At the end of the Second World War in 1945, the nations of Europe still claimed ownership of vast areas of the rest of the world, particularly in Asia and Africa. However, by 1975 most of these colonial territories had gained their independence.
Various factors prompted the European powers to relinquish their claim over colonies:
Internal pulls

• Opposition began to rise within the European countries against colonialism. For example, the Labour party in general favored the economic and political development of the colonies and opposed their exploitation. In fact, in the 1945 election, India’s freedom had been a campaign promise of the Labour party.
• Moreover, the war weakened the European states and they were not militarily or economically strong enough to hold on to their far-flung empires. Thus, the high maintenance costs and less profits from colonies pushed towards decolonisation.

External pressure

• The USA, an erstwhile colony of the British Empire, was hostile to imperialism. President Roosevelt and his successor, Truman, pressurized the British government to speed up independence for India.
  • They also wanted to see the end of the European empires because delays in granting independence to European colonies in Asia and Africa would encourage the development of communism in those areas.
  • Further, Americans looked on the newly-independent nations as potential markets and in the eyes of the USA, imperially protected markets gave the British and other Europeans an unfair advantage.
• The United Nations Organization, through the UN Charter, emphasized self-determination and fundamental human rights, putting pressure on colonial powers to decolonise. In 1960, a Declaration on Decolonisation was also adopted by UNGA.
• The USSR also added its voice to the chorus and constantly denounced imperialism.

Colonial resistance
The colonial powers divested themselves of their subordinate possessions, because internal pressures within their colonies left them with no other choice. Nationalist movements had been in existence in many of Europe’s overseas colonies, especially those in Asia.

• In India, the Indian National Congress Party had been agitating against British rule since 1885, while in south-east Asia, Vietnamese nationalists began to campaign against French rule during the 1920s. Because of movements like Quit India, and mutiny in the Royal Indian Navy, it became impossible for the imperialists to rule over the colonies anymore.
• The second world war gave a great stimulus to nationalist movements in a number of ways:
  • It destroyed the belief that Europeans were invincible. Japanese successes in the early part of the war showed that it was possible for non-Europeans to defeat European armies.
  • Asians and Africans became more aware of social and political matters as a result of their involvement in the war. The vast majority of them had never left their homeland before, and they were appalled at the contrast between their primitive living conditions and the relatively comfortable conditions they experienced even as members of the armed forces.

All the above factors encouraged nationalists all over the world to further intensify their campaigns. Moreover, imperial roles also came to be seen as incongruent with ‘modern’ goals in the fields of foreign and economic policy.