Title: How did Cold War rivalries affect European decolonization? - lawpark's JimdoPage!
Headings: How did Cold War rivalries affect European decolonization?
How did Cold War rivalries affect European decolonization?
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Content: In Malaya, British  suppressed an ethnic Chinese communist revolt between 1948-1955 before agreeing to independence in 1957. ( EWH 812) In the hasty withdrawal of Belgium from Zaire, the assassination of the Maoist  Marxist Prime Minister Lumumba by a local rival would lead to “one of the most brutal proxy wars of the Cold War.” ( Note 5) Vietnam was the most tortuous case of decolonization, where local  communists drove out the French in 1954, only to face direct confrontation with the United States in 1959-1976. ( 22-6) Despite these examples, it helps to observe that not all European military  suppression of decolonization movements were motivated by Cold War objectives; for example, the French in Algeria and the British in Kenya were primarily motivated by the protection of white  settlers’ interests. In summary, this essay affirmed that Cold War helped facilitate European decolonization, and affected some specific processes of decolonization. United States’ Marshall Plan helped western  European states with post-WWII economic reconstruction, thereby relieving them of the need to hold on to their colonies. United States’ diplomacy (e.g. with Spain), intervention (e.g. French in  Syria / Lebanon) or support (e.g. French in Vietnam) changed specific processes of decolonization. In addition, I have also argued that Cold War was neither a primary cause of the fact of  decolonization (many causes had its roots in WWII instead), nor was it the only major factor affecting decolonization processes (e.g. among other factors, presence of white settlers in colonies  played important roles too). Works cited: