What’s the Significance?
Big Picture Questions
In what ways did the colonial experience and the struggle for independence shape the agenda of developing countries in the second half of the twentieth century?
How would you compare the historical experiences of India and China in the twentieth century?
From the viewpoint of the early twenty-first century, to what extent had the goals of nationalist or independence movements been achieved?
Looking Back: To what extent did the struggle for independence and the postcolonial experience of African and Asian peoples in the twentieth century parallel or diverge from that of the earlier “new nations” in the Americas in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries?
Next Steps: For Further Study
Chinua Achebe, Anthills of the Savannah (1989). A brilliant fictional account of post-independence Nigeria by that country’s foremost novelist.
Frederick Cooper, Africa since 1940 (2002). A readable overview of the coming of independence and efforts at development by a leading historian of Africa.
Ramachandra Guha, India after Gandhi: The History of the World’s Largest Democracy (2007). A thoughtful account of India’s first six decades of independence.
John Isbister, Promises Not Kept (2006). A well-regarded consideration of the obstacles to and struggles for development in the Global South.
Nelson Mandela, Long Walk to Freedom: The Autobiography of Nelson Mandela (1995). Mandela’s account of his own amazing life as nationalist leader and South African statesman.
W. David McIntyre, British Decolonization, 1946–1997 (1998). A global history of the demise of the British Empire.
Complete Site on Mahatma Gandhi, http://www.mkgandhi.org. A wealth of resources for exploring the life of Gandhi.