Africa.
• Algeria gained its independence in 1962.

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Independence in Sub-Saharan Africa

• For the most part, the movements were nonviolent.
• They were led by intellectuals and labor
  activists.
• Kenya was an exception.

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GHANA

• Following World War II, the British began making
  preparations for Ghanas independence. For
  example, they allowed more African to be
  nominated to the Legislative Council.
• In 1947, Kwame Nkrumah led a nonviolent movement
  to liberate the Gold Coast (Ghana) from the
  British.
• He organized strikes and boycotts.
• On receiving it independence in 1957, the Gold
  Coast took the name Ghana.

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GHANA

• Nkrumah pushed for new roads, new schools, and
  expanded health facilities.
• These costly projects crippled the country and
  undermined the economy and strengthened his
  opposition.
• In 1966, while Nkrumah was in China, the army and
  police in Ghana seized power.
• Since then, the country has shift back and forth
  between civilian and military rule.
• In 2000, Ghana held its first open elections.

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KENYA

• Kenya, in contrast to Ghana had to take up arms
  against their European rulers in order to win
  their freedom.
• Mau Mau was a secret society that was made up of
  native Kenyan farmers forced out of the highlands
  by the British.
• Mau Mau used guerrilla war tactics to push white
  farmers from the highlands.
• By the time the British granted Kenya
  independence in 1963, more than 10,000 Africans
  and 100 settlers had been killed.
• Jomo Kenyatta became president of the new nation.
  
• He worked hard to unite the various ethnic and
  language groups.
• Ethnic conflicts in Kenya resulted in hundreds of
  deaths and thousands homeless.

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Varying Transitions of Freedom in Africa

• For the most part, decolonization in the parts of
  African that had been British and French went
  smoothly.
• Both Britain and France prepared their colonies
  for freedom by educating native elites, allowing
  greater native representation in transitional
  governments, and minimizing the possibility of
  interethnic conflict.
• The worst transitions to independence were made
  by Belgian and Portuguese colonies who had been
  exploitative and did not prepare colonies for
  independence.

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South Africa

• Decolonization in South Africa was tainted by the
  clash between white and black citizens of the
  newly free country.
• The government that declared freedom from Britain
  was controlled by the white minority, largely
  descended from the Dutch Boers.
• These Afrikaners practiced the policy of
  apartheid (extreme racial segregation).
• South Africa is one of the worlds richest
  sources of gold and diamonds.
• Between the 60s and 90s, the white government
  of South Africa turned the country into the
  wealthiest, most modern, and most industrialized
  on the continent.

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South Africa

• By the 1980s, internal unrest, economic
  problems, and international revulsion were
  placing pressure on the South African government
  to abandon apartheid.
• Nelson Mandela, who was the leader of the African
  National Congress, was imprisoned form 1964 to
  1990 by the white authorities.
• In 1990, Nelson Mandela was released.
• In 1994, free elections resulted in Mandela
  becoming the countrys president.

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Problems Facing Independent Africa

• Dictatorship (Uganda 1971-1979) and Zaire
  (1965-1977)
• Corruption Many African regimes tended to
  function under unlawful systems.
• Failure to modernize and diversify economies.
• The Cold War Many nations became pawns in the
  global chess game between the United States and
  USSR.
• Rapid population growth and food shortages
  (Somalia and Ethiopia)
• The HIV/AIDS pandemic
• Lack of cultural or linguistic unity Most
  borders were drawn by European colonizers for
  their own benefit and convenience, leaving behind
  confusing varieties of ethnicities, languages,
  cultural practices and religions in each country.
  

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Problems Facing Independent Africa

• Intertribal and interethnic conflict Nearly all
  African wars have been fought within national
  borders, not between different countries.
• Uncontrolled flow of small arms and light
  weapons Thousands of children have been
  forcibly drafted into militias and
  paramilitaries.
• Treatment of women In Africans more developed
  countries and especially in cities, women have
  attained a certain degree of economic and social
  equality.
• However, progress has been slow and women are
  still dominated by men, especially in rural
  areas.

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What about Latin America?

• Latin America had freed itself form colonial
  domination in the 1800s.
• National liberation and modernization involved
  the struggle against dictatorship at home and the
  political and economic influence of the United
  States.
• World War II forced a number of the dictators out
  of power.
• From 1950-1980, many Latin American countries
  reverted to exploitative economies and
  dictatorial governments.
• In Latin America, modernization often led to a
  concentration of wealth in the hands of a few and
  weak social justice for the working classes and
  indigenous peoples.
• By the mid 1970s, only Colombia, Venezuela, and
  Costa Rica could be considered democratic.

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What about Latin America?

• Argentina military rule from 1976-1983. This
  regime ruthlessly purged intellectuals and
  dissidents, causing at least 30,000 to disappear
  over a decade and a half.
• Brazil and Chile had military regimes form the
  mid 1960s through the mid 1980s.
• Mexico was an authoritarian oligarchy during the
  50s and 60s.
• Cuba was led by dictator Fidel Castro beginning
  in 1959.

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Latin America as a Cold War Battlefield

• Almost all of the military dictatorships in the
  70s and 80s found themselves heavily in debt,
  especially to the U.S.
• The U.S., fearing the spread of Marxist ideas,
  made a practice of supporting any Latin American
  regime that opposed communism.
• Unfortunately, the pro-US regimes in Latin
  America tended to be right-wind and dictatorial.
• Nicaraguan Revolution In 1979, the Marxist,
  Soviet supported movement

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China Under Mao Zedong

• 1953-1957 Five Year Plan Industry grew 15
  percent a year agricultural output grew slowly.
• 1958-1961 Great Leap Forward China suffered
  economic disaster industrial declines and food
  shortages. Mao lost influence.
• 1966-1976 Cultural Revolution Mao regained
  influence by backing radicals. Purges and
  conflicts among leaders created economic, social,
  and political chaos

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Describe China after Mao Zedongs death in 1976..

• 1970s Zhou Enlai tried to form ties to the
  West.
• 1971 The U.S. reversed its policy and endorsed
  UN membership for the Peoples Republic of china.
• 1972 President Nixon made a state visit to
  China. He met with Mao and Zhou.
• In 1979 the U.S. and China established
  diplomatic relations.
• 1980 Deng Xiaoping, a lifelong communist,
  supported moderate economic policies. He used
  capitalist ideas to help Chinas economy.
• Deng eliminated Maos communes and leased land
  to individual farmers. He called for progress in
  agriculture, industry, defense, and science and
  technology.

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Describe China after Mao Zedongs death in 1976..

• 1970s Zhou Enlai tried to form ties to the
  West.
• 1971 The U.S. reversed its policy and endorsed
  UN membership for the Peoples Republic of china.
• 1972 President Nixon made a state visit to
  China. He met with Mao and Zhou.
• In 1979 the U.S. and China established
  diplomatic relations.
• 1980 Deng Xiaoping, a lifelong communist,
  supported moderate economic policies. He used
  capitalist ideas to help Chinas economy.
• Deng eliminated Maos communes and leased land
  to individual farmers. He called for progress in
  agriculture, industry, defense, and science and
  technology.