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Chapter 22 - The End of Empire

Toward Freedom: Struggles for Independence

  • European colonial empires in Africa, Asia, the Caribbean, and Pacific Oceania looked to be permanent parts of the global political scene in 1900. They were long gone by the end of the twentieth century. The Philippines, India, Pakistan, Burma, Indonesia, Syria, Iraq, Jordan, and Israel made the first important breakthroughs in Asia and the Middle East in the late 1940s.

  • Attempts to establish a Federation of the West Indies from a number of former British colonies failed, and by 1983, the Caribbean area had sixteen sovereign republics.

The End of the Empire in World History

  • At one level, this massive process was only the latest example of imperial disintegration, which had befallen preceding civilizations such as the Assyrians, Romans, Arabs, and Mongols. But the collapse of the empire has never been so closely linked to the mobilization of the masses around a nationalist ideology.

  • During the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century, European colonies in the Americas revolted against British, French, Spanish, and Portuguese control. The emerging nations of the twentieth century, like their predecessors, sought an international standing equal to that of their previous masters.

  • Many civilizations fell apart throughout the twentieth century. Following World War I, the Austrian and Ottoman empires fell apart, resulting in the formation of a slew of new nations throughout Europe and the Middle East. The Russian Empire fell apart as well, though it was quickly rebuilt under the Soviet Union's auspices.

  • Highly nationalist regimes attacked empires without land, such as the United States considerable influence in Latin America. The invasive presence of the United States was undoubtedly one of the factors that sparked the Mexican Revolution, which began in 1910. The nationalization of Mexico's oil sector in 1937 was one of the consequences of that revolution.

Year of Independence

The Case of India: Ending British Rule

  • The South Asian peninsula, popularly known as India, was geographically united since it was surrounded by the Himalayas and the Indian Ocean. Prior to the twentieth century, however, few of its residents considered themselves to be "Indians." Local and endlessly diverse cultural identities were based on distinctions in family, caste, village, language, area, tribe, and religious practice.

  • The Indian National Congress (INC), often known as the Congress Party, was founded in 1885 and became the most prominent political manifestation of all-Indian nationalism. This was a group of English-educated Indians – attorneys, journalists, teachers, and business people — who were mostly from prominent high-caste Hindu households in the region.

  • The INC struggled to attract mass support among India's huge peasant population as an elitist organization. In the aftermath of World War I, this began to alter. The British had promised “the progressive growth of self-governing institutions” in 1917 to entice Indian support for the war effort, a promise that galvanized nationalist politicians to seek more rapid political reform.

  • Gandhi was born into a devout Hindu family of the Vaisya, or business, caste in the Gujarat state of western India. He had been married since he was thirteen, had a poor academic record, and jumped at the chance to study law in England when he was eighteen.

India/Pakistan

Experiments in Political Order: Party, Army, and the Fate of Democracy

  • Efforts to establish political order in the emerging countries were hampered by a set of common circumstances. The world's population was expanding, and aspirations for independence were sky-high, frequently outstripping available resources. Many emerging countries have a varied culture and little loyalty to a central government.

  • As colonial rule drew to a close, European authorities in many places attempted to transplant democratic institutions to colonies they had long governed with such a heavy and authoritarian hand. They established legislatures, permitted elections, allowed political parties to operate, and in general anticipated the development of constitutional, parliamentary, multiparty democracies similar to their own.

  • The Indian independence fight had lasted a long period, giving time for the country's political leadership to sort itself out. Furthermore, even before total independence was given in 1947, the British began gradually handing up control.

  • Democracy proved to be a considerably more fragile transplant elsewhere in the colonial globe. Few African new governments, for example, kept their democratic institutions after the first decade after independence. Many of the ostensibly popular political parties that had spearheaded the independence fight lost popular support and were overthrown by military coups.

Toward Freedom: Struggles for Independence

  • European colonial empires in Africa, Asia, the Caribbean, and Pacific Oceania looked to be permanent parts of the global political scene in 1900. They were long gone by the end of the twentieth century. The Philippines, India, Pakistan, Burma, Indonesia, Syria, Iraq, Jordan, and Israel made the first important breakthroughs in Asia and the Middle East in the late 1940s.

  • Attempts to establish a Federation of the West Indies from a number of former British colonies failed, and by 1983, the Caribbean area had sixteen sovereign republics.

The End of the Empire in World History

  • At one level, this massive process was only the latest example of imperial disintegration, which had befallen preceding civilizations such as the Assyrians, Romans, Arabs, and Mongols. But the collapse of the empire has never been so closely linked to the mobilization of the masses around a nationalist ideology.

  • During the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century, European colonies in the Americas revolted against British, French, Spanish, and Portuguese control. The emerging nations of the twentieth century, like their predecessors, sought an international standing equal to that of their previous masters.

  • Many civilizations fell apart throughout the twentieth century. Following World War I, the Austrian and Ottoman empires fell apart, resulting in the formation of a slew of new nations throughout Europe and the Middle East. The Russian Empire fell apart as well, though it was quickly rebuilt under the Soviet Union's auspices.

  • Highly nationalist regimes attacked empires without land, such as the United States considerable influence in Latin America. The invasive presence of the United States was undoubtedly one of the factors that sparked the Mexican Revolution, which began in 1910. The nationalization of Mexico's oil sector in 1937 was one of the consequences of that revolution.

Year of Independence

The Case of India: Ending British Rule

  • The South Asian peninsula, popularly known as India, was geographically united since it was surrounded by the Himalayas and the Indian Ocean. Prior to the twentieth century, however, few of its residents considered themselves to be "Indians." Local and endlessly diverse cultural identities were based on distinctions in family, caste, village, language, area, tribe, and religious practice.

  • The Indian National Congress (INC), often known as the Congress Party, was founded in 1885 and became the most prominent political manifestation of all-Indian nationalism. This was a group of English-educated Indians – attorneys, journalists, teachers, and business people — who were mostly from prominent high-caste Hindu households in the region.

  • The INC struggled to attract mass support among India's huge peasant population as an elitist organization. In the aftermath of World War I, this began to alter. The British had promised “the progressive growth of self-governing institutions” in 1917 to entice Indian support for the war effort, a promise that galvanized nationalist politicians to seek more rapid political reform.

  • Gandhi was born into a devout Hindu family of the Vaisya, or business, caste in the Gujarat state of western India. He had been married since he was thirteen, had a poor academic record, and jumped at the chance to study law in England when he was eighteen.

India/Pakistan

Experiments in Political Order: Party, Army, and the Fate of Democracy

  • Efforts to establish political order in the emerging countries were hampered by a set of common circumstances. The world's population was expanding, and aspirations for independence were sky-high, frequently outstripping available resources. Many emerging countries have a varied culture and little loyalty to a central government.

  • As colonial rule drew to a close, European authorities in many places attempted to transplant democratic institutions to colonies they had long governed with such a heavy and authoritarian hand. They established legislatures, permitted elections, allowed political parties to operate, and in general anticipated the development of constitutional, parliamentary, multiparty democracies similar to their own.

  • The Indian independence fight had lasted a long period, giving time for the country's political leadership to sort itself out. Furthermore, even before total independence was given in 1947, the British began gradually handing up control.

  • Democracy proved to be a considerably more fragile transplant elsewhere in the colonial globe. Few African new governments, for example, kept their democratic institutions after the first decade after independence. Many of the ostensibly popular political parties that had spearheaded the independence fight lost popular support and were overthrown by military coups.