Africa and Asia in Post World War 2
After the exploration age, the Europeans were able to establish their colonial rule in Africa and a more significant part of South East Asia. They had successfully conquered these regions because of their military superiority and technological advancement, which enabled them to contain resisting nations in Africa and Asia (Bromber & Krais, 2018). However, after the successful establishment of imperialism, Europeans began a new sibling conflict of economic superiority. These internal conflicts resulted in the first and second world wars. The latter was the deadliest conflict which led to the death of over 80 million people in the world. The aftermath of the Second World War, however, introduced a new twist of colonization in Africa and Asia.
In Africa, the Second World War led to the rise of nationalism and the firing need for self-rule. During the war, African soldiers were used to fighting for the European nations. They were startled to see Europeans dying by the rifles because they had natural believed that their superiority was unmatched and that they were special. On realizing that Europeans could die just like other human beings, the Africans developed a renewed determination to fight for their independence. In the late 1960s, most of the African states had attained self-rule. In Asia, it was not different. During the Second World War, Japan had relentlessly fought to drive Europeans out of their continent. However, with the defeat of the central powers which Japan was a part of this struggle dwindled. Even after Japan’s defeat in the Second World War, the Asians were determined to end the Europeans’ rule in their continent.
Although the United Nations-supported self-rule, the imperialists were not willing to free their colonies peacefully. This hesitation and continued exploitation made African liberators resort to revolts. However, liberators faced prolonged detentions and persecution during these struggles; hence the process of decolonization was occasionally slowed down.
The fall of the Soviet Union
After a highly coveted victory in the Second World War, the Soviet Union was undoubtedly a world superpower. The Red Army had successfully contained and defeated a stubborn German with the help of the United States and Britain. Therefore, nobody would have expected such a superpower to crumble within a short time. In the mid-1980s, the Soviet Union was in crisis. Many leaders tried to resolve the situation and restore the soviets’ prestige without success. The failure of the leaders to contain this situation led to the historical disintegration of the Soviet Union in 1991. What caused the costly crises in the Soviet Union?
Various reasons including; political, social, economic, Afghanistan issue and nuclear factor, led to the decline of the Soviet Union which was not only a global superpower but also the world’s largest country. The first reason that led to the fall of the Soviet Union was the cold war. Although America and the Soviet Union had forced Germany into surrender in the First World War, the seemingly strong union between the two countries began to wane because of their ideological differences. In the long run, two rival blocs; the western and the eastern blocs led by the United States and the Soviet Union respectively were formed. The United States, in particular, feared the spread of communism as championed for by the Soviet Union. The cold war had stagnated the growth of soviet’s economy. To solve the economic quagmire, Mikhail Gorbachev, a staunch communist, introduced two policies; glasnost and perestroika that triggered a democratic feeling among the people and increasingly became a threat to communism. His decision to allow free democratic elections fueled the democratization process leading to the disintegration of the Soviet Union. His infamous policies escalated political intolerance among the communist and were evident by the unsuccessful attempted coup in 1991. Consequently, the eastern bloc consisting of 15 countries was disintegrated (Grachez, 2019)
References
Bromber, K., & Krais, J. (2018). Introduction: Shaping the “New Man” in South Asia, Africa and the Middle East. Practices between Hope and Anxiety (1940s–1960s). Comparativ, 28(5), 7-21.
Grachev, A. S. (2019). Final days: The inside story of the collapse of the Soviet Union. Routledge.