Which countries could have realistically been decolonized earlier?

Eritrea - Italy keeps that longer. Perhaps it doesn't join to WW2.
Namibia - CPs win WW1 or SA recognises independence earlier.
 
The Philippines becoming independent before the Spanish-American War would have been something interesting to see.
With a few PODs the Philippine-American War could be butterflied away entirely.
 

CaliGuy

Banned
The Philippines becoming independent before the Spanish-American War would have been something interesting to see.
With a few PODs the Philippine-American War could be butterflied away entirely.
You mean becoming independent with, say, Japanese help?
 
The problem with all of this is that many of the "countries" were simply geographic constructs with no basis in either geography or ethnicity but simply where lines were drawn by competing colonizers either through agreement, first come first serve, or the accident of where someone got to first (or all three). On top of that was the reality that, in general, the colonizers did very little in most cases to prepare locals to support the political and economic structure that had been created. Fifty or sixty years after decolonization and most of the infrastructure built has deteriorated, economies are shambles, governments are kleptocracies at best and murderous dictatorships at worst in a very large number of "countries" that became independent in the 50s & 60s. Some have done well but they are the exception not the rule.

On that basis, most of these countries could have been "decolonized" at any time and would be unlikely to be much worse off today than OTL.
 
I think the ones that hasn't been brought up but arguably the easier one is the Portuguese colonies. I mean, they cling to their colonies the longest (until 1975!) simply because the estado novo regime's obsession with their overseas "provinces", despite the facts that colonial wars in Angola and Mozambique were increasingly turning into money sink by the 1960's. Simply having them saw the writing on the wall earlier might be sufficient.

on the down side, we won't have this completely epic and amazing song telling us just how Angola is rightful Portuguese clay.

 
India should have been offered Dominion status after WWI with a gradual planned change from a British controlled Indian Civil Service to a 100% Indian Civil Service. Offer scholarships to the brightest young Indians ignoring Caste and Creed to go around the world to study.

Anything to avoid the massacres of millions during the rushed 1947 mess.
 

CaliGuy

Banned
India should have been offered Dominion status after WWI with a gradual planned change from a British controlled Indian Civil Service to a 100% Indian Civil Service. Offer scholarships to the brightest young Indians ignoring Caste and Creed to go around the world to study.

Anything to avoid the massacres of millions during the rushed 1947 mess.
Wasn't the Partition of India a good idea which was simply poorly implemented, though?
 

CaliGuy

Banned
The problem with all of this is that many of the "countries" were simply geographic constructs with no basis in either geography or ethnicity but simply where lines were drawn by competing colonizers either through agreement, first come first serve, or the accident of where someone got to first (or all three). On top of that was the reality that, in general, the colonizers did very little in most cases to prepare locals to support the political and economic structure that had been created. Fifty or sixty years after decolonization and most of the infrastructure built has deteriorated, economies are shambles, governments are kleptocracies at best and murderous dictatorships at worst in a very large number of "countries" that became independent in the 50s & 60s. Some have done well but they are the exception not the rule.

On that basis, most of these countries could have been "decolonized" at any time and would be unlikely to be much worse off today than OTL.
Completely agreed, unfortunately; of course, one could have tried doing some border redrawing in these colonies before one actually withdrew from them.
 
Which countries could have realistically been decolonized earlier?

Any thoughts on this?
Assuming you are talking about individually not everything happening in the same TL then all of them. Though some not by much unless you go into more unlikely set-ups.
 
I think you need tighter rules on what qualifies otherwise all the white settler colony's like Aus/Nz would count would they not? Simply have GB give them official independence earlier far easier than any none white colony?
 

CaliGuy

Banned
I think you need tighter rules on what qualifies otherwise all the white settler colony's like Aus/Nz would count would they not? Simply have GB give them official independence earlier far easier than any none white colony?
Yeah, Aus, NZ, and Canada all certainly count for this. :)
 
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