Decolonization: The End of Empires

HST 112

Ethan Pollock

Lecture 20

Decolonization

I. The Background 19th century to 1939

II. The Postwar Setting

III. The End of the British Empire in India

IV. End of the French Empire in Indochina

V. African Decolonization: North, West, East, South

I. The 19th Century to 1939

A. Review: 19th Century Imperialism

B. The First World War, the Bolshevik Revolution, and the Colonies

C. The Great Depression and the Colonies

II. The Postwar Setting

A. The Defeat of Old Colonialism

B. Demographic Explosion

C. The Cold War

D. Roads to Modernization

III. The End of the British Empire in India

A. Indian National Congress Between the World Wars

Mohandas Gandhi

B. Independence

C. Nehru and the Indian Path to Modernization

IV. The End of the French Empire in Indochina

A. Ho Chi Minh and the Independence Movement

B. The War for Independence

Dien Bien Phu – 1954

C. Divided Vietnam

V. African Decolonization

A. Algeria and North Africa

B. Ghana

C. Belgian Congo

D. South Africa -- Aparthaid