Episode notes
For centuries, European powers controlled vast territories across Asia, Africa, the Middle East, and the Caribbean. Then, within only a few decades, those empires began to collapse.
This episode explores how two world wars, anti-colonial nationalism, economic exhaustion, armed resistance, and Cold War rivalry brought an end to formal European imperial rule. From India and Indonesia to Algeria, Ghana, Vietnam, and the Congo, we examine why some colonies gained independence through negotiation while others endured partition, revolution, and devastating war.
But decolonization was not simply the lowering of European flags. Many newly independent states inherited colonial borders, fragile institutions, export-dependent economies, and political divisions that continued to shape their futures.