Decolonization in S/SE Asia

3 Credits · Level: Graduate, Undergraduate

This course examines the historical processes through which European colonial possessions in South and Southeast Asia became sovereign and independent nations during the mid-twentieth century. In the decade following World War II, Europe's former colonies in South and Southeast Asia, one by one, gained independence: Indonesia from the Dutch in 1945, Philippines from the USA in 1946, British India was partitioned into independent India and Pakistan in 1947, British Burma (Myanmar) and Ceylon (Sri Lanka) gained independence the following year. After a brutal war, French Indochina French Indochina became independent Vietnam and Cambodia in 1953 and Laos in 1954. British Malaya became free Malaysia in 1957. In 1997, Hong Kong - the last European possession in the region - was transferred back to China. This course examines the historical processes of decolonization across this region, from anti-colonial liberation movements and wars through which these countries gained freedom to the post-colonial challenges of nation and state-building that followed the attainment of formal independence. The course will take a comparative and historical approach to the following question: how does one create sovereign and independent states out of the remnants of Europe's colonial empires?