The Asian-African Conference convened in Bandung, Indonesia, April 17–24, 1955, bringing together representatives from 29 newly independent nations, which had either been formally colonized or subjected to unequal treaties by European nations. This conference laid the foundation for the Movement of Nonaligned Countries, which convened in Belgrade, Yugoslavia, in 1961 – nations declining to take sides between the United States and the Soviet Union. Participants at the conference, and in the Nonaligned Movement, included some nations ruled by communist parties, or experimenting with other forms of socialism, as well as nations with some sort of capitalist economy. The sponsors of the conference were Burma, India, Indonesia, Ceylon, and Pakistan. Indonesia’s President Sukarno, who hosted the conference, viewed his country as a leading anti-imperialist force, in a world where former colonial powers still held overwhelming economic power, and substantial ability to intervene militarily.

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