Decolonization facts for kids

Decolonization is when a colony of any country becomes independent. Thus, decolonization is the opposite of colonization. Sometimes, a colony may not get full freedom, but may become part of another country or even the part of the country which colonized it. This is also decolonization.

In some cases, decolonization may result after non-violent discussion. In a relatively small number of cases, decolonization happens only after armed struggle and revolt. Decolonization is different from the break-up of traditional empires like the Mongol Empire or the Ottoman Empire. Decolonization generally means independence of non-Europeans from European rule. Thus, the break-up of the Union of Sweden and Norway and the independence of Manchukuo from the Empire of Japan were not decolonization. Major decolonization occurred in the 20th century. It began with the independence of Pakistan and India in 1947 from the British Empire. Soon after, many countries of Africa became independent from the rule of many countries of Europe.

Images for kids

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  The Chilean Declaration of Independence on 18 February 1818

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  Prince Pedro proclaims himself Emperor of an independent Brazil on 7 September 1822

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  Greek War of Independence

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  Russian and Bulgarian defence of Shipka Pass against Turkish troops was crucial for the independence of Bulgaria.

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  Romanian War of Independence

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  Serbian War of Independence

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  British Empire in 1952

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  Surrender of Lord Cornwallis at Yorktown in 1781

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  Map of the first (light blue) and second (dark blue) French colonial empires.

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  French poster about the "Madagascar War"

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  Captured French soldiers from Điện Biên Phủ, escorted by Vietnamese troops, 1954

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  Map of all possessions of the first and second French colonial empires.

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  Czechoslovak anti-colonialist propaganda poster: "Socialism opened the door of liberation for colonial nations."

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  Manuel L. Quezón, the first president of the Commonwealth of the Philippines (from 1935 to 1944)

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  Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands in Micronesia administered by the United States from 1947 to 1986

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  U.S. troops in Korea, September 1945

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  Portuguese Army special caçadores advancing in the African jungle in the early 1960s, during the Angolan War of Independence.

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  Dutch soldiers in the East Indies during the Indonesian National Revolution, 1946

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  Czechoslovak anti-colonialist propaganda poster: "Africa – in fight for freedom".

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  The UN Human Development Index (HDI) is a quantitative index of development, alternative to the classic Gross Domestic Product (GDP), which some use as a proxy to define the Third World. While the GDP only calculates economic wealth, the HDI includes life expectancy, public health and literacy as fundamental factors of a good quality of life. Countries in North America, the Southern Cone, Europe, East Asia, and Oceania generally have better standards of living than countries in Central Africa, East Africa, parts of the Caribbean, and South Asia.

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  British decolonisation in Africa

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  Western European colonial empires in Asia and Africa all collapsed in the years after 1945

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  Four nations (India, Pakistan, Dominion of Ceylon, and Union of Burma) that gained independence in 1947 and 1948

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  A Baltic exilee protest sign from the second half of the 20th century calling on U.N. to abolish Soviet colonialism in the Baltic states.

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  The Black Star Monument in Accra, built by Ghana's first president Kwame Nkrumah to commemorate the country's independence

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  Four international organizations whose membership largely follows the pattern of previous colonial empires.

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  Gandhi in 1947, with Lord Louis Mountbatten, Britain's last Viceroy of India, and his wife Vicereine Edwina Mountbatten.

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  Patrice Lumumba, first democratically elected Prime Minister of the Congo-Léopoldville, was murdered by Belgian-supported Katangan separatists in 1961

See also

In Spanish: Descolonización para niños