Chapter 22: The End of Empire 1914-Present

In the 1900 the European empires in Africa, Asia, the Caribbean, and the Pacific Ocean were still very much alive, but by the end of the 1900s they were gone. This disappearance started in Asia and the Middle East in the late 1940s. In the mid-1950s through mid-1970s African countries gained their independence. In the 1970s the regions in the Pacific Ocean also became independent. The Caribbeans countries achieved their independence in the 1960s and 1970s. In a sense these empire breaks were the latest case of imperial dissolution, which in some ways is comparable to the first decolonization in the Americas. However, these newly independent countries not only asserted their political independence, they also affirmed the vitality of their cultures. Empire after empire was dissolved. The Austrian and Ottoman empires collapsed after World War I, the Russian empire, the German and Japanese empires after World War II. Out of these collapses grew the idea that humankind was divided into separate peoples and nations, each deserving independence. Colonial rule lost credibility as a political order as the twentieth century continued on. Strayer and other historians think this may be because of the fundamental contradictions between Christianity, Enlightenment ideals, and material progress and colonial racism, exploitation, and poverty. This was combined with the growing sense of nationalism, which at first helped the Europeans build their empires, but now was a major component of their disintegration. Also social and economic circumstances within the colonies contributed to the anti-colonial movements. Growing pressures were placed on colonial rulers as second and third generation of Western-educated elites, ordinary people, veteran of the world wars, small-scale female traders, and rural people who had lost their land or suffered from forced labor, all sought independence for their country. Deliberate planning for decolonization was then set in motion by gradual political reforms, investments in railroads, ports, and telegraph lines, the holding of elections, and the writing of constitutions. However, the fight for independence was rarely a cohesive movement. Instead it was more a fragile alliance of different classes, ethnic groups, religions, and regions.
Before the twentieth century India's cultural identities were local and varied. They were rooted in different families, castes, villages, languages, regions, tribes, and religions. The British invaders promoted a sense of Indian identity. An important expression of this was the Indian National Congress (INC), which was established in 1885 and represented the beginning of a new political protest. It gained popularity after World War I and paved the way for Mohandas Gandhi . Gandhi developed a concept of Indian that included both Hindus and Muslims and his political philosophy was known as satyagraha (truth force). This was a moral transformation instead of a social revolution. However, Gandhi and the INC were not the only movements, parties, and approaches, which led to India's nationalist movement to be divided. India became independent in 1947 as two countries, Pakistan (Muslim and also divided into two parts) and India (Hindu). More than a million people died in the violence of this division. South Africa has gained independence in 1910, but for years after sought to gain independence of their government, which was controlled by a white settler minority. South Africa had developed an industrial economy that relied on the labor of black Africans. This led to a dependence on the white minority, who owned the industries, but at the same time gave them a power as their labor was essential. There was a very strong race division in Africa, which was expressed in 1948 in the official policy of apartheid. In 1912 the African Nation Congress (ANC) was established and sought acceptance as "civilized men" instead of overthrowing the existing political control. During the 1950 the ANC was led by Nelson Mandela and launched nonviolent civil disobediences. The government responded with repression, making these major political parties illegal. The struggle became armed and active opposition was now led by student groups that were part of the Black Consciousness movement. South Africa came to face international pressures to end apartheid as well, which helped the abandonment of key apartheid policies, the release of Nelson Mandela from prison, the legalization of the ANC, and national elections bringing the ANC to power. The nationalist movement in South Africa was divide along race, ethnic, and ideological lines however, but still gained its political freedom as a unified state.