Part V: Viva la Revolución!
Up until the Second Great European War of 1939-’45, the history of the modern world was a history of European global dominance. However, starting in the early ‘40s, European dominance over their African and Asian colonial holdings began to waver. And colonial empires simultaneously collapsed. There are three main root causes that influenced the period of decolonization that followed the War.
The first being the colonial administrations themselves. By educating indigenous peoples in schools and institutions of each colonial administrative region, local nationalisms and leadership formed. These educated leaders would be the pillars of the anti-colonial independence movements, the most famous example of which is the Dutch-educated Sukarno of Indonesia.
The second being the War itself. During the course of GWII, Nazi Germany occupied the metropolitan home countries of European colonial powers, such as France, Belgium, and the Netherlands. This threw the colonial administrations into state of limbo, as they were now orphan governments. This chaos and political uncertainty gave independence movements the window of opportunity they needed to begin expanding their efforts at achieving autonomy.
The third being the post-war Cold War competition between the three primary spheres of influence; American, Soviet, and Nihonese, each supplying material, funds, advisors, and sometimes direct military aid to various groups fighting for or against independence throughout Africa, Asia, and the Middle East.
Indonesia
In 1940, the Dutch metropolitan homeland was quickly overrun, and the government fled continental Europe, setting up a government-in-exile in London. Indonesian independence movements had already been in existence. With the colonial government orphaned by the war, they sprung into action. Japan, seeking Asian economic and trade partners in the region, saw its chance to help create a new Asian nation-state, independent of Western control. They provided diplomatic and indirect military aid to both Sukarno and Hatta’s forces (which later became the Republican Army) and the Pemuda.
1942: A brutal insurrection against the colonial government starts in Indonesia. In fear and desperation, the colonial government reacts to the rebellions with utter brutality.
1944: In a shock to the world, the Dutch East Indian colonial military uses their stockpiled reserves of mustard gas and other chemical and biological warfare agents on towns and villages in regions that have been lost to the control of the guerrilla fighters. The British decide to intervene on behalf of the Dutch. Indian troops are sent to Malaya and Borneo, while Australian troops occupy New Guinea. Japanese and Indonesian agents begin working in Malaysia to inflame the colonial subjects against British rule, in the hopes of causing enough unrest to distract British forces away from the war in Indonesia. Luckily for them, a large portion of the population of Malaysia consists of immigrant workers and their families, originating from India and China. They are seen as foreigners and are not even given the same rights as the Malay people. Japanese and Indonesian agents take advantage of this to ferment local distrust and animosity against the British colonial government there.
1945: The Republic of Indonesia, controlling much of Java and Sumatra, as well as pockets of resistance throughout the Indonesian islands, officially declares independence. Nihon and the Philippines immediately recognize Indonesia.
1946: The Indonesian National Revolution is succeeding, despite the efforts of the British and the Dutch. It is a very violent and bloody ordeal, with many Indonesian civilians suffering from war atrocities. The unrest spills over into Malaysia. The Malays, tired of the raj system, rise in revolt. To their surprise, they are joined by high numbers of Indian and Chinese Malaysians, who are tired of being marginalized as non-citizens. However, the British are a much more formidable force than the Dutch, and without as much Nihonese aid, the revolt draws down into extended guerrilla warfare.
1947: Indonesian leaders proclaim the ideal of “Catursila”, the four main points which unite all South-East Asian Islander people into a single nation. By now, Sukarno is at the helm of a successful, battle-hardened, veteran force with modern Nihonese training and weapons. Indonesian forces infiltrate and occupy points in Malaya and Borneo, drawing out the guerrilla resistance into open rebellion, which joins the ranks of the Indonesian Army.
1948: After a long and bloody struggle, Great Britain and the Netherlands have no choice but to sue for peace. Both the Soviet Union and the United States immediately recognize Indonesian independence. Although much of the British territories in the region are taken, such as the Malay peninsula, British Borneo and Brunei, Singapore remains British. The Indonesians were never able to capture the strategically important city and its surrounding suburbs, which is transformed into a city-state-fortress.
Africa
The Soviet Union, and to a lesser degree Nihon were the only Great Powers that openly advocated African decolonization. Their motives, especially in the case of the Soviet Union, were driven by the need to have more friendly-influenced governments, and reduce the position of the colonial Western powers. The Soviet Union greatly increased its policy of aiding independence movements in Africa, figuring that newly created states would be willing partners in trade, diplomacy and eventually military mattes. Italian and Portuguese colonies in particular were the most heavily targeted. Libya and Ethiopia became Soviet-influenced states, while Mozambique and Angola had successful socialist revolutions. The Americans, comfortably sitting in a position of dominance in Europe, did not respond as readily to socialist tendencies in the pro-independence parties of the African colonies. After a string of successful revolutions, the Unites States took a much greater interest in preventing the spread of Soviet Influence in Africa and especially Latin America.
Persia
In OTL, the U.S. was seeking to ‘contain’ the Soviet Union by surrounding it with U.S.-friendly states, generally capitalist dictatorships. In ATL, the Soviet Union, nervous of the unfriendly states on its immediate borders, concentrates much more effort on installing friendly regimes in neighboring, resource-rich countries. In 1946, quickly after the deposition of Reza Shah, a coup instals a socialist regime in Iran. However, modernization and secularization efforts become unpopular with the clergy. Opposition to Soviet Hegemony quickly takes a tone of religious radicalism.
A U.S.-sponsored revolt becomes a jihadist insurgency, based primary in the south-eastern mountainous, sparsely-populated region of Iran. However, the islamic rebellion is not successful for two major reasons.
Socialism is not unpopular amongst the Iranians, especially those living in the north and west, which houses the major population centers of the country. Also, the American supply-line through Pakistan, with became the lifeline of the islamic movement, is weakened by the fact that none of Iran’s islamic neighbors support their religious movement, due to the ethno-religious differences between the Iran and its neighbors; Shia Iran v.s. Sunni Pakistan and Persian Iran v.s. Arab Iraq. The islamic insurrection simmers into a localized, low-intensity hotspot, with continued tension against the central authorities for years on end.
End of Part V
Coming soon - Part VI: The Six Horsemen of the Apocalypse
