Colonisation, Imperialism and Decolonisation

Two waves of empire

European expansion came in two waves. The first wave (c. 1500–1800), led by Portugal, Spain, the Netherlands, Britain and France, created trading posts in Asia and settler colonies and plantations in the Americas, built on the Atlantic slave trade. The second wave, the "New Imperialism" (c. 1870–1914), was driven by industrial capitalism; within about forty years almost all of Africa and much of Asia and the Pacific came under European, American or Japanese rule. By 1914, European powers controlled about 84 per cent of the earth's land surface. After 1945, a third great process – decolonisation – dismantled these empires in barely three decades. UPSC asks about the causes and forms of colonisation, the partition of Africa, colonialism in Asia and the factors that led to decolonisation.

Causes of the New Imperialism

Economic. Industrial economies needed raw materials (rubber, cotton, copper, tin, palm oil), markets for manufactured goods and outlets for surplus capital. J.A. Hobson (1902) and Lenin in *Imperialism, the Highest Stage of Capitalism* (1916) argued that capitalism drove expansion.

Political and strategic. Colonies were symbols of national prestige, especially for newly unified Germany and Italy. Naval powers needed coaling stations and control of routes such as the Suez Canal (opened 1869).

Ideological. Social Darwinism and racial theories claimed that Europeans were superior. The idea of a "civilising mission" – Kipling's "White Man's Burden" – justified conquest. Missionaries sought converts.

Technological. The steamship, telegraph, railways, quinine (against malaria) and the Maxim gun gave Europeans an overwhelming advantage. As a saying of the time put it, "Whatever happens, we have got the Maxim gun, and they have not."

The scramble for Africa

At the Berlin Conference (1884–85), called by Bismarck, European powers set rules for dividing Africa; no African was present. By 1914, only Ethiopia and Liberia remained independent. Ethiopia defeated Italy at the Battle of Adwa (1896) under Emperor Menelik II.

• Britain aimed for a "Cape to Cairo" chain: Egypt, Sudan, Kenya, Uganda, Rhodesia, South Africa, Nigeria and the Gold Coast. Cecil Rhodes was its symbol. The Boer War (1899–1902) was fought with Dutch-descended settlers in South Africa.
• France took most of north and west Africa: Algeria, Tunisia, Morocco, Senegal, Mali and French Equatorial Africa.
• Belgium: the Congo Free State was the personal property of King Leopold II (1885–1908), notorious for forced labour and atrocities in rubber collection.
• Germany: Togo, Cameroon, South-West Africa (Namibia) – where the Herero and Nama genocide (1904–08) took place – and German East Africa (Tanzania).
• Portugal: Angola, Mozambique; Italy: Libya, Eritrea, Somalia.

Colonial borders drawn with rulers on maps cut across ethnic and economic regions, contributing to later conflicts.

Colonialism in Asia

• India – under the East India Company and, after 1858, the British Crown.
• South-East Asia – Britain took Burma (three wars, 1824–85), Malaya and Singapore; the Dutch ruled the East Indies (Indonesia) with the Culture System of forced cultivation; France created French Indochina (Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia) by 1893; the USA took the Philippines from Spain in 1898. Siam (Thailand) stayed independent as a buffer between British and French territory.
• China was not formally colonised but was divided into spheres of influence after the Opium Wars (1839–42, 1856–60) and the "unequal treaties" such as the Treaty of Nanking (1842), which gave Britain Hong Kong. The USA's Open Door Policy (1899) sought equal trade access. The Boxer Rebellion (1900) was crushed by an eight-nation force.
• Japan joined the imperial powers: it defeated China (1895), taking Taiwan, and defeated Russia (1904–05) – the first Asian victory over a European power, which inspired Indian nationalists – and annexed Korea in 1910.

Forms of colonial rule

Impact of colonialism

• Economic drain and conversion of colonies into producers of a few cash crops or minerals – the "colonial economy".
• Infrastructure – railways, ports and telegraphs built mainly for extraction.
• Social change – Western education, new elites, missionary work, but also racial discrimination and the destruction of local institutions.
• Demographic disasters – famines in India and forced labour in Congo.
• Political legacy – artificial borders, ethnic divisions created or hardened by colonial classification, and centralised bureaucracies inherited by new states.

Decolonisation after 1945

Why empires ended.

1. The Second World War exhausted Britain and France and destroyed the myth of European invincibility, especially after Japan's conquest of South-East Asia.
2. Nationalist movements – mass movements in India, Indonesia, Vietnam, Ghana and Kenya.
3. The superpowers – both the USA and the USSR opposed old-style colonialism, for different reasons.
4. The United Nations – the UN Charter's principle of self-determination and the 1960 Declaration on the Granting of Independence to Colonial Countries and Peoples (Resolution 1514).
5. The example of India – Indian independence in 1947 began the dismantling of the largest empire and inspired others.

Key cases.

• Asia: India and Pakistan (1947), Burma and Sri Lanka (1948), Indonesia (declared 1945 under Sukarno, recognised 1949 after war with the Dutch), Malaya (1957).
• Vietnam: Ho Chi Minh's Viet Minh defeated France at Dien Bien Phu (1954); the Geneva Accords divided the country, leading to the Vietnam War and reunification in 1975.
• Africa: Ghana (1957) under Kwame Nkrumah was the first sub-Saharan colony to win freedom; 1960 is called the "Year of Africa", when 17 nations became independent. Algeria won after a brutal war (1954–62) with France. Kenya saw the Mau Mau uprising (1952–60); Jomo Kenyatta became leader in 1963. Portuguese colonies were freed after the 1974 revolution in Lisbon. Zimbabwe became independent in 1980 and Namibia in 1990.
• South Africa: Apartheid (from 1948) ended after a long struggle led by the African National Congress; Nelson Mandela was released in 1990 and became president in 1994.

India's role. India hosted the Asian Relations Conference (1947) and a conference on Indonesia (1949), took part in the Bandung Conference (1955), co-founded the Non-Aligned Movement, campaigned against apartheid at the UN from 1946, and supported liberation movements in Africa.

Neo-colonialism and legacy

Political independence did not always bring economic independence. Kwame Nkrumah coined the term neo-colonialism for continued control through debt, trade terms and multinational companies. Debates today about reparations, the return of looted artefacts (such as the Benin Bronzes and the Kohinoor) and the colonial roots of global inequality keep this history alive.

Mains practice question

What were the causes of the "New Imperialism" of the late nineteenth century? How did the Second World War accelerate decolonisation? (250 words)

Answer framework

• Intro: 1870–1914; scale of expansion.
• Causes: economic, strategic, ideological (Social Darwinism), technological.
• WWII: weakened Europe, broke myth of superiority, superpower and UN pressure, Indian example.
• Conclusion: political freedom with economic dependence – neo-colonialism.