Download Decolonization Lecture

People’s Revolutions – Prague and Paris 1968
• Alexander Dubcek
• Prague Spring
• Uprising fails
Paris- student protests become
workers protests
Status quo is maintained.
Decolonization: Colonies become nations
after WWII
Increased independence movements – especially from countries who
had helped their imperial rulers in WWII (and WWI!)
European countries – especially Britain – found their power severely
diminished and could not afford empire.
Case Study: India
Gandhi as leader (nonviolence)
Partition and the problems of independence
Pakistan becomes aligned with US
India becomes a democracy and manages ties
to US while still being friendly to socialism.
Decolonization and the Cold War
New nations become pawns in the US and USSRs game.
Increasing independence movements and economic
issues lead European countries to grant independence
to their colonies.
Alignment and “Proxy” Wars
Alignment: Newly independent nations are swept into the CW as the
US and USSR compete to
- Help build countries financially/assist in development
- Accepting help also meant, in most cases, accepting politics and
influence.
- Some countries chose to be “non-aligned”
The Chinese Revolution
Mao Zedong and the
communist revolution
Cuban Missile Crisis – will the Cold War get
“hot”?
Fidel Castro
Proxy Wars and the CIA
Patrice Lumumba – US
fears about him being
sympathetic to the Soviets
lead to a US sponsored
coup
Joseph Mobutu
was corrupt
and repressive
USSRs invasion of
Afghanistan to Protect
their interests
Immigration to Europe from countries
formerly colonized
• Britain’s creation of the “commonwealth”
• Europe becomes a more diverse society.
The 1970s Economic Decline and the Rise of
New Conservatism
OPEC and Oil Crisis
Challenges to the Welfare State: 1980s and
the “New Conservatism”
Protests against Margaret Thatcher
(’80s hair was so cool!)
Divided legacy of
Margaret Thatcher