Decolonisation in Africa and Asia 1945–1967

The period between 1945 and 1967 witnessed the most rapid dissolution of a global empire in history. In barely two decades, the British Empire was transformed from a worldwide system of governance into the Commonwealth of Nations — a voluntary association of independent states. This process was neither smooth nor peaceful, and its consequences continue to shape the modern world.

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Why Did Decolonisation Happen?

The Debate: Was Decolonisation Planned or Forced?

Interpretation	Historians	Argument
Metropolitan push	John Darwin, Ronald Hyam	Britain made a rational calculation that the costs of empire exceeded the benefits. Post-war economic weakness, the need for American financial support (Marshall Plan), and the Cold War context made decolonisation a strategic choice rather than a defeat.
Peripheral pull	A wide range of nationalist historians	Decolonisation was forced by the irresistible power of nationalist movements. Imperial powers conceded independence because they could no longer sustain colonial rule in the face of organised resistance.
International context	Wm. Roger Louis, Ronald Robinson	The changed international order — American anti-colonialism, Soviet support for liberation movements, the United Nations, the Cold War — created an environment in which colonialism was no longer politically sustainable.
Combination	Most modern scholars	All three factors interacted. The relative importance of each varied by colony and by period.

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Indian Independence and Partition (1947)

The Road to Independence

Date	Event
1942	Cripps Mission — Sir Stafford Cripps offered India full Dominion status after the war in exchange for wartime cooperation. Congress rejected the offer as insufficient; the Muslim League was sceptical.
1942	Quit India Movement — Gandhi demanded immediate British withdrawal (see Lesson 8).
1945	Labour government under Clement Attlee committed to Indian independence.
1946	Cabinet Mission — proposed a three-tier federal structure to preserve Indian unity. Initially accepted by both Congress and the Muslim League, but negotiations collapsed.
1946	"Direct Action Day" (16 August) — Jinnah called for demonstrations to support the demand for Pakistan. Communal violence erupted in Calcutta — the "Great Calcutta Killing" left approximately 4,000 dead and triggered a chain reaction of communal violence across India.
February 1947	Attlee announced that Britain would transfer power by June 1948, appointing Lord Mountbatten as the last Viceroy.
June 1947	Mountbatten advanced the date to August 1947 and accepted the necessity of partition.
14–15 August 1947	Pakistan (14 August) and India (15 August) became independent.

Partition

Aspect	Detail
The Radcliffe Line	Sir Cyril Radcliffe, a British lawyer who had never visited India, was given five weeks to draw the borders between India and Pakistan. The boundaries divided Punjab and Bengal, cutting through communities, families, and economic networks.
Violence	An estimated 1–2 million people were killed in communal violence. Between 10 and 20 million people were displaced — the largest mass migration in human history.
Responsibility	The question of British responsibility for partition and its violence is intensely debated. Yasmin Khan (The Great Partition, 2007) argues that the British bear substantial responsibility for the hastiness and inadequacy of the process. Others emphasise that Congress-League rivalries and communal tensions were indigenous phenomena that the British could not have controlled.

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Decolonisation in Southeast Asia

Territory	Independence	Key Events
Burma (Myanmar)	4 January 1948	Burma chose independence outside the Commonwealth. Aung San, the nationalist leader, was assassinated in July 1947 before independence.
Malaya (Malaysia)	31 August 1957	The Malayan Emergency (1948–60) — a communist insurgency — delayed independence. Britain fought a successful counterinsurgency campaign (the "Briggs Plan"), combining military action with political reform. Malaya's independence was negotiated, not forced.
Singapore	9 August 1965	Initially part of the Federation of Malaysia (formed 1963), Singapore was expelled in 1965 and became an independent republic.

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Decolonisation in Africa

The "Wind of Change"

Harold Macmillan's "Wind of Change" speech (3 February 1960), delivered to the South African Parliament in Cape Town, acknowledged that African nationalism was an irresistible force:

"The wind of change is blowing through this continent, and whether we like it or not, this growth of national consciousness is a political fact."

The speech signalled British acceptance that decolonisation in Africa was inevitable and irreversible.

West Africa: The Model of Negotiated Independence