6: The Crisis and Collapse of the Modern Imperial Order Flashcards
how was an imperial order organised and defended after WWI?
Wilsonianist and Leninist models of internationalism
- different ways of seeing the centrality of self-determination and nationality around which the international system should be organised
how was an imperial order organised and defended after WWI?
colonies and mandates: organising and preserving an imperial order in the age of self-determination
no universal self-determination: limits and civilisational partiality of Wilsonianism
- war waged in self-determination applied self-determination selectively
different kinds of mandates (A/B/C) according to stages of development and civilisation
- British, French and Japanese mandates remained in place and were strengthened as a consequence of WWI whereas colonial obsessions of defeated powers had to be governed and administered according to different kinds of mandates
alienation and radicalisation of new national elites: search for a new alternative
- hierarchical neo-imperial system and attempt to deal with what was becoming a crisis of the imperial model by preserving and updating the imperial model
- alienated and radicalised national elites which wanted independence
transnational anti-colonial movements with the effort to transcend artificial colonial boundaries
- failure of the post-WWI period and Paris peace conference in addressing request
- radical, anti-Western, anti-capitalist and socialist approaches
implications of the crisis of an imperial/empire-centric order
imperial as the privileged space of governance
- violent, unjust, hierarchically organised, racist way to organise global space
global hierarchies = imperial hierarchies
- imperial organisation everywhere as a way to organise, rationalise and control space
imperial imagination
- common to have big colonial exhibits, expositions and exposés to show the exoticism of the colonial to control/master space
key imperial resources
interwar period and efforts to manage/contain orderly transition
anti-imperialism as the counter-hegemonic discourse
post-imperial dilemmas like territoriality, nation-states and imperial frontiers
what was the impact of WWII on the process of decolonisation?
truly global conflict with the involvement of colonies/dominions
- further transformation of the relationship between metropoles and colonies
- sense of how global and globalised conflit was and how the issue of the relationship between colonies and metropoles was radically transformed by WWII
new imperial projects in the name of anti-colonialism
- Japan’s struggle as part of a larger struggle in Asia to emancipate and liberate Asia from imperial control of Europe and the US
further delegitimisation and collapse of Euro-centric/Euro-imperial world
further emphasis/legitimisation of self-determination
- civilisational divided that was common post-WWI began to disappear
- acceleration and further strengthening of principles of self-determination, equality, sovereignty and nationality
why did the Cold War initially hinder the decolonisation process?
geopolitical priorities of superpowers
- focus of superpowers on Europe in the early Cold War
- hindered, derailed or slowed down the process
Eurocentric-conservative approach of USSR
- priority in the early years to create a security architecture in Europe that would protect the USSR by keeping Germany weak and divided
focus on Europe
WWII delegitimised European empires while revealing their absolute importance
how did the Cold War help the decolonisation process?
new vocabulary for transnational anti-imperial discourse
- offered by international institutions created post-WWII
superpowers’ claim to universality and therefore anti-colonialism
- claim that the US and USSR embodied, projected and represented universal/universalistic models
- no space for imperial hierarchies/domination
crisis of the British empire (India and Palestine)
- winners of WWII like Britain entering a dramatic crisis
- could not afford/sustain an imperial agenda/policy
- invisible and anachronistic elements of the imperial structure
why was the independence of India so important?
historical jewel of the British empire
- special importance
economic importance but also burden
- difficult to imagine and build a post-colonial national entity in a territory so diverse, plural and divided
religious divisions, cleansing and communal violence
- civil war with religious divisions
partition of India and Pakistan
- complicated and impossible at times to superimpose imperial lines/frontiers on post-colonial nation states that were multinational and multi-religious in character
- imperial lines often highly artificial
symbolic importance for the soon to be postcolonial world - India as a precedent/model/leader/risk
- monumental political and diplomatic symbolic power
- meant to be the largest democracy in the world
- conquered its independence through a non-violet movement that became popular
why was the creation of the state of Israel (Palestine) so important?
British mandate at the end of WWI to establish a home for the Jewish
- Israel and Palestine part of this mandate at the end of WWI
collision of 2 peoples over a land with particular religious significance
British inconsistencies and clash with Jewish groups in Palestine
impact of Holocaust, with US domestic/electoral concerns
- dramatic legacy of WWII led to many beginning with the US to somehow support the creation of a new Jewish state in the heart of the Middle East
partition and war
- first Arab-Jewish conflict and the creation of the state of Israel that was larger than originally imagined with a large non-Jewish population in its borders
support to the new state from US and USSR
- however, argument that by recognising Israel, the US would alienate the Arab state and Arabs which would result in long-term security problems
Israel as a Cold War frontier
- creation as a new source of tensions and crises in the Middle East
- 1967 war where Israel was the frontline and from then on became a special ally of the US and a major recipient of military aid
why was the independence of Indonesia so important?
Dutch control and high strategic value
- rich in key raw materials and natural resources
Japanese invasion in 1942
- collaboration between Indonesian nationalists as a way to emancipate themselves from imperial control
end of the war and declaration of independence in 1945
- independence accompanied by a radical social upheaval that others argued to be a sign that they were moving towards communism
Dutch reaction with UK assistance - anti colonial struggle
- US caught between the support and independence of Indonesia on Wilsonian principles but also the necessity not to alienate vital European allies
mounting international pressure and independence in 1949
progressive detachment from the US and neutralism/non-alignment
- opted for a position of neutrality and non-alignment like India
why was there a globalisation of the Cold War in 1949-1950 and what was its impact on the process of decolonisation?
1949-1950 where Cold War was stabilised in Europe that was divided into 2 blocs
- new security architecture of a sort in Europe
- peace was brutal and authoritarian but still peace
- Cold War moved outside of Europe and was globalised
end of the Chinese Civil War in 1949 with the PRC
- massive new communist state that signed an alliance with the USSR
beginning of the Korean War in 1950
communist China in the 1950s
immense symbolic and political value
- great power in becoming a permanent member of the UN SC
- not what it was but what it was bound to become
ideological defeat for the US
- major alteration of the balance of power in Asia
alteration of the balance of power in Asia and first globalisation of the Cold War
model for less developed/post-colonial world
- represented with India a model for the post-colonial reality
- invention of a new ideology, hybridised in traditional Marxist and Leninist tenets with Mau’s own contributions
- also a model for movements of national liberation aspiring to independence and socialism
Korean Cold War as a multiplier of violence outside European core
what was the Third World?
Cold War creature with neutralism and non-alignment
- third world as an alternative or space of competition to be filled
ambition to offer an alternative model, geopolitical and for development like India
- powerful imaginary symbol and space
- alternative as an idea that you can remain neutral and non-aligned
- other dimension that it was a space of competition and a void to be filled with alliances (where the Cold War and decolonisation truly interplayed)
what was the impact of globalisation of the Cold War on the process of decolonisation?
interaction/interdependence between decolonisation and superpowers’ confrontation: credibility and zero-sum game
- led the 2 superpowers to constantly intervene in non-European post-colonial areas
stabilisation of the Cold War in Europe
Soviet activism after Stalin’s death: less Eurocentric with the Chinese challenge
- attraction towards the Soviet orbit
- global and peaceful competition with the US
US divisions and liberal response of modernisation
- offered their own model of development and modernisation with specific policy prescriptions and indications
- idea that public spending, literacy campaigns, etc. could promote quick economic development that was vital/important to post-colonial nation-building
why was the conference of Bandung in 1955 and the conference of Belgrade in 1961 so important?
Bandung and the movement of non-aligned countries
search for an alternative international order and political space in Cold War bipolarism
neutralism and non-alignment (Belgrade and 1961)
connection to decolonisation and Third World
different leaders and countries
- lack of cooperation and attempts to exploit Cold War
what were the main external actors/variables of the Cold War in Africa?
2 superpowers
lesser, non-African actors like China, Cuba, Yugoslavia, Sweden, etc.
- not just competition between the US and USSR
regional powers like South Africa, Egypt, Algeria, Congo, Tanzania
transnational revolutionary groups
UN and GA
many dimensions like the cultural dimension of the Cold War
- educational progress promoted both by the USSR and US to form and cultivate the new African elites
