15 - Decolonization and its legacy

Summary

This chapter focuses on the movements for independence from Western and Japanese colonial rule principally in Asia and Africa from the early part of the century until the 1980s. It includes the 'decolonization' of several countries in this region that were never fully or formally colonized. The chapter focuses on political and ideological themes in the relationship of decolonization to imperialism, nationalism, and the Cold War. It considers the legacy of decolonization ideals and ideologies in the post-Cold War period, particularly of the Chinese revolution and Middle Eastern societies. The imperialism of Western nation states and, Japan spread, beginning roughly in the mid-eighteenth century, to Asia, Africa, and the Caribbean and Pacific islands. The economic and political developments of the interwar years accelerated the pressures on empires, particularly the British Empire. The establishment of the United Nations and its ideal of national self-determination operating within an equally ideal co-operative system of nation states represented the goals of the decolonization movement.