ABSTRACT
The Second World War gave birth to an era in which the global balance of power had been irretrievably shifted. European imperial powers had been eclipsed and they could no longer maintain their hold over vast continents. The war was a catalyst, accelerating the process of social and political change so that independence from colonialism became urgent and inevitable in many developing nations. Overarching this inexorable process was the emergence of two superpowers which polarized the world into ideologically opposed camps and threatened it with total destruction. This new global configuration and ideological cleavage superimposed itself upon the struggles for independence, so that, in the minds of Cold War ideologues, they became linked with the advance of world communism. Perhaps understandable, given the historical context, this was, nevertheless, a naive belief which was to carry war and destruction in its wake.
