Editing Decolonization (section)

=== British Empire ===
{{Main|British Empire}}

The emergence of Indigenous political parties was especially characteristic of the [[British Empire]], which seemed less ruthless than, for example, Belgium, in controlling political dissent. Driven by pragmatic demands of budgets and manpower the British made deals with the local politicians. Across the empire, the general protocol was to convene a constitutional conference in London to discuss the transition to greater self-government and then independence, submit a report of the constitutional conference to parliament, if approved submit a bill to Parliament at Westminster to terminate the responsibility of the United Kingdom (with a copy of the new constitution annexed), and finally, if approved, issuance of an Order of Council fixing the exact date of independence.<ref>{{cite book |first=J. H. W. |last=Verzijl |year=1969 |title=International Law in Historical Perspective |volume=II |location=Leyden |publisher=A. W. Sijthoff |pages=76–68}}</ref>

After [[World War I]], several former German and Ottoman territories in the Middle East, Africa, and the Pacific were governed by the UK as [[League of Nations mandate]]s. Some were administered directly by the UK, and others by British dominions – [[Nauru]] and the [[Territory of New Guinea]] by [[Australia]], [[South West Africa]] by the [[Union of South Africa]], and [[Western Samoa]] by [[New Zealand]].

[[File:The peacemakers- George Gavan Duffy, Erskine Childers, Robert Barton and Arthur Griffith in a group (28455606301).jpg|thumb|Members of the Irish delegation for the [[Anglo-Irish Treaty]] negotiations in December 1921]]
[[Egypt]] became independent in 1922, although the UK retained security prerogatives, control of the [[Suez Canal]], and effective control of the [[Anglo-Egyptian Sudan]]. The [[Balfour Declaration of 1926]] declared the British Empire [[dominion]]s as equals, and the 1931 [[Statute of Westminster 1931|Statute of Westminster]] established full legislative independence for them. The equal dominions were six– [[Canada]], [[Newfoundland]], Australia, the [[Irish Free State]], New Zealand, and the Union of South Africa; Ireland had been brought into a union with Great Britain in 1801 creating the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland until the formation of the Irish Free State in 1922. However, some of the Dominions were already independent de facto, and even de jure and recognized as such by the international community. Thus, Canada was a founding member of the League of Nations in 1919 and served on the council from 1927 to 1930.<ref>{{Cite encyclopedia |url=https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/league-of-nations |title=Canada and the League of Nations |encyclopedia=The Canadian Encyclopedia}}</ref> That country also negotiated on its own and signed bilateral and multilateral treaties and conventions from the early 1900s onward. Newfoundland ceded self-rule back to London in 1934. [[Iraq]], a League of Nations mandate, became independent in 1932.

In response to a growing [[Indian independence movement]], the UK made successive reforms to the [[British Raj]], culminating in the [[Government of India Act 1935]]. These reforms included creating elected legislative councils in some of the [[Presidencies and provinces of British India|provinces of British India]]. [[Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi]], India's independence movement leader, led a peaceful resistance to British rule. By becoming a symbol of both peace and opposition to British imperialism, many Indians began to view the British as the cause of India's problems leading to a newfound sense of [[Indian independence movement|nationalism]] among its population. With this new wave of Indian nationalism, Gandhi was eventually able to garner the support needed to push back the British and create an independent India in 1947.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Hunt |first1=Lynn |first2=Thomas R. |last2=Martin |first3=Barbara H. |last3=Rosenwein |first4=R. Po-chia |last4=Hsia |author4-link=Ronnie Hsia |first5=Bonnie G. |last5=Smith |title=The Making of the West Peoples and Cultures |location=Boston |publisher=Bedford/St. Martin's |year=2008}}</ref>

[[File:British Empire in February 1952.png|thumb|British Empire in 1952]]
Africa was only fully drawn into the colonial system at the end of the 19th century. In the north-east the continued independence of the [[Ethiopian Empire]] remained a beacon of hope to pro-independence activists. However, with the anti-colonial wars of the 1900s (decade) barely over, new modernizing forms of Africa nationalism began to gain strength in the early 20th century with the emergence of Pan-Africanism, as advocated by the Jamaican journalist [[Marcus Garvey]] (1887–1940) whose widely distributed newspapers demanded swift abolition of European imperialism, as well as republicanism in Egypt. [[Kwame Nkrumah]] (1909–1972) who was inspired by the works of Garvey led [[Ghana]] to independence from colonial rule.

Independence for the colonies in Africa began with the independence of [[Sudan]] in 1956, and [[Ghana]] in 1957. All of the British colonies on mainland Africa became independent by 1966, although [[Rhodesia]]'s unilateral declaration of independence in 1965 was not recognized by the UK or internationally.

Some of the British colonies in Asia were directly administered by British officials, while others were ruled by local monarchs as [[protectorate]]s or in [[subsidiary alliance]] with the UK.

In 1947, [[British India]] was [[Partition of India|partitioned]] into the independent dominions of [[India]] and [[Pakistan]]. Hundreds of [[princely state]]s, states ruled by monarchs in a treaty of subsidiary alliance with Britain, were [[Political integration of India|integrated into India]] and Pakistan. India and Pakistan fought several wars over the former princely state of [[Jammu and Kashmir (princely state)|Jammu and Kashmir]]. [[French India]] was integrated into India between 1950 and 1954, and India annexed [[Portuguese India]] in 1961, and the [[Kingdom of Sikkim]] merged with India by popular vote in 1975.

====Violence, civil warfare, and partition====
[[Image:Surrender of Lord Cornwallis.jpg|thumb|Surrender of [[Lord Cornwallis]] at [[Siege of Yorktown|Yorktown]] in 1781]]
Significant violence was involved in several prominent cases of decolonization of the British Empire; partition was a frequent solution. In 1783, the North American colonies were divided between the independent United States, and [[British North America]], which later became Canada.

The [[Indian Rebellion of 1857]] was a major uprising in India against British [[East India Company]]. It was characterized by massacres of civilians on both sides. It was not a movement for independence, however, and only a small part of India was involved. In the aftermath, the British pulled back from modernizing reforms of Indian society, and the level of organised violence under the [[British Raj]] was relatively small. Most of that was initiated by repressive British administrators, as in the [[Amritsar#Jallianwala Bagh massacre|Amritsar massacre of 1919]], or the police assaults on the [[Salt March]] of 1930.<ref>On the nonviolent methodology see {{Cite journal |doi = 10.1080/00856408508723067|title = Audiences, actors and congress dramas: Crowd events in Bombay city in 1930|journal = South Asia: Journal of South Asian Studies|volume = 8|issue = 1–2|pages = 71–86|year = 1985|last1 = Masselos|first1 = Jim}}</ref> Large-scale communal violence broke out between Hindus and Muslims and between Muslims and Sikhs after the British left in 1947 in the newly independent [[dominion]]s of India and Pakistan. Much later, in 1970, further communal violence broke out within Pakistan in the detached eastern part of East Bengal, which became independent as [[Bangladesh]] in 1971.

[[History of Cyprus since 1878|Cyprus]], which came under full British control in 1914 from the Ottoman Empire, was culturally divided between the majority [[Greek Cypriots|Greek element]] (which demanded "[[enosis]]" or union with Greece) and the minority Turks. London for decades assumed it needed the island to defend the Suez Canal; but after the Suez crisis of 1956, that became a minor factor, and Greek violence became a more serious issue. Cyprus became an independent country in 1960, but ethnic violence escalated until 1974 when Turkey invaded and partitioned the island. Each side rewrote its own history, blaming the other.<ref>{{Cite journal | jstor=10.2979/his.2008.20.2.128| doi=10.2979/his.2008.20.2.128| title=Narrative, Memory and History Education in Divided Cyprus: ''A Comparison of Schoolbooks on the 'History of Cyprus'<nowiki/>''| journal=History and Memory| volume=20| issue=2| pages=128–148| year=2008| last1=Papadakis|first1=Yiannis | s2cid=159912409}}</ref>

[[Mandatory Palestine|Palestine]] became a [[Mandate for Palestine|British mandate]] from the [[League of Nations]] after World War I, initially including [[Emirate of Transjordan|Transjordan]]. During that war, the British gained support from Arabs and Jews by making promises to both (see [[McMahon–Hussein Correspondence]] and [[Balfour Declaration]]). Decades of [[Intercommunal conflict in Mandatory Palestine|ethno—religious violence]] reached a climax with the [[UN Partition Plan]] and the [[1948 Palestine War|ensuing war]]. The British eventually pulled out, and the former Mandate territory was divided between [[Israel]], [[Jordanian annexation of the West Bank|Jordan]] and [[All-Palestine Protectorate|Egypt]].<ref>{{cite book|last1=Laqueur|first1=Walter|author-link1=Walter Laqueur|last2=Schueftan|first2=Dan|author-link2=Daniel Schueftan|title=The Israel-Arab Reader: A Documentary History of the Middle East Conflict: 8th edition|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=akGXCgAAQBAJ&pg=PA49|year=2016|publisher=Penguin |isbn=978-1-101-99241-8}}</ref>