When did decolonization happen?

Most decolonization occurred between the late 1940s and the 1970s, with major waves after Indian independence in 1947 and the 'year of Africa' in 1960, though some territories changed status much later.

Was decolonization always peaceful?

No. Outcomes ranged from negotiated transfers of power to prolonged and violent wars, such as in Algeria and Vietnam; the path varied greatly by colony and colonial power.

Anticolonial Resistance and Decolonization

Definition

The varied processes—political, military, and ideological—through which colonized peoples resisted imperial rule and achieved independence, concentrated in the mid-twentieth century.

Scope

This topic examines anticolonial resistance and the dismantling of the colonial empires: early revolts and nationalist movements, the ideologies of anticolonialism and pan-Africanism, the major struggles for independence in Asia and Africa, including the Algerian and Indian cases, and the negotiated and violent paths to sovereignty. It addresses the theory of liberation, the international context of the Cold War, and historiographical debates over what 'decolonization' meant and who shaped it.

Core questions

How did anticolonial movements mobilize and what ideologies drove them?
Why did decolonization accelerate after the Second World War?
How did violence, negotiation, and international pressure shape independence?
What did colonizers and colonized each mean by 'decolonization'?

Key concepts

national liberation
anticolonial nationalism
pan-Africanism
neocolonialism
self-determination

Key theories

Anticolonial liberation theory: Frantz Fanon analyzed colonialism as a system of violence and dehumanization and argued that anticolonial struggle, including violent struggle, was central to the psychological and political liberation of the colonized.
Decolonization as imperial strategy: Wm. Roger Louis and Ronald Robinson argued that decolonization was partly managed by imperial powers seeking to preserve influence through new arrangements, an 'imperialism of decolonization'.

History

Anticolonial movements grew across the early twentieth century and gained decisive momentum after 1945, amid a weakened Europe, the Cold War, and an emerging international order favoring self-determination. India's independence in 1947, the Algerian War, and the wave of African independences around 1960 marked the dismantling of the empires, though decolonization's legacies remained contested.

Debates

Agency in decolonization: Historians debate how far decolonization was won by anticolonial movements or managed by imperial powers and international pressures, as Louis and Robinson suggest.
The meaning and completeness of independence: Scholars dispute whether formal independence brought genuine liberation or gave way to neocolonial economic and political dependence, a concern Cooper examines.

Key figures

Frantz Fanon
Frederick Cooper
Todd Shepard
Wm. Roger Louis
Ronald Robinson

Seminal works

fanon1961
cooper2002
shepard2006

Frequently asked questions

When did decolonization happen?: Most decolonization occurred between the late 1940s and the 1970s, with major waves after Indian independence in 1947 and the 'year of Africa' in 1960, though some territories changed status much later.
Was decolonization always peaceful?: No. Outcomes ranged from negotiated transfers of power to prolonged and violent wars, such as in Algeria and Vietnam; the path varied greatly by colony and colonial power.