Independence movements in the 20th Century | World History | Khan Academy

As we've seen in other videos, this is a map of the European possessions, especially the Western European possessions in much of the world. As we enter into the 20th century, before World War I, you see significant possessions by the French, not just in Africa but also in Indochina. You see the British also have significant possessions in Africa but also in Asia. Germany, Belgium, and Italy also have imperial possessions.

Now, as we go through World War I, that changes the map of Europe fairly dramatically, and we talk about that in other videos. But some of the major outcomes, at least when we're talking about imperialism, is that the Austro-Hungarian Empire gets broken up, changing the map of Eastern Europe. The Ottoman Empire gets broken up, with much of the Middle East now under control by the British or French. And, of course, Russia exits World War I, having had the Bolshevik Revolution in 1917, and is now the Soviet Union.

As we get into the period after World War I, we start to see momentum gather in terms of independence movements, in terms of this imperial structure breaking down. In 1922, Egypt becomes independent of the United Kingdom. Iraq, which was part of the Ottoman Empire for centuries, was put under British control after World War I, and in 1932, it gets its independence.

Then we enter into World War II, which is an incredibly traumatic time, not just for Europe but for the world. As we exit out of World War II, we see further momentum being gained for the various anti-colonial independence movements. Indonesia, which was originally a Dutch colony but during World War II gets under the control of Japan as part of its imperial possessions, is able to claim its independence nominally now from the Dutch.

From 1944 to 1946, further possessions that were originally part of the Ottoman Empire, but after World War I became under the control of the French and British, such as Syria and Jordan, gained their independence. Syria from France and Jordan from the United Kingdom. Then, in 1947, you have the independence of the Indian subcontinent.

This is a particularly noteworthy struggle under the leadership of Mahatma Gandhi, often known as Mahatma Gandhi. "Mahatma" meaning "Great Soul." It's a peaceful resistance that's able to gain independence. Now, the subcontinent is partitioned into what will become Pakistan and India. For the most part, areas that were majority Muslim became Pakistan, and you could see this region in the west and this region in the east which would later get its independence in 1971 and become Bangladesh.

Then, for the most part, regions that had Hindu majorities became India. This wasn't a clean partition, because there were some territories, princely states, areas where the majority was not clear that became under contention, like Kashmir. Even to this day, it is a point of contention between India and Pakistan. Much of the Indian subcontinent was very mixed, with some areas being 60% Hindu or 40% Muslim or vice versa. So that catalyzed one of the largest migrations in human history, the number of people changing borders, sometimes becoming quite sectarian and quite bloody.

But even after that, India is still one of the largest Muslim countries. The founder of Pakistan is Muhammad Ali Jinnah, and India's first prime minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, was active in the independence movement. He will become famous for the non-aligned movement for newly liberated countries to not want to side on either side of the Cold War. He actually coins the term "Third World," which is now associated with developing countries.

But when it was coined, it meant, "We don't want to be first world aligned with the Western capitalist countries; we don't want to be second world aligned with the communist bloc; we want to be independent," or the "Third World." As we get into the late 40s and early 50s, we also see an independence movement in French Indochina. These countries will eventually become North Vietnam, South Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia. A significant figure here is Ho Chi Minh, who will become a very prominent figure as the French Indochina War eventually evolves into the Vietnam War, bringing the United States into it as part of its Cold War containment strategy.

The 1950s also see significant independence movements throughout Africa. In 1951, Libya gains independence. From 1956 to 1958, Tunisia, Morocco, Ghana, and Guinea all gain independence. Of particular note is Ghana, originally called the Gold Coast. The first president and prime minister is Kwame Nkrumah, and he's known as one of the founders of the Organization of African Unity. He wanted to see a world where, as these African countries became independent, they unified, seeing that Africa would have much more power as a unified entity than as a fragmented one.

He was a major promoter of the idea of Pan-Africanism. Now, the independence movements only accelerated as we go into the 1960s. 1960, in particular, was a year of many independence movements, but you can see here that most of Africa was independent as we exit the 1960s.

In blue here, listed the French colonies that gained independence in this time period; in this salmon color, the British colonies; and in yellow, the Belgian colonies. There would continue to be change over the next few decades, but the world starts to look very similar to the world as we recognize it today.

Now, I'll leave you with a speech that Jawaharlal Nehru made in Washington, D.C., in 1956, which highlights his desire for non-alignment:

"The preservation of peace forms the central aim of India's policy. It is in the pursuit of this policy that we have chosen the path of non-alignment in any military or like pact of alliance. Non-alignment does not mean passivity of mind or action, lack of faith or conviction. It does not mean submission to what we consider evil. It is a positive and dynamic approach to such problems that confront us. We believe that each country has not only the right to freedom but also to decide its own policy and way of life."

This is a big deal, because remember, he's giving the speech in Washington, D.C., which would love him to clearly align with the Western bloc, with the capitalist countries led by the United States. But after working so hard for their independence, many of these nations, like India, were not eager to lose their autonomy and realign with more powerful countries.

To close out this video, I'll leave you with an interesting question or a series of interesting questions: Why do we see a good chunk of the world become independent in the second half of the 20th century? Was it that the imperial countries no longer had the energy or the power or the will to control these colonies? Was it something that happened in the psychology of their peoples? They just went through a traumatic war, and they realized that they weren't interested in controlling the destiny of other people.

Was it due to the efficacy of some of these independent struggles, like the non-violence movement led by Gandhi, or maybe some of the more violent independent struggles, like what we saw in Algeria against the French? But needless to say, the world fundamentally changed in this time period.

When we were entering into the 20th century, we had an imperial world, especially controlled by the Western European powers. After two traumatic wars, imperialism comes to an end, and we see the world as we know it today.