ABSTRACT
The end of warfare in Europe in 1945 did not mean the end of warfare for European society. Even before the year was over, European societies had to face the desires of peoples in European colonies across the globe to resist a return to the status quo ante bellum. The very same month that Japan surrendered unconditionally to the Allies, indigenous groups in the Dutch East Indies proclaimed the independence of the new nation of Indonesia. Between 1945 and 1974 virtually all of the major European powers that possessed overseas colonies had to decide whether to fight to retain their empires or to allow them to dissolve peacefully. In those cases where the European power chose war, it rarely saw gains commensurate with the financial and human expenditures. In the process, war came home to Europeans once again, with terrible human, economic, and political costs.
