The Decolonization Movement
Explore decolonization — the sweeping movement that dismantled European colonial empires and created dozens of new nations across Africa and Asia after World War II.
Decolonization was one of the 20th century's most transformative processes: the dissolution of European colonial empires and the emergence of dozens of independent nations across Asia, Africa, and the Caribbean. In 1945, most of Africa and much of Asia were under European rule. By 1975, colonialism as a formal system was essentially finished — a revolution in global politics accomplished in a single generation.
The causes of decolonization were multiple: the weakening of European powers by two world wars, the hypocrisy of fighting fascism while maintaining colonial empires, the rise of nationalist movements led by Western-educated elites, Cold War competition for the allegiance of new nations, and the simple determination of colonized peoples to govern themselves. Some transitions were peaceful (India, most of West Africa); others were violent (Algeria, Kenya, Vietnam, Indonesia).
The Bandung Conference of 1955, which brought together leaders of newly independent Asian and African nations, articulated a vision of non-alignment — refusing to choose sides in the Cold War. But independence often brought new challenges: arbitrary colonial borders encompassing hostile groups, economies structured for extraction rather than development, Cold War interference, and the temptations of authoritarian rule. The legacy of colonialism continues to shape the nations born from decolonization.