DECOLONIZATION
Algerian War of Indpendence
- War lasts for eight years (1954-1962)
- 300,000 die
- France was divided between those who wanted to end the war and those who now believed myth that Algeria was part of France.
- Charles De Gaulle returns to power and negotiates peace because he believed France could not keep up expense of colonial war.
- Evian Agreement signed on March 18, 1962.
- Contained protections for Europeans still in Algeria but almost all left.
- By the end of that year 9/10s were gone and population of Algeria was similar to that of any other Northern African nation.
Three Factors:
The End of Empires
1. War
- smashed or weakened empires [militarily and financially]
- raised confidence of colonized people
2. Nationalism
- idea that one's people share common and distinct culture and deserve political independence
3. Racism
- Europeans had promised a degree of control and autonomy to Western educated elites
- always, "not quite ready"
- Elites led struggles for independence worldwide
Example #1 - The Algerian War of Independence
Background:
France colonizes Algeria in 1830.
Becomes official part of France.
Large numbers of French settlers move to Algeria.
- Known as Colons or Pieds Noirs
- Largely peasants, farmers, working class.
- grand Colons vs. poor workers.
- By 1848: 109,000 European Settlers.
1871 Franco-Prussian War results in:
- More settlers.
- Land taken from rural Algerians [wine], forced movement to cities.
- large amounts of grain sold to France [shortage].
- Establishment of régime d'exception [denies due process to natives] and Native Code [insolence, unauthorized assembly].
Algerians fight for the French in both World Wars and want independence.
FLN [Front de Liberation Nationale] formed in November 1954.
- Revolution breaks out.
- Brutality and terrorism on both sides.
Definition: The undoing of colonialism at all levels of society.
- Usually associated with the period following WWII.
- Nations all over the world that had suffered under European [mostly] rule fought for and won their independence.
- Most struggles for independence were violent.
- Besides political independence, new leaders sought to distance themselves from their former rulers in terms of economics, education, the arts, and culture.
The Battle of Algiers, 1966
Example #2, The Partition of India
- India achieved independence without a violent war against the British.
- but was decolonization non-violent?
- Anticolonial elites in the Indian National Congress Party negotiated a peaceful transfer of power from British to indigenous rule.
- Disagreement in leadership over what type of state it should be.
- Gandhian non-modern village utopia vs. modern industrialized state
Partition of India
- With the threat of civil war looming, the out going British divided the subcontinent into separate states.
- This division did not take into account geographical or the relalities of divided populations.
- On August 14, 1947 Pakistan becomes independent. India on the next day.
- Immediate Huge Upheaval
- As many as 1 million Hindus and Muslims murder one another.
- 12 million Muslims and Hindus leave their homes to scramble to the country of their religious view.
Hindu majority vs. Muslim minority
- Unity against British fell apart.
- Indian Nationalism had been based on culture and symbols of Hindu majority.
- This did not represent Muslim community or the many classes, castes, languages and cultures within Hinduism.
- Riots broke out in 1946 between Hindus and Muslims.
- The British played the two sides off against each other, encouraging division, as they had throughout their hundreds of years in India.
- Jinnah, the leader of the Muslim league, demanded a separate Muslim state.