50 Fun Facts About Decolonization

Which commodity did Mahatma Gandhi walk 240 miles in 1930 to make illegally, defying a British monopoly?

Salt was a British monopoly under an 1882 law, so when Gandhi boiled seawater at Dandi he set off civil disobedience by millions of Indians.

Which territory's 1997 handover to China ended 156 years of British rule there?

Hong Kong changed hands at midnight on 1 July 1997, after Prince Charles read a farewell speech on behalf of Queen Elizabeth II.

Which former British colony left Malaysia in 1965, less than two years after joining it?

Singapore became a sovereign state on 9 August 1965, and Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew fought back tears at the televised press conference announcing the split.

Which European country annexed the Congo in 1908 from its own king's private rule and governed it until 1960?

Belgium took over reluctantly, after public pressure ended the king's personal rule of the Congo Free State, and handed over power on 30 June 1960.

Which Caribbean nation, born of a revolt by enslaved people, declared independence from France in 1804?

Haiti became independent on 1 January 1804 after a revolt that began in 1791, founding a state free from slavery and ruled by former captives.

Which waterway did Egypt's Nasser nationalize in 1956, prompting an invasion by Britain, France and Israel?

The Suez Canal invasion ended in international humiliation for Britain and France, and historians treat it as the end of Britain's role as a superpower.

Which Asian country, an American colony since 1898, was granted independence on July 4, 1946?

The Philippines kept July 4 as its independence day until 1962, when the holiday moved to June 12, the date of an 1898 declaration against Spain.

Which 1974 coup in Portugal, named after a flower, led to independence for its African colonies?

The Carnation Revolution took its name from restaurant worker Celeste Caeiro, who handed the flowers to soldiers, and it ended Portugal's colonial wars.

Which British prime minister delivered the 1960 Wind of Change speech to South Africa's parliament in Cape Town?

Harold Macmillan had first given the speech in Accra, Ghana, a few weeks earlier, where it drew little response.

Which Caribbean nation removed Queen Elizabeth II as head of state in 2021 and became a republic?

Barbados swore in Sandra Mason as its first president on 30 November 2021, with Prince Charles in attendance and Rihanna named a National Hero.

Which British colony in West Africa took the name Ghana when it became independent in 1957?

The Gold Coast took its new name from an ancient West African empire, known to Arab traders as Ghana, when it became independent on 6 March 1957.

Which leader won a 1951 election from a colonial prison cell and later became Ghana's first prime minister?

Kwame Nkrumah stood for an Accra seat while jailed in Fort James; his party won in a landslide and he walked free days later.

Who became India's first prime minister in 1947 and delivered the midnight speech known as Tryst with Destiny?

Jawaharlal Nehru spoke to the Constituent Assembly towards midnight on 14 August 1947 and went on to hold the office for more than 16 years.

Which last viceroy of India oversaw partition and stayed on as independent India's first governor-general?

Lord Mountbatten, an uncle of Prince Philip, had been Supreme Allied Commander in South East Asia before he was sent to wind up British rule.

Which London-trained barrister led the Muslim League and became Pakistan's first governor-general in 1947?

Muhammad Ali Jinnah is revered in Pakistan as Quaid-e-Azam, the Great Leader, though he held the new office for only a year before his death in 1948.

At which 1954 battle did General Giap's besieging army defeat France, leading to French withdrawal from Indochina?

Dien Bien Phu fell after the besiegers hauled heavy artillery up the mountain slopes around the French base, and peace terms followed ten weeks later.

Which leader read Vietnam's declaration of independence in September 1945 and later gave his name to Saigon?

Ho Chi Minh had invited American OSS officers to comment on his draft, yet no foreign country recognised the declaration.

Which trained engineer proclaimed Indonesia's independence in August 1945 and became its first president?

Sukarno held a civil engineering degree and had co-founded an architecture firm before politics; Indonesians call him the Father of the Proclamation.

Which French leader, returned to power by the 1958 Algerian crisis, went on to accept Algeria's independence?

Charles de Gaulle ended the war to the fury of the French army and of the pieds-noirs, the European settlers born and raised in Algeria.

Which country annexed Korea in 1910 and ruled it as a colony until the end of World War II?

Japan's surrender in 1945 freed Korea from colonial rule, but the peninsula was at once divided into Soviet and American occupation zones.

Which author of Facing Mount Kenya spent years in British detention before leading Kenya to independence in 1963?

Jomo Kenyatta preached reconciliation between black Kenyans and the white minority after independence, and was given the honorary title Mzee.

Which 1950s uprising against British rule in Kenya was fought mainly by Kikuyu, Meru and Embu fighters?

Mau Mau was a name some fighters said they never used, preferring Kenya Land and Freedom Army; the capture of their field marshal Dedan Kimathi in 1956 signalled defeat.

Which West African country gained independence from Britain as a federation on 1 October 1960?

Nigeria was one of seventeen African colonies to become independent in 1960, which became known as the Year of Africa.

Which country emerged in 1980 from the breakaway white-minority state of Rhodesia after a long guerrilla war?

Zimbabwe gained recognised sovereignty in April 1980 after a 15-year guerrilla war, with Robert Mugabe as its first prime minister.

Which country, once German South West Africa, won independence from South African rule in 1990?

Namibia was taken from Germany by South African forces in 1915 and handed to South Africa as a League of Nations mandate in 1920.

Which Caribbean island voted to leave the West Indies Federation and became independent from Britain on 6 August 1962?

Jamaica had joined the federation of Britain's Caribbean colonies in 1958, but a referendum produced a slight majority for leaving it.

Which island nation was known as Ceylon when it gained independence from Britain in 1948?

Sri Lanka kept the name Ceylon as a dominion and adopted its present name only in 1972, when it became a republic.

Which Venezuelan-born general, known as El Libertador, drove Spain out of much of South America by 1825?

Simón Bolívar and his allies defeated Spanish forces from Venezuela to Peru between 1819 and 1825, and Bolivia is named after him.

Which Indonesian city hosted the 1955 conference of 29 Asian and African states that opposed colonialism?

Bandung welcomed delegations from countries representing 1.5 billion people, 54% of the world's population at the time.

Which Labour prime minister led the British government that granted India independence in 1947?

Clement Attlee had studied Indian self-rule twenty years earlier as a member of the Simon Commission, and came to sympathise with Indian independence.

Which grouping of states was formally established in Belgrade in 1961?

The Non-Aligned Movement grew from an initiative led by Yugoslavia's president Josip Broz Tito together with the leaders of Egypt, India, Ghana and Indonesia.

Which UN organ suspended operations in 1994 after Palau, the last territory under its supervision, became independent?

The Trusteeship Council had no trust territories left to oversee, though under the UN Charter it continues to exist on paper.

Which association let India stay on as a republic under the 1949 London Declaration?

The Commonwealth had required allegiance to the Crown; the declaration let India instead accept the King only as a symbol of free association.

Which 1941 statement by Roosevelt and Churchill promised to restore self-government to peoples deprived of it?

The Atlantic Charter was drawn up aboard warships off Newfoundland, and its self-determination pledge was later resisted by the Allies that had empires of their own.

Which 1942 campaign, launched by Gandhi at a Congress meeting in Bombay, demanded an immediate end to British rule?

The Quit India Movement cost almost the entire Congress leadership its freedom: they were imprisoned without trial within hours of Gandhi's speech.

Which former postal clerk and beer salesman became the Congo's first prime minister in June 1960?

Patrice Lumumba held office for under three months before the president dismissed him, and he was executed in breakaway Katanga in January 1961.

Which former schoolteacher, known as Mwalimu, led Tanganyika to independence in 1961 and later governed Tanzania?

Julius Nyerere worked as a school teacher before politics, which is what Mwalimu means, and Tanzanians also call him the Father of the Nation.

Which Martinique-born psychiatrist wrote The Wretched of the Earth while supporting Algeria's war of independence?

Frantz Fanon dictated the book after being diagnosed with leukaemia, and Jean-Paul Sartre agreed to write its preface.

Which French colony in West Africa alone voted No in the 1958 referendum and took independence under Sékou Touré?

Guinea voted more than 95% against the new French constitution and declared independence within days, on 2 October 1958.

Which 1962 agreement, named after a French spa town, ended the Algerian War with a cease-fire?

The Évian Accords were concluded at Évian-les-Bains on 18 March 1962 after eleven days of talks, and the cease-fire was declared the next day.

Which Portuguese-run territory on China's coast was handed back in 1999 after 442 years?

Macau changed hands at midnight on 20 December 1999, closing a Portuguese presence that had begun in 1557.

Which Portuguese colony did India's armed forces seize in a 36-hour operation in December 1961?

Goa's capture, codenamed Operation Vijay after the Sanskrit for victory, ended 451 years of Portuguese rule over its last territories in India.

Which former Portuguese colony was occupied by Indonesia from 1975 and became fully independent in 2002?

East Timor became the first new sovereign state of the 21st century, after a UN-sponsored vote in 1999 led Indonesia to give up the territory.

Which territory did Spain leave after Morocco's 1975 Green March sent 350,000 unarmed civilians across its border?

Western Sahara was then claimed by both Morocco and Mauritania, while the Polisario Front proclaimed a Sahrawi republic and went to war for independence.

Which British lawyer, said never to have been east of Paris, drew the 1947 border between India and Pakistan?

Cyril Radcliffe was given just five weeks to draw the lines, and some 14 million people fled across them once the new boundaries were known.

Which poet and theorist of the Négritude movement became Senegal's first president in 1960?

Léopold Senghor governed for twenty years and became the first African elected to the Académie française.

Which Malay word for independence was chanted seven times at Malaya's 1957 proclamation ceremony in Kuala Lumpur?

Merdeka also names the Kuala Lumpur stadium built specially for the ceremony, where Tunku Abdul Rahman read the proclamation on 31 August 1957.

Which Swahili word for freedom replaced a German Kaiser's name on the summit of Kilimanjaro after independence?

Uhuru Peak had been Kaiser-Wilhelm-Spitze since 1889, when the German climber Hans Meyer reached the summit and named it for his emperor.

Which Pacific nation, jointly ruled by Britain and France as the New Hebrides, became independent in 1980?

Vanuatu had been run since 1906 as a condominium with two parallel administrations, one British and one French.

Which Burmese independence leader was assassinated with most of his cabinet in July 1947, before British rule ended?

Aung San was killed less than six months before Burma became independent; his daughter Aung San Suu Kyi later won the Nobel Peace Prize.