Geography & History Notes | KCSE, NECTA, ZIMSEC & GCSE

  After the Second World War, many Asian states got their independence including India and Pakistan in 1947, Burma and Indonesia in 1948, china in 1949 experienced the communist revolution, and many others followed in the 1950s. The methods they used to get self-rule and shed off foreign influence were copied by Africans in their struggle. The independence of Asian countries influenced African nationalism as follows:- Asian countries like Japan influenced African nationalism for example in 1905 it repulsed Russian influence and during World War II it defeated Britain and France in South Eastern Asia. Similarly the Dutch were driven a way by the Japanese in Indonesia and the Americans had been defeated in Philippians. Such courage by Japan encouraged African nationalists in their struggle for independence since they realized that these colonial powers could easily be defeated. Between 1946-1954 France was defeated in a war with Vietnamese nationalists and in 1954 they attained their...

  Note: These are facilitating factors to nationalism that had risen as a result of colonial injustices such as forced labour, poor taxation system among others. The Africans were now fed up of the trusteeship policy of reformist approach and needed a complete overhaul of the colonial order. Therefore the nationalists that emerged in the disadvantaged countries of the world especially Africa and Asia such as Nkrumah, Nyerere, Ghandi, Nehru were so positive to real change therefore the factors for the growth and development are as follows; NOTE: The first factor to consider are the European colonial policies such as forced labour, heavy taxation, forced cash crop growing among others which inked the Africans to fight for the restoration of African dignity and independence. The need to preserve and regain African independence. Following the Berlin conference 1884, Africa was divided up amongst the hungry European imperialists and the African chiefs became answerable to the white new ...

In 1939 Germany attacked Poland in order to expand her territories. This sparked off World War II which spread all over the whole world including Africa. It was an international war fought between the axis powers (Germany, Italy and Japan) on one side and the allied powers (Britain, France, USA and USSR) on the other side. Africans were recruited by their colonial masters as drivers, cooks and gunmen. It should be noted that this war inspired political consciousness of Africans and it became a true turning point in the history of Africa for it contributed to the rise and growth of African nationalism in various ways as follows:- The recruitment of African soldiers and the return of Ex-servicemen, destroyed the white man’s superiority as the ex-servicemen got a chance to see the white man at home and realized that a part from color difference he was a human being just like the African and had human problems like poverty, death among others. They also found out that some of them (whites)...

  Western Europe had dominated the world in the first four decades of the 20th century until 1941 when USA and USSR entered the 2nd world war, after the war USA and USSR dominated the whole world replacing Britain and France plus Germany and Italy which had been active colonial masters. The new super powers had ideologies and wanted to deal with independent world states such led to cold war which was very important in the struggle for African liberation. USA and USSR were ideologically different that is USSR was the leader of the socialist bloc while the USA was the leader of the communist bloc in this ideological competition one power could not be allowed to run Africa therefore the super powers ended up advocating for independence of African states. USA poured in aid to LDC’s as a way of counteracting the soviet influence.In this way the colonized African states obtained the resources material, financial, military which they effectively used to challenged colonial rule. USA had b...