The End of Empire

Ch. 23

            The second wave of European conquest in Asia and Africa also had its own revolutions.  These revolutions would be unlike the first revolutions in the America’s.  Driven by ex-patriots that wanted freedom from the conquering powers, while the second wave of revolutions would be driven by a developing nationalist identity in Africa and Asia drove the revolutions in America.  This ideology would lead to a creation of a large number of states.  The fight for their identity helped these cultures to affirm “the vitality of their cultures, which had been submerged and denigrated during the colonial era” (Strayer, 693).

            Another difference was that the colonial powers had begun to lose power and interesting maintaining colonial states.  The World Wars had taken their toll on Europe, from massive amounts of deaths, to huge amounts of debt.  The Wars had also lead to Europe to question its moral superiority, even questioning its right to empires.  Europe was also influenced by the arising superpower of Soviet Union and the United States, which were interested in getting rid of the colonial empires.  The United Nations was also established after World War II and helped these future countries to communicate their interest in freedom. 

            This occurred internationally as these colonial states to develop their won thought.  These thinkers were educated in Europe, but returned to their nations and began to see the social and economic inequalities that colonial powers were creating.  They began to motivate the people, helping to create popular anti-colonial movements.  These movements were sometimes lead by a group of leaders or were movements that arose from the people.  Regardless, these movements had to be aware of being co-opted by the European administrators. 

            The administrators would do this not through outright rule, but allow the movements to gain some independence through “deliberate planning for decolonization included gradual political reform; investments in railroad; parts, and telegraph lines; the holding of elections; and the writing of constitutions” (Strayer, 695).  This slow transition left some people feeling that the Europeans had given them the right to independence, but this takes the power that the movements needed to force the Europeans out.  The final stage of these revolutions was to decide how leadership and power would be divided between its people and leaders.