‘The decolonization led to the break-up of Empires.’
Within about 25 years of the end of the second world war, most countries of Asia, Africa and Latin America which had been under imperialist rule won their freedom. Most of the others that remained became free during the next five years. The decolonization process shattered the military power as well as economy of the colonial powers. It weakened the imperialist countries of Europe.
They countries which carried on long colonial wars faced serious internal problems. For example, France’s colonial war in Indo-China and Algeria created serious political crises in France which at one time threatened her political system. The colonial wars waged by Portugal in Africa were a major factor in the downfall of the Portuguese dictatorship. In the changed political climate in the world, imperialism was no longer considered a mark of super civilization instead it was associated with brute force, injustice, exploitation, inhuman and immoral.
The dominant ideas in the world after 1945 were ideas of self-determination, national sovereignty and equality, and cooperation in international relations. Thus the efforts to maintain colonial rule were no longer popular with the people even of the imperialist countries. These factors led to the breakup of Empires.
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Unification of Europe Short Answer Type
The formation of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization in many ways symbolized the key role that the United States had come to play in Europe. To begin with, it put into operation the Truman doctrine in action, which communicated at the time of communist attempt to take over Greece, had committed the United States as leader of democracy and freedom to contain communism not just in Europe, but throughout the world including Korea and Vietnam.
Secondly, the adherence of the United States of America to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) was also in a way a national supplement to the European Renovation Programme, the Marshall Plan, which offered financial and economic aid to European countries to defeat communism.
By NATO the United States pledged that it was out to defend the massive capital investments it had made in import and to keep its economic strange hold over Europe infect. Moreover, the United States adhering to and joining the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) also meant that she had bid farewell to the policing of splendid isolation pursued since the time of Monroe. The NATO moreover gave the United States a legitimate umbrella it was seeking to establish her military hegemony over Europe and then over the entire world. Further, it symbolized that the
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Americans had abandoned their traditional policy of no entangling alliances and for the first time had pledged themselves in advance to military action. The United States adhering and committing herself to the NATO further intensified the cold war. Italian took it as a challenge and tensions remained high.