ABSTRACT
Through Asia, the Middle East, North Africa and Africa south of the Sahara, a tidal wave of local nationalism was gathering to cast out the European rulers. In the years following World War II, the pace of colonial nationalism quickened. Despite the established pedigree of local nationalism in most imperial domains by 1945, and despite the apparent decline of European power internationally, virtually no one foresaw the scope of the decolonization process–much less its speed–in the immediate aftermath of the war. The slow spread of Western education, the increasing economic development of areas related to European capitalism, and the accumulating wisdom acquired from political discussion and agitation by colonized subjects of many different social and economic categories were serving to create the necessary basis for strong nationalist movements after 1945. The international situation after 1945, as well as past precedent, was crucial in determining British and French responses to the pressures of decolonization.
