Historia

2. Why did the European powers lose their empires? How did decolonization impact on the metropolis?

Why did European powers lose their empires?
* Europeans did not want to let go of their empires and they expected to keep them at the war’s end, but their own weaknesses and the unstoppable mobilization of opposition brought an end to more than a century of political domination
*Occurred in 2 waves!
* First took place right after the war when India, Burma, Sri Lanka, and Palestine became independent as Britain’s capacity to maintain colonies simply collapsed, especially in the face of massive resistance from both the colonized leadership and the masses
* Second wave began in Ghana in 1957 and spread throughout sub-Saharan Africa, with the same uneven mixture ofquietly achieved independence in some states and violent resistance from whites in others.
* 1980’s European political empire was almost over, but economic, social, and cultural ties remained strong
* Allowing for development of neo-imperialism –a client relationship in which industrialized Western nations were still able to exploit the newly liberated countries economicallyeven if they no longer controlled them politically

* LEGACY OF WWII PUSHED FOR DECOLONIZATION
* Soldiers from the colonies learned about highly complex technology that imperialists otherwise might have tried to keep out of their hands, and they improved their reading and writing
* Discrimination causing upset –soldiers that had participated in the war were pushed aside duringceremonies and celebrations
* Returning veterans joined civil rights and liberation movements
* Therefore the progress of war in the colonies further weakened the already fragile colonial grip. At the height of combat with Hitler, the imperial nations could not exercise the political oversight they had wielded before the war, leaving colonies to run themselves
* Forcedconscription and forced labor by millions of colonized civilians aggravated all the political and social tensions of imperialism
* Pay differentials sparked riots
* Desperate needs of the Allies allowed local entrepreneurs to flourish while the imperial powers were to preoccupied with war to offer competition or to prohibit colonized people’s initiative. It was also cheaper to have rawmaterials converted into finished goods in the colonies than to waste on shipping natural resources to already hard-pressed powers like Britain for manufacturing
* Wealthy manufacturers, traders, and large landowners joined other pro-liberation forces to preserve the business independence they had achieved
* The problems that the war brought the lower classes of colonized peoples onlypiqued their anger. The pursuit of war impoverished European civilians, but it selectively impoverished local people in the colonies even more. The colonies, whose well-being in terms of supplies, economic development, or even basic necessities like food was not a high priority for the imperial powers during wartime, experienced famine, rapid urbanization, and social upheaval between 1939 and 1945* How certain wins created a domino effect pushing for further independence…
* Churchill pissed off Saudi by demanding alcohol during meeting.. Said he would increase drilling in country if Britain would be excluded because he pissed him off by disrespecting Muslim values
* Success of Saudi led to Iran wanting to do the same snowballing others like Egypt who tried to cut Britishout of control of Suez canal prompting Israeli, French, British attack which the U.S. didn’t end up supporting as they had expected who instead scolded them for their imperialistic behavior
* Egypt/Nasser’s triumph inspired confidence that the Middle East could assert its interests and win, and it signaled to other developing nations that they could act independently even in a world...