|
|
|
|
Decolonization
|
| |
|
| |
Decolonisation refers to the undoing of colonialism, the establishment of governance or authority through the creation of settlements by another country or jurisdiction. The term generally refers to the achievement of independence by the various Western colonies and protectorates in Asia and Africa following World War II.
Discussion
Ask a question about 'Decolonization' Start a new discussion about 'Decolonization' Answer questions from other users |
Encyclopedia
Decolonisation refers to the undoing of colonialism, the establishment of governance or authority through the creation of settlements by another country or jurisdiction. The term generally refers to the achievement of independence by the various Western colonies and protectorates in Asia and Africa following World War II. This conforms with an intellectual movement known as post-colonialism. Decolonization can be achieved by attaining independence, integrating with the administering power or another state, or establishing a "free association" status. The United Nations has stated that in the process of decolonization there is no alternative to the principle of self-determination. Decolonization may involve peaceful negotiation and/or violent revolt and armed struggle by the native population. It may be intramural or it may involve the intervention of foreign powers or international bodies such as the League of Nations.
Although examples of decolonization can be found from ancient times forward, in modern times there have been several particularly active periods of decolonization. These are the breakup of the Spanish Empire in the nineteenth century, of the Austrian and Ottoman Empires at around the time of World War I, of the British, French, German, Italian and American Empires in the wake of World War II, and of the Russian Soviet Empire following the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989.
Methods and stages
Decolonization is a political process, frequently involving violence. In extreme circumstances, there is a war of independence, sometimes following a revolution. More often, there is a dynamic cycle where negotiations fail, minor disturbances ensue resulting in suppression by the police and military forces, escalating into more violent revolts that lead to further negotiations until independence is granted. In rare cases, the actions of the native population are characterized by non-violence, with the Indian independence movement led by Mahatma Gandhi being one of the most notable examples, and the violence comes as active suppression from the occupying forces or as political opposition from forces representing minority local communities who feel threatened by the prospect of independence. For example, there was a war of independence in French Indochina, while in some countries in French West Africa (excluding the Maghreb countries) decolonization resulted from a combination of insurrection and negotiation. The process is only complete when the de facto government of the newly independent country is recognized as the de jure sovereign state by the community of nations.
Independence is often difficult to achieve without the encouragement and practical support from one or more external parties. The motives for giving such aid are varied: nations of the same ethnic and/or religious stock may sympathize with oppressed groups, or a strong nation may attempt to destabilize a colony as a tactical move to weaken a rival or enemy colonizing power or to create space for its own sphere of influence; examples of this include British support of the Haitian Revolution against France, and the Monroe Doctrine of 1823, in which the United States warned the European powers not to interfere in the affairs of the newly independent states of the Western Hemisphere.
As world opinion became more pro-emancipation following World War I, there was an institutionalized collective effort to advance the cause of emancipation through the League of Nations. Under Article 22 of the Covenant of the League of Nations, a number of mandates were created. The expressed intention was to prepare these countries for self-government, but are often interpreted as a mere redistribution of control over the former colonies of the defeated powers, mainly Germany and the Ottoman Empire. This reassignment work continued through the United Nations, with a similar system of trust territories created to adjust control over both former colonies and mandated territories administered by the nations defeated in World War II, including Japan.
In referendums, some colonized populations have chosen to retain their colonial status, such as Gibraltar and French Guiana. There are even examples, such as the Falklands War, in which an Imperial power goes to war to defend the right of a colony to continue to be a colony. Colonial powers have sometimes promoted decolonization in order to shed the financial, military and other burdens that tend to grow in those colonies where the colonial regimes have become more benign.
Decolonization is rarely achieved through a single historical act, but rather progresses through one or more stages of emancipation, each of which can be offered or fought for: these can include the introduction of elected representatives (advisory or voting; minority or majority or even exclusive), degrees of autonomy or self-rule. Thus, the final phase of decolonisation may in fact concern little more than handing over responsibility for foreign relations and security, and soliciting de jure recognition for the new sovereignty. But, even following the recognition of statehood, a degree of continuity can be maintained through bilateral treaties between now equal governments involving practicalities such as military training, mutual protection pacts, or even a garrison and/or military bases.
There is some debate over whether or not the The Americas can be considered decolonized, as it was the colonist and their descendants who revolted and declared their independence instead of the indigenous peoples, as is usually the case. Scholars such as Elizabeth Cook-Lynn (Dakota) and Devon Mihesuah (Choctaw) have argued that portions of the United States still are in need of decolonization.
Decolonization of the Americas
Decolonization of Ottoman lands in the Nineteenth century
A number of peoples conquered by the Ottoman Empire were able to achieve independence in the nineteenth century, a process that peaked at the time of the Ottoman defeat in the Russo-Turkish War of 1877-78.
Egypt
In the wake of the French Invasion of Egypt led by Napoleon Bonaparte in 1798, and the subsequent expulsion of the French in 1801 by Othmaneien, Mamalek, and British forces, the commander of the Albanian regiment, Muhammad Ali (Kavalali Mehmed Ali Pasha) was able to gain control of Egypt. Although he was emerged acknowledged by the Sultan in Istanbul in 1805 as his pasha (viceroy), Muhammad Ali was in reality monarch of a sovereign state.
Greece
The Greek War of Independence, (1821–1829,) was fought to liberate Greece from a centuries-long Ottoman occupation. Independence was secured by the intervention of a combined British-French fleet at the Battle of Navarino.
Bulgaria
At the end of the Russo-Turkish War, 1877-1878, in which the Russian army together with a Romanian expeditionary force and volunteer Bulgarian troops defeated the Ottoman armies, the Treaty of Berlin (1878) established a Bulgarian state in Moesia and the region of Sofia. Alexander, Prince of Battenberg, was created Prince of Bulgaria.
Romania
Romania fought on the Russian side in the Russo-Turkish War and in the 1878 Treaty of Berlin, Romania was recognized as an independent state by the Great Powers.
Serbia
Decades of armed and unarmed struggle ended with the recognition of Serbian independence form the Ottoman Empire at the Congress of Berlin in 1878.
Montenegro
The independence of the Principality of Montenegro from the Ottoman Empire was recognized at the congress of Berlin in 1878.
Decolonization after 1918
Western European colonial powers
The New Imperialism period, with the scramble for Africa and the Opium Wars, marked the zenith of European colonization. It also marked the acceleration of the trends that would end it. The extraordinary material demands of the conflict had spread economic change across the world (notably inflation), and the associated social pressures of "war imperialism" created both peasant unrest and a burgeoning middle class.
Economic growth created stakeholders with their own demands, while racial issues meant these people clearly stood apart from the colonial middle-class and had to form their own group. The start of mass nationalism, as a concept and practice, would fatally undermine the ideologies of imperialism.
There were, naturally, other factors, from agrarian change (and disaster – French Indochina), changes or developments in religion (Buddhism in Burma, Islam in the Dutch East Indies, marginally people like John Chilembwe in Nyasaland), and the impact of the depression of the 1930s.
The Great Depression, despite the concentration of its impact on the industrialized world, was also exceptionally damaging in the rural colonies. Agricultural prices fell much harder and faster than those of industrial goods. From around 1925 until World War II, the colonies suffered. The colonial powers concentrated on domestic issues, protectionism and tariffs, disregarding the damage done to international trade flows. The colonies, almost all primary "cash crop" producers, lost the majority of their export income and were forced away from the "open" complementary colonial economies to "closed" systems. While some areas returned to subsistence farming (British Malaya) others diversified (India, West Africa), and some began to industrialise. These economies would not fit the colonial strait-jacket when efforts were made to renew the links. Further, the European-owned and -run plantations proved more vulnerable to extended deflation than native capitalists, reducing the dominance of "white" farmers in colonial economies and making the European governments and investors of the 1930s co-opt indigenous elites — despite the implications for the future.
The efforts at colonial reform also hastened their end — notably the move from non-interventionist collaborative systems towards directed, disruptive, direct management to drive economic change. The creation of genuine bureaucratic government boosted the formation of indigenous bourgeoisie. This was especially true in the British Empire, which seemed less capable (or less ruthless) in controlling political nationalism. Driven by pragmatic demands of budgets and manpower the British made deals with the nationalist elites. They dealt with the white Dominions, retained strategic resources at the cost of reducing direct control in Egypt, and made numerous reforms in the Raj, culminating in the Government of India Act (1935).
Africa was a very different case from Asia between the wars. Tropical Africa was not fully drawn into the colonial system before the end of the 19th century, excluding only the complexities of the Union of South Africa (busily introducing racial segregation from 1924 and thus catalyzing the anti-colonial political growth of half the continent) and the Empire of Ethiopia. Colonial controls ranged between extremes. Economic growth was often curtailed. There were no indigenous nationalist groups with widespread popular support before 1939.
The United States
The United States had almost no role in the late 19th century imperalism as practiced by Europe and Japan. For instance, when the aforementioned countries sought to divide up China into spheres of influence at the end of the 19th century, the U.S. did not participate and instead urged an open door policy (a policy similar to free trade). Rather than seeking a mercantilist economic advantage or the exploitation of natural resources, U.S. imperalist ambitions that did exist focused on national defense. At the end of the Spanish-American War in 1898, the United States seized from Spain two of its former colonies, the Philippines and Puerto Rico. The United States viewed both as strategic assets and did not seriously seek to colonize either country; both countries had grown unhappy with Spanish rule. The Philippines in particular were seen as part of a wider naval policy to project U.S. power into the Pacific. This policy eventually created a buffer between the United States and the expansionist Japanese Empire. Though the U.S. had fought to suppress local "insurgencies" there, such as in the Philippine-American War, the U.S. had promised the Philippines independence so by the 1930s their policy changed toward the direction of eventual self-government. Following the defeat of a combined US and Philippine force, Japan took control of the islands during World War II. Three years later the U.S. returned and with the aid of local Philippino forces liberated the islands. The Philippines gained independence peacefully from the United States in 1946.
However, Puerto Rico through several self-determination votes has elected to remain a possession of the U.S. Puerto Ricans have held U.S. citizenship since 1917, but do not pay federal taxes and as such do not vote in federal elections. Puerto Rico achieved self-government in 1952 and became a commonwealth in association with the United States. Puerto Rico was taken off the UN list of non-sovereign territories in 1953 through Resolution 748. In 1967, 1993 and 1998, Puerto Rican voters rejected proposals to grant the territory statehood or independence. Nevertheless, the island's political status remains a central issue of local politics.
Hawaii (and Alaska, an older possession) became constituent states of the United States, on an equal basis with the others - as had the American conquests in the Mexican-American War. Despite the existence of an Alaskan Independence Party, their status is not a matter of serious debate.
Japan
Japan had gained several substantial colonial concessions in east Asia such as Taiwan and Korea. 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 and Taiwanese Minnan among the indigenous peoples, were seen to be used.
Japan also set up the Imperial university in Korea (Keijo Imperial University) and Taiwan (Taihoku University) to compel education.
World War II gave the Japanese Empire occasion to conquer vast swaths of Asia, sweeping into China and seizing the Western colonies of Vietnam, Hong Kong, the Philippines, Burma, Malaya, Timor and Indonesia among others, albeit only for the duration of the war. An estimated 20 million Chinese died during the Second Sino-Japanese War (1931-1945). Following its surrender to the Allies in 1945, Japan was deprived of all its colonies. Japan further claims that the southern Kuril Islands are a small portion of its own national territory, colonized by the Soviet Union.
French Decolonization
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. The October 27, 1946 Constitution creating the Fourth Republic substituted the French Union to the colonial empire. On the night of March 29, 1947, a nationalist uprising in Madagascar led the French government headed by Paul Ramadier (Socialist) to violent repression: one year of bitter fighting, in which 90,000 to 100,000 Malagasy died. On May 8, 1945, the Sétif massacre took place in Algeria.
In 1946, the states of French Indochina withdrew from the Union, leading to the Indochina War (1946-54) against Ho Chi Minh, who had been a co-founder of the French Communist Party in 1920 and had founded the Vietminh in 1941. In 1956, Morocco and Tunisia gained their independence, while the Algerian War was raging (1954-1962). With Charles de Gaulle's return to power in 1958 amidst turmoil and threats of a right-wing coup d'État to protect "French Algeria", the decolonization was completed with the independence of Sub-Saharan Africa's colonies in 1960 and the March 19, 1962 Evian Accords, which put an end to the Algerian war. The OAS movement unsuccessfully tried to block the accords with a series of bombings, including an attempted assassination against Charles de Gaulle.
To this day, the Algerian war — officially called until the 1990s a "public order operation" — remains a trauma for both France and Algeria. Philosopher Paul Ricœur has spoken of the necessity of a "decolonization of memory", starting with the recognition of the 1961 Paris massacre during the Algerian war and the recognition of 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.
The Soviet Union and anti-colonialism
The Soviet Union sought to effect the abolishment of colonial governance by Western countries, either by direct subversion of Western-leaning or -controlled governments or indirectly by influence of political leadership and support. Many of the revolutions of this time period were inspired or influenced in this way. The conflicts in Vietnam, Nicaragua, Congo, and Sudan, among others, have been characterized as such.
Most Soviet leaders expressed the Marxist-Leninist view that imperialism was the height of capitalism, and generated a class-stratified society. It followed, then, that Soviet leadership would encourage independence movements in colonized territories, especially as the Cold War progressed. Though this was the view expressed by their leaders, such interventions can be interpreted as the expansion of Soviet interests (establishing the Iron Curtain), not just as aiding the oppressed peoples of the world. Because so many of these wars of independence expanded into general Cold War conflicts, the United States also supported several such independence movements in opposition to Soviet interests.
During the Vietnam War, Communist countries supported anti-colonialist movements in various countries still under colonial administration through propaganda, developmental and economic assistance, and in some cases military aid. Notably among these were the support of armed rebel movements by Cuba in Angola, and the Soviet Union (as well as the People's Republic of China) in Vietnam.
The emergence of the Third World (1945-)
The term "Third World" was coined by French demographer Alfred Sauvy in 1952, on the model of the Third Estate, which, according to the Abbé Sieyès, represented everything, but was nothing: "...because at the end this ignored, exploited, scorned Third World like the Third Estate, wants to become something too" (Sauvy). The emergence of this new political entity, in the frame of the Cold War, was complex and painful. Several tentatives were made to organize newly independent states in order to oppose a common front towards both the US's and the USSR's influence on them, with the consequences of the Sino-Soviet split already at works. Thus, the Non-Aligned Movement constituted itself, around the main figures of Nehru, the leader of India, Sukarno, the Indonesian president, Tito the Communist leader of Yugoslavia, and Nasser, head of Egypt who successfully opposed the French and British imperial powers during the 1956 Suez crisis. After the 1954 Geneva Conference which put an end to the French war against Ho Chi Minh in Vietnam, the 1955 Bandung Conference gathered Nasser, Nehru, Tito, Sukarno, the leader of Indonesia, and Zhou Enlai, Premier of the People's Republic of China. In 1960, the UN General Assembly voted the Declaration on the Granting of Independence to Colonial Countries and Peoples. The next year, the Non-Aligned Movement was officially created 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 tenets of the NIEO were:
- Developing countries must be entitled to regulate and control the activities of multinational corporations operating within their territory.
- They must be free to nationalize or expropriate foreign property on conditions favourable to them.
- They must be free to set up associations of primary commodities producers similar to the OPEC (Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, created on September 17, 1960 to protest pressure by major oil companies (mostly owned by U.S., British, and Dutch nationals) to reduce oil prices and payments to producers.); all other States must recognize this right and refrain from taking economic, military, or political measures calculated to restrict it.
- International trade should be based on the need to ensure stable, equitable, and remunerative prices for raw materials, generalized non-reciprocal and non-discriminatory tariff preferences, as well as transfer of technology to developing countries; and should provide economic and technical assistance without any strings attached.
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.
Modern approaches to decolonization
Though the term "decolonization" is not well received among donors in international development today, the root of the emerging emphasis on projects to promote "democracy, governance and human rights" by international donors and to promote "institution building" and a "human rights based approach" to development is really to achieve decolonization.
In many independent, post-colonial nations, the systems and cultures of colonialism continue. Weak Parliaments and Ministerial governments (where Ministries issue their own edicts and write laws rather than the Parliament) are holdovers of colonialism since political decisions were made outside the country, Parliament were at most for show, and the executive branch (then, foreign Governor Generals and foreign civil servants) held local power. Similarly, militaries are strong and civil control over them is weak; a holdover of military control exercised by a foreign military. In some cases, the governing systems in post-colonial countries could be viewed as ruling elites who succeeded in coup d'etats against the foreign colonial regime but never gave up the system of control.
In many countries, the human rights challenges are to empower women and reverse the legacy of proselytism that promoted patriarchy and to empower individuals and civil society through changes in education systems that were set up by colonial governments to train obedient servants of colonial regimes.
Often the impact of colonialism is more subtle, with preferences for clothes (such as "blue" shirts of French officials and pith helmets), drugs (alcohol and tobacco that colonial governments introduced, often as a way to tax locals) and other cultural attributes remain.
Some experts in development, such as David Lempert, have suggested an opening of dialogues from the colonial powers on the systems they introduced and the harms that continue as a way of decolonizing in rights policy documents for the UN system and for Europe. First World countries often seem reluctant to engage in this form of decolonization, however, since they may benefit from the legacies of colonialism that they created, in contemporary trade and political relations.
Assassinated anticolonialist leaders
A non-exhaustive list of assassinated leaders would include:
- Vasil Levski, Bulgarian leader of the struggle for liberation from Turkish rule, was hanged by the Ottomans in Sofia on February 19, 1873.
- Michael Collins, an Irish revolutionary leader and Director of Intelligence for the IRA, was killed in August 1922.
- Roman Shukhevych, leader of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army, killed by the MVD near Lviv on March 5, 1950.
- Ruben Um Nyobé, leader of the Union of the Peoples of Cameroon (UPC), killed by the French army on September 13, 1958
- Stepan Bandera, leader of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists, assassinated in Munich, Germany in 1959 on the orders of Soviet KGB head Alexander Shelepin and Soviet premier Nikita Khrushchev.
- Barthélemy Boganda, leader of a nationalist Central African Republic movement, who died in a plane-crash on March 29, 1959, eight days before the last elections of the colonial era.
- Félix-Roland Moumié, successor to Ruben Um Nyobe at the head of the UPC, assassinated in Geneva in 1960 by the SDECE (French secret services).
- Patrice Lumumba, the first Prime Minister of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, was assassinated on January 17, 1961.
- Burundi nationalist Louis Rwagasore was assassinated on October 13, 1961, while Pierre Ngendandumwe, Burundi's first Hutu prime minister, was also murdered on January 15, 1965.
- Sylvanus Olympio, the first president of Togo, was assassinated on January 13, 1963. He would be replaced by Gnassingbé Eyadéma, who ruled Togo for nearly forty years; he died in 2005 and was succeeded by his son Faure Gnassingbé.
- Mehdi Ben Barka, the leader of the Moroccan National Union of Popular Forces (UNPF) and of the Tricontinental Conference, which was supposed to prepare in 1966 in Havana its first meeting gathering national liberation movements from all continents — related to the Non-Aligned Movement, but the Tricontinal Conference gathered liberation movements while the Non-Aligned were for the most part states — was "disappeared" in Paris in 1965.
- Nigerian leader Ahmadu Bello was assassinated in January 1966.
- Eduardo Mondlane, the leader of FRELIMO and the father of Mozambican independence, was assassinated in 1969, allegedly by Aginter Press, the Portuguese branch of Gladio, NATO's paramilitary organization during the Cold War.
- Pan-Africanist Tom Mboya was killed on July 5, 1969.
- Abeid Karume, first president of Zanzibar, was assassinated in April 1972.
- Amílcar Cabral was murdered on January 20, 1973.
- Outel Bono, Chadian opponent of François Tombalbaye, was assassinated on August 26, 1973, making yet another example of the existence of the Françafrique, designing by this term post-independent neocolonial ties between France and its former colonies.
- Herbert Chitepo, leader of the Zimbabwe African National Union (ZANU), was assassinated on March 18, 1975.
- Óscar Romero, prelate archbishop of San Salvador and proponent of liberation theology, was assassinated on March 24, 1980
- Dulcie September, leader of the African National Congress (ANC), who was investigating an arms trade between France and South Africa, was murdered in Paris on March 29, 1988, a few years before the end of the apartheid regime.
Many of these assassinations are still unsolved cases as of 2007, but foreign power interference is undeniable in many of these cases — although others were for internal matters. To take only one case, the investigation concerning Mehdi Ben Barka is continuing to this day, and both France and the United States have refused to declassify files they acknowledge having in their possession The Phoenix Program, a CIA program of assassination during the Vietnam War, should also be named.
Post-colonial organizations
Due to a common history and culture, former colonial powers created institutions which more loosely associated their former colonies. Membership is voluntary, and in some cases can be revoked if a member state loses some objective criteria (usually a requirement for democratic governance). The organizations serve cultural, economic, and political purposes between the associated countries, although no such organization has become politically prominent as an entity in its own right.
Differing perspectives
There is quite a bit of controversy over decolonisation. The end goal tends to be universally regarded as good, but there has been much debate over the best way to grant full independence.
Economic effects
Effects on the colonizers
John Kenneth Galbraith argues that the post-World War II decolonization was brought about for economic reasons. In A Journey Through Economic Time, he writes, "The engine of economic well-being was now within and between the advanced industrial countries. Domestic economic growth — as now measured and much discussed — came to be seen as far more important than the erstwhile colonial trade... The economic effect in the United States from the granting of independence to the Philippines was unnoticeable, partly due to the Bell Trade Act, which allowed American monopoly in the economy of the Philippines. The departure of India and Pakistan made small economic difference in Britain. Dutch economists calculated that the economic effect from the loss of the great Dutch empire in Indonesia was compensated for by a couple of years or so of domestic post-war economic growth. The end of the colonial era is celebrated in the history books as a triumph of national aspiration in the former colonies and of benign good sense on the part of the colonial powers. Lurking beneath, as so often happens, was a strong current of economic interest — or in this case, disinterest."
Part of the reason for the lack of economic impact felt by the colonizer upon the release of the colonized was that costs and benefits were not eliminated, but shifted. The colonizer no longer had the burden of obligation, financial or otherwise, to their colony. The colonizer continued to be able to obtain cheap goods and labor as well as economic benefits (see Suez Canal Crisis) from the former colonies. Financial, political and military pressure could still be used to achieve goals desired by the colonizer. The most obvious difference is the ability of the colonizer to disclaim responsibility for the colonized.
Effects on the former colonies
Settled populations
Decolonization is not an easy matter in colonies where a large population of settlers lives, particularly if they have been there for several generations. This population, in general, may have to be repatriated, often losing considerable property. For instance, the decolonisation of Algeria by France was particularly uneasy due to the large European and Sephardic Jewish population (see also pied noir), which largely evacuated to France when Algeria became independent. In Zimbabwe, former Rhodesia, president Robert Mugabe has, starting in the 1990s, targeted white farmers and forcibly seized their property. In some cases, decolonisation is hardly possible or impossible because of the importance of the settler population or where the indigenous population is now in the minority; such is the case of the British population of the Cayman Islands, the Russian population of Kazakhstan, the Chinese population of Singapore as well as the immigrant communities of USA and Canada.
Charts of the independences
In this chronological overview, not every date is indisputably the decisive moment. Often, the final phase, independence, is mentioned here, though there may be years of autonomy before, e.g. as an Associated State under the British crown. For such details, see each national history.
Furthermore, note that some cases have been included that were not strictly colonized but rather protectorate, co-dominium, lease... Changes subsequent to decolonization are usually not included; nor is the dissolution of the Soviet Union.
18th Century to World War I
| Year | Colonizer | Event |
|---|
| 1776 | Great Britain | The 13 original colonies of the United States declare independence a year after their insurrection begins. |
|---|
| 1783 | Great Britain | The British Crown recognizes the independence of the United States. |
|---|
| 1803 | France | Via the Louisiana purchase, the last French territories in mainland North America are handed over to the United States. |
|---|
| 1804 | France | Haiti declares independence, the first non-white nation to emancipate itself from European rule. |
|---|
| 1808 | Portugal | Brazil, the largest Portuguese colony, achieves a greater degree of authonomy after the exiled king of Portugal establishes residence there. After he returns home in 1821, his son and regent declares an independent "Empire" in 1822. |
|---|
| 1810 | Spain | United Provinces of the River Plate and Chile. First declaration of an autonomous government within the Spanish Crown. Full independence would be finally achieved in 1816. (see below) |
|---|
| 1813 | Spain | Paraguay becomes independent. |
|---|
| 1816 | Spain | Chile and the United Provinces of the River Plate (former Argentina and Uruguay) declare independence. The latter would then secede and gain independence in 1828 after periods of Brazilian occupation and of federation with Argentina) |
|---|
| 1818 | Spain | Second and final declaration of independence of Chile |
|---|
| 1819 | Spain | New Granada attains independence as Gran Colombia (later to become the independent states of Colombia, Ecuador, Panama and Venezuela). |
|---|
| 1821 | Spain | The Dominican Republic (then Santo Domingo), Nicaragua, Honduras, Guatemala, El Salvador and Costa Rica all declare independence; Venezuela and Mexico both achieve independence. |
|---|
| 1821 | Ottoman Empire | Greece declares independence. After a long struggle independence is finally granted by the Treaty of Constantinople in July 1832. |
|---|
| 1822 | Spain | Ecuador attains independence from Spain (and independence from Colombia 1830). |
|---|
| 1824 | Spain | Peru and Bolivia attain independence. |
|---|
| 1836 | Mexico | Texas attains independence, Texas would be annexed by the United States in 1845 |
|---|
| 1847 | United States | Liberia becomes a free and independent African state. |
|---|
| 1865 | Spain | The Dominican Republic gains its final independence after four years as a restored colony. |
|---|
| 1868 | Spain | Cuba declares independence but is reconquered. |
|---|
| 1877 | Ottoman Empire | Romania declares independence. Its independence is finally recognised in July 1878. |
|---|
| 1878 | Ottoman Empire | Bulgaria and Serbia achieve independence. |
|---|
| 1898 | Spain | Cuba is taken by the United States after the Spanish-American War. The Philippines declares independence but is taken by the United States in 1899; governed under U.S. military and then civilian administration until 1934. |
|---|
| 1902 | United States | Cuba achieves independence. Guantanamo Bay is leased perpetually to and becomes a US Naval base. |
|---|
| 1912 | Ottoman Empire | Albania declares independence. Recognized in Treaty of London. |
|---|
Inter-War Period
| Year | Colonizer | Event |
|---|
| 1916 | United States | Passage of the Philippine Autonomy Act of 1916. |
|---|
| 1917 | Russian Empire | Finland declares its independence. |
|---|
| 1918 | Russian Empire | Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania declare independence in 1918. The three Baltic states are subsequently occupied by the Soviet Union (1940-1941, 1944-1991). The three Baltic nations re-declare their independence between 1990 and 1991, and their independence is recognized by the Soviet Union on September 6, 1991. |
|---|
| 1918 | Austria-Hungary | Czechoslovakia, Yugoslavia and Poland become independent. |
|---|
| 1919 | United Kingdom | End of the protectorate over Afghanistan, when Britain accepts the presence of a Soviet ambassador in Kabul. |
|---|
| 1921 | China | The China loses all control over Outer Mongolia but retains the larger, progressively sinified, Inner Mongolia), which has been granted autonomy in 1912 (as well as Tibet), and now becomes a popular republic and, as of 1924, a de facto "satellite" of the USSR. Recognition of Mongolia is recognized in 1945. |
|---|
| 1922 | United Kingdom | In Ireland, following insurgency by the IRA, most of Ireland separates from the United Kingdom as the Irish Free State, reversing 800 years of British presence. Northern Ireland, the northeast area of the island, remains within the United Kingdom. |
|---|
| 1923 | United Kingdom | End of the de facto protectorate over Nepal which was never truly colonized. |
|---|
| 1930 | United Kingdom | The United Kingdom returns the leased port territory at Weihaiwei to China, the first episode of decolonisation in East Asia. |
|---|
| 1931 | United Kingdom | The Statute of Westminster grants virtually full independence to Canada, New Zealand, Newfoundland, the Irish Free State, the Commonwealth of Australia, and the Union of South Africa, when it declares the British parliament incapable of passing law over these former colonies without their own consent. |
|---|
| 1932 | United Kingdom | Ends League of Nations Mandate over Iraq. Britain continues to station troops in the country and influence the Iraqi government until 1958. |
|---|
| 1934 | United States | Establishes the Philippine Islands into a Commonwealth under the provisions of the Philippine Independence Act. Abrogates Platt Amendment, which gave it direct authority to intervene in Cuba. |
|---|
| 1941 | France | Lebanon declares independence, effectively ending the French mandate (previously together with Syria) - it is recognized in 1943. |
|---|
| 1941 | Italy | Ethiopia, Eritrea & Tigray (appended to it), and the Italian part of Somalia are liberated by the Allies after an uneasy occupation of Ethiopia since 1935-36, and no longer joined as one colonial federal state; the Ogaden desert (disputed by Somalia) remains under British military control until 1948. |
|---|
| 1944 | Denmark | Following a plebiscite, Iceland formally becomes an independent republic on June 17, 1944. |
|---|
| 1945
| Japan | After surrender of Japan, North Korea is occupied by the Soviet Union and South Korea is occupied by the United States. |
|---|
| | Japan | The government of Republic of China flees to Taiwan and becomes the de facto government of that island. | | | France | Vietnam declares independence, but France does not recognize it until 1954. | | | Netherlands | Indonesia declares independence, which Netherlands does not recognize until December 1949. |
Cold War
| Year | Colonizer | Event |
|---|
| 1946
| United States | The treaty of Manila is signed effectively ending over 350 years of foreign domination in the Philippines. United States military bases continued to be stationed in the islands. |
|---|
| | United Kingdom | The former emirate of Transjordan (present-day Jordan) becomes an independent Hashemite kingdom when Britain relinquishes UN trusteeship. | | 1947
| United Kingdom | The British government leaves British India, which is partitioned into the Hindu-majority Republic of India and the Muslim-majority Pakistan (the eastern half of which will later become independent as Bangladesh). |
|---|
| 1948
| United Kingdom | In the Far East, Burma and Ceylon (Sri Lanka) become independent. In the Middle East, the state of Israel is formed less than a year after the British government withdraws from the Palestine Mandate; the remainder of Palestine becomes part of the Arab states of Egypt and Transjordan. |
|---|
| | United States | Republic of Korea is established in the southern part of the Korean peninsula. | | | Soviet Union | Democratic People's Republic of Korea is established in the northern part of the peninsula. | | 1949
| France | Laos becomes independent. |
|---|
| | The Netherlands | The Netherlands recognises the sovereignty of Indonesia following an armed and diplomatic struggle since 1945. | | 1951 | Italy | Libya becomes an independent kingdom. |
|---|
| 1952 | United States | Puerto Rico in the Antilles becomes a self governing Commonwealth associated to the US. |
|---|
| 1953
| France | France recognizes Cambodia's independence. |
|---|
| 1954
| France | Vietnam's independence recognized, though the nation is partitioned. The Pondichery enclave is incorporated into India. Beginning of the Algerian War of Independence |
|---|
| | United Kingdom | The United Kingdom withdraws from the last part of Egypt it controls: the Suez Canal zone. | | 1956
| United Kingdom | Anglo-Egyptian Sudan becomes independent. |
|---|
| | France | Tunisia and the sherifian kingdom of Morocco in the Maghreb achieve independence. | | | Spain | Spain-controlled areas in Morroco become independent. | | 1957
| United Kingdom | Ghana becomes independent, initiating the decolonisation of sub-Saharan Africa. |
|---|
| | United Kingdom | The Federation of Malaya becomes independent. | | 1958
| France | Guinea on the coast of West-Africa is granted independence. |
|---|
| | United States | Signing the Alaska Statehood Act by Dwight D. Eisenhower, granting Alaska the possibility of the equal rights of statehood | | | United Kingdom | UN trustee Britain withdraws from Iraq, which becomes an independent Hashemite Kingdom (like Jordan, but soon to become a republic through the first of several coups d'état). | | 1959
| United States | Hawaii becomes the fiftieth state in the United States. |
|---|
| 1960
| United Kingdom | Nigeria, British Somaliland (present-day Somalia), and most of Cyprus become independent, though the UK retains sovereign control over Akrotiri and Dhekelia. |
|---|
| | France | Benin (then Dahomey), Upper Volta (present-day Burkina Faso), Cameroon, Chad, Congo-Brazzaville, Côte d'Ivoire, Gabon, the Mali Federation (split the same year into present-day Mali and Senegal), Mauritania, Niger, Togo and the Central African Republic (the Oubangui Chari) and Madagascar all become independent. | | | Belgium | The Belgian Congo (also known as Congo-Kinshasa, later renamed Zaire and presently the Democratic Republic of the Congo), becomes independent. | | 1961
| United Kingdom | Tanganyika (formerly a German colony under UK trusteeship, merged to federal Tanzania in 1964 with the island of Zanzibar, formerly a proper British colony wrested from the Omani sultanate); Sierra Leone, Kuwait and British Cameroon become independent. South Africa declares independence. |
|---|
| | Portugal | The former coastal enclave colonies of Goa, Daman and Diu are taken over by India. | | 1962
| United Kingdom | Uganda in Africa, and Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago in the Caribbean, achieve independence. |
|---|
| | France | End of Algerian War, Algeria becomes independent. | | | Belgium | Rwanda and Burundi (then Urundi) attain independence through the ending of the Belgian trusteeship. | | | New Zealand | The South Sea UN trusteeship over the Polynesian kingdom of Western Samoa (formerly German Samoa and nowadays called just Samoa) is relinquished. | | 1963
| United Kingdom | Kenya becomes independent. |
|---|
| | United Kingdom | Singapore, together with Sarawak and Sabah on North Borneo, form Malaysia with the pensinsular Federation of Malaya. Singapore was evicted from Malaysia by Kuala Lumpur two years later. | | 1964
| United Kingdom | Northern Rhodesia declares independence as Zambia and Malawi, formerly Nyasaland does the same, both from the United Kingdom. The Mediterranean island of Malta becomes independent. |
|---|
| 1965
| United Kingdom | Southern Rhodesia (the present Zimbabwe) declares independence as Rhodesia, but is not recognized. Gambia is recognized as independent. The British protectorate over the Maldives archipelago in the Indian Ocean is ended. |
|---|
| 1966
| United Kingdom | In the Caribbean, Barbados and Guyana; and in Africa, Botswana (then Bechuanaland) and Lesotho become independent. |
|---|
| 1967
| United Kingdom | On the Arabian peninsula, Aden colony becomes independent as South Yemen, to be united with formerly Ottoman North Yemen in 1990-1991. |
|---|
| 1968
| United Kingdom | Mauritius and Swaziland achieve independence. |
|---|
| | Portugal | After nine years of organized guerrilla resistance, most of Guinea-Bissau comes under native control. | | | Spain | Equatorial Guinea (then Rio Muni) is made independent. | | | Australia | Relinquishes UN trusteeship (nominally shared by the United Kingdom and New Zealand) of Nauru in the South Sea. | | 1971 | United Kingdom | Fiji and Tonga are given independence; Bangladesh achieves independence from Pakistan with the military help of India. |
|---|
| | United Kingdom | Bahrain, Qatar, Oman and seven Trucial States (the same year, six federated together as United Arab Emirates and the seventh, Ras al-Kaimah, joined soon after) become independent Arab monarchies in the Persian Gulf as the British protectorates are lifted. | | 1973
| United Kingdom | The Bahamas are granted independence. |
|---|
| | Portugal | Guerrillas unilaterally declare independence in the Southeastern regions of Guinea-Bissau. | | 1974
| United Kingdom | Grenada in the Caribbean becomes independent. |
|---|
| | Portugal | Guinea-Bissau on the coast of West-Africa is recognized as independent by Portugal. | | 1975
| France | The Comoros archipelago in the Indian Ocean off the coast of Africa is granted independence. |
|---|
| | Portugal | Angola, Mozambique and the island groups of Cape Verde and São Tomé and Príncipe, all four in Africa, achieve independence. East Timor declares independence, but is subsequently occupied and annexed by Indonesia nine days later. | | | The Netherlands | Suriname (then Dutch Guiana) becomes independent. | | | Australia | Released from trusteeship, Papua New Guinea gains independence. | | 1976
| United Kingdom | Seychelles archipelago in the Indian Ocean off the African coast becomes independent (one year after granting of self-rule). |
|---|
| | Spain | The Spanish colonial rule de facto terminated over the Western Sahara (then Rio de Oro), when the territory was passed on to and partitioned between Mauritania and Morocco (which annexes the entire territory in 1979), rendering the declared independence of the Saharawi Arab Democratic Republic ineffective to the present day. Since Spain did not have the right to give away Western Sahara, under international law the territory is still under Spanish administration. The de facto administrator is however Morocco. | | 1977
| France | French Somaliland, also known as Afar & Issa-land (after its main tribal groups), the present Djibouti, is granted independence. |
|---|
| 1978
| United Kingdom | Dominica in the Caribbean and the Solomon Islands, as well as Tuvalu (then the Ellice Islands), all in the South Sea, become independent. |
|---|
| 1979
| United States | Returns the Panama Canal Zone (held under a regime sui generis since 1903) to the republic of Panama. |
|---|
| | United Kingdom | The Gilbert Islands (present-day Kiribati) in the South Sea as well as Saint Vincent and the Grenadines and Saint Lucia in the Caribbean become independent. | | 1980
| United Kingdom | Zimbabwe (then [Southern] Rhodesia), already independent de facto, becomes formally independent. The joint Anglo-French colony of the New Hebrides becomes the independent island republic of Vanuatu. |
|---|
| 1981
| United Kingdom | Belize (then British Honduras) and Antigua & Barbuda become independent. |
|---|
| 1983
| United Kingdom | Saint Kitts and Nevis (an associated state since 1963) becomes independent. |
|---|
| 1984
| United Kingdom | Brunei sultanate on Borneo becomes independent. |
|---|
| 1990
| South Africa | Namibia becomes independent from South Africa. |
|---|
| | United States | The UN Security Council gives final approval to end the U.S. Trust Territory of the Pacific (dissolved already in 1986), finalizing the independence of the Marshall Islands and the Federated States of Micronesia, having been a colonial possession of the empire of Japan before UN trusteeship. | | 1991
| Soviet Union | Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Ukraine, Moldavia, Armenia, Georgia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia and Turkmenistan become independent from the Soviet Union. |
|---|
Post-Cold War era
| Year | Colonizer | Event |
|---|
| 1991
| United States | U.S. forces withdraw from Subic Bay and Clark Air Base in the Philippines ending major U.S. military presence, which lasted for almost a century. |
|---|
| 1994
| United States | Palau (after a transitional period as a Republic since 1981, and before part of the U.S. Trust territory of the Pacific) becomes independent from its former trustee, having been a mandate of the Japanese Empire before UN trusteeship. |
|---|
| 1997
| United Kingdom | The colony of Hong Kong is given back to China. |
|---|
| 1999
| Portugal | Macau is given back to China. It is the last in a series of coastal enclaves that militarily stronger powers had obtained through treaties from the Qing or Manchu Empire which ruled China. Macau, like Hong Kong, is not organized into the existing provincial structure applied to other provinces of the People's Republic of China, but is guaranteed an autonomous system of government within the People's Republic of China as a "Special Administrative Region" or S.A.R. |
|---|
| 2002
| Indonesia | East Timor formally achieves independence after a transitional UN administration, three years after Indonesia ended its violent quarter-century military occupation of the former Portuguese colony. |
|---|
| 2006
| United Kingdom | Gibraltar achieves decolonisation following acceptance in an act of self determination (referendum) of a new Constitution, which removed all trappings and vestiges of colonialism, and accepted by the UK & Gibraltar as starting a new non-colonial relationship between them, while still fully under British sovereignty. |
|---|
See also
|
| |
|
|
