Well hey and welcome back to Heimler’s History. Now we’ve been going through Unit 8 of AP World History and we’ve been saying that there are two major themes within this unit: there’s decolonization and there’s the Cold War. Now in the last few videos we’ve been thinking about the Cold War.
But in this video we’re going to start talking about the massive wave of independence movements throughout the world that led to decolonization. So get them brain cows ready, because I’m about to get them milked. Let’s get to it.
So in terms of decolonization throughout the world, there were basically two different means by which these countries gained their independence from their colonial powers. The first is negotiated independence and the second is armed resistance. And we’re going to look at each of them in turn.
First, decolonization through negotiated independence. And the first example comes to us from our friends in India. So by 1920 Mohandas Gandhi led the Indian National Congress in the movement for Indian independence from Britain.
And Gandhi’s chosen means of leadership to this end was non-violent civil disobedience. And we’ll talk more about some of these movements specifically in a later video, but for now, all you need to know is that this long and arduous non-violent campaign worked. You see, the British were essentially exhausted and broke from fighting World War II and they realized that they did not have the resources or the power to maintain colonial rule in India.
And so in 1947 India, through negotiation with Britain, became an independent state. Also recall that there was a significant Muslim minority in India. And when Indians began dreaming of an independent India, the Muslims in India formed a religious organization called the Muslim League in 1906.
And one of the chief aims of the Muslim league was to advocate for an independent state for Muslims living in India. And in 1947, when independence came, they got what they wanted, which is to say, the nation of Pakistan in the north of India. A second example of negotiated independence is French West Africa.
This included places like Senegal, the Ivory Coast, Niger, etc. France had ruled these colonies since the 1800s, but they did so with relatively small occupational forces. And in order to maintain dominance, the French relied on cooperation with local governments and chiefs.
However, once this relationship began to crumble and France could no longer maintain power apart from devoting huge amounts of resources to it, they negotiated independence in most of these nations by 1959. A third example of negotiated independence was the Gold Coast, which would later become the nation of Ghana. Now the Gold Coast was also a British colony, and they experienced a similar decolonization process to India.
The nation of Ghana was born in 1957 and its first president was Kwame Nkrumah. Nkrumah was a nationalistic leader who was careful to construct a national narrative of past glory and present triumph, much like the national narratives he observed in places like America and Europe. And to this end Nkrumah codified this narrative with a flag, a national anthem, and monuments to symbolize Ghana’s glory.
Okay, so those are some examples of negotiated independence. Now let’s turn our attention to decolonization through armed conflict. And our first example is Algeria.
In the middle of the twentieth century Algerians began to rise up against the French colonial government. Now France had just lost Indochina as a colony and were determined not to lose Algeria as well. And so the French clamped down hard on these uprisings with strict laws and violence.
At this, nationalism was brought to a boil in the Algerian chest, and in 1954 the Algerian war for independence began. The Algerians organized themselves into the National Liberation Front and used guerilla tactics and brutalization against the French who brutalized them right back. And the violence even spilled over into France.
There was a significant division among French citizens about whether Algeria should go free, and the chief proponents of their freedom was the communist party. However, in 1958 French president Charles de Gaulle organized and planned the steps of Algerian independence. And yet another example of decolonization through armed conflict was Vietnam (which is to say, Indochina).
Now as I mentioned before, Vietnam was a colony of France. And you know you kinda have to feel bad for France at this point. So, tell me how you feel.
It’s just that I worked so hard to conquer people and to exploit their economies and to enact repressive policies and to keep them under my thumb and… why they want to leave me? Yes, let it out. Have a proper cry.
I honor your journey. Anyway, two things happened to Vietnam after World War II. First, France was ousted from their colonial occupation.
However, second, almost immediately France came back and occupied the southern portion of the nation. And in the north, a communist government was established under Ho Chi Minh. And his goal was to oust the French from Vietnam altogether and unite the country under a communist government.
So Ho Chi Minh initiated the Vietnamese war for independence which ended in 1954. And the result of this war was that Vietnam was officially separated into two countries: North Vietnam and South Vietnam. And I only mention this because this partition would lead to another proxy war between the United States and the Soviet Union since the north was communist and the south was democratic.
Now another example of decolonization through armed conflict is Egypt. Now, technically Egypt had been an independent nation since 1922, but it's not quite that simple. British troops remained stationed in Egypt to protect their interests in the Suez canal.
And so after World War II was over General Gamal Abdel Nasser led an overthrow of the Egyptian king and established the Republic of Egypt. Now Nasser, who was a socialist, became Egypt’s second president. And once he was in power, he nationalized the Suez Canal.
Now remember, there are British troops stationed at the Suez Canal and the Egyptians had signed a contract with France to lease the canal to them for 99 years. And to Nasser, all of this was a symbol of colonial oppression and he wanted to be rid of it, thus the nationalization of the canal. And that led us to something called the Suez Crisis.
Now once the declaration was made about the nationalization of the canal, France induced their ally Israel to invade Egypt. Britain and France then sent troops to occupy the land surrounding the canal. Now the U.
S. and the Soviet Union opposed this action and through the intervention of the United Nations, they brokered an agreement to make the Suez Canal an international waterway under the sovereignty of Egypt. Okay, now let’s consider two examples of decolonization that don’t really fit neatly into either category, they’re sort of a blending between negotiation and armed conflict.
First is the African nation of Nigeria. So, in 1960 the Nigerians negotiated their independence from Britain. But a civil war broke out by 1967 over who would control this newly independent Nigeria.
It began when the Igbo people who were a westernized Christian people in the south tried to secede and form their own nation called Biafra. Now because their land was rich in oil the northern government resisted this secession violently. Ultimately the north won out in 1970 and established at last a united Nigeria.
A second example that’s a blend of categories is the Quebecois Separatist Movement in Canada. Quebec was a French colony suffused with French culture. But back in the 1700s the British ended up controlling most of Canada and that led to a fundamental division between the French Catholics in Quebec and the British Protestants basically everywhere else in Canada.
And there were several movements, over the years, to create a separate state in Quebec, all of which ultimately failed. And in the 1960s the liberal party was gaining power in Quebec and there was a growing nationalism among them. And in 1963 all of this flared up into violence which included a series of terrorist bombings.
Ultimately the movement failed and Quebec remained united with Canada. Alright that’s what you need to know about Unit 8 Topic 5 of AP World History. If you want me to keep making videos and join the Heimler family, then subscribe and I will keep doing it.
Heimler out.
