The Cold War and the End of Empire

The Cold War both sped up and complicated decolonization. The United States had a long anti-colonial tradition and pressed allies such as the Netherlands to leave Indonesia, yet it also funded France's war in Indochina because it feared communist expansion. The Soviet Union presented itself as the champion of oppressed peoples and offered aid, training and weapons to many liberation movements.

Colonial powers sometimes justified staying by warning that independence would hand territory to communism, as Britain did in Malaya. Newly independent states, in turn, could play the superpowers against each other for aid. The result was that many independence struggles, such as those in Indochina, the Congo and Angola, became entangled in superpower rivalry, which often prolonged and intensified conflict. Understanding decolonization therefore requires seeing local struggles and global competition at the same time.