8.5B New Nation States

• Decolonisation and 'Wind of Change' (P1):

  • Since 1945, new nation states emerged as empires disintegrated
  • The USA and USSR both opposed the idea of empires and used their influence to assist subjugated people to liberate themselves from colonial rule
  • From the 1960s, African states began seeking independence from their colonial masters in a term coined by the British Prime Minister, Harold Macmillan as the 'wind of change’
• Decolonisation and 'Wind of Change' (P1):

  • Some of this change occurred as Germany, Italy, Spain and Japan lost territory after the Second World War, in others it was due to hatred of colonial rule or because of the sheer costs involved in overseeing a colony
  • Britain and France could not afford the administrative and security costs of running their empires after the war and returned rule to many of their nation's people
  • Despite this, a number of new nation states were content to remain within the newly formed 'Commonwealth', keeping the British sovereign as head of the new state
• Decolonisation and 'Wind of Change' (P3):

  • Any independence conflicts that did arise, were costly in terms of the environment, economy and human life 
  • Vietnam, had been under French colonial rule since the 19th century
  • During WWII, the Japanese occupied Vietnam but withdrew after its defeat in 1945, leaving the French educated Emperor Bao Dai in control
  • Inspired by Chinese and Soviet communism, Ho Chi Minh formed the League for the Independence of Vietnam and took over the northern city of Hanoi and declared a Democratic Republic of Vietnam with Ho as its president
• Decolonisation and 'Wind of Change' (P4):

  • France, wanting to regain control, backed Emperor Bao and set up the state of Vietnam in 1949, with Saigon as the capital, effectively dividing Vietnam
  • Yet both sides wanted a unified Vietnam, but Bao was more aligned with western ideologies, as opposed to Ho's communist model 
  • Eventually in May 1954, the French lost control and withdrew, ending French colonial rule and splitting Vietnam along the 17th Parallel thereby, forming South Vietnam 
• Decolonisation and 'Wind of Change' (P5):

  • With the Cold War ongoing, the US strongly opposed any nation allied to communist USSR and China and pledged support to South Vietnam to remove any communist sympathisers
  • As a result, war between the communist (USSR and China) supported north and democratic south Vietnam (aided by the USA) broke out 
  • By the spring of 1975, the North Vietnamese army conquered all of South Vietnam, and the following year North and South were formally united in the Socialist Republic of Vietnam
• Decolonisation and 'Wind of Change' (P6):

  • More than 3 million people (including over 58,000 Americans) were killed in the Vietnam War, and more than half of the dead were Vietnamese civilians 
  • US chemical weapons caused severe environmental damage
  • 7 million tons of US bombs were dropped which destroyed vast areas of land and infrastructure 
• Reasons for the 'Wind of change':

  • Many young Europeans became concerned about the injustice of colonial rule
  • Rapid population growth and an increase in education within colonies
  • Dependence on raw materials from colonies lessened as nations deindustrialised 
• Outcomes of independence

  • In many instances, rapid decolonisation left a lack of economic stability, corruption and a power vacuum
  • Economies that were set up to supply raw materials and not industrialised struggled
  • Interference by other countries such as the USA, Russia and China, increased instability and started proxy wars such as those in the Sudan, Korea and Vietnam during the 1950s and 60s
• Outcomes of independence:

  • Power was usually seized by the army or by the ethnic groups who had worked alongside the colonial rulers
  • During Belgian rule of Rwanda, the minority Tutsi tribe had been elevated above the majority Hutus', bringing resentment and eventually genocide by the Hutus against the Tutsis in the coming years
• South Sudan - a new African country:

  • Mass amounts of civil wars between 1946 - 2017
  • 2017 famine was declared, affecting 1Million people in South Sudan