whick.country used to be called upper volta

In 1946 it became embroiled in a colonial war in Indochina, waged far from home and to prove costly in human life.

Meanwhile Indonesia endured four years of military and diplomatic confrontation with the Netherlands, until the Dutch government recognised the independence of the Dutch East Indies in December 1949.įrance also had to cope with demands for independence from its colonies. In 1948 the United Kingdom also granted independence to Burma and Ceylon, but Malaya had to wait till 1957 to gain the same status.

On 15 August 1947 this situation led to the partition of the subcontinent into two separate states: India and Pakistan. Several months later it gained its independence, but not without suffering violent clashes between the Hindu and Muslim communities. In February 1947 the British decided to leave India. The colonised peoples of South-East Asia were the first to demand the departure of the Europeans and to claim independence. The second phase started in 1955 and mainly concerned North Africa and sub-Saharan Africa. The first lasted from 1945 to 1955, mainly affecting countries in the Near and Middle East, and South-East Asia. In item 3 of this declaration the two Heads of State made the following undertaking: ‘They respect the right of all peoples to choose the form of government under which they will live and they wish to see sovereign rights and self government restored to those who have been forcibly deprived of them.’ĭecolonisation unfolded in two phases. The American President, Franklin Roosevelt, and the British Prime Minister, Winston Churchill, had already subscribed to this principle in the Atlantic Charter, which they signed on 14 August 1941 on the American cruiser Augusta, off Newfoundland. The Charter of the United Nations affirmed its ‘respect for the principle of equal rights and self-determination of peoples’. The peoples under colonial rule, often employed to fill the ranks of allied armies in war time, were determined to break the ties that still held them to Europe, now ruined and stripped of its resources.įurthermore the emergence of two anti-colonialist superpowers, the United States and the Soviet Union, and the new international climate after 1945 encouraged the colonies to make a bid for independence. The United Kingdom was seriously depleted. The Netherlands, Belgium and France were defeated and occupied. The Second World War dealt a serious blow to the colonial powers, depriving them of their former prestige. The start of decolonisation and the emergence of the non-aligned movement

Whick.country used to be called upper volta