Summary CIE History 9489 Decolonization period ( Africa)
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History A level 9489
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The document is an academic summary of the whole decolonization period following WWII. The topics presented in the document are in accordance with the History 9489 syllabus. It is good for anyone who wants to get a detailed overview of the period, its significance in the Cold War context, and of it...
Decolonisation was the process of imperial powers leaving Africa, Caribbeans, Asia and other
areas that were formerly colonized. One of the main reasons for this could be considered the
globalization of politics and the globalization of the focus of European organizations such as
the UN. This, in turn, led to the demolishment of the human hierarchy based on race and
intellectual level. Decolonisation was driven simultaneously by imperatives of imperial
deconstruction and the constitution/reconstruction of sovereignty in the former colonies.
Factors that accelerated the decolonisation process were the formation of the UN, the
Non-Aligned movement, and the Commonwealth which linked Britain and its former
colonies.Similarly, the role of the Soviet Union, the People's Republic of China, and Cuba in
providing military supplies, military advisors, and, on occasion, combat units to nationalist
movements challenging the colonial powers helped to accelerate the decolonization process
after 1945. Decolonization was part of the shifting terrain of international relations and a
factor in the calculus of the global balance of power.
(NAM was an organization of 120 countries that aimed to stop the bipolarization that was
going on in the world after WW2 between the USSR and the USA.)
In Britain, the Labor Party became a major factor in pushing the process of decolonization, while
the Communist and Socialist parties played similar roles in France. The rise of the American
civil rights movement, which challenged the domestic racial regime, had a catalytic effect
upon the national liberation struggles in various African countries. As a consequence, the
American racial regime became a casualty of the cold war and decolonization after 1945.
One of the reasons for the creation of NATO was the aim of handling the decolonisation process. In
the 1950s America helped France to win the communists over in Vietnam, in return for France
to guarantee its containment of the Soviet Union in Europe. America also supported the
Portuguese colonies in South Africa in order to have access to the military bases in the
Azores for the NATO alliance.As a consequence NATO, as one of the major alliance systems
in the cold war, became a vehicle for the expansion of America's “informal empire” on the
global stage and symbolized the Western Alliance's commitment to maintaining the politics of
racial supremacy that had underpinned the pre-1945 global order.
To add, the Japanese ability to withstand the imperial powers in the 19th century and its victory
over Russia in the Russo-Japanese war of 1905 demonstrated the modernization and
independence of Asian nations. The weakness of the colonial regime was further emphasized
when Japan managed to take over several European colonies in Asia, such as Indo China
and even step into French Indo-China. Also Japan’s possession of Korea, Taiwan and parts
of China ( Manchuria mainly) further proved this weakness.
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