Quick questions on Decolonisation in Asia and Africa 1947-1980: VCE Modern History Unit 2

In 1939 the European powers ruled around one third of the world's land surface and more than 600 million people in Asia and Africa. Britain held India, Burma, Malaya, parts of the Middle East, and large parts of Africa. France held Indochina, Algeria, Morocco, Tunisia, and much of West and Equatorial Africa. The Netherlands held the East Indies.

Belgium abruptly granted the Congo independence on 30 June 1960 with almost no preparation. Within days the Force Publique mutinied; Katanga province (under Moise Tshombe) seceded with Belgian backing. Prime Minister Patrice Lumumba appealed to the UN; UN Operation in the Congo (ONUC) deployed but did not act against Katanga at first.

Most new states inherited colonial borders that did not match ethnic or linguistic boundaries. Conflicts followed: India-Pakistan, Nigeria-Biafra (1967 to 1970), Sudan, Rwanda, Ethiopia-Eritrea.

Angola, Mozambique, Ethiopia, the Horn of Africa, Vietnam and Afghanistan all became Cold War battlegrounds. Westad's "Global Cold War" thesis treats these as central, not peripheral.

Decolonisation transferred sovereignty but rarely transferred control of resources. Western corporations and the international monetary system maintained patterns of exchange. The New International Economic Order failed to alter these structures.

UN membership grew from 51 (1945) to 127 (1970) to 193 (2011). The General Assembly's politics shifted with the entry of the new states, which formed the Group of 77 and pushed anti-colonial and anti-apartheid agendas.

Evaluate the reasons for the rapid decolonisation of European empires between 1945 and 1965. [10 marks]

Explain the significance of the Suez Crisis (1956). [4 marks]

Analyse the consequences of decolonisation for the post-war order. [6 marks]