Decolonization and Postwar Settlements

1. Decolonization and Postwar Settlements

2. Post-Surrender Terms for Japan • Condition of Japan following war • Japan was devastated. • All the cities (except Kyoto), the industries, and transportation networks were severely damaged. • A severe shortage of food continued for several years. • Inflation– the cost of living rose by 10 percent each month for about two years.

3. Occupation of Japan (August 1945 - April 1952) • The entire operation was mainly carried out by the United States. • General Douglass MacArthur was named the Supreme Commander of the Allied Powers (SCAP). • The Japanese people cooperated willingly with the occupation authorities. • The chief objective of SCAP were demilitarization and democratization.

5. Occupation of Japan (August 1945 - April 1952) • Demilitarization • The remains of Japan’s war machine were destroyed. • Japan basically lost all the territory seized after 1894. • Eventually able to maintain “self-defense” forces.

7. Occupation of Japan (August 1945 - April 1952) • Democratization • Economic reforms • Effort to eliminate big business conglomerates; independent companies such as Honda, Toyota, and Sony emerged. • Land reform program to achieve a more equitable distribution of wealth.

8. Occupation of Japan (August 1945 - April 1952) • Democratization, cont. • Educational reforms • Efforts to remove militaristic and ultranationalistic influences from schools. • Suspended the teaching of Japanese history and geography until new textbooks could be written. • Encouraged students to think (no rote learning). • Reorganized school system after U.S. pattern.

9. Occupation of Japan (August 1945 - April 1952) • Democratization, cont. • Political reforms • Eliminate the power of the emperor (figurehead); announce that he was not divine; peerage eliminated. • Make the executive power of the government responsible to the people or the representatives. • Establish a legislative body that would be directly responsible to all adult citizens (universal suffrage). • Develop democratically controlled political parties. • Eliminate ties between the government and Shinto shrines. • Adoption of a new constitution and bill of rights.

10. Peace Treaty • U.S. policy changed from keeping Japan from reemerging as a military power to rebuilding its economy and transforming it into an important part in the anti-Communist bloc. • On the same day that the peace treaty was signed, a mutual security pact was signed between Japan and the U.S. It provided for continued U.S. military presence to protect it from communism. • Okinawa was to remain under U.S. occupation (1972); retaining rights to military bases. • Ratified October 1951; went into effect April 1952.

11. Decolonization • As it became apparent that the Europe-centered world was no more, anti-colonial nationalism surged after 1945. • The process of decolonization followed three broad patterns: • Civil war (China) • Negotiated independence (Indian subcontinent and much of Africa) • Incomplete decolonization (Algeria and South Africa)

12. Civil War in China • Communist movement in China grew as poverty and civil unrest spread. • Rise of Mao Tse-tung (Communist) • Party membership swelled from a mere 40,000 in 1937 to over a million in 1945. • After Japan surrendered to end World War II, the civil war between the Nationalists and the Communists resumed. • U.S. supports Chiang Kai-shek and his Nationalists • Never fully recovered from its demoralizing defeat at the hands of the Japanese. (Lost popular support) • Corrupt and inefficient government.

13. Civil War in China • Faced with Communist victory, the Nationalist leaders escaped and set up a rival Chinese state on the island of Formosa (Taiwan) in 1949.

14. Negotiated Independence in India and Africa • In India and much of colonial Africa, independence came with little bloodshed. • The British withdrew after WWII. • Pakistan and India gained independence in August, 1947. • Problems in India between Hindu majority and Muslim minority. • Gandhi shot dead by a Hindu zealot in 1948. • India’s first prime minister, Jawaharlal Nehru was committed to the goal of state-directed modernization.

15. Decolonization in Africa and Asia after World War II

16. Negotiated Independence in India and Africa • Within a decade and a half of Indian independence, most of the African states also gained their sovereignty. • In 1957, the Gold Coast (renamed Ghana) became tropical Africa’s first independent state. • By 1963 all of British-ruled Africa except for Southern Rhodesia was independent. • In each of these colonial possessions, charismatic nationalist leaders took charge of populist political parties and became the leaders to whom the British turned over power.

17. Decolonization in Africa and Asia after World War II

18. Decolonization in Africa and Asia after World War II

19. Negotiated Independence in India and Africa • Decolonization in much of French-ruled Africa followed a similarly smooth path, though the French were initially more resistant than the British. • At first, treated decolonization as assimilation. • France dissolved its political ties with French West Africa and French Equatorial Africa in 1960, having already given the protectorates in Morocco and Tunisia their independence in 1956.

20. Incomplete Decolonization: Algeria and South Africa • The presence of sizeable European settler populations complicated the path from colony to nation. • Algeria: 1 million Europeans • French leaders claimed that Algeria was an integral part of metropolitan France. • The colons constituted a minority to the 9 million indigenous Arabs and Berber peoples. • South Africa: 4 million Europeans • Minority white rule (Afrikaners) persisted.

21. Incomplete Decolonization: Algeria and South Africa • The Algerian War of Independence • The war dragged on for eight years (1954-1962), at a cost of as many as 300,000 lives. • At home, French society was torn apart. • The negotiations to end the war began only after an insurrection led by colons and army officers had caused the French Fourth Republic to fall in 1958 and brought Charles de Gaulle to power. • By 1962, more than 9/10ths of the European population had departed.

22. Incomplete Decolonization: Algeria and South Africa • After winning the elections of 1948, the Afrikaner-dominated National Party in South Africa enacted an extreme form of racial segregation known as apartheid. • Apartheid laws stripped Africans, Indians, and colored persons (mixed descent) of their few political rights. • Schools segregated; country divided into racial “homelands” • The African National Congress opposed this legislation. • After the Sharpeville massacre of 1960, peaceful protest turned into violent protest. • Nelson Mandela was sentenced to life in prison in 1962. • The West (U.S.) supported South Africa as a bulwark against the spread of communism in Africa.