Decolonization in Asia and Africa

One of the striking political and economic changes of the twentieth century
was the almost complete elimination of colonial power. This has naturally
precipitated a large debate about the legacy of colonialism for contemporary
development experiences. To understand the legacy of colonialism, it is
important to understand the forces that led to its rise and decline.In fact,
colonization was normally followed by a major restructuring of colonial economies. Europeans were
interested in exploiting the capacity of colonies to produce goods that could be consumed in Europe.

Factors Led to Decolonization

WWII was a major factor in the decolonization of Africa. Britain and France,
the main colonial powers in Africa, were broke after WWII and simply could
not afford to keep their colonies.

America was turning into a superpower, while Britain was on the wane. The
Americans had in office during WWII a decidedly anti-colonialist president in
FDR, and his widow was among the leading voices calling for freedom and
self-determination for all states after WWII. Churchill was confronted with
several pointed questions in America - one was why Britain could fight to
maintain the self-determination of European states while at the same time
maintaining colonies in Africa and Asia.

Africans were drafted in massive numbers into colonial armies in WWII.

Many came back home from the war having interacted with other colonial
soldiers from around the world, and having seen their erstwhile colonial
masters defeated in battles, killed, etc. This removed, for many of them, the
aura of invincibility that colonial authorities had carefully built over time in
presenting themselves as superior to Africans and therefore entitled to be
masters of the continent.
Africa began producing a small group of well-educated leaders, many the
beneficiaries of scholarships from the USA and the USSR. These leaders
came home to Africa in the 1950s and immediately began agitating for
independence, organizing African citizens into political movements and so
on.

Finally, independence was always going to happen because of

demographics: the colonial elite and their soldiers were a tiny number in the
face of massive numbers of Africans, and pressure was always going to build
on them to leave and let the African people determine their own futures.