Transcri pt
Decolonization and Nationalism Triumphant:
Crash Course World History #40
World War II weakened colonial powers, while also giving colonized peoples
hope that the defeat of imperialist Germany and Japan would lead to a new era
of freedom from foreign rule. Anti-colonial movements sprang up across the
world, from Indonesia to Africa. Through nonviolent resistance and armed
revolution, new nations rose from the old colonial territories. As emerging states
won independence, they faced the difficult challenge of reconciling religious and
ethnic tensions within their new nations, while also navigating the conflict
between socialism and capitalism in the global Cold War.
2
Transcript
Decolonization and Nationalism Triumphant: Crash Course World History
#40
Timing and description Text
00:01
John Green sings;
CCWH theme music starts
playing
CCWH theme music
returns
Hi, I’m John Green, this is Crash Course World History, and today we’re going to
talk about decolonization. The empires European states formed in the 19th century
proved about as stable and long-lasting as Genghis Khan’s, leading to so many
of the nation-states we know and love today. Yes, I’m looking at you, Burundi.
(singing): Did you every know you’re my Burundi You’re everything...
Stan, don’t cut the intro! I sing like an angel!
00:32
Animated montage of
empires in Egypt, China,
Rome; Drawing of the
Mongols with a speech
bubble “we’re NOT the
exception!”;
video of Mongols riding
on horseback, dragging
bodies behind them (the
Mongol-tage)
John Green as his younger
self
Present John Green
So unless you’re over 60—and let’s face it, internet, you’re not—you’ve only ever
known a world of nation-states. But as we’ve seen from Egypt to Alexander the
Great to China to Rome to the Mongols—who, for once, are not the exception
here—to the Ottomans and the Americas, empire has long been the dominant way
we’ve organized ourselves politically—or at least the way that other people have
organized us.
Mr. Green, Mr. Green, so to them “Star Wars” would’ve been, like, a completely
different movie. Most of them would’ve been like, “Go, Empire, crush those
rebels!”
Yeah, also they’d be like, “What is this screen “that displays crisp moving images
of events that are not currently occurring?” Also, not to get off-topic, but you
never learn what happens after the rebel victory in “Star Wars.” And, as as we’ve
learned from the French Revolution to the Arab Spring, revolution is often the easy
part. I mean, you think destroying a Death Star is hard? Try negotiating a trade
treaty with Gungans.
01:21
Roman and Persian art;
animation depicts the
American Revolution
Video montage shows
scenes of World War II;
Hitler is driven through a
crowd
Photos of the colonial
troops that were forced
to fight alongside the
countries that had
colonized them
Photos depict utterly
Right, anyway, so the late 20th century was not the first time that empires
disintegrated. Rome comes to mind, also the Persians, and of course the American
Revolution ended one kind of European imperial experiment. But in all those cases,
empire struck back. (chuckles): You see what I did there? I mean, Britain lost its 13
colonies but later controlled half of Africa and all of India.
And what makes the recent decolonization so special is that at least so far, no
empires have emerged to replace the ones that fell. And this was largely due
to World War II, because on some level, the Allies were fighting to stop Nazi
imperialism. Hitler wanted to take over central Europe and Africa and probably
the Middle East—and the Allied defeat of the Nazis discredited the whole idea
of empire. So the English, French, and Americans couldn’t very well say to the
colonial troops who’d fought alongside them, “Thank you so much for helping
us “to thwart Germany’s imperialistic ambitions. “As a reward, please hand in
your rifle and return to your state of subjugation.” Plus, most of the big colonial
powers—especially France, Britain, and Japan—had been significantly weakened
by World War II, by which I mean that large swaths of them looked like this.
3
Transcript
Decolonization and Nationalism Triumphant: Crash Course World History
#40
Timing and description Text
destroyed cities post-World
War II
02:23
John Green refers to a
drawing of Gandhi on the
chalkboard behind him
The African continent
split up into colonies vs
independent countries
So, postwar decolonization happened all over the place. The British colony that
had once been India became three independent nations. By the way, is this Gandhi
or is this Ben Kingsley playing Gandhi? In southeast Asia, French Indochina
became Cambodia, Laos, and Vietnam. And the Dutch East Indies became
Indonesia. But of course when we think about decolonization, we mostly think
about Africa going from this to this.
02:46
Varied video footage of
large angry crowds, a
bus driving through a city
knocking things down, an
injured man
So we’re going to oversimplify here, because we have to, but decolonization
throughout Afro-Eurasia had some similar characteristics. Because it occurred
in the context of the Cold War, many of these new nations had to choose between
socialist and capitalist influences, which shaped their futures. While many of these
new countries eventually adopted some form of democracy, the road there was
often rocky. Also, decolonization often involved violence, usually the overthrow of
colonial elites. For now, let’s turn to the most famous nonviolent decolonization—
or supposedly so, anyway—that of India.
03:14
Photo of the Indian
National Congress
Montage of photos of
people from all over India
So the story begins, more or less, in 1885 with the founding of the Indian National
Congress. Congress Party leaders and other nationalists in India were usually
from the elite classes. Initially, they didn’t even demand independence from Britain.
But they were interested in creating a modern Indian nation, rather than a return
to some ancient, pre-colonial form, possibly because India was—and is—hugely
diverse and really only unified into a single state when under imperial rule by one
group or another, whether the Mauryans, the Guptas, the Mughals, or the British.
03:44
Animation of Gandhi: as
a lawyer, working at a
loom, fasting, and leading
a nonviolent protest
Gandhi stands in front of
men with guns holding a
sign featuring a peace sign
Okay, let’s go to the Thought Bubble. The best known Indian nationalist, Mohandas
K. Gandhi, was a fascinating character. A British-educated lawyer born to a
wealthy family, he’s known for making his own clothes, his long fasts, and his
battles to alleviate poverty, improve the rights of women, and achieve a unified
Indian independence from Britain. In terms of decolonization, he stands out for his
use of nonviolence and his linking it to a somewhat mythologized view of Indian
history. I mean, after all, there’s plenty of violence in India’s past and in its heroic
epics, but Gandhi managed to hearken back to a past that used nonviolence to
bring change.
04:19
Colorized photo of
Muhammad Ali Jinnah
Map shows partition
Gandhi and his compatriot Jawaharlal Nehru believed that a single India could
continue to be ruled by Indian elites and somehow transcend the tension between
the country’s Hindu majority and its sizable Muslim minority. In this they were
less practical than their contemporary, Muhammad Ali Jinnah, the leader of the
Muslim League, who felt—to quote historian Ainslie Embree—”that the unified
India of which the Congress spoke “was an artificial one, created and maintained
by British bayonets.” Jinnah proved correct, and in 1947 when the British left,
their Indian colony was partitioned into the modern state of India and West and
East Pakistan, the latter of which became Bangladesh in 1971. While it’s easy to
congratulate both the British and the Indian governments on an orderly and
4
Transcript
Decolonization and Nationalism Triumphant: Crash Course World History
#40
Timing and description Text
Gandhi and members of
the British government
hold balloons; rain begins
to fall
People being forced to
leave their homes with
their belongings
Gandhi stands in front of a
large cheering crowd
nonviolent transfer of power, the reality of partition was neither orderly nor
nonviolent. About 12 million people were displaced as Hindus in Pakistan
moved to India and Muslims in India moved to Pakistan. As people left their
homes, sometimes unwillingly, there was violence, and all told as many as half
a million people were killed, more than died in the bloody Indonesian battle for
independence. So while it’s true that the massive protests that forced Britain to
end its colonization of India were nonviolent, the emergence of the independent
states involved really wasn’t. Thanks, Thought Bubble.
05:32
Photos of Gandhi; a
photo of Gandhi after
he had been murdered,
surrounded by a crowd of
people
harp music plays, John
Green moves to sit in the
gilded chair next to the
fireplace that has rolled
into the scene
All this violence devastated Gandhi, whose lengthy and repeated hunger strikes to
end violence had mixed results, and who was eventually assassinated by a Hindu
nationalist who felt that Gandhi was too sympathetic to Muslims.
Oh, it’s time for the Open Letter? An open letter to hunger strikers. But first, let’s
see what’s in the secret compartment today. A cupcake? Stan, this just seems
cruel. These are from Meredith the intern to celebrate Merebration, the holiday she
invented to celebrate the anniversary of her singleness.
06:02
John Green takes a bite
out of the cupcake
Dear hunger strikers, Do you remember earlier when I said that Gandhi hearkened
back to a mythologized Indian past? (mouth full): Well, it turns out that hunger
striking in India goes back all the way to, like, the fifth century BCE. Hunger
strikes have been used around the world, including British and American
suffragettes, who hunger struck to get the vote. And in pre-Christian Ireland, when
you felt wronged by someone, it was common practice to sit on their doorstep and
hunger strike until your grievance was addressed. And sometimes it even works. I
really admire you, hunger strikers. But I lack the courage of your convictions. Also,
this is an amazing cupcake. (mouth full): Best wishes, John Green.
06:40
Photos of peasants
working in fields, growing
and harvesting
Since independence, India has largely been a success story, although we will talk
about the complexity of India’s emerging global capitalism next week. For now,
though, let’s travel east to Indonesia, a huge nation of over 13,000 islands that has
largely been ignored here on Crash Course World History due to our longstanding
bias against islands. Like, we haven’t even mentioned Greenland on this show. The
Greenlanders, of course, haven’t complained because (whispers): they don’t have
the internet.
So, the Dutch exploited their island colonies with the system of cultuurstelsel,
in which all peasants had to set aside one fifth of their land to grow cash
crops for export to the Netherlands. This accounted for 25% of the total Dutch
national budget, and it explains why they have all kinds of fancy buildings despite
technically living underwater. They’re like sea monkeys.
This system was rather less popular in Indonesia, and the Dutch didn’t offer much
in exchange. They couldn’t even defend their colony from the Japanese, who
occupied it for most of World War II, during which time the Japanese furthered the
5
Transcript
Decolonization and Nationalism Triumphant: Crash Course World History
#40
Timing and description Text
Video footage of Sukarno
Photos of Dutch soldiers;
a photo of an Indonesian
protest
cause of Indonesian nationalism by placing native Indonesians in more prominent
positions of power, including Sukarno, who became Indonesia’s first prime
minister.
After the war, the Dutch—with British help—tried to hold onto their Indonesian
colonies with so-called “police actions,” which went on for more than four years
before Indonesia finally won its independence in 1950.
07:51
Video footage of war in
Cambodia
French and American
Soldiers fight in Vietnam
Over in the French colonies of Indochina, so called because they were neither
Indian nor Chinese, things were even more violent. The end of colonization was
disastrous in Cambodia, where the 17-year reign of Norodom Sihanouk gave way
to the rise of the Khmer Rouge, which massacred a stunning 21% of Cambodia’s
population between 1975 and 1979.
In Vietnam, the French fought communist-led nationalists, especially Ho Chi Minh,
from almost the moment World War II ended until 1954, when the French were
defeated. And then the Americans heard that there was a land war available in
Asia, so they quickly took over from the French, and communists did not fully
control Vietnam until 1975. Despite still being ostensibly communist, Vietnam now
manufactures all kinds of stuff that we like in America, especially sneakers. More
about that next week too, but now to Egypt.
08:35
Colorized photo of Gemal
Abdul Nasser; video
footage shows Gemal in
front of several cheering
crowds
You’ll remember that Egypt bankrupted itself in the 19th century trying to
industrialize and ever since had been ruled by an Egyptian king who took his
orders from the British. So while technically Egypt had been independent since
1922, it was very dependent independence. But that changed in the 1950s, when
the king was overthrown by the army. The army commander who led that coup
was Gemal Abdul Nasser, who proved brilliant at playing the U.S. and the USSR
off each other to the benefit of Egypt. Nasser’s was a largely secular nationalism,
and he and his successors saw one of the other anti-imperialistic nationalist
forces in Egypt, the Muslim Brotherhood, as a threat. So once in power, Nasser
and the army banned the Muslim Brotherhood, forcing it underground, where it
would disappear and never become an issue again. Wait, what’s that? Really?
09:16
Scrolling text
Photos of Rwandans in
camps
And finally let’s turn to central and southern Africa. One of the most problematic
legacies of colonialism was its geography. Colonial boundaries became redefined
as the borders of new nation-states, even where those boundaries were arbitrary
or, in some cases, pernicious. The best known example is in Rwanda, where two
very different tribes, the Hutu and the Tutsis, were combined into one nation. But,
more generally, the colonizers’ focus on value extraction really hurt these new
nations. Europeans claimed to bring civilization and economic development to their
colonies, but this economic development focused solely on building infrastructure
to get resources and export them.
09:50
Video footage of fighting in
Africa
Now, whether European powers deliberately sabotaged development in Africa is
a hot-button topic we’re going to stay well away from, but this much is inarguably
true: when the Europeans left, African nations did not have the institutions
necessary to thrive in the post-war industrial world. They had very few schools,
for instance, and even fewer universities. Like, when the Congo achieved
independence from Belgium in 1960, there were 16 Congolese college graduates in
6
Transcript
Decolonization and Nationalism Triumphant: Crash Course World History
#40
Timing and description Text
Photo of an African Ruler
speaking with a European
colonizer
country of 14 million people.
Also, in many of these new countries, the traditional elites had been undermined
by imperialism. Most Europeans didn’t rule their African possessions directly
but rather through the proxies of local rulers. And once the Europeans left, those
local rulers, the upper classes, were seen as illegitimate collaborators. And this
meant that a new group of rulers had to rise up to take their place, often with very
little experience in governance. I mean, Zimbabwe’s long-serving dictator Robert
Mugabe was a high school teacher. Let that be a lesson to you: your teachers may
have dictatorial ambitions.
10:47
Colorized images of the
mentioned leaders
Modern photos of
Botswana, Kenya,
Mauritania
But most strongmen have emerged, of course, from the military: Joseph Mobutu
seized power in the Congo, which he held from 1965 until his death in 1997; Idi
Amin was military dictator of Uganda from 1971 to 1979; Muammar Gaddafi ruled
Libya from 1977 until 2011; The list goes on, but I don’t want to give you the wrong
impression about Africa. Because while the continent does have less freedom
and lower levels of development than other regions in the world, many African
nations show strong and consistent signs of growth despite the challenges of
decolonization.
Botswana for instance has gone from 70% literacy to 85% in the past 15 years
and has seen steady GDP growth over five percent. Benin’s economy has grown
in each of the past 12 years, which is better than Europe or the U.S. can say. In
2002 Kenya’s life expectancy was 47; today it’s 63. Ethiopia’s per-capita GDP has
doubled over the past ten years; and Mauritania has seen its infant mortality rate
fall by more than 40%.
11:44
Credits roll
Now, this progress is spotty and fragile, but it’s important to note that these
nations have existed, on average, about 13 years less than my dad. Of course, past
experience with the fall of empires hasn’t given us much cause for hope, but many
citizens of these new nations are seeing real progress. That said, disaster might
lurk around the corner. It’s hard to say. I mean, now more than ever, we’re trying
to tell the story of humans from inside the story of humans. Thanks for watching,
I’ll see you next week.
Crash Course is produced and directed by Stan Muller. Our script supervisor is
Meredith Danko. The associate producer is Danica Johnson. The show is written
by my high school history teacher, Raoul Meyer, and myself. And our graphics
team is Thought Bubble. Last week’s Phrase of the Week was “Meatloaf’s Career.”
If you want to guess at this week’s Phrase of the Week or suggest future ones, you
can do so in comments, where you can also ask questions about today’s video that
will be answered by our team of historians. Thanks for watching Crash Course,
and as we say in my hometown, don’t forget to be awesome.
