World History / Unit 11: The Cold War, Decolonization and the Modern World
11.3 Independence in Asia
Notes
After World War II, weakened European powers lost their colonies in a process called decolonization.
- In India, Mohandas Gandhi led a mass movement using nonviolent civil disobedience, such as the Salt March (1930) and boycotts of British goods.
- Gandhi wrote in Hind Swaraj (1909): "Passive resistance is a method of securing rights by personal suffering; it is the reverse of resistance by arms."
- India won independence in 1947. British India was partitioned into mostly Hindu India and mostly Muslim Pakistan. Violence and the migration of about 10 to 20 million people followed. Jawaharlal Nehru became India's first prime minister. Bangladesh (East Pakistan) became independent in 1971.
- Indonesia won independence from the Netherlands (1949) under Sukarno.
- In Vietnam, Ho Chi Minh's forces defeated France at Dien Bien Phu (1954), and the country was divided until 1975.
- The Philippines gained independence from the United States in 1946.
Practice
Read the excerpt from Gandhi's Hind Swaraj (1909): "Passive resistance is a method of securing rights by personal suffering; it is the reverse of resistance by arms." Which action fits this idea?
The Salt March was a nonviolent protest against a British monopoly on salt.
The partition of British India in 1947 created:
Religious divisions shaped the new borders.
Which was a major reason European nations gave up colonies after World War II?
War costs and nationalist pressure made empires hard to keep.
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