Unit 8.5 - Decolonization After 1900

THEMATIC FOCUS

Governance

A variety of internal and external factors contribute to state formation, expansion, and decline. Governments maintain order through a variety of administrative institutions, policies, and procedures, and governments obtain, retain, and exercise power in different ways and for different purposes

LEARNING OBJECTIVE

Compare the processes by which various peoples pursued independence after 1900.

HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENTS

KC-6.2.II.A Nationalist leaders and parties in Asia and Africa sought varying degrees of autonomy within or independence from imperial rule.

KC-6.2.I.C After the end of World War II, some colonies negotiated their independence, while others achieved independence through armed struggle.

KC-6.2.II.B Regional, religious, and ethnic movements challenged colonial rule and inherited imperial boundaries. Some of these movements advocated for autonomy

ILLUSTRATIVE EXAMPLES

Nationalist leaders and parties:

§ Indian National Congress

§ Ho Chi Minh in French Indochina (Vietnam)

§ Kwame Nkrumah in British Gold Coast (Ghana)

§ Gamal Abdel Nasser in Egypt

Negotiated independence:

§ India from the British Empire

§ The Gold Coast from the British Empire

§ French West Africa

Independence through armed struggle:

§ Algeria from the French empire

§ Angola from the Portuguese empire

§ Vietnam from the French empire

Regional, religious, and ethnic movements:

§ Muslim League in British India

§ Québécois separatist movement in Canada

§ Biafra secessionist movement in Nigeria

Nationalist leaders and parties

§ Indian National Congress

1885-Indian National Congress (INC) Founded
- - met to discuss issues that were concerns for urban and elite Indians but were not controversial

early 1900s -- Division within the INC
- - a sense of nationalism grew in the members of the Indian National Congress
  - Some Congressmen supported the British but wanted more say in the government and administration in India
  - Others advocated for Swaraj, or self-rule
1914-1918-World War I
- - Large number of Indian troops served overseas
  - British government declared that it would gradually increase Indian participation in the British Raj
Rowlatt Acts in early 1919
- - extended the repressive wartime measures
    - - political cases could be tried without juries
      - people suspected of acting against the government could be jailed without a trial
April 1919-Amritsar Massacre
- - British troops fired on a large crowd of unarmed Indians in Amritsar in the Punjab region of India
  - estimated 379 people were killed, and about 1,200 more were wounded
1921-Gandhi Given Leadership of Indian National Congress
- - After the Amritsar Massacre, Gandhi dedicated himself to gaining self-rule for India
  - He reorganized the group with the goal of Swaraj through the use of nonviolent forms of protest
1920s-1940s--Homespun Movement
- - Gandhi argued that India needed to be self-sufficient and so they would not have to not rely on the British
  - called for Indians to give up buying British textiles and make their own clothes
  - Gandhi carried a portable spinning wheel with him so he could continue the practice himself while traveling
1930-The Salt March
- - protest against the salt tax
  - Gandhi’s followers nonviolently marched to the British Salt Works in Gujarat where they were beaten by soldiers employed by the British army
  - brought worldwide attention to the Indian Independence movement and British cruelty
  - turned public opinion in Great Britain in Gandhi’s favor and led to his release from prison
Government Act of 1935 and Elections of 1937
- - Government of India Act of 1935 was a new plan for ruling India that involved more Indian participation in the government and free elections to select representatives from each province
  - 1937, the first elections took place
    - - The Indian National Congress candidates won a majority of the provinces, while the Muslim League did poorly in the election
1942 Quit India Movement
- - demanded immediate independence for India
  - Gandhi urged the masses to act as an independent nation and not to follow the orders of the British
  - Jawaharlal Nehru joined Gandhi in his call for "An Orderly British Withdrawal" from India
  - resulted in the arrest of almost the entire leadership of the Indian National Congress
1947 -- Independence
- - When negotiations broke down between Nehru and Jinnah, advocated a separate Hindu state
  - Gandhi goal of a unified secular India inclusive of Hindus and Muslims was lost
  - Gandhi refused to attend the independence day celebrations

§ Ho Chi Minh in French Indochina (Vietnam)

Ho Chi Minh (originally Nguyen That Thanh)

Background
- - father worked at the imperial court but was dismissed for criticising the French colonial power.
  - 1911 -- Ho took a job on a French ship and traveled widely
    - - lived in London and Paris
      - was a founding member of the French communist party
      - 1919 -- attempted to meet Wilson at Versailles
  - 1923 -- visited Moscow for training at Comintern, an organisation created by Lenin to promote worldwide revolution
  - 1925-1927 -- travelled to southern China to organise a revolutionary movement among Vietnamese exiles and work for the Soviet mission with Chiang Kai-Shek’s government
  - 1930 -- founded the Indo-Chinese Communist Party (ICP) in Hong Kong
  - 1930s - traveled between China and the Soviet Union
1941 Japanese occupation of Indo-China
- - Ho returned home and founded the Viet Minh
    - - a communist-dominated independence movement
  - fought the Japanese
  - worked with the OSS (would become the CIA) Deer Team
  - He adopted the name Ho Chi Minh, meaning 'Bringer of Light'
After WWII
- - On September 2, 1945, in front of a crowd of thousands, Ho declared Vietnam an independent nation. He began his speech with:
    - - All men are created equal. They are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights, among them are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness.
  - F.D. Roosevelt's opposition to European colonialism was well known.
    - - Roosevelt insisted that the 1941 Atlantic Charter contain the following provision: “the right of all peoples to choose the form of government under which they will live.”
      - FDR wanted the USA on the side of anti-colonialism, but Truman was now in the Oval Office.
        US Maj. Allison Thomas in his reports to the OSS Station in China advocated independence for Indo-China
        US State Department cables from the time speak of Ho and his Communist leanings
        it was clear that the US was not going to support him, despite the recommendations of the OSS team leader Major Allison Thomas and later Aaron Bank
  - The French refused to relinquish their colony and in 1946, war broke out for 8-years
  - 1954 - Vietnamese victory at Dien Bien Phu
  - 1956 - the French were forced to agree to peace talks in Geneva
    - - The country was split into a communist north and non-communist south
      - From that time Ho’s primary goal was the reunification of Vietnam
  - Ho became president of North Vietnam
    - - he promoted Vietnamese national interests within the socialist bloc and attempted to prevent the widening split between Moscow and Beijing
  - early 1960s, North Vietnamese-backed guerrillas, the Vietcong, were attacking the South Vietnamese government (including U.S. military installations)
    - - Fearing the spread of communism, the United States provided increasing levels of support to South Vietnam

§ Kwame Nkrumah in British Gold Coast (Ghana)

Returned to the Gold Coast (Ghana) in 1949

- - believed that India's independence had set in motion a process of gradual transfer of power in Britain's other colonies
  - with several associates he set up a new party, the Convention People's Party (CPP)
  - 1951 -- won limited self-rule elections
    - - Nkrumah became "Leader of Government Business" -- a de facto prime minister

Self-Rule (1960)

Kwame Nkrumah made Ghana a republic and proclaimed himself its president
- - April 1961, he delivered a "Dawn Broadcast"
    - - force the resignation of potential rivals
      - Soon there were political arrests
      - threw out the British officers assigned to train his army
"scientific socialism"
- - 1961 -- The United States (Kennedy) signed on to the Volta River Project to prevent the Soviet Union from becoming the backer of Ghana
  - 1961 -- Nkrumah visited the Soviet Union and returned much impressed at the pace of industrialization there
    - - He came back with a rigid Seven-Year Plan
      - January 22, 1966 -- Volta Dam completed
  - "We must try and establish factories in large numbers at great speed"
    - - State-owned companies and public authorities mushroomed in all fields
        So did mismanagement and graft
        The price was most painfully felt in the countryside as Nkrumah used cocoa revenues, controlled by the official marketing board, to cover the growing losses of public companies
  - Results:
    - - Many farmers switched crops altogether due to unrealistically low cocoa prices
        combined with the bloated organization of the marketing board
      - others found ways to smuggle their cocoa through neighboring countries, where better prices were offered
      - Ghana lost its mantle as the world's largest cocoa producer
      - Its currency reserves depleted, it fell back on barter trade and loans from the Soviet bloc
"the Redeemer"
- - 1964 -- turned the country into a one-party state
  - took to indulging in a sordid cult of personality
  - dubbing himself Osagyefo, "the Redeemer."
Overthrown in a coup d'etat
- - Feb. 1966-Nkrumah, while traveling to China, was overthrown in a coup
  - He ended up taking up exile in Guinea, where another experiment in "African socialism" was in progress.
  - Guinea's president, Sekou Toure, his own rule increasingly repressive and arbitrary, endowed Nkrumah with the title of "co-president" until his death in 1972.

§ Gamal Abdel Nasser in Egypt

Led the 1952 overthrow of Egyptian monarchy
- - President (2nd) 1956-1970
  - Suppression is Salafism
    - - banned the Muslim Brotherhood following assignation attempt

Cold War battleground

Soviet supplied military equipment and funding for Aswan High dam
- - He won United States and British financial backing, but in July 1956 both nations canceled the offer
    - - US learned of a secret Egyptian arms agreement with the USSR
      - Also, US had concerns regarding competition in cotton industry (USA vs Egypt)

- - Nasser responds by nationalizing the Suez Canal
    - - 1956 (July)- Nasser nationalized the British and French-owned Suez Canal
      - Hoping (claim) to charge tolls that would pay for construction of a Aswan High dam on the Nile River

The Suez Crisis or the Second Arab–Israeli War
- - Israel (Oct) France and England (Nov) invade the Sinai and occupy the canal zone
    - - UN and Soviet Union opposed the war
      - USA refused to back England and France--forced to withdraw

- - - - March 1957-following Israeli withdrawal, Egypt reopens canal
        1967-1975-canal closed due to Israeli-Egyptian tension
        1975-Egyptian President Anwar el-Sadat reopened the canal
  - USA maintained positive relationship after the Eisenhower administration (using diplomatic and economic pressure) forced England and France to withdraw from the Suez
    - - US-Egyptian relation ebbed-and-flowed based in Israeli diplomatic issues
  - Sadat sought economic modernization and an end to the Nasser era military control of the economy
    - - Resulted in closer ties to US and American aid

Negotiated independence

§ India from the British Empire

British views change after 1945

Debt Issue-India no longer in debt to England...Great Britain now owed India over a billion pounds.
India now had more that 15,000 officers--more than enough to take control of their own military without British support.
British soldiers returning home from serving in India now realized how unpopular the British government was among the Indian people
Labor Party (Clement Attlee) had defeated the Conservatives (Winston Churchill)
1945-1946-food shortages resulted in widespread unrest and demonstrations (ie. Calcutta-over 30 killed and several hundred injured.)
Fissure growing between Congress Party and Muslim League
- - Gandhi’s use of fasting and non-violent protest viewed as Hindu based
  - Congress Party increasingly seen as anti-Muslim
  - Muslim (minority) began to believe that a representative democracy would result in Hindus overwhelming the Muslim minority
Viceroy Lord Mountbatten negotiated for the British and failed to bring Jawaharlal Nehru and Muhammad Ali Jinnah to terms for a single state solution.
- - 1947 Indian Independence rare color video clip
  - Google Search: Reunion -- video clip

India

India gained its independence on August 15, 1947 and was led by Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru.

He held the post until his death in 1964

its constitution, completed in 1950, which put in place a secular and democratic republic
Nehru implemented moderate socialist economic reforms and committed India to a policy of industrialisation
Against the background of the Cold War:
- - Nehru developed a policy of 'positive neutrality' for India
  - key spokesmen for the non-aligned countries of Africa and Asia
  - Indian-Chinese border disputes escalated into war in 1962 and Indian forces were decisively beaten
1966--Nehru's daughter, Indira Gandhi, became prime minister. With an interruption of only three years, she held the post until her assassination in 1984
Economic liberalization, which was begun in the 1990s, has created a large urban middle class, transformed India into one of the world’s fastest-growing economies

Pakistan (from “Punjab-Afghans-Kasmir-Sind plus the Persian suffix -stan meaning kingdom”)

Pakistan gained its independence on August 14, 1947 and was led by Muhammad Ali Jinnah.
September 11, 1948 -- Muhammad Ali Jinnah died of tuberculosis, and also showed evidence of advanced lung cancer.
- - With his death, also died the possibility of of smooth transition to democracy in Pakistan.
Democracy plagued by civil war, conflict with India over Kashmir, military coups (1999) and assassinations.
Pakistan was originally made up of two parts. The east wing - present-day Bangladesh and the west wing - present-day Pakistan (broke-up in 1971).

§ The Gold Coast from the British Empire

Returned to the Gold Coast (Ghana) in 1949

- - believed that India's independence had set in motion a process of gradual transfer of power in Britain's other colonies
  - with several associates he set up a new party, the Convention People's Party (CPP)
  - 1951 -- won limited self-rule elections
    - - Nkrumah became "Leader of Government Business" -- a de facto prime minister
  - No amount of autonomy or self-rule, Kwame Nkrumah argued, could match the energy, commitment, and focus of a government and people in a truly independent country. It was a precondition for growth.
  - Kwame Nkrumah summarized his philosophy in a slogan that became famous and influential across Africa: "Seek ye first the political kingdom, and all else shall be added unto you...."

1960 -- Kwame Nkrumah made Ghana a republic and proclaimed himself its president

§ French West Africa

Félix Houphouet-Boigny, helped create a voting bloc of African deputies in the French National Assembly that helped influence governments to allow greater freedom in the colonies.
In 1958, a referendum offered full internal self government, and most voted yes while some voted for complete independence.
By 1960 all former French colonies had their freedom.

Independence through armed struggle

§ Algeria from the French empire

May 8, 1945. While France celebrates VE Day, Muslim protesters in Sétif organize to demand Algerian independence.
- - What begins as a march becomes a massacre: the protesters murder more than 100 European settlers, or pieds-noirs, and French armed forces retaliate by killing (according to various estimates) between 1,000 and 45,000 Muslims.
November 1, 1954. Emboldened by the French defeat at Dien Bien Phu, the Front de Libération Nationale (FLN) launches armed revolts throughout Algeria and issues a proclamation calling for a sovereign Algerian state.
- - The French are unimpressed but deploy troops to monitor the situation.
August 1955. The FLN begins targeting civilians, inciting a mob that kills more than 120 people in Philippeville.
- - Between 1,200 and 12,000 Muslims are killed in retaliation by French troops and by pied-noir “vigilante committees.”
  - Jacques Soustelle, then governor-general of French Algeria, resolves not to compromise with the revolutionaries.
September 30, 1956. The FLN attempts to draw international attention to the conflict by targeting urban areas.
- - The Battle of Algiers begins when three women plant bombs in public venues. Algiers erupts into violence.
May 1958. A mob of pieds-noirs, angered by the French government’s failure to suppress the revolution, storms the offices of the governor-general in Algiers.
- - With the support of French army officers, they clamor for Charles de Gaulle to be installed as the leader of France.
  - The French National Assembly approves. De Gaulle is greeted in Algeria by Muslims and Europeans alike.
September 1959. Increasingly convinced that French control of Algeria is untenable, de Gaulle pronounces that “self-determination” is necessary for Algeria.
- - Pied-noir extremists are aghast. The FLN is wary of de Gaulle’s declaration.
April 1961. A few prominent generals in the French army in Algeria, clinging to a hope of preserving Algérie française, attempt to overthrow de Gaulle.
- - This “generals’ putsch” is unsuccessful.
May 1961. The first round of negotiations between the French government and the FLN commences in Evian, but is not productive.
March 1962. After a second round of negotiations in Evian, the French government declares a cease-fire.
March–June 1962. Despairing pieds-noirs in the Organisation de l’Armée Secrète (OAS) mount terrorist attacks against civilians (Muslim and French).
- - The FLN and the OAS ultimately conclude a truce.
July 1, 1962. A referendum is held in Algeria to approve the Evian Agreements, which call for an Algérie algérienne.
- - Six million Algerians cast their ballots for independence.
1976 - Boumedienne introduces a new constitution which confirms commitment to socialism and role of the National Liberation Front (FLN) as the sole political party.
- - Islam is recognized as state religion.
  - the FLN party functioned mainly as an ideological apparatus, while power effectively rested in the hands of Boumedienne himself and his Council of Revolution
1989 New Constitution-eliminated both the country’s socialist ideology and its one-party political system
1990s. civil war that tore apart Algeria, leaving 100,000—mainly civilians—dead in fighting between Islamic militants and the military regime

Algerians Diaspora

1961-Paris police massacre more than 200 Algerians marching in the city in support of peace talks to end their country’s war of independence against France.
- - "Ici on noie les Algériens" ("Here we drown Algerians") painted on bridges in Paris.
  - Dozens of bodies were later pulled from the Seine River
The 2011 Census (France) recorded 465,849 Algerian-born people

§ Angola from the Portuguese empire

1951 - Angola's status changes from colony to overseas province
1956 - The early beginnings of the socialist guerrilla independence movement, the People's Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA), based in northern Congo.
1950s-1961 - Nationalist movement develops, guerrilla war begins.
1961 - Forced labour abolished after revolts on coffee plantations leave as many as 50,000 dead.
- - March 1961, after Angolan workers protested to demand better working conditions on labor plantations in the country’s north
  - the Portuguese military responded by bombing the regions of Icolo e Bengo and the Baia de Cassange, destroying 17 villages and killing nearly 20,000 civilians
  - Portuguese soldiers also moved overland, reportedly killing thousands of civilians.
1974 - Revolution in Portugal, colonial empire collapses

Independence

1976 - MPLA gains upper hand.
1979 - MPLA leader Agostinho Neto dies. Jose Eduardo dos Santos takes over as president.
1987 - South African forces enter Angola to support Unita.
1988 - South Africa agrees to Namibian independence in exchange for removal of Cuban troops from Angola.
1989 - Dos Santos, Unita leader Jonas Savimbi agree cease-fire, which collapses soon afterwards and guerrilla activity resumes
1991 April - MPLA drops Marxism-Leninism in favour of social democracy
1998 - Full-scale fighting resumes. Thousands killed in next four years of fighting.
- - Angola intervenes in civil war in Democratic Republic of Congo on the side of President Laurent-Desire Kabila

§ Vietnam from the French empire

Ho Chi Minh (originally Nguyen That Thanh)

Background
- - father worked at the imperial court but was dismissed for criticising the French colonial power.
  - 1911 -- Ho took a job on a French ship and traveled widely
    - - lived in London and Paris
      - was a founding member of the French communist party
      - 1919 -- attempted to meet Wilson at Versailles
  - 1923 -- visited Moscow for training at Comintern, an organisation created by Lenin to promote worldwide revolution
  - 1925-1927 -- travelled to southern China to organise a revolutionary movement among Vietnamese exiles and work for the Soviet mission with Chiang Kai-Shek’s government
  - 1930 -- founded the Indo-Chinese Communist Party (ICP) in Hong Kong
  - 1930s - traveled between China and the Soviet Union
1941 Japanese occupation of Indo-China
- - Ho returned home and founded the Viet Minh
    - - a communist-dominated independence movement
  - fought the Japanese
  - worked with the OSS (would become the CIA) Deer Team
  - He adopted the name Ho Chi Minh, meaning 'Bringer of Light'
After WWII
- - On September 2, 1945, in front of a crowd of thousands, Ho declared Vietnam an independent nation. He began his speech with:
    - - All men are created equal. They are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights, among them are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness.
  - F.D. Roosevelt's opposition to European colonialism was well known.
    - - Roosevelt insisted that the 1941 Atlantic Charter contain the following provision: “the right of all peoples to choose the form of government under which they will live.”
      - FDR wanted the USA on the side of anti-colonialism, but Truman was now in the Oval Office.
        US Maj. Allison Thomas in his reports to the OSS Station in China advocated independence for Indo-China
        US State Department cables from the time speak of Ho and his Communist leanings
        it was clear that the US was not going to support him, despite the recommendations of the OSS team leader Major Allison Thomas and later Aaron Bank
  - The French refused to relinquish their colony and in 1946, war broke out for 8-years
  - 1954 - Vietnamese victory at Dien Bien Phu
  - 1956 - the French were forced to agree to peace talks in Geneva
    - - The country was split into a communist north and non-communist south
      - From that time Ho’s primary goal was the reunification of Vietnam
  - Ho became president of North Vietnam
    - - he promoted Vietnamese national interests within the socialist bloc and attempted to prevent the widening split between Moscow and Beijing
  - early 1960s, North Vietnamese-backed guerrillas, the Vietcong, were attacking the South Vietnamese government (including U.S. military installations)
    - - Fearing the spread of communism, the United States provided increasing levels of support to South Vietnam

Regional, religious, and ethnic movements

§ Muslim League in British India

1906-Muslim League Formed
- - response to Hindu nationalism
  - Like the Indian National Congress, petitioned the British for more say in the government for Indian Muslims and for laws and policies that would favor the people they represented
1940-Lahore Resolution
- - led by Muhammad Ali Jinnah
  - demanded that India be separated into two states: one for Hindus and one for Muslims.
  - Believed the needs of the Muslim minorities would not be represented in a representative Hindu government
1942 -- Quit India Movement
- - Muhammad Ali Jinnah opposed this Hindu nationalist demand for "An Orderly British Withdrawal" from India during WWII
  - brought the All Indian Muslim League closer to the British
  - guaranteed Jinnah a seat at the table in 1947
August 14, 1947 -- Pakistan gained its independence led by Muhammad Ali Jinnah

§ Québécois separatist movement in Canada

Since 1968 the party has appealed for constitutional negotiations on the matter of provincial sovereignty, in addition to holding two provincial referendums on the matter.
constitutional negotiations
- - 1982-The Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms (is a Bill of Rights) as part of the Constitution Act of 1982 guarantees the protection of the French language and French-Canadian culture in Canada.
provincial referendums
- - 1980-Approximately 60% of Quebec's voting public rejected the idea of establishing a "sovereignty-association" pact between the province of Quebec and the rest of Canada.
  - 1995-Approximately 50.58% of Quebec's voting public rejected the idea of establishing a "sovereignty-association" pact between the province of Quebec and the rest of Canada.

§ Biafra secessionist movement in Nigeria (1967-1970)

began as a ethnic regional push for freedom
- - the Igbo tribe in the south trying to separate
  - create a separate state of Biafra
Many argue that it was also over oil control
- - French government gave $30-million to Biafra separatists

Results:

Est. two million Biafran civilians died from starvation caused by the total blockade of the region by the Nigerian government

Biafra was reintegrated into Nigeria

CLASS ACTIVITY -- Africa

Activity

Decolonization is one of the foundational changes in the making of the modern world

A shift from a “world order” ruled by colonial powers to a world of nations.
Use the documents below to examine this change:

1.) What vision was it that inspired this process?

2.) How was this vision implemented by those who brought about this change?

3.) What were the consequences of creating so many new nations in the 30-years following 1945?

4.) What happened when decolonization collided with the other foundational change of our modern world, “globalization?” (Make some educated guesses)

Document 1

Source: Excerpt from Kwame Nkrumah’s “I Speak of Freedom” speech, 1961

It is clear that we must find an African solution to our problems, and that this can only be found in African unity. Divided we are weak; united, Africa could become one of the greatest forces for good in the world.

Although most Africans are poor, our continent is potentially extremely rich. Our mineral resources, which are being exploited with foreign capital only to enrich foreign investors, range from gold and diamonds to uranium and petroleum. Our forests contain some of the finest woods to be grown anywhere. Our cash crops include cocoa, coffee, rubber, tobacco and cotton. As for power...Africa contains over 40% of the potential water power of the world, as compared with about 10% in Europe and 13% in North America. Yet so far, less than 1% has been developed. This is one of the reasons why we have in Africa the paradox of poverty in the midst of plenty, and scarcity in the midst of abundance.

Document 2

Source: Telegram from the Central Intelligence Agency to the White House

13 JANUARY 1970

COUNTRY: NIGERIA/GABON/IVORY COAST/FRANCE

SUBJECT:

1. WHEREABOUTS OF BIAFRAN SECESSIONIST LEADER GENERAL ODUMEGWO OJUKWU

2. THE EARLY RESPONSE OF THE FRENCH GOVERNENT TO THE FALL OF BIAFRA

1. BIAFRA SECESSIONIST LEADER GENERAL ODUMEGWU OJUKWU HAS BEEN STAYING IN A PRIVATE VILLA IN LIBREVILLE SINCE HIS DEPARTURE FROM BIAFRA. [text not declassified] TO THE FRENCH GOVERMENT OJUKWU SAID THAT HE WAS DEPARTING IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE WISHES OF HIS GENERAL STAFF AND TO SPARE HIS PEOPLE FROM EXTERMINATION…

2. ON THE EVENING OF 13 JANUARY 1970 FOCCART'S DEPUTY JEAN MAURICHEAU-BEAUPRE WENT TO SEE FRENCH MINISTER OF NATIONAL DEFENSE MICHEL DEBRE. DEBRE AND MAURICHEAU-BEAUPRE DECIDED TO HAVE THE STOCK OF FRENCH-SUPPLIED ARMS REMOVED [text not declassified] AND DIVIDED BETWEEN THE FRENCH BASES AT DOUALA AND ABIDJAN. MAURICHEAU-BEAUPRE SAID THAT FRANCE HAD SENT $30,000,000 IN MATERIAL TO BIAFRA, LENT IVORY COAST PRESIDENT HOUPHOUET-BOIGNY $3,000,000 FOR BIAFRAN OPERATIONS, AND FACES A DEBT OF CIRCA $400,000 FOR [text not declassified] SERVICES

3. THERE ARE AT PRESENT NO PLANS FOR FRENCH SUPPORT TO BIAFRAN GUERRILLA RESISTANCE. THE RATIONALE FOR THIS POSITION AS EXPRESSED BY MAURICHEAU-BEAUPRE TO INDIVIDUALS CONCERNED WITH EXECUTING BIAFRAN OPERATIONS WAS AS FOLLOWS: "FRANCE SUPPORTED BIAFRA BECAUSE OF THE OIL AND ERAP, BUT NOT THE IBO REVOLUTION. THE SUPPORT WAS ACTUALLY GIVEN TO A HANDFUL OF BlAFRAN BOURGEOISE IN RETURN FOR THE OIL. THERE IS NO POPULAR SUPPORT IN BIAFRA FOR A GUERRILLA WAR NOW. THE REAL IBO MENTALITY IS MUCH FARTHER TO THE LEFT THAN THAT OF OJUKWU AND EVEN IF WE HAD WON, THERE WOULD HAVE BEEN THE PROBLEM OF KEEPING HIM IN POWER IN THE FACE OF LEFTIST INFILTRATION."

Document 3

Source: Excerpt from Commanding Heights by Daniel Yergin and Joseph Stanislaw, 1998 ed., pp. 83-88.

The colonization of Africa had come with little regard for local education, health, or infrastructure. It was tainted with racism and contempt. As a result, people were not equipped to participate in markets, or so it seemed. Instead, the new leaders hatched schemes for "African socialism" that could somehow combine modern growth and traditional values. "Capitalism is too complicated a system for a newly independent nation," Nkrumah argued. "Hence the need for a socialistic society." Few disagreed. It was, after all, the received wisdom of the time.

Document 4

Source: Kwame Nkrumah, ex-president of Ghana (deposed in 1966), Revolutionary Path, an autobiography published in 1973.

We must develop Ghana economically, socially, culturally, spiritually, educationally, technologically and otherwise. We have embarked upon an intensive socialist reconstruction of our country. Ghana inherited a colonial economy and similar disabilities in most other directions. Despite the ideological bankruptcy and moral collapse of a civilization in despair, we must go forward with our preparations for planned economic growth that supplant the poverty, ignorance, disease, illiteracy and degradation left in their wake by discredited colonialism and decaying imperialism.

Class Activity -- contextualizing the Partition of India

Activity

1.) Using the documents to guide you and your knowledge of history, contextualize the decision by the British to grant South Asia independence through partitioning the subcontinent.

Document 1

Source: Excerpt from Mohandas Gandhi’s “Quit India” speech, given in Bombay, 8 August 1942.

The power, when it comes, will belong to the people of India, and it will be for them to decide to whom it placed in the entrusted. . . . Ever since its inception the Congress has kept itself meticulously free of the communal taint. It has thought always in terms of the whole nation and has acted accordingly. . . . I know how imperfect our Ahimsa is and how far away we are still from the ideal, but in Ahimsa there is no final failure or defeat. I have faith, therefore, that if, in spite of our shortcomings, the big thing does happen, it will be because God wanted to help us by crowning with success our silent, unremitting Sadhana for the last twenty-two years.”

Ahimsa = non-violence

Document 2

Source: Muhammad Ali Jinnah-March, 1940. Presented at the Muslim League Lahore, India.

...with regard to the sending of the troops. Here there is some misunderstanding. But anyhow we have made our position clear that we never intended, and in fact language does not justify it if there is any misapprehension or apprehension, that the Indian troops should not be used to the fullest in the defence of our own country. What we wanted the British Government to give us assurance of was that Indian troops should not be sent against any Muslim country or any Muslim power. (Hear, hear.) Let us hope that we may yet be able to get the British Government to clarify the position further.

A leading journal like the London Times, commenting on the Government of India Act of 1935, wrote that "Undoubtedly the difference between the Hindus and Muslims is not of religion in the strict sense of the word but also of law and culture, that they may be said indeed to represent two entirely distinct and separate civilisations. However, in the course of time the. superstitions will die out and India will be moulded into a single nation." (So according to the London Times the only difficulties are superstitions).

It is inconceivable that the fiat or the writ of a government so constituted can ever command a willing and loyal obedience throughout the sub-continent by various nationalities, except by means of armed force behind it.

Document 3

Source: Jawaharlal Nehru--an excerpt from a book by Jawaharlal Nehru, India’s first Prime Minister. He wrote the book, The Discovery of India, from 1942-1945, when he was in prison for participating in the Indian Independence Movement. Nehru, J. (1946). The Discovery of India. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

. . . Unity is always better than disunity, but an enforced unity is a sham and dangerous affair, full of explosive possibilities. Unity must be if the mind and heart, a sense of belonging together and of facing together those who attack it. I am convinced that there is that basic unity in India, but it has been overlaid and hidden to some extent by other forces. These latter may be temporary and artificial and may pass off, but they count to-day and no man can ignore them.

Document 4

Source: Lord Louis Mountbatten and the Partition of India, a selection of personal interviews with Lord Louis Mountbatten, March 22 — August 15 , 1947. Tarang Paperbacks a division of Vikas Publishing House. 1960

Q: When you revealed to Jinnah what a “moth-eaten Pakistan” would be in his plan, were you trying to drive him to face the reality of what he was asking for in the hope that it might bring him to his senses?

A: Correct I was trying every trick I could play on him I was trying to appeal to him in every way I possibly could. But you see he had discovered the extraordinary success he’d been able to have through continuing to say no. This was unbeatable. And he’d made this discovery before I came out. The only difference between the various negotiators he’d had before me was that he had no audience before which to say no, and it’s not the same thing to say it to one person. He had no gallery to play to. The only time he had a gallery, he just had to nod his head. It’s my experience that people talk quite differently when they’re alone than when there are other people listening.

Q: In researching for Freedom at Midnight we made the astonishing discovery that Jinnah was dying of tuberculosis in 1947 and that his doctor didn’t expect him to live for more than six or seven months. Were you aware of this?

A: Not only was I not aware, but nobody was away. Nobody had a clue and I’m glad I didn’t because I just don’t know what I would have done if I’d known that.

You see Jinnah was so much of a one man band. If somebody had told me he’s going to be dead in x months would I then—I’m asking myself this question now—would I have said, Let’s hold India together and not divide it? Would I have put back the clock and held the position? Most probably. I have a feeling Jinnah may not have known himself he had tuberculosis. He was a very severe, cold and repressed person. Nothing would have surprised me about him. He was an extraordinary creature.

However, it is clear that Wavell and others knew that Jinnah was seriously by the time I reached Delhi. No such rumour reached me, my wife, my staff, my daughter. Nor any of my immediate British staff. The previous British staff, if they knew about it, kept it to themselves. This was disastrous because if I had known, things would have been handled quite differently.

Document 5

Source: Wolpert, Stanley (2006). Shameful Flight: The Last Years of the British Empire in India. Oxford: Oxford University Press, Inc. (p. 1-2).

. . . the tragedy of Partition and its more than half century legacy of hatred, fear and communal conflict . . . might well have been avoided, or at least mitigated, but for the arrogance and ignorance of a handful of British and Indian Leaders. Those ten additional months of post war talks, aborted by an impatient Mountbatten, might have helped all parties to agree that cooperation was much wiser than conflict, dialogue more sensible than division, words easier to cope with and pay for than perpetual warfare . . .

DEBRIEF AND SUMMARY

Key Takeaways

A.) Due to decolonization, the number of sovereign [independent] countries mushroomed from 50 to 192 from 1945 to the end of the twentieth century.

Decolonization is the process of ending colonial rule and the establishing a new government, usually by the indigenous people who were colonized.

B.) Decolonizations shortfalls:

No smooth transitions of power (Korea, China, Middle East, etc.)
Extreme violence that accompanied the later stages of decolonization (Algeria, India, Kenya, Cyprus, Angola & Mozambique)
Failures of institutional transfers (India is the great exception)
Failures in nation building (create a shared national identity)
Failures of economic and cultural integration of the newly sovereign states

C.) The real reasons for Decolonization

European colonial powers-following 1945, there is a lack of money and political will (to give lives) to maintain empires
- - Portuguese will be the last to give up empire largely because it was not a democracy. It will only be a coup in Portugal (1974) that will usher in decolonization in Angola & Mozambique.
Cold War-European powers like Great Britain desired to maintain a “Commonwealth” to maintain parity with the new geopolitical “Super Powers”
Strategic Transitions-strategic transfers of powers made when a viable successor found who might maintain the European hegemony established OR when successor appeared to be anti-communist.

D.) Post-Decolonization issues that arise

Forms of Government: many attempts of Federation, but often results in unitary regimes that were largely undemocratic.
Cold War: provided an environment where the two superpowers attempted to establish their hegemony over the new regimes.
Lack of established institutions: even the most developed movements (China and India) had to settle for partitioned nations.
Decentralized power legacy: colonial powers had ruled from afar by devolving power down for administrative reasons.
Subnational claimants for power: once the colonial authority was gone, there were many groups who desired to reclaim lost power, land, and rectify injustices.
National identity (“...war make the state.”): European national identity was largely established through centuries of violence...a reality that was not initially part of the new states globally.