Post-Colonial State Creation

• Imperialistic powers created new states when handing over governmental control to former colonies
• The number of independent states more than doubled between 1945 and 2000 (approximately 75 to around 190)
• New state boundaries often led to conflicts, population displacement, and resettlement
• India was partitioned into Hindu India and Muslim Pakistan
• Pakistan later divided again, creating Bangladesh
• The newly created Israel displaced Palestinian residents
• Newly independent countries instituted strong policies to promote economic development
• Migrants from newly independent countries migrated to colonizing countries (usually to the large cities) while keeping alive cultural and economic ties

Israel's Founding and Relationships with Neighbors

• The Zionist movement originated in the 1890s as a reaction to the Dreyfus Affair
• Theodore Herzl used the Dreyfus Affair as evidence that assimilation of Jews into European society was failing
• At the First Zionist Congress in 1897, Herzl urged the creation of a separate Jewish state
• Zionists hoped to establish the new state in Palestine (where their ancestors had lived)
• Palestine was part of the Ottoman Empire, and most inhabitants were Arabs who practiced Islam
• Zionists believed Jews could be free of persecution by creating a new state
• In 1917, the British government issued the Balfour Declaration
• The Balfour Declaration favored establishing a "national home" for the Jewish people in Palestine
• British Foreign Secretary Arthur James Balfour wrote that nothing should prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine
• T.E. Lawrence ("Lawrence of Arabia") promised certain Arabs an independent state
• The British Foreign Office hoped Arabs would rise up against the Ottoman Empire during World War I
• Supporters of the Arabs did not trust the British
• In 1918, after World War I, Britain was given a mandate over former Ottoman lands in the Middle East
• Zionists began immigrating to Palestine from Europe and the Middle East
• As immigration increased, Arabs protested their loss of land and traditional Islamic way of life
• World War II and the Holocaust gave Jewish immigration another impetus
• Britain turned the matter over to the United Nations in the face of Arab opposition
• Leaders hoped partition would bring peace and stability
• In 1948, after the UN divided Palestine into Jewish and Arab sections, the Jewish section declared itself to be Israel
• War broke out between Israel (supported by the U.S.) and the Palestinians (supported by neighboring Arab countries)
• Arab forces from Syria, Jordan, Lebanon, and Iraq invaded Israel
• The Israeli army won and an armed truce was declared
• About 400,000 Palestinians became refugees
• 1956: Israel (supported by France and Great Britain) invaded Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula to liberate the Suez Canal
• The Egyptian government had nationalized the Suez Canal under Gamal Abdel Nasser’s economic programs
• Israel and allied forces withdrew from Egypt following international protests
• 1967: During the Six-Day War, Israel gained the Gaza Strip from Egypt, the West Bank and East Jerusalem from Jordan, and the Golan Heights from Syria
• 1973: Israel repelled a surprise Yom Kippur War invasion by Egypt and Syria
• The Camp David Accords were a U.S.-mediated peace agreement between Prime Minister Menachem Begin of Israel and President Anwar Sadat of Egypt
• The Palestinians and several Arab states rejected the 1979 peace treaty
• The Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) and Yasser Arafat wanted the return of occupied lands and the creation of an independent Palestine
• In the 21st century, the peace process became more complicated when the Palestinians split into two factions: Fatah (West Bank) and Hamas (Gaza)
• Security concerns led the Israeli government to implement tighter border controls on the West Bank and on Gaza (economic sanctions)
• Israel angered Palestinians by approving new settlements on lands Palestinians considered theirs
• Between 2000 and 2014, over 7,000 Palestinians and over 1,000 Israelis were killed
• Many countries in the Middle East remained hostile to the United States over its support of Israel

Cambodia Gains Independence and Survives Wars

• Cambodia pressured France to grant it independence in 1953
• Cambodia's royal family tried to remain a non-aligned nation during the Cold War
• Cambodia became involved in the Vietnam War
• The Khmer Rouge (a communist guerrilla organization led by Pol Pot) overthrew the right-wing government of Cambodia
• Once in power, Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge imposed a ruthless form of communism
• The Khmer followed the Chinese model of "cultural revolution" that targeted intellectuals and dissenters
• The slaughter and famine that followed took more than two million lives (one-quarter of the country’s population)
• In 1977, Vietnamese troops invaded Cambodia to support opponents of Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge
• The Vietnamese took control of the government in Cambodia and helped the country to regain some stability
• Hundreds of thousands of refugees fled the country
• In 1989, Vietnamese forces completed their withdrawal from Cambodia
• A peace agreement reached in 1991 allowed free elections (monitored by the United Nations)
• Prince Norodom Sihanouk became a constitutional monarch
• The country developed a democratic government with multiple political parties and aspects of a market economy

India and Pakistan Become Separate Countries

• In 1947, the British divided colonial India into two independent countries: India (mostly Hindu) and Pakistan (mostly Muslim)
• India’s population was about 10 times larger than Pakistan’s
• Women had the right to vote in both countries
• The partition of the colony was chaotic, and violence broke out along religious lines
• At least 10 million people moved
• Hindus and Sikhs fled their homes in Pakistan to resettle in India
• Muslims fled India for Pakistan
• Between 500,000 and one million people died in the political turmoil
• Pakistani-India distrust grew after partition
• India became the world’s largest democracy
• Pakistan had both elected leaders and authoritarian military rulers
• Moderates confronted powerful conservative religious movements that opposed compromise with the other country
• Kashmir was a persistent tension between India and Pakistan
• Most people in Kashmir were Muslims, but its leader was a Hindu
• Both Pakistan and India claimed Kashmir
• The rivalry broke out into armed conflict
• The tension became more significant after each began developing nuclear weapons
• India controlled about 45 percent of the Kashmir region
• Pakistan controlled about 35 percent of the Kashmir region
• China controlled about 20 percent of the Kashmir region

Women Gain Power in South Asia

• Women became heads of state in some newly emerging countries
• Often, women replaced their fathers or husbands
• Women won the right to vote in India and Pakistan in 1947
• Sri Lanka's Sirimavo Bandaranaike became the world’s first female prime minister in 1960 (Ceylon, later Sri Lanka)
• She ran for office after her husband's assassination
• Bandaranaike continued her husband’s socialist economic policies
• She was voted out of office in 1965 with a sagging economy
• She returned to power five years later and instituted more radical policies
• Policies included land reforms, restrictions on free enterprise, and a new constitution that changed the country’s name to Sri Lanka
• The economy stalled again, and she was voted out of office in 1977
• Bandaranaike remained active in Sri Lankan politics
• Her daughter Chandrika became the country’s first female president in 1994 and appointed her mother again to the role of prime minister
• India's Indira Gandhi became India’s leader in 1966
• She distanced herself from her father’s old-guard advisors and made political and economic moves to strengthen India’s economy
• War with Pakistan took a toll on the economy, though India won the conflict with military support from the Soviet Union
• High inflation and growing poverty threatened her rule
• She declared a national emergency in 1975 and jailed many opposition leaders
• Her 20-point economic program proved successful
• Policies were unpopular with the people of India despite the economic gains
• Gandhi lost in the elections of 1977
• She returned to power as prime minister in 1980 but was assassinated in 1984
• Pakistan elected Benazir Bhutto prime minister in 1988
• She was the first elected female leader of a majority Muslim country
• Bhutto struggled to improve Pakistan’s economy and reduce its poverty
• Corruption charges dogged her and her husband
• Bhutto won election to two nonconsecutive terms and then went into exile from 1999 until 2007
• She returned to Pakistan and was killed by an assassin

Tanzania Modernizes

• Tanganyika gained its independence from Britain in 1961, later becoming the United Republic of Tanzania
• Julius Nyerere instituted African socialist political and economic ideas (Arusha Declaration of 1967)
• It was an egalitarian approach based on cooperative agriculture
• Literacy campaigns, free education, and collective farming were key components of ujamaa
• Ujamaa is Swahili for “familyhood”
• Nyerere advanced the country’s economic independence away from foreign aid
• Economic hardships challenged Nyerere’s leadership for years
• Conflicts with Uganda and Idi Amin challenged Nyerere's leadership
• Nyerere could not pull Tanzania out of poverty
• He resigned the presidency in 1985 but remained an important social leader until his death in 1999

Emigration from Newer Countries to Older Ones

• People from newly independent countries moved to the former colonial powers
• Large numbers of refugees and immigrants from Pakistan, India, and Bangladesh moved to London after the chaos of World War II and other conflicts
• London was a metropole
• Metropole: a large city of a former colonial ruler
• Vietnamese, Algerians, and West Africans migrated to Paris and other cities in France
• Filipinos migrated to the United States
• Many migrants found jobs in the medical field
• Others worked on railroads, in foundries, and in airports
• Economic and cultural ties between the colonial power and newly independent countries remained strong in this way