● Key Terms
○ Salt March
○ Ho Chi Minh
○ Domino Theory
● Post-war imperialism
○ Most European colonies occupied by Japan in WW1
■ Took most of southeast/western Asia
○ Europeans struggle to reassert dominance after 1945
■ Largely due to communist movements within these colonies
○ Want natural resources in Asia to rebuild Europe
○ America initially supported independence, but softened opinion because of the
Cold War
■ Communist movements were not supported by the U.S.
● Decolonization in Asia
○ Happened faster than in Africa
○ By 1957, most colonies in Asia had gained independence
■ Partly due to fear of the Soviet Union and the spread of communism
■ Foreign policy in Western Europe was ultimately influenced by the
fear of communism
● India
○ Salt March
■ Took place in the 1930s
■ A direct action campaign against the British salt monopoly in India
● Only people who were licensed by the British Raj were allowed to
make or sell salt
■ Gandhi chose to protest the salt tax because it provided over 8 percent of
all revenue to the British
● By refusing to pay that tax and making their own salt, India would
prove their point about the unfair British rule in India
○ Civil disobedience
○ Public opinion against British
○ Partition of India and Pakistan
● Other British colonies
○ Decolonization under American pressure
○ Official policy was to grand self-government when appropriate
■ Britain appeared ambivalent about independence movements
■ Would only give liberty to Berma once they were civilized enough
● Dutch East Indies
○ More violent independence movements than in British colonies
○ Japanese encouraged nationalists during WW2
○ Dutch spent excessively to maintain the colony
○ Independence finally granted in 1949
● French Indochina
○ Ho Chi Minh
■ Vietnamese communist and nationalist leader who fought for Vietnamese
independence from the French in the 40s and 50s
● The Cold War in Asia
○ Stalin and Decolonization
■ Skeptical of the colonies' legitimate commitment to communism
○ The American position
■ Split between wanting to support decolonization and also wanting to
prevent the spread of communism
○ Domino Theory
■ If one state falls to communism, then the entirety of Japan will fall
○ Proxy wars
■ Most notably in Korea and Nam’
