Imperialism Past and Present by Saccarelli Emanuele; Varadarajan Latha;

Author:Saccarelli, Emanuele; Varadarajan, Latha;
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Published: 2015-07-16T17:05:00+00:00

The New Empire and Old Colonies

The United States, as we discussed in the last chapter, had fully embraced its imperialist role by the turn of the century. However, in spite of the significant exceptions derived from the Spanish–American War, its imperialism had not been wedded to the idea of direct colonial rule. In fact, as the American economy recovered from the Great Depression, its leaders were more convinced than ever that the closed economic systems represented by colonial empires were not only anachronistic but constituted a serious barrier to the necessary, and ultimately unavoidable, spread of free trade. This sentiment found concrete political expression in FDR’s contribution to the Atlantic Charter, as well as his recurring differences with Churchill over the question of the continuation of the British empire. Among the various nationalist movements, the constant reiteration of FDR’s opposition to colonial empires created the impression that the United States could be a principled and powerful ally. Some leaders of nationalist movements, like Vietnam’s Ho Chi Minh, actively sought the support of the U.S. government in demanding an end to French colonial rule. However, they found Truman’s postwar administration to be far less receptive to anticolonial petitions than they had been led to expect. In short order, this cold reception turned first into open American support for the colonial powers and, finally, into taking over the reins of the old empires. Though the sun did set over some empires, the imperialist system endured. As the older powers waned, a new and far more powerful force was willing and able to take on the mantle. The political developments in Ho’s own country constitute the best illustration of this point.

Before the onset of World War II, Indo-China, comprising what is today Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos, was the centerpiece of French colonial holdings in Asia. When Japanese forces captured the territory during the war, the Allies found unexpected help from the hitherto hostile nationalist movements, including the Viet Minh, led by Ho Chi Minh. The sentiments expressed in the Atlantic Charter and later the UN Charter gave hope to the nationalists in the region that a military defeat of Japan would be at last followed by self-determination. However, as we have seen, in the case of the colonies those proclamations could not be taken at face value. At the end of the war, the French not surprisingly attempted to wrest back complete colonial control of Indo-China. Ho Chi Minh, who had briefly taken over from the retreating Japanese, soon found himself fighting against the French.

Ho Chi Minh had a complex political biography, which began with the trauma of the initial betrayal of nationalist aspirations at Versailles and passed through active collaboration with both the Soviet Union and the American Office of Strategic Services. In waging the renewed struggle against the French, Ho invoked the great principles asserted by the United States during the war and embodied in the anticolonial founding of the country. In his famous independence speech given to an audience of

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.