Page 150 - Encyclopedia Of World History

500 berkshire encyclopedia of world history

First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you,
then you win. • Mohandas Gandhi (1869–1948)

never gone away. But if the criteria above are accepted, it Europe-centered colonial order. But this argument, too,
is clear that although empires still exist, and perhaps will must be treated with caution.American attitudes to Euro-
always exist in some form, empire as the organizing prin- pean colonialism were at best ambivalent before the
ciple in international affairs, governing the ethos of inter- later 1950s, and superpower dominance before around
state relations, was a historical phenomenon that gave 1960 is easily exaggerated. It is worth bearing in mind
way around 1960 to a new world order in which its char- that the smallest and weakest of Europe’s colonial pow-
acteristic features were largely obliterated. Indeed, one ers, Portugal, did not abandon its colonies until 1974.
useful way to think about decolonization is to see it as the The solution is not to retreat into a catchall explana-
successor phase in global politics between the end of tion in which every plausible suspect plays an ill-defined
empire and the onset of the new international conditions part.What precipitated the fall of the imperial order that
that set in after 1990. had imposed varying degrees of subordination on so
much of the world was the astonishing course of World
Conditions of War II, which saw the catastrophic defeat of one of the
Decolonization two greatest colonial powers (France) and the virtual
If decolonization is defined in this way, what were the bankruptcy of the other (Britain). It was hardly surprising
conditions that brought it about? Typically, historians that the political controls, ideological norms, and eco-
have elected to emphasize one main cause. Much the nomic structures over which they presided, and to whose
most popular has been the irresistible rise of anticolonial legitimacy they gave strength, would be drastically if not
nationalism, forcing the imperial powers to abandon terminally weakened.The most obvious symptom of this
their unequal privileges and concede national sover- loss of power was the rapid postwar withdrawal of
eignty to an emergent group of nationalist politicians. It Britain from India, the colony whose military resources
is possible to find cases where this holds true, but as a had underwritten much of the British imperium in the
general explanation it is defective. It ignores the extent to Afro-Asian world. To all intents, the imperial order was
which, before World War II, colonial rulers had invariably over by 1945. It was rescued by the Cold War, which
been able to divide or outmaneuver their colonial oppo- allowed the old colonial powers, with American help, to
nents and keep overall control of the political process. recover some of their prewar position, and to offset their
This was what had happened in India, where the nation- losses by accelerating the development of their remaining
alist movement was stronger than anywhere else in the possessions. But the strain of this effort and the hostility
colonial world. For colonial rulers to lose their footing it roused among colonial populations imposed heavy
required the intervention of some exogenous force.A sec- costs, both political and financial. It was aggravated by
ond school of historians has seen the decisive change as the partial (but irrecoverable) breakdown of the old order
a loss of interest among the colonial powers, as new in East and South Asia and the Middle East in the post-
domestic priorities (financing the welfare state), new war turbulence after 1945.When the superpower rivalry
international concerns ( the turn toward closer European for influence became global in the late 1950s, the remain-
unity), or more democratic values forced a drastic reap- ing apparatus of European colonialism was quickly
praisal of the imperial “burden.” But this claim is weak- demolished. By that time, its ideological legitimacy, cul-
ened by the fact that after World War II almost all the tural authority, and economic system had already largely
colonial powers showed a heightened interest in the vanished.
exploitation of their colonial possessions.Third, it is often Decolonization, then, cannot be reduced to the
argued that the rise of the superpowers after 1945 achievement of sovereignty by former colonial states in
handed global dominance to two states who agreed a sequence that began in 1947 and was largely com-
about little except their opposition to the survival of a pleted by the late 1960s. Decolonization was a much