What Was Decolonization?

Decolonization is the process by which colonies became independent states, and it reshaped the world map between 1945 and the 1990s. In 1945 the United Nations had 51 founding members; by the 1990s it had more than three times as many, mostly former colonies in Asia, Africa, the Caribbean and the Pacific. The process was not one event but many: some colonies won independence through negotiation and elections, others through long wars, and a few through the collapse of the colonial power itself.

Historians debate whether empires were pushed out by nationalist movements, pulled back by weakness and changing priorities in Europe, or squeezed by a new international order dominated by the United States, the Soviet Union and the UN. Most now argue all three forces interacted. Decolonization matters because it created most of the world's states, drew many of their borders, and left political and economic legacies still debated today.