Decolonization

CWW2.
1 Decolonization, 1945-1965
Directions: In the same years that the Cold War was developing, there was a great political
change decolonization. Read each of the following paragraphs, answering the questions at
the end of each section on a separate sheet of paper in order to understand what
decolonization was and how it related to the Cold War.
Background:
Since the age of

imperialism in the 19th
century, imperialist
nations owned almost all
the lands in Africa,
southern Asia, the Middle
East, Southeast Asia and
the Pacific Islands as
colonies. The Western
imperialists had
dominated the
governments of their
colonies, introduced
Sudan. Khartoum. The British military barracks, Matson Photo Service, 1936. western laws, schools, and
Source: Library of Congress,
religions and tried to
http://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/mpc2010002792/PP/
change the cultures of the
people in the colonies in order to civilize them. In other areas, such as Latin America and
China, the imperialists had spheres of influence. Countries in the spheres of influence had their
own governments, but their economies were dominated by the imperialists. Five imperialist
powers, Great Britain, France, Germany, Japan and Russia, held spheres of influence in China.
The economic and military power of the US had a domineering effect on nations in the
Caribbean and Latin America. The imperialist nations used their colonies and the countries in
their spheres of influence as sources of raw materials to fuel Western factories, and as markets
for Western manufactured goods. This system made the imperialist nations extremely wealthy.
1. What was the difference between a colony and a sphere of influence?

2. What benefits did the Western imperialist nations get from their colonies and spheres of
influence?
Page 6
Cold War World Lesson #2: Decolonization
Copyright 2013, The Regents of the University of California, All Rights Reserved
CWW2.1 Decolonization, 1945-1965 (page 2 of 5)
Colonial Independence
In almost all the colonies,

there were anti-colonial,
nationalist movements
which worked for
independence. Between
World Wars I and II, the
Indian National Congress,
led by Mahatma Gandhi and
Jawaharlal Nehru, built up a
mass movement in India to
resist British rule by
boycotts, strikes and other
methods of non-violent
protest. The British colony
of India became two
Jawaharlal Nehru, 1889-1964, full-length portrait, standing, with daughter, Frances
independent nations, India
Bolton, and Mme. Pandit. Photo by Harris and Ewing. Source: Library of Congress,
and Pakistan, in 1947. The http://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/2005685246/
success of the Indian anti-
colonial movement inspired anti-colonial leaders across Africa and Asia. During World War II,
Great Britain, France, the Netherlands, Italy, and Japan all lost control of their colonies. They also
emerged from the war greatly weakened in power.
The Western colonizers faced increasing national resistance in the colonies in the decades after
1945, and their leaders realized that maintaining control with larger and larger armies was too
expensive. In some imperialist nations, many people had come to believe that the colonies
should become independent.
Page 7
Impact of WWII
The US, for example, planned to free the

Philippines before that colony was taken over by
the Japanese in 1942. When American, Filipino,
and other allied soldiers freed the Philippines
from Japanese control in 1945, the US granted it
formal independence in 1946. In the Atlantic
Charter of 1941, President Franklin D. Roosevelt
and Prime Minister Winston Churchill pledged
that the US and Great Britain would not take over
any territory after the war and that all people had
a right to self-determination, that is, to decide for
themselves what their government should be. A burning building along Taft Avenue which was hit during the
Japanese air raid in Barrio, Paranque, December 13, 1941, the
Philippine Islands, March 1943. Farm Security Administration,
3. How did World War II affect the power of
Office of War Information. Source: Library of Congress,
Western imperialist nations? http://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/oem2002008082/PP/
4. What does self-determination mean?
5. How did the principles of the Atlantic Charter conflict with imperialism?
Although Western nations agreed that the colonies should be free, they assumed that the new
nations made from those colonies should continue to follow the leadership of the West.
Western leaders assumed that the colonized should form nation-states, copying the European
and American model, and allow Western businesses and people to continue to own their
property in the former colonies. The nation-state model presented big problems for the new
nations, which were often created out of many different ethnic and religious groups who had no
shared past. With so much of the former colonys best land and most important resources
owned by foreign imperialists, the new nations found themselves poor and dependent
producers of raw materials in the Western-dominated world market.
6. What did the Western nations assume about the new nations?
7. Why were the new nations poor and dependent?
Page 8
Decolonization and Nationalism

Decolonization, or the end of foreign domination
and the formation of new independent nations,
happened in three general ways. First, some
colonies won their freedom without serious
violence. Great Britain granted independence to
Nigeria and Uganda because the nationalist
movements in those countries were willing to let
British and other Western businesses hold on to
the plantations and mines they owned. However,
in a second group of colonies, such as Kenya,
Algeria and Rhodesia (Zimbabwe), there were
many white settlers, who fought hard to prevent
decolonization and hold on to the land and
businesses they held under colonial rule.
Nationalist movements in those colonies had to
Victoria Waterfalls, Rhodesia, ca. 1890 1925.
fight long and bloody wars to win their freedom.
Source: Library of Congress,
http://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/89714072/
The third type of decolonization occurred when

there was a nationalist movement that followed
Marxism. These nationalists wanted to change their
entire economy and society based on the principles
of socialism and to get rid of ownership of property
or resources by Western foreigners. The Marxist
Chinese Communist Party, led by Mao Zedong,
fought against the Chinese Nationalist Party for
control of China both before and after World War II.
The US supported the Nationalist Party, and the
Soviet Union supported the communists. In 1949,
the Chinese Communist Party won the civil war and
drove the Nationalist Party out of mainland China. Mao Tse Tung, Leader of the Chinese Communists,
The Nationalists retreated to the island of Taiwan, Addresses his followers, December 12, 1944. Franklin D.
where they set up the Republic of China with Jiang Roosevelt Presidential Library and Museum, National
Archives. ARC Identifier 196235
Page 9
Jieshi as their first president. Mao Zedong became the premier of the Peoples Republic of
China. While the Communists on the mainland confiscated all property, the Nationalists on
Taiwan welcomed free enterprise and US business and aid.
8. What does decolonization mean?

9. What were the three ways nations decolonized?
10. Who was Mao Zedong? Why did the US oppose him?
The US and the Soviet Union

Both the US and the Soviet Union wanted to influence the
new independent nations. Because each superpower
believed that its principles should guide the new nations
policies, each tried to block the influence of the other
superpower. In addition to their opposing principles of
liberal democracy and capitalism (the US) and communism
(the Soviet Union), both superpowers had practical interests;
each wanted access to the resources and raw materials in the
new nations. The Soviet Union strongly opposed colonialism,
offered support to nationalist movements and sometimes
provided weapons to nationalist groups. The Soviets also
gave economic aid to some nations in Asia and Africa which
had strategic locations or valuable resources. The US used its
influence to encourage the Dutch to leave Indonesia and the
British to free some of their African colonies. However, the US
Ho Chi Minh portrait in c. 1946. (Public
did not want to see any Marxist nationalist movements come
Domain). Source: Wikipedia,
to power in a new nation. For that reason, the US refused to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Ho_Chi_Minh_
support the Vietnamese nationalist movement, whose leader, 1946_and_signature.jpg
Ho Chi Minh, was a communist. Instead the US gave aid and

military support to the French, who were the imperialists. The US was motivated by opposition
to communism and by a desire to protect American businesses in the colonies. As both
superpowers offered aid money to new nations and supported opposite sides in civil wars, they
opened up new battlefields for the Cold War.
11. What did both the US and the USSR want from the new nations? What did they want
differently?
Page 10
CWW2.2.1. Decolonization through Maps (Three World Order)
Directions: In the next few pages, youll find a number of maps detailing the fate of former colonies in the Cold War era. In groups of two
or three, review each map and answer the accompanying questions.
1. What nations were in the First World?

Which side of the Cold War did the
First World take?
2. What nations were in the Second

World? Which side of the Cold War
did the Second World take?
3. Where were the Third World countries

located? Which side of the Cold War
did the Third World take?
4. In which of the three worlds were most

of the imperialist nations (the
colonizers)? In which of the three
worlds were most of the colonies?
Map Source: Sonali Judari for the California History-Social Science Project.
Copyright 2013, The Regents of the University of California. All Rights Reserved.
Page 11
CWW2.2.2 Decolonization through Maps (Africa Decolonization)
1. In what decade did most of the African nations become independent?
2. Which colonizer had the largest empire?
3. List 5 nations that had anti-colonial revolts or wars after World War II.
Page 12
CWW2.2.3 Decolonization through Maps (Nigeria & Colonial Africa)
Editors Note: Linguistic Groups are groups of people that

speak the same language or languages that are similar to
each other. A linguistic group map gives us some idea of the
cultural and ethnic groups of people. In general, people
identify with those who speak their language and often dont
want to be ruled by those who speak another language.
Nationalists often want to unify all the people who speak a
certain language together in a nation. Nations with many
linguistic groups are very difficult to unify.
Source: Linguistic Groups in Nigeria in 1979, produced by the

CIA. Courtesy of Perry-Castaeda Library, University of Texas
at Austin,
http://www.lib.utexas.edu/maps/africa/nigeria_linguistic_1979.
jpg.
1. How many linguistic (ethnic)
groups were combined in the nation-
state of Nigeria?
Page 13
CWW2.2.3 Decolonization through Maps (Nigeria & Colonial Africa)
Colonial Africa 1913
Source: Colonial Africa 1913 Map, with modern borders, created by Eric Gaba (Wikimedia Commons user:
Sting), http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Colonial_Africa_1913_map.svg.
2. Find Nigeria on the Colonial Africa map. What imperialist held Nigeria as a colony? How
do the colony borders compare to the modern national borders of Nigeria? What
problems might that cause?
Page 14
CWW2.2.4 Decolonization through Maps (Decolonization in Asia and Middle East)
1. Which colonies
became
independent before
the end of World
War II in 1945?
2. Which colonies
became
independent
between 1945 and
1950?
3. Which nations had

anti-colonial revolts
or civil wars?
Page 15
CWW2.2.5 Decolonization through Maps (US Red State / Blue State)
1. Imagine you were trying to

decolonize the US. Here
is a map of the political
divisions in the nation.
What problems might arise
if you divided the US
according to the Red
State/Blue State Map?
Key
Red = The Republican candidate carried the state in the 2000,

2004, 2008, & 2012 presidential elections
Pink = The Republican candidate carried the state in three of

the four most recent elections.
Purple = The Republican candidate and the Democratic

candidate each carried the state in two of the four most recent
elections.
Light blue = The Democratic candidate carried the state in

three of the four most recent elections.
Map Source: Map of Red States and Blue States in the US, created by Angr. Wikipedia Commons GNU Free Documentation Dark blue = The Democratic candidate carried the state in all
license, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Red_state,_blue_state.svg. four most recent elections.
Page 16

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CWW2.

Since the age of

1. What was the difference between a colony and a sphere of influence?

In almost all the colonies,

The US, for example, planned to free the

Decolonization and Nationalism

The third type of decolonization occurred when

8. What does decolonization mean?

The US and the Soviet Union

Ho Chi Minh, was a communist. Instead the US gave aid and

1. What nations were in the First World?

2. What nations were in the Second

3. Where were the Third World countries

4. In which of the three worlds were most

1. In what decade did most of the African nations become independent?

2. Which colonizer had the largest empire?

Editors Note: Linguistic Groups are groups of people that

Source: Linguistic Groups in Nigeria in 1979, produced by the

Colonial Africa 1913

3. Which nations had

1. Imagine you were trying to

Red = The Republican candidate carried the state in the 2000,

Pink = The Republican candidate carried the state in three of

Purple = The Republican candidate and the Democratic

Light blue = The Democratic candidate carried the state in

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