Process of Decolonization Following World War 2. History Essay

Process of Decolonization Following World War II
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Decolonization Process after World War II
European states- Britain, Italy, Germany, France and Portugal – had won the scramble for Africa and had been colonizing the continent from the end of 19th century, Africans were subjected under cruelty, heavy taxes were imposed and many were recruited as soldiers to fight for the European in the second war. The period between 1941-1945 marked the end of world war 2 and gave rise to an important political shift in the world but more so to the African nations. This essay focuses on the era post the Second World War in 1945 which marked the process of decolonization of Africa.
Africa had maintained perfect order and different ethnic tribes controlled different locations of the continent and led distinct lifestyles, political and trade systems. Egypt was the first empire and it influenced the Kushite civilizations. Countries like Ghana flourished and it had an extensive wealth in gold and many small groups continued formed leading to more empires. The Portuguese started trading at the west coast and soon word spread about the wealth in the black continent. Soon the Dutch, French and the British flooded the continent CITATION Alb16 \l 1033 (Albert M. Craig, etal, 2016). It is their presence that disrupted the well-organized Africa and they started exploiting Africans for slave trade, exhausted their resources and eventually they exerted their ruling on them leading to colonialism.
Colonialism started around 1870 and this led to almost all African culture being eroded, the Europeans labelled colonization as civilizing the Africans. Africa was divided into colonies belonging to the British, Italian, French, Portugal, Belgium and Germany. In mid-20th century, African nations started seeking independence. This was abetted by the fact that Europeans were staggering financially after the war and the African soldiers who had been recruited and fought in the war came home with a new attitude and desire for liberty CITATION Ogb14 \l 1033 (Decolonization of Asia and Africa, 1945-1960).
The end of second world war led to two developments, the African soldiers felt indignant towards the colonizers and the exposure during the second war brought about nationalism movement, second, after world war 2, Europe faced more financial hardship leading to its imperial decline and the rise of two super powers, the United States and Soviet Union and Europe had to decide whether to keep the colonized zones. This birthed the process of decolonization which refers to gaining independence of the colonial countries from their colonizers, in Africa this process was met violently and nonviolently CITATION Dan12 \l 1033 (Jarzynski, 2012).
Violence was not inevitable in most African nations while fighting for independence though some like Ghana managed to use this strategy effectively. Ghana was ushered into the hall of freedom by Kwame Nkrumah in 1957, making the nation the first to gain independence in Africa. He employed anti-colonialism strategies that did not involve violence. He formed his own political party that was a ray of hope to the natives who wanted freedom from colonialism. Secon...