Why did the European powers decolonize after the Second World War

This essay explores the reasons behind the decolonization of European powers after the Second World War, including economic forces, post-war agreements, freedom movements, and pressure from the world. It also discusses the challenges faced by European powers after decolonization and their responses to them.

Essay

Why did the European powers decolonised after Second World War?
Speaking in volume about the decolonisation, it is departure or removal of foreign
powers from the colonies and the attainment of economic as well as political independence
through these colonies. Because of the Second World War there has been a significant
influence on the process decolonisation. Due to this, there has been rise in different
nationalist movements as well. Pertaining to this, the main aim of the current essay is to
understand the reason behind the end of the colonialism of the European powers and the
manner they have built their nation after decolonisation. The final section of the essay will
include summary and conclusion. Talking about decolonization, it is referred as a significant
process through which the colonies got freedom and they became self-governing government
or nation. For some of the British colonies, this process was very peaceful as well as steady
(Jan and Osterhammel, 2019). However, there were some for them it was largely settled
through refugees and for others, it was violent as the local insurgences were motivated
through patriotism. After the completion of the Second World War, many of the European
nations does not have sufficient wealth along with the support from the political parties being
required for suppressing the preoccupied revolutions. In addition to this, the European powers
also came across with different disagreements from the newly founded superpowers such as
Soviet Union as well as United States. Both of these parties have acquired the place in
contradiction of colonialism. With the defeat of the Japan in the war, Korea was unregulated
in the year 1945. Additionally, in the year 1946, United States has also abandoned the
Philippines. Furthermore, in the year 1947 the bruisers also left India and Egypt in the year
1956. Many serious blows have been given to the colonial powers including European
colonies by the Second World War. Due to this, they have lost their earlier reputation and
respect (Decolonization of Asia and Africa, 1945–1960, 2021). Additionally, Belgium,
France along with the Netherlands were all beaten also occupied. Even, the UK was
exhausted extremely. Most of the people that were beneath the colonial rule given
employment in order to bung up the ranks of associated militaries during the time of the war.
They were found unwavering to cease the bonds that still detained them to Europe, at present
abandoned as well as exposed of its assets. Focusing on the decolonization, in the middle of
the year 1945 and 1960 there were numerous novel states in Asia as well as Africa who have
attained independence or total freedom from the colonial rulers of Europe. There was not a
single procedure of decolonization being adopted by the colonies. There was peace and
organization in some of the regions. However, in some of the other regions the freedom was
1

attained after carrying out an extended rebellion. Those nations who were recently
autonomous attained stable government more or less instantaneously. Besides, there were
some nations who are still administrated by armed regimes and autocrats from the past
several years and have also been into never ending political wars (The beginnings of
decolonisation and the emergence of the non-aligned states, 2021). Few government from the
Europe applauded and received a novel association with their earlier colonies and the
remaining European government challenged decolonization regimentally. In addition to this,
the progression of decolonization overlapped with the new-fangled Cold war amid the USA
as well as Soviet Union along with the initial expansion of the new United Nations. Thus, it
can be said that the decolonization of the European powers was majorly impacted by the
rivalry of the superpower or global force. It also had a certain influence on the fruition of that
rivalry. Moreover, this decolonization has also altered the important arrangement of world-
wide association into a general sense.
Moving further, the formation of different novel nations, of which some attained
strategic locations and some were the owners of the crucial natural resources, while others
were dreadfully poor, changed the configuration of the United Nations and governmental
complications of each and every area across the world (). In the middle and later 19th Century,
the European powers take the possession of most parts of the Africa as well as Asia in the
Southern part. All throughout the period of empire-building developing supremacies of
Europe have considered Asian as well As African landmasses as a pool of workforce, rare
resources and terrain where they can settle in the coming future. In furthermost
circumstances, important evolution as well as settlement of the Europe in these clusters was
irregular. Nevertheless, colonies were subjugated viciously in order to get raw-materials,
scare resources and workforce. Many a times they were exploited for armed rookies. In the
course of the Second World War, Japan which was an important magnificent supremacy
troop the European powers out of the Asia (Shipway, 2018). Subsequent to the submission of
the Japan in the year 1945, many local autonomist actions in the earlier Asian colonies
initiated campaigning in order to get freedom instead of returning to rule of European
colonies.
Coming towards the reasons behind which this colonialism of European powers was
ended, there were different motives pertaining to this. Decolonization of the European abroad
domains arrived behind schedule and was quickly finished up. In the year 1945 UN had fifty
one unique individuals. With the end of the year 1955 that number had ascended to seventy
six, with just seven of the new individuals previously colonized. Enemies of colonialists
2

contributed significantly to this turn of events, which was given institutional and legitimate
importance via autonomy as sovereign enrolment of the United Nations. Every instant of
freedom was a model, and contributed in total to the speeding up the course of progress
(Santos, Pearson and Eggers, 2020). Banner freedom in Asia and Africa was not the finish of
decolonization as a down to earth or scholarly issue. It was, nonetheless, the sign of a
significant redesigning of the worldwide framework as well as its regulating engineering later
1945. This might comprise the main part of decolonization as a course of chronicled
transformation. From past several years, there were only the European powers who have
controlled and organized nations and the regions across the globe. Additionally, they have
also demoralised their native people along with the possessions and assets present in the
terrain which were being ruled by them. Because of this colonialism or practice they got the
magnificent authorities along with the right to entry on different raw-materials, for example
tobacco, sugar, and a fresh foundation of probable clients for their growing trades (Iliffe,
2015). They even got the chance of converting thousands and billions of people towards
Christianity. The practice of colonialism was considered quite determined as well as
inescapable. The European powers have acquired almost eighty percent of the total mainland
of the world amid the year 1492 and 1914. However, there were different colonies in United
States of Americas which have attained freedom in the 18th and 19th century and Japan and
European powers were still controlling huge section of Asia, Africa, middle east and pacific
region in the beginning of the 21stcentury. Therefore, subsequent to the years of controlling
and expansionism, which factors have compelled European Powers to break these strong as
well as powerful empires soon after the Second World War? Here are some of important
reasons:
The first and the foremost reason is the economic forces. Because of the Second
World War most of the part of the Europe became bankrupted. Pertaining to this, the cost
related to the maintenance of hundreds and millions of soldiers were very high. Furthermore,
the management of the colonies throughout the globe was becoming impracticable for the
Europe, especially for the UK as they have appeared from the battle with the high amount of
liability. Another important factor which has resulted into decolonization of European powers
was post-war agreements (Holt, 2016). There were many nations who have lost the battle of
the world war second have compelled to surrender their colonies in relation with the
regulations of their forfeiter. Taking the example of Japan, this country has dominated around
200 million people all throughput the 13 current day nations and relinquished control of their
territory in the peace treaty of 1951. In addition to this, the third reason behind the
3

decolonisation of European power was movement related to freedom. It was being referred as
an enduring freedom movement and was also grounded on the idea of self-rule. This
movement attained pace soon and placed greater amount of force or stress on the European
colonial powers succeeding the Second World War. In these colonies, several municipal
teams have organized extensively famous non-violence remonstrations. In the meantime,
several other places have also started rebelling and initiated fight along with the gory wars in
order to achieve their freedom. Last but not the least, one of the most crucial factor that
headed European powers towards decolonization was pressure from the world (Wiener,
2016). With the foundation of the United Nations in the year 1945 as a novel self-governing
nations, there has been development of a forum for raising international help form
decolonization all across the globe. Furthermore, in the year 1960, an alliance of Asian as
well as African countries have also been planned and arranged a resolution which was
directing towards comprehensive freedom and autonomy of entire colonial terrains. This
resolution was passed devoid of any opposition and was clearly indicating a criticism of
interventionism on the international platform.
Soon after the attainment of freedom and decolonisation, European powers and many
other postcolonial leaders have started facing problems as they have to establish a new
government and this was very difficult for them. Huge decisions were being faced by the
European powers in this regards like the manner in which the government will be managed,
the responsible authority who will going to take care of the government and the type of
regulations to be curated for making sure stability as well as safety of the driving growth of
the economy (Manela, 2017). There were different challenges being imposed on the
European powers after their decolonisation and the manner they have responded to these
issues is being elaborated underneath: one of the most significant challenge in front of the
European powers was the political issue. Since, Europe has recently emerged from
colonialism, they have very less experience as well as knowledge related to politics. In
addition to this, they have also not headed any type of elections earlier to freedom. Even, they
didn’t have any skilful individuals along with the physical structure in place. Because of this,
a new European administration came into existence along with public buildings in shells. The
workers who are working in the government are requiring training from those people who
have dominated their nation from past several years. Further, the newly formed government
also confronted the inheritance of colonial borders, in many cases, imperial powers drew
maps without considering nation-wide, governmental, or financial realities on the ground.
Due to which, at times when decolonization of European power took place, internal division
4

was prevalent in them most of the time. Another crucial challenge being faced by the
European powers after their decolonisation was economic encounters (Darwin, 2019).
European powers along with several other territories have established their colonies
completely for exporting a few of the raw-materials such as iron, petroleum and so forth.
Because of the non-existence of financial divergence, they have to face numerous issues at
times when there has been decrement in the demand of these principal exports. Considering
the example of the economy of Mali, it was distorted in the year 1973 due to rise in the prices
of oil. This has made it quite difficult for them to import fuel being required for producing
two chief exports of the nation that is cotton as well as gold.
Stepping further, there is one more challenge that the European powers faced and that
was related to Cold war. Decolonization of the Europe does not took place in vacantness.
Soon when the Second World War was transformed into Cold War, Soviet Union along with
United States wanted to gain the assistance of fresh and novel self-governing companies.
They both have sponsored many remonstration activities, supported relief suites and also
offered military help for advancing their corresponding objectives. Thus, it can be said that
decolonization had different kinds of interconnecting along with manifold penalties and
causes on European powers and many other nations. It has altered the political conditions of
the world rapidly. However, it also involved some of the important components of steadiness
as well. Furthermore, in order to have control on the organizational contraption along with
considering the domination of violence in the state joined with the control on the natural
resources of a particular territory, all these were legitimized through a supremacy form which
was apparently famous and was also enclosed by the identity of the nation (Collins, 2015).
These all were the describing characteristics of the state after colonization. Moreover, the
European powers became the standards through which the failure, victory and novel
positioning are questioned. Consequently in this sense, it can be well attributed that
decolonization is not a small process rather it is a long lasting procedure of
internationalization which simply signifies diffusion as well as dissemination of the European
standards as well as principles. The decolonisation of Europe power after the Second World
War was worthy or wicked is majorly dependent on the governmental encouragements of an
individual.
5

REFERENCES
Books and journals
Collins, M., 2015. Empire, Nationalism and the Post-colonial World: Rabindranath Tagore's
Writings on History, Politics and Society. London: Routledge.
Darwin, J., 2019. The Empire Project: The Rise and Fall of the British World-System, 1830–
1970. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Holt, T.C., 2016. The Problem of Freedom: Race, Labor, and Politics in Jamaica and
Britain, 1832–1938. Baltimore Md.: Johns Hopkins University Press.
Iliffe, J., 2015. Africans: The History of a Continent. New York and Cambridge, UK:
Cambridge University Press.
Jan, C. and Osterhammel, J.J., 2019. Decolonization A Short History. Princeton University
Press.
Manela, E., 2017. The Wilsonian Moment: Self-Determination and the International Origins
of Anticolonial Nationalism. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Santos, A.A., Pearson, J.L. and Eggers, N., 2020. The United Nations and Decolonization.
Taylor & Francis.
Shipway, M., 2018. Decolonization and its Impact: A Comparative Approach to the End of
the Colonial Empires. Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell.
Wiener, J., 2016. Divestment Report Card: Students, Stocks, and Shanties. The Nation,
243(11), pp.337–339.
Online references
Decolonization of Asia and Africa, 1945–1960. 2021. [Online]. Available through:
<https://history.state.gov/milestones/1945-1952/asia-and-africa>. [Accessed on
23rdDecember 2021].
The beginnings of decolonisation and the emergence of the non-aligned states. 2021.
[Online]. Available through:
<https://www.cvce.eu/en/recherche/unit-content/-/unit/02bb76df-d066-4c08-a58a-
6

d4686a3e68ff/0397bac4-10f2-4b69-8d1a-366ca4a08c34>. [Accessed on 24thDecember
2021].
7