Epilogue: Decolonization and After, 1945–81

Abstract

Nothing in the history of the modern colonial empires was more remarkable than the speed with which they disappeared. In 1939 they were at their peak: by 1981 they had practically ceased to exist. This was the more surprising because none of the classical explanations seemed to apply. When the original American colonies demanded independence they had had from one and a half to three centuries in which to evolve as mature societies, conscious of their separate identity. Most colonies in Africa, Asia and the Pacific which achieved independence after 1945 were annexed only in the last decades of the nineteenth century, and few looked like proto-nation states in 1939. Nor were the great imperial powers deprived of their colonies by victorious enemies, as Germany was in 1919. Italy lost some of her colonies during and after the Second World War, and Japan lost all her possessions. But Britain, France, the United States, Belgium, and Holland were victors in 1945, and Spain and Portugal had been neutrals. Most significant of all, the end of empire cannot be explained in terms of the decadence of the imperial powers. Europe and America were relatively richer and more powerful in the mid-twentieth century than ever before, and decolonization was not evidence of decline in the west.