Decolonisation

Carl Peter Watts estimates the importance of the different reasons for British withdrawal.

Goa fell to Indian troops on December 19th 1961.

Andrew Boxer demonstrates the ways in which external events affected the struggles of African Americans in the 1950s and 1960s.

San Martín and his forces liberated Peru and proclaimed its independence from Spain on July 28th, 1821. Richard Cavendish charts the life of one of the leading figures of the South American wars of independence.

What role did Simon Bolivar play in the history of Venezuela's declaration of independence from Spain? Here John Lynch argues that the history of Spanish American independence is incomprehensible without him.

The intriguing death of an Indian holy man in 1985 suggested that he was none other than Subhas Chandra Bose, the revolutionary and nationalist who, it is officially claimed, died in an air crash in 1945. The truth, however, is harder to find, as Hugh Purcell discovers.

Football became a potent expression of Algeria’s struggle for independence, never more so than during the dramatic events that preceded the 1958 World Cup, as Martin Evans explains.

In 1959 Fidel Castro came to power in Cuba after a masterly campaign of guerrilla warfare. Drawing on this success, Castro and his followers, including Che Guevara, sought to spread their revolution, as Clive Foss explains.

June 31st, 1959 - Richard Cavendish remembers how a former-British colony gained a long-serving leader.

As the Roman Empire declined its leaders became interested more in personal survival than good governance. Sound familiar? Adrian Goldsworthy draws comparisons with current crises.

The independent Federation of Malaya came into being on August 31st, 1957.

This West African state was a focus of the slave trade for centuries, and the first African colony to win independence, exactly fifty years ago. Graham Gendall Norton finds lots of history to explore.

Jonathan Colman provides an overview of modern British Imperial History, introducing the key events and issues that students need to understand.