Miscellaneous

Answer : During the World War II, Britain, the United States and the USSR had together fought against the fascist countries, but after the war conflict began to emerge between Britain and the US on the one hand and the USSR on the other, the relation between them began to deteriorate and came to be characterized by what is called the Cold War. It became more and more intense and the world was divided into two major blocks—the US and West European countries forming one bloc and USSR and the socialist countries of Eastern Europe forming the other. With the increase in the might of the USSR the mergence of government ruled by communist parties in many parts of the world alarmed the government of US, Britain and other west European countries. They all became aligned and began to follow a policy mainly aimed at curving the growth of communism.

In this tense international situation, the Brussel’s Treaty was signed on 17 March, 1948 by Britain, France, Belgium, Holland and Luxemburg. It was a treaty of economic, social and cultural collaboration and collective self defence. It was a commitment by the five powers who signed it that if any of them was attacked in Europe (which meant that their colonies were not covered) all other signatories would provide all military aid and other assistance within their power. This treaty created the Brussel’s Treaty organization also. It was defensive in nature without naming any enemy in advance, but Soviet block interpreted it as an alliance against her as was the tense situation at that time.

It is in this background that the North Atlantic Treaty Organizations (NATO) was formed in 1949 for defence against Soviet Union. The members of this alliance were US, Britain, France, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Iceland, Italy, Netherland, Luxemburg, Norway and Portugal. NATO army was created which established its bases in many countries in Europe.

Answer : ‘The decolonization led to the break-up of Empires.’ Within about 25 years of the end of the second world war, most countries of Asia, Africa and Latin America which had been under imperialist rule won their freedom. Most of the others that remained became free during the next five years. The decolonization process shattered the military power as well as economy of the colonial powers. It weakened the imperialist countries of Europe. They countries which carried on long colonial wars faced serious internal problems. For example, France’s colonial war in Indo-China and Algeria created serious political crises in France which at one time threatened her political system. The colonial wars waged by Portugal in Africa was a major factor in the downfall of the Portuguese dictatorship. In the changed political climate in the world, imperialism was no longer considered a mark of super civilization instead it was associated with brute force, injustice, exploitation, inhuman and immoral. The dominant ideas in the world after 1945 were ideas of self-determination, national sovereignty and equality, and cooperation in international relations. Thus the efforts to maintain colonial rule were no longer popular with the people even of the imperialist countries. These factors led to the break-up of Empires.