Ashi SharmaAIR 12 · CSE 2024 · 230 wordsTheir whole copy
Opening
The dropping of the bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki put an end to the world war between the axis and allied powers. But it also accelerated the process of decolonisation.
Body
Impact
On Asia
- War had caused massive drain on resources and allied powers like UK found it hard to continue colonial agenda
- The atlantic charter pushed by USA also explicitly urged to put an end to colonialism and allow self determination to colonies
- Colonies like India, Indonesia, Vietnam etc were under a surge of nationalism. Colonial powers found it hard to fight the 2 front battle one globally and the other while suppressing nationalists
- rising awareness across the world especially after Japan's abdication of its colonies which led to greater pressure on other powers
- mutual competition between colonial powers increased anxiety regarding protection of colonies
- both UK → wanted India Japan
On Africa
- the impact was indirect as colonial powers were not in mutual competition in Africa
- Africa was not a theatre of action during WW2 unlike Asia.
- nevertheless, inspired from the Asian experience, WW2 led to spread of panafricanism and nationalism
- this eventually led to decolonisation in Africa.
Close
Thus, WW2 had a very profound impact on ending colonialism, but sadly the bloc politics of the cold war era continued to undermine sovereignty of post colonial states.