Quick questions on Decolonisation in Asia and Africa 1947-1980: VCE Modern History Unit 4

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.

The Indian National Congress (founded 1885) had been radicalised under Mahatma Gandhi from 1919 (non-cooperation), 1930 (the Salt March), and 1942 (Quit India). The Muslim League under Muhammad Ali Jinnah demanded a separate Muslim state at Lahore in March 1940.

Sukarno proclaimed Indonesian independence on 17 August 1945. The returning Dutch fought a four-year war ("Police Actions") against the Indonesian Republic. Under US pressure (the threat to withhold Marshall Plan aid from the Netherlands) the Dutch transferred sovereignty on 27 December 1949.

Egypt's free officers under Gamal Abdel Nasser overthrew King Farouk in July 1952. Britain agreed to withdraw from the Suez Canal Zone by June 1956 (Anglo-Egyptian Agreement, 19 October 1954). On 26 July 1956, after the US withdrew financing for the Aswan High Dam, Nasser nationalised the Suez Canal Company.

Algeria was not legally a colony but three French departments; around 1 million European settlers ("pieds-noirs") lived among around 8 million Muslims. The Front de Liberation Nationale (FLN) launched coordinated attacks on 1 November 1954 ("All Saints' Day").

Kwame Nkrumah's Convention People's Party won the 1951 elections in the Gold Coast. The Gold Coast became Ghana on 6 March 1957, the first sub-Saharan African colony to gain independence.

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.

The Bandung Conference (Bandung, Indonesia, 18 to 24 April 1955) brought 29 Asian and African states together. The Ten Principles of Bandung committed to peaceful coexistence, sovereign equality, and non-alignment. The first Non-Aligned Movement summit at Belgrade (1 to 6 September 1961) under Tito, Nehru, Nasser and Sukarno formalised the bloc.

The Portuguese empire collapsed last. Guerrilla wars in Angola (from 1961), Guinea-Bissau (from 1963) and Mozambique (from 1964) drained the metropolitan economy. The Carnation Revolution in Portugal (25 April 1974) ended the Estado Novo dictatorship; Portuguese decolonisation followed quickly: Guinea-Bissau (10 September 1974), Mozambique (25 June 1975), Cape Verde (5 July 1975), Angola (11 November 1975), Sao Tome and Principe (12 July 1975).

Borders and conflicts. 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.

Frederick Cooper (Africa Since 1940, 2002; Colonialism in Question, 2005) emphasises that decolonisation was negotiated between African political elites and European officials, not simply demanded from below.

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.