The growth of the national liberation movement in African countries. The rise of national liberation movements in the countries of Southeast Asia

Awakening Asia. The beginning of the 20th century was marked by the growth of a mass national liberation movement in Asian countries. There were several reasons for this.

The first reason is anti-colonialism, which spread widely throughout the East at the beginning of the 20th century in response to the cruelty and oppression of the colonialists and united the most socially diverse groups of the population. The second reason was the unprecedented rise in national self-consciousness, which united various organizations and streams of the liberation struggle: spontaneous actions of peasants and artisans, workers' strikes, secret societies and sects, professional associations of urban and rural entrepreneurs.

The third reason is the influence of the political values ​​of the metropolises. Norms and the traditions of parliamentary democracy in European countries were actively perceived by the intelligentsia, entrepreneurs, employees and students of the countries of the East. Even the most moderate of them could not but resent the obvious contradiction between the liberal ideas of the West and the real political practice of the mother countries in the colonies. From this it followed and the demand for the implementation by the colonial authorities of the principles and laws of the mother countries, that is, the extension of the rights of citizens of England, France, Holland and other European countries to the inhabitants of the East. Naturally, the colonial authorities rejected this demand, which only contributed to

the growth of tension and the strengthening of the radical wing of the national liberation movement.

The awakening of Asia was also facilitated by such events at the beginning of the century as the Russo-Japanese War of 1904-1905. and the first Russian revolution of 1905-1907. The revolutionary upsurge of 1905-1908 took place under the direct influence of the latter. in Iran, the Young Turk Revolution of 1908-1909. in the Ottoman Empire, the Xinhai Revolution of 1911-1913. in China. This wave of liberation movements in the East was mainly anti-colonial and anti-monarchist. But due to the weakness of the national entrepreneurship* of the intelligentsia of the modern type, especially the working class, almost nowhere these revolutions were able to break the shackles of colonial dependence, free society from the burden of patriarchal pre-capitalist relations / Nevertheless, everywhere where these revolutions took place, a significant step was taken on the road to national liberation.

The consequences of the First World War also contributed to the intensification of the liberation struggle in Asian countries. The entry of the troops of the German bloc, and then the Entente, into the territory of the Ottoman Empire and Central Asia radically revolutionized the situation in these regions, giving rise to radical rebel movements. Suffice it to mention the liberation uprisings in Iraq, Syria and Palestine and some other political movements of 1918-1922. Among them, it is worth highlighting the national struggle of the Turkish people in 1919-1923. under the leadership of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk and the Egyptian revolution of 1918-1919. as important stages in the formation of nation-states in Turkey and Egypt.

In other countries of the East, the consequences of the war were felt mainly in the social sphere, primarily through the participation in hostilities of local natives mobilized into the colonial troops (in Senegal, India, Algeria, Tunisia, the countries of Indochina), and the intensification of colonial exploitation in the face of the hardships of military time (ibid., as well as in a number of countries in Africa). In a number of countries, an additional factor of influence was the participation of labor migrants from the colonies in work for the military needs of the metropolises.

In the period between the first and second world wars, practically the entire colonial world was engulfed in anti-imperialist uprisings (in Egypt in 1919, in Libya in 1917-1932, in Morocco in 1921-1926, in Iraq in 1920, in Syria in 1925-1927). Revolution 1925-1927 in China opened up new prospects for this country, which were greatly complicated after the occupation of Manchuria by Japan in 1931, and even more so after the start of Japan's open war against China in 1937.

Kemalist revolution in Turkey. Turkey's participation in World War I on the side of the German bloc brought the Ottoman Empire to ruin, and the Turkish people were brought to the brink of a national catastrophe. The capitulation of the Sultan's government to the powers of the Entente created the possibility of dividing the country by the victorious states. And soon such a dangerous prospect began to be realized. Under the terms of the new peace treaty signed by the Sultan, Turkey was essentially divided between England, France, Italy and Greece and ceased to exist as an independent state.

The terms of the treaty caused a wave of indignation in Turkish society - the liberation struggle of the Turkish people against the Entente began, led by General Mustafa Kemal (Ataturk). With the support of Soviet Russia, the Turkish army was able to inflict a decisive defeat on the enemy and force him to leave Turkish territory.

The victory in the war strengthened the position of Ataturk and his supporters, who advocated the accelerated independent development of the country. The Turkish parliament passes a law on the abolition of the Sultanate, Turkey was proclaimed a republic. The decision to liquidate the caliphate also contributed to the strengthening of the power of the Kemalists. These acts completed the process of breaking the old political system and creating a national state, which was called the Kemalist revolution.

road transport, and in the future to other sectors of the economy. Along with this, private initiative was also encouraged in every possible way. Statism- a form of state capitalism - contributed to limiting the scope of foreign capital, led to the strengthening of the positions of the Turkish national bourgeoisie. During the years of the global economic crisis, the government finally takes the initiative into its own hands, moving to the active construction of enterprises at the expense of the budget or under state control. These measures contributed to the economic recovery of the country.

A number of reforms were aimed at separating the church from the state: the Ministry of Religious Affairs was abolished, the clergy were deprived of their wealth. Judicial proceedings were withdrawn from the jurisdiction of the clergy. Following these reforms, a new administrative division into provinces was introduced, directly subordinate to the center.

The reforms of the state system formed the basis of the first republican constitution, adopted in 1924, which formalized the dominance of the national bourgeoisie and groups of landlords associated with it. The constitution was not of a democratic nature: the bulk of the population was endowed with formal rights that were not provided with real conditions for their implementation. In addition, the Constitution declared all citizens to be Turks, thereby legally denying the existence of national minorities in Turkey and sanctioning their assimilation.

Since the mid-20s, a one-party regime of the CHP (People's Republican Party) has actually been established in the country. There is a fusion of party leadership with the state, which favored the rooting of authoritarian methods of exercising political power.

Nevertheless, it must be recognized that the Kemalist transformations brought a number of positive results: the political and economic position of the state was strengthened, and Turkey's authority in neighboring countries increased. During this period, the foundations for the future economic prosperity of the country were laid. ,

Chinese Revolution and Sino-Japanese War. The defeat of the Xinhai Revolution and the results of the First World

wars contributed to the seizure of power in China by several military-political groups. Militaristic regimes were one of the manifestations of regionalism in Chinese society in the first quarter of the 20th century, being a product of economic isolation and cultural identity of individual regions of China. The internal political course of these regimes was ambivalent: trying to enlist the support of the provincial elites, they supported the idea of ​​creating a federal state and adopting the constitutions of individual regions, while simultaneously speaking under the slogan of China's political unity. The economic policy of the militarists was also very ambiguous, raising funds for the maintenance of the army in all possible ways - from outright robbery to encouraging trade and capitalist entrepreneurship.

The years of militaristic wars were a time of rapid economic development in China. The number of national enterprises and banks has increased significantly. Industrial cities in the coastal zone grew rapidly. Conditions were emerging in the country for the second stage of the national revolution, designed to finally remove obstacles to the modernization of Chinese society. In 1921, a revolutionary government was formed, in 1924, a united front of the Kuomintang National Party and the Communist Party (CCP) was formed, which began to create a revolutionary army.

Enlisting broad support throughout the country, the troops of the National Government began military operations against the militarists, capturing all of northern China. The seat of government was the city of Nanjing. With the victory of the revolution, the alliance between the Kuomintang and the Communists collapsed. The latter established their control in a number of deep rural areas, while the Kuomintang government succeeded in subjugating the entire interior of China. The leaders of the Kuomintang (like the leaders of the CPC) tried to find a way out of the crisis not in parliamentary government, but in establishing the dictatorship of their party.

Period 1927-1937 commonly referred to as the "Nanjing Decade". This period was marked by a steady growth in industrial production. significant role in

the economy was played by the public sector. The labor legislation established the length of the working day and the minimum level of wages, granted the workers of large enterprises the right to form trade unions. In the countryside, the Kuomintang government tried to carry out "agrarian restructuring", which amounted to the creation of credit and consumer cooperatives. WWII and technical modernization of agriculture. In foreign policy, the Nanjing leadership sought the support of the Western powers, at the same time striving to put an end to China's humble position.

Despite successes in the unification and development of China, the head of the Kuomintang, Chiang Kai-shek, was unable to create a stable political regime. The top of the party was split into several rival factions. A big blow to the central government was the loss of Manchuria, occupied in 1931 Japanese troops. In 1937, Japan launched an open aggression against China and in a year and a half captured almost all the eastern and northern regions of the country, as well as the most important ports on the southern coast. Under these conditions, the Kuomintang government managed to reach an agreement with the communists, creating a united anti-Japanese front. After the surrender of Japan in 1945. the initiative passed to the communists, who took over all of mainland China. AT 1949 The People's Republic of China (PRC) was founded. The Republic of China continued to exist on the island of Taiwan.

The National Congress and the struggle for Indian independence. The movement for the political independence of India went through several stages in its development. The first stage covers the period until the early 1920s, when the social base of the national movement was limited to the middle strata of the urban population of large industrial centers and part of the commercial and industrial bourgeoisie, and the main form of the movement was moderate constitutional activity. The leading role in the liberation movement is played by the National Congress - the body of Indian self-government, created with the blessing of the British at the end of the 19th century. Initially, it included associations of entrepreneurship and the intellectual elite of the Indian colonial society.

stva. Since the early 1920s, the situation has changed. The leader who managed to turn the Congress into a mass party was M.K. Gandhi.

The main political goal that Gandhi delivered to India was a gradual and gradual advance towards independence, and the main political task to achieve this goal was to unite all social class groups and party political forces under the leadership of the National Congress.

The main method of political struggle was defined as peaceful, constitutional, based on the philosophical principle of non-causing harm to all living things, which is characteristic of the religions of Hindustan. In accordance with this directive, the Congress, headed by M. Gandhi, is conducting massive all-India campaigns of civil "non-cooperation." The first stage of the action involved such forms of colonial boycott as the rejection of honorary positions and titles, the boycott of English courts, goods, educational institutions, the boycott of elections to the legislative assembly, the second - evasion of state taxes.

Along with holding mass actions of civil non-cooperation, the Congress adopted the so-called "constructive program", consisting of three points: the comprehensive development of hand weaving and spinning, the struggle to improve relations between the Hindu and Muslim communities, and the elimination of the institution of "untouchability". This program made it possible to attract to the national liberation struggle those groups of the population that had not previously participated in politics: artisans, handicraftsmen, peasants, factory workers, small merchants, etc. By the mid-30s, the INC, having absorbed the mood the most diverse strata of Indian society, in fact, becomes a political party, which is the spokesman for national interests. Congress gains partial access to the executive power legitimized by the 1935 constitution, and enters the final phase of the struggle, culminating in 1947 with the granting of dominion status to the country within the British Commonwealth of Nations.

The colonial period thus became the period of the formation of the institutions of bourgeois democracy in India,

laid the foundations of modern statehood and political life, predetermined the features of the functioning of the political system in the period of independence.

Second half of the 19th–beginning 20th century brought dramatic changes in the historical destinies of the countries of Asia and Africa. The development of China, India, Japan and other Asian societies was marked by important shifts in socio-economic and political life, which ultimately led to a formational and civilizational breakdown. The most important factor in the historical development of the Afro-Asian countries is the national liberation movement. In the beginning. 20th century The East was shaken by the first bourgeois revolutions.

China.

First decade of the 20th century was marked by the rapid growth of anti-Manchurian and national liberation sentiments. In the summer of 1905, various Chinese bourgeois-democratic and bourgeois-landowner organizations united under the leadership of Sun Yat-sen, with the goal of overthrowing the Qing monarchy and establishing a republic. The Chinese Revolutionary United Union was formed in Tokyo. The program of the United Union was based on the "three people's principles" formulated by Sun Yat-sen in November 1905 - nationalism, democracy in people's welfare. The principle of nationalism meant the overthrow of the Manchu dynasty, democracy meant the elimination of the monarchy and the establishment of a republic, and the principle of people's well-being reflected the requirement for a gradual nationalization of the land.

1906–1911 marked by an increase in anti-government armed uprisings in various provinces of South, Central and East China. The largest were the uprisings of the miners in Pingxiang in 1906 and in 1911 in Guangzhou. The movement of general discontent also embraced the army. In January 1910 there was an uprising of the garrison in Guangzhou.

The Xinhai Revolution (the Wuchang uprising and the abdication of the Qing dynasty took place in the Xinhai year according to the Chinese lunar calendar - January 30, 1911 - February 17, 1912) began with an uprising of soldiers on October 10, 1910 in Wuchang. A military government was established in the city, which proclaimed the overthrow of the Qing monarchy and the establishment of a republic. During October-November 1911, 14 provinces of the Qing Empire announced the deposed power of the Manchus. By the end of 1911, only three of the eighteen provinces officially recognized the authority of the Qing government. Having failed to suppress the revolutionary movement, the Qing handed real power over to General Yuan Shikai. He received the post of commander-in-chief of the Pinsk armed forces and then the post of prime minister. Yuan Shikai began secret negotiations with individual factions of the republican south.

On December 29, 1911, in Nanking, the deputies of the independent provinces elected Sun Yat-sen as provisional president of the Republic of China. In a short time, a provisional government was formed and a bourgeois-democratic constitution was adopted.

During the confrontation between the North and the South, Sun Yat-sen was forced to give up the post of interim president in favor of Yuan Shikai, in exchange for the abdication of the Qing dynasty. On February 12, 1912, the last emperor, Pu Yi, abdicated.

In July-September 1913, Yuan Shikai suppressed armed uprisings against him in the central and southern provinces. These events entered the history of China under the name of the "second revolution". The military dictatorship of Yuan Shikai was established in the country. Sun Yat-sen and other leaders of the radical wing of the Chinese bourgeoisie were forced to emigrate abroad.

During the revolution, the Qing dynasty was overthrown and a republic was established for the first time in Asia. The power of the Manchu aristocracy was liquidated.

India.

At the beginning of the XX century. in the socio-economic and political life of India, the tendencies that emerged in the second half intensified. 19th century The development of capitalism did not lead to a significant change in the overall structure of the country's economy. As before, India remained a backward agrarian country. Nevertheless, the process of drawing India into the system of the world capitalist economy led to a further intensification of new economic phenomena. The exploitation of India as an agrarian and raw material appendage of the metropolis unfolded. British capital was directed to the construction and operation of railway lines and communications, irrigation, plantation farming, mining, textile and food industries. British investment in India 1896-1910 increased from 4-5 to 6-7 billion rupees. National capitalist entrepreneurship has been developed. Most of the enterprises owned by Indian capital were small and medium. Attempts were made to create heavy industry in India. In 1911, a metallurgical plant was built, in 1915 a hydroelectric power station was launched.

This period is associated with the growth of national consciousness in the most diverse classes and social groups of Indian society. The policy of the colonial authorities contributed to the growth of discontent and the development of the national liberation movement in India. In 1883–1884 The first attempts were made to create an all-Indian organization. In 1885, the first congress of the Indian National Congress, the first pan-Indian political organization, took place in Bombay. The emergence of the radical left wing of the Indian national liberation movement is associated with the name of the prominent democrat Bal Gangadhar Tilak (1856–1920).

The partition of Bengal in 1905 led to the beginning of a massive pan-Indian national movement. The swadeshi movement (boycott of foreign goods and encouragement of domestic production) in the autumn of 1905 went beyond the borders of Bengal. Shops selling Indian goods and industrial enterprises appeared, shops selling foreign goods were boycotted. Mass rallies and demonstrations were supplemented by the strike struggle of the Indian workers. The strike movement of the summer-autumn of 1906 differed from previous years in that, along with economic demands, the workers began to put forward some political slogans.

In the autumn of 1906, at the session of the National Congress, the demand for "svaraj" - self-government within the British Empire was formulated. Since 1907, the Swadeshi movement began to develop into a movement for the implementation of Swaraj (self-government). Mass demonstrations in the spring of 1907 reached their greatest scope in the Punjab.

As the national liberation struggle intensified, the differences between moderate and radical (extreme) currents aggravated. The moderates demanded a protectionist policy, restrictions on foreign capital, expansion of self-government, etc. The extremes advocated the complete independence of India on the basis of a federal republic. The result of these differences was the split of Congress in 1907.

The British colonial authorities began to suppress the national-patriotic forces. In 1907, a law on rebellious gatherings was issued, according to which rallies and demonstrations were dispersed, and in 1908, a law on newspapers, on the basis of which any press organ could be closed. In July 1908 Tilak's arrest and trial followed. He was sentenced to a large fine and six years in prison. In protest, on July 23, 1908, a general political strike began in Bombay. It ended after six days.

The rise of the national movement in 1905–1908 marked the onset of a period of mass struggle for independence.

To early 20th century Europeans conquered and colonized over 90% of Africa. The colonialists were attracted by the possibility of huge profits from the ruthless exploitation of cheap African labor - in the mines and mines where gold and diamonds were mined, as well as in rubber, coffee and citrus plantations.

The colonial policy of the Europeans met with resolute resistance and caused an upsurge in the national liberation struggle.

For over 13 years the British tried to conquer Eastern Sudan. Them troops were surrounded and destroyed in the city of Khartoum by the Sudanese under the leadership Mahdi. Only having ensured complete superiority in forces, the British in 1899 defeated the Mahdists.

During 1904-1907. heroic resistance to the German colonialists was provided by the tribes herero and Hottentots South West Africa (now Namibia). The Germans brutally dealt with the rebels - out of 300 thousand Hottentots, only 60 thousand survived.

Otherwise it was fate Ethiopian people. The Italian colonialists suffered a crushing defeat at the Battle of Adua. Italy was forced to recognize the independence of Ethiopia. But this was an exceptional case. Most of the national liberation movements in what was then Africa were defeated.

Bibliography

1. Ya. M. Berdichevsky, S.A. Osmolovsky "World History" 2001 S. 111-128.

2. S. L. Bramin "History of Europe". 1998 S. 100-109

3. L.A. Livanov "World History" textbook. 2002 pp. 150-164.

4. Zagladin N. V. World history. History of Russia and the world from ancient times to the end of the 19th century: a textbook for grade 10. Ї 6th ed. Ї M .: OOO TID Russkoe Slovo Ї RS, 2006 (§ 41).

Like their neighbors, including India and Indonesia, the countries of Indochina early became objects of European colonial expansion. Even at the turn of the XVI - XVII centuries. the first wave of colonization, the Portuguese, markedly affected the Burmese states of Ava and Pegu, Thai Siam, and especially the Malay sultanates. Having stayed here not too long and not having achieved noticeable success, the Portuguese in the XVIII century. gave way to the second wave of colonialists, the Dutch. While not too energetically touching other countries of Indochina, the Dutch colonial trade paid special attention to Malaya, neighboring Indonesia. It was here that the Dutch East India Company waged serious wars for political control of the lands adjacent to the straits. These wars at the end of the XVIII century. led the company to success, but the fruits of this success were reaped by the British, who ousted the Dutch from Malaya, which was enshrined in the London Treaty of 1824.

The British, as well as the French, began to actively develop their colonial trade in Indochina as early as the 17th century. French missionaries vigorously preached Catholicism, the British and French East India Companies sought to consolidate their economic and political positions in Burma and Siam. However, the position of France was weakened, and then practically nullified at the end of the 18th century. due to the revolution that shook France. England, on the contrary, from the XVIII century. significantly increased its penetration into the countries of Indochina, especially Burma, Malaya and Siam.

The penetration of French influence into the countries of Indochina began in the 17th century. with the appearance in these countries of the first French Catholic missionaries. The number of Catholic missions led by French priests and bishops increased in the 18th century, and at that time a considerable number of French merchants were also active here. The political crisis associated with the uprising of the Tay Sons at the end of the 18th century served as a pretext for intensifying the intervention of the French in the affairs of Vietnam: appointed in 1774 as the official representative of France with the rank of vicar, Bishop Pigno de Been took an active part in the hardships of Nguyen Anh, who was deposed from the throne, and , appealing for help to Louis XVI, managed to organize a military expedition to Indochina. Although for a number of reasons, including the revolution that broke out in France, the expedition of 1790 turned out to be small, numbering only a few dozen volunteers, it played a significant role in providing Nguyen Anh with military and military engineering assistance, which helped him eventually defeat the Taishons.

The Nguyen dynasty (1802-1945) in the first half of the 19th century has achieved significant success. The economy destroyed by the uprising was restored, the system of administrative power was strengthened, a combat-ready army and navy were created, and fortresses were rebuilt. The development of crafts and trade provided an inflow of income, which was regulated by an improved system of taxes. Attention was paid to land relations and a land cadastre was drawn up. Confucian education flourished again with the passing of competitive examinations for the right to receive the highest positions in the administration system. A collection of administrative and legal regulations was published in the form of an official code. All this was accompanied by the preservation of active ties between Vietnam and France, which was interested in it as an important sales market and a stronghold in Southeast Asia - a base all the more important and necessary because at the beginning of the 19th century. the French had no others in this part of the world.

Mindful of the help of Bishop Piño and his volunteers, the early rulers of the Nguyen dynasty were sympathetic to the desire of France to establish strong contacts with Vietnam, despite the fact that they did not build any illusions about the possible consequences of these contacts, especially in the middle of the 19th century, when not only India and Indonesia have long been colonies, but China has been forcibly opened to colonial expansion. Strong ties with France contributed to the economic development of Vietnam, and Catholicism took deeper roots in this country, especially in the south, where the influence of Confucian civilization was less noticeable than in the north.

In 1858, using as a pretext the need to protect the persecuted Catholic missionaries in Vietnam, the French brought a military squadron into Da Nang Bay, and in 1859 Saigon was captured. The occupation of the country caused vigorous resistance, during which the French were forced to leave Da Nang and concentrate their forces in the south, in Cochin (Nambo). The 1862 treaty secured the French occupation of the western part of Cochinchina, and in 1867 the rest of it was annexed. Since then, the entire south of Vietnam has been under the control of the French colonial administration, which was officially recognized by the Franco-Vietnamese treaty of 1874.

The annexation by the recently friendly French of the southern part of the country was very painfully received in Vietnam. Government officials refused to cooperate with the invaders and left for the north, leaving the French to make do with a few poorly trained local petty employees, often frankly corrupt adventurers from among graduates of Catholic missionary schools who were barely familiar with French. In the south, even a partisan movement was deployed, which, however, did not receive a large scale. As for the French who captured Cochinchina, they quickly began to establish commercial production of rice here, for which, in particular, numerous channels were laid in the swamps. At the same time, taxes were increased and new ones were introduced - on alcohol, opium and gambling, now legalized by the authorities. All these and a number of other similar measures turned out to be cost-effective and contributed to attracting commercial and banking capital from France to the occupied and colonized South Vietnam.

During the second Franco-Vietnamese war of 1883-1884. French troops occupied key military positions in the country and forced its rulers to recognize the protectorate of France over all of Vietnam, which was largely facilitated by the death of Emperor Tu Duc in 1883 and the dynathic strife and political strife that began in connection with this. The colonialists divided the protectorate into two parts, northern (Thin or Bakbo) and central (Annam, Chungbo), placing their resident governors at the head of them and turning Kochinchina into a colony.

The consolidation of the French colonial administration in Vietnam was the impetus for increased French pressure on Cambodia and Laos, neighboring Vietnam. Cambodia in the middle of the 19th century came under the rule of the skillful and capable King Ang Duong, who carried out a number of important reforms in this very backward and politically weak country aimed at strengthening the central government, streamlining taxes, improving the situation of the peasants and including the construction of roads, the establishment of finances, the publication of a code of administrative regulations /

During the First War of Resistance (1946-1954), the guerrilla movement also unfolded in all its glory and power, which became the key to the magnificent victory of Vietnamese weapons near Dien Bien Phu. It is doubly strange that, years later, the Americans so thoughtlessly got involved in the Vietnam War: they clearly underestimated the strength of the Vietnamese liberation movement, and meanwhile, its characteristic features: unparalleled patriotism and fortitude, strategic and tactical art, partisan skills, all this was tempered in tireless battles with Chinese dynasties and manifested itself already in the years of resistance to French aggression.

How naive were the thoughts of the Americans, who hoped to destroy Vietnam with the power of their ultra-modern weapons, while they were opposed at best (before the aid agreement with the USSR, 1965) outdated "anti-aircraft guns"; the main means of defense of ordinary peasants were agricultural implements, bamboo stakes and the animal instinct of self-preservation. The United States wanted to “return the country to the Stone Age” by force of their weapons, ** the Vietnamese responded with ingenious traps placed in the jungle, carefully disguised “wolf pits”, falling into which the soldiers defending the Stars and Stripes Banner either died or for life remained crippled. Losses among the Vietnamese population as a result of massive bombing are incalculable, however - and this is an obvious fact - the US Army, in turn, lost more people in skirmishes with guerrillas than in direct clashes with the armed forces of Vietnam! The Americans tried to destroy the Viet Cong shelters: they fired at them with machine gun fire, sprayed poisonous gas into them and even bombed them from many meters high, but where is there! The agile, evasive Vietnamese again and again subjected American platoons to their surprise attacks, using their primitive weapons. The Vietnamese patriots did not have a wide choice of weapons, and, nevertheless, they had a significant advantage in such skirmishes: they “read” the situation faster, predicted what the enemy would do in the next moment, and the enemy could only guess what the Viet Cong were preparing for him.

The Vietnam War with the French, as it turned out, did not teach the Americans anything, although they took an indirect part in this conflict, they were direct witnesses of the uniform beating of the Europeans. The thing is that the powerful national liberation movement that unfolded in 1946-1954 led not only to a brilliant victory at Dien Bien Phu. It gave impetus to the partisan movement: many bases and partisan shelters were built, the Vietnamese fighters mastered all the intricacies of partisan combat. Everything that the Vietnamese used during the war with the United States was not built in one day - this is the result of a huge experience in the struggle for independence, which the American president should have known about before he decided to drive his soldiers to Vietnam.

A simple example is the main partisan region of the South - the legendary Kuti - a huge, "three-story" underground fortress, which occupied 180 km2 in area. The total length of passages and galleries extended for 250 km, thanks to which 16 thousand fighters could be here at the same time. An extensive network of passages and manholes allowed the partisans to move freely around the area and unexpectedly appear in those places where the enemy least expected to see them. The endless underground passages provided everything needed for a long stay, including fresh water wells. It is unlikely that the fortress was built directly during the Second War of Resistance, when the Americans fired without rest on Vietnamese soil. This is the result of years of hard work. All this was built long before the American aggression; in the creation of Kuti, the centuries-old experience of the struggle of the Vietnamese people, the great tradition of Resistance, was embodied. This experience, as a result, became the key to victory: the Vietnamese fought on their territory, where everything was provided for protracted battles, everything was permeated with the spirit of Resistance. Most of the wars fought by the United States in its history were short-lived, as US rivals, unable to resist the frenzied onslaught of American weapons, prudently hoisted the white flag. The Vietnam War was the longest in American history.

It was truly impossible to destroy the fortifications and bases, which had known many sieges. The Americans understood that they needed to destroy Kuti, because from the North this area was surrounded by impenetrable jungle, through which the "Ho Chi Minh trail" passed, and in the South it was a stone's throw to Saigon, which posed a real threat to the latter. They threw all their means to destroy the base, but their efforts crashed against the impregnable wall of Vietnamese resistance. Desperate to destroy the base on the move, with napalm, the Americans expelled the entire civilian population from the area and turned Kuti into a continuous "death zone", surrounding it with roadblocks from all sides. What came of it? Nothing, absolutely.

It is even more strange that a country that is so proud of the history of the struggle for its own independence, without a twinge of conscience, encroached on someone else's. Ideology is ideology, however, as soon as the state highly appreciates its example of gaining independence, it should, in theory, encourage the aspirations of other countries to achieve independence. The only justification was the fact that American leaders considered Vietnam the cornerstone of Southeast Asia, and believed that with its loss, other states of the region would be under the threat of the spread of the "red infection", and, possibly, those territories that the States had long considered their fiefdom (like Japan). Vietnam was hopelessly lost to the United States already by 1968, neighboring states remained faithful to following the capitalist path, and the war, meanwhile, lasted for several more years. Does this mean a mistake in the strategy? Unlikely. Questioning the goals, aspirations, and values ​​of the United States? Undoubtedly...

As an athlete, over the course of several years of hard training, "brings" himself to the main competitions, so the Vietnamese have prepared themselves for this victory over many years of fighting foreign aggressors. This was not a one-day quiz. It does not even fit into the usual chronological framework - 1965-1973. This is a centuries-long victory, and each uprising against Chinese oppression, against French domination, brought the people of Vietnam closer to it, laid a stone in the powerful foundation of the Resistance. They hardened the Vietnamese people, and centuries of struggle made the national liberation movement the meaning of life for many thousands of people. Vietnam did not become a southern appendage of the Celestial Empire. Vietnam threw off the long-term French yoke. Vietnam resisted the furious onslaught of the United States. And, undoubtedly, there will be many more glorious pages in the history of this country. I want to believe peaceful pages.

Since the formation of the Vanlang Union, for many centuries the Vietnamese people have tirelessly demonstrated miracles of resilience. Although at first glance it is not so obvious. The Vietnamese are short, mostly frail people, whose physical parameters are not at all amazing. This is a very peaceful, "sunny" people: the Vietnamese love to smile, they greet guests with great pleasure and cordiality. During the second war of the Resistance, they marveled at the remarkable strength of the Soviet soldiers, gasped when the Russian "Vanya" shouldered a heavy "piece of the F-105 wing" **. And yet, according to the stories of Soviet soldiers who went through Vietnam, not a single Vietnamese soldier thought for a second when his Soviet partner needed help. The Vietnamese covered them with their bodies - they appreciated the help provided to them by the fraternal state. They were incredibly hard. However, before the eyes of these people there was always the image of each of their great ancestors: Chak and Ni Chyng, Ba Chieu, Li Bon, Ngo Quyen, Nguyen Chai, Le Loi, Li Thuong Kyet, Tran Hung Dao ... And how many others were there, nameless for us heroes of the war with the French and Americans? But they are nameless only for us, people far from those events. How many times have we heard from quite adequate Russian people, tired of living in the difficult social conditions of Russia, the phrase, they say, “it would be better in 1945. the Germans have conquered us. We would live happily ever after." We, embittered by the injustice of today's world, for some reason forget about the cost of this victory for our ancestors, what it cost them today's peaceful sky above their heads. The victory of the Soviet Union in the Great Patriotic War and the Vietnam War are somewhat similar: they were a demonstration of the best qualities of the nation and the great will of the state in both cases. But the Vietnamese never forget those to whom they owe their lives in tranquility and peace. The Vietnamese who died in the war remember by name: each name can be found on the walls of the memorial temple in the partisan region of Kuti. There are no unburied or unknown soldiers in Vietnam. Having passed the path of the most difficult trials, almost 2000 years long, the Vietnamese people proved their right to freedom and independence, which the great Ho Chi Minh so dreamed of. The Vietnamese people were not broken by any trials. However, although the events of those years are still carefully stored in the memory of every Vietnamese, all this is already part of the richest history of the country. Today, Vietnam is a rapidly developing state in Southeast Asia, claiming to be one of the major Asian "tigers". At the same time, Vietnam still adheres to the socialist path of development, following its own traditions. And this means that many millennia of no less rich and full of glorious events of history lie ahead. Stories without deafening volleys and furious bombardments. A story in which the tradition of the Resistance will remain only a source of pride, a rich heritage of the Vietnamese people. Indeed, in spite of everything, I want to believe that the great mentor of life - history - has taught a lot not only Vietnam, but also other independent, strong states /

In an effort to get rid of the oppressive pressure on Cambodia from the strong Siam, the king decided to resort to the help of the French and began to seek an alliance with France, which was entrenched in Vietnam. However, using this desire for rapprochement, the French colonial administration already in 1863 imposed its protectorate on Ang Duong's successor, the formal pretext for which was Cambodia's vassal ties with Vietnam (France considered it possible to act as its successor after the annexation of Cochinchina, which bordered Cambodia) . The vigorous penetration of the French into Cambodia began, the intervention of the resident in the political relations of the country with its neighbors, primarily with Siam. The case ended with the actual transformation of Cambodia into a French colony (1884).

The penetration of the French into Cambodia was a signal for their movement also towards Laos. A French consul appeared in Luangarabang in 1886, and in 1893 Laos became a French protectorate. All territories east of the Mekong River became the sphere of political dominance of France, which created the Indochinese Union (Cochin China colony and four protectorates - Annam, Thin, Cambodia and Laos) headed by a governor-general. This completed the French colonization of Indochina. The question arose about the development of the colony.

It should be noted that the five parts from which French Indochina was divided were very unequal. Cambodia and Laos were the most backward and hard-to-reach for economic development, and Cochinchina turned out to be in the most advantageous position, which became not only a rice granary, but also a place for growing hevea and exporting rubber, which brought considerable income. Monopolies were introduced on opium, salt and alcohol, which also soon began to bring multimillion-dollar revenues to the colonial treasury. The construction of roads began, including the railway connecting the south and north of Vietnam, coal mining and export expanded, and coffee and tea plantations were created. At the turn of the XIX - XX centuries. in the industry of French Indochina, mainly Vietnam, French entrepreneurs already invested a lot of money, which brought huge interest, which was facilitated by the tariffs that patronized French capital. Much attention was paid to mining in Cambodia and Laos, as well as to plantation and road construction in these protectorates.

The unceremonious invasion of the countries of ancient culture by the colonizers could not but arouse their resistance, which took on the most distinct and strong forms in Vietnam. First of all, it was a movement in defense of the emperor, "kan vyong", which peaked at the end of the 19th century. Its essence was to support the ruling apparatus of the country and the general population of the dignity of the ruler deposed and humiliated by the colonialists. Having retired to a remote and hard-to-reach region of Vietnam and hiding with his family in a specially built for this fortress, Emperor Ham Ngi began a kind of campaign of open defiance in the late 80s, accompanied by guerrilla fighting. Captured in 1888, Ham Ngy was evicted to Algiers, but the performances did not stop for about a decade, until the agreement of 1897 recognized the leader of the movement, General De Tham, the right to autonomous control of the liberated area he had created. At the turn of the XIX - XX centuries. De Tham's army became a serious supporter of the national liberation movement that was emerging in Vietnam, led by its recognized ideologists from among the already formed new intelligentsia, such as Phan Boi Chau, who in 1904 headed the Vietnam Renewal Society he created, which was reorganized in 1912 into Vietnam Renaissance Society.

If the movement, headed in the first decades of the XX century. Fan Boy Chau, was quite radical and aimed at the violent overthrow of the power of the colonialists and the restoration of the country's independence, headed by a semi-monarch-no-president (such a leader was being prepared from Prince Kyong Dz secretly taken to Japan), then another influential direction in the national liberation movement of those years was presented by Phan Chu Chin, who focused on enlightening the people, on the progress of science and familiarizing the young Vietnamese intelligentsia with the culture of Europe, for which the works of European thinkers in Chinese translations were actively used (hieroglyphics was still the main element of education in Vietnam). However, for the colonialists, this difference was not too significant, so that at the turn of the second decade of the 20th century. the activities of both recognized leaders were forcibly suppressed.

Conclusion: The second period of the transformation of Asia ended along with the entire post-war world order. The main factor in this process was the planetary disintegration of socialism. Revolutionary eschatologism has come to its logical end. In 1991, of all the socialist countries of Asia, only Mongolia took the path of a complete cessation of socialist experimentation. However, the democratic movement in China, the reforms in Vietnam and Laos, the approach to settling the situation in Cambodia, the further escalation of the crisis in North Korea - all this marked the end of revolutionary eschatologism. The socialist fluctuation in Asia began to self-destruct, as had already happened by this time in Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union. One channel of the civilizational stream has already dried up at its sources, and only the last waves of it rolled in Asia (perhaps the most recent wave swept over Nepal in 1990). All former socialist countries had to look for a new existential model; the intellectual elite of these countries looked with increasing attention at their neighbors, who chose the model of borrowing Western artifacts while maintaining some traditional existential structures.

Anti-colonial protests at the beginning of the 20th century. The birth of the ideology of African nationalism

The African population did not put up with their fate, refused to be in the position of slaves to the European colonizers.

After the final conquest of Africa, mass peasant uprisings broke out for many years and decades in different parts of the continent. This was the case, for example, in Nigeria and Cameroon, where they did not stop until the First World War. French West Africa was engulfed in a continuous series of uprisings. The stubborn struggle for the restoration of independence lasted with varying success for 20 years (from 1899 to 1921) on the territory of Somalia. It was led by Mohammed bin Abdullah Hasan, nicknamed by the British "mad mullah." The most significant in terms of scale were the actions of the peasants in South West Africa against the German

colonialists in 1904-1907. In the course of their suppression, up to 3/4 of the rebels died. The uprising "Maji-Maji" in German East Africa claimed the lives of 120 thousand people. A big one was the Zulu uprising in 1906 in South Africa against Anglo-Boer rule. A liberation uprising against the French colonialists broke out in Madagascar in 1904; the rebels fought here until 1915.

The beginning of the process of formation of the ideology of liberation was laid by the representatives of the first generation of the African intelligentsia, which originated from the second half of the 19th century. These were officials, clergymen, people of free professions. Having received an education, mainly European, in various ways, some of them began to speak out with a condemnation of colonial policy, against European domination and exploitation. They are commonly referred to as the first African enlighteners. But among the African intelligentsia there were also those who took the side of the colonialists and sincerely believed in the civilizing mission of Europe in Africa.

Among those who stood at the origins of African nationalism were priest Samuel Crowther (1812-1891), physician James Horton (1835-1883), Liberian foreign minister Edward Wilmot Blyden (1832-1912) and others.

They called for the unification of Africans in defending their rights, for self-government, for the preservation of cultural heritage, for the creation of an Afro-Christian church. The father of African nationalism, the developer of the theories of pan-Africanism and "African socialism" is rightfully considered E. W. Blyden. He was also the founder of the theory of "spiritual decolonization".

The intellectual struggle of Crowther, Horton, Blyden and other enlighteners laid the foundations for the ideology of liberation, which became the banner of new generations of fighters for independence.

Africa during World War I

During the First World War, the countries of the African continent played an important role in providing the metropolitan states with strategic mineral raw materials, food products and human resources. In British West Africa, in order to meet the increased needs of its war industry, Great Britain increased the extraction of minerals (bauxite and manganese ore on the Gold Coast, tin and coal in Nigeria). In addition, the British exported meat, cotton, wool, palm oil, cocoa in large quantities from the colonies. In an effort to shift the hardships of wartime onto the indigenous population of Africa, British companies increased their exports.

tariffs, while simultaneously lowering the purchase prices of local goods, which led to a fall in the real incomes of African workers and employees, as well as a significant increase in the cost of living. The colonialists drafted over 25,000 Africans into the West African troops of the West African Frontier Force. Many of them died in battles for German-owned Togo (August 1914) and Cameroon (1914-1916), and then in East Africa on the territory of Tanganyika.

Similar processes took place in French West and Equatorial Africa. Additional and emergency loans and taxes were imposed on the inhabitants, which led to a decrease in the general standard of living and starvation of the vast majority of the African aboriginal population. In addition, the government of the metropolis carried out forced mobilization, conscripting about 250 thousand people into the army, of which over 160 thousand participated in battles on various fronts of the First World War (including in Europe). Approximately 35 thousand of them died. Parts of the Senegalese riflemen, staffed by Africans, together with the British formations fought on the territory of the German colonies of Togo and Cameroon. At the beginning of 1916, after stubborn fighting, they managed to push out the remnants of the defeated German detachments in Rio Muni. Here they were later interned by the colonial authorities of Spanish Guinea.

In the Belgian Congo, rich in deposits of copper, cobalt, zinc and tin, the war spurred the development of the mining industry, which brought large profits to the foreign monopolies involved in their development. But the brunt of the military trials fell on the Africans. Of these, the rank and file of the army was formed, and the Belgians who did not fall under the draft were forced to manually deliver military supplies and food across the country to the eastern borders of the colony, where until April 1916 local battles were fought with the troops of Germany, which was trying to unite its North African possessions with Cameroon . Only having received sufficient reinforcements from the mother country, the Belgian units went on the offensive, captured in September 1916 the administrative center of German East Africa, Tabora, and in 1917 reached the coast of the Indian Ocean.

During the First World War, Portugal was also an ally of the Entente countries, with the financial support of England, intensified the exploitation of the population of the colonies subject to it. However, its participation in combat operations was generally insignificant and was reduced to the opening of a front against the Germans from Rhodesia and relatively short clashes with their significantly thinned German detachments that broke through to Mozambique at the end of 1917.

Known efforts due to long-standing Anglo-Boer antagonism cost Great Britain to involve the Union of South Africa in the war against Germany. Nevertheless, contrary to the outright nationalistic revelations of the Boers, the London-oriented South African Union sent tens of thousands of soldiers first to South-West Africa, in the summer of 1915 to Egypt and Europe, and then to German East Africa. Here, the South African divisions, suffering tangible losses, fought until the very end of the world war.

The longest battles were in vast areas in the eastern part of the African continent. Having at the initial stage about 5 thousand soldiers and officers, England and Germany in 1914-1915. were limited mainly to the conduct of local operations of local importance, which did not give a serious advantage to any of the warring parties. Left without the support of the mother country due to the naval blockade, the German colonial authorities built small enterprises in Dar es Salaam and Morogoro to produce army equipment - cartridges, ammunition and clothing. At the same time, in order to create stocks of raw materials and food, they expanded, using the forced labor of Africans, areas for agricultural food and industrial crops.

The advantage of the forces of the anti-German coalition was clearly defined only in 1916. Having transferred large military formations to Kenya and Uganda, Great Britain, together with the allied Belgian and Portuguese units, launched an offensive against a 2,000-strong group under the command of Lettov-Vorbeck, which in November 1917 managed to break through to Mozambique, and from there in 1918 to Northern Rhodesia, where, having learned about the end of the war in Europe, she laid down her arms. By that time, it included 1,300 soldiers and officers and 1,600 porters. The combined forces of England, Belgium and Portugal, whose number exceeded 300 thousand military personnel, acted against it.

The war, to one degree or another, also affected those African countries whose territory was outside the main hostilities. Sudanese units, at the behest of the British command, fought in the regions of East Africa and French Equatorial Africa, participated in patrolling the Suez Canal zone and the Sinai Peninsula. In 1915, thousands of Sudanese were used by the British in the construction of fortifications and sapper work during the Dardanelles operation.

With the outbreak of hostilities in Europe, internal political differences in the ruling circles of Ethiopia sharply escalated. Incited by the German-Austrian and Turkish missions in Addis Ababa, Ras Mikael's party was increasingly inclined to declare war on the Entente powers. However, its agents, with the help of old and young Ethiopians, in 1916 managed to carry out a palace coup. As a result, the daughter of Menelik II, Zaudita, was proclaimed empress. Power was shared with her by the regent Tafari Mekkonen, who later ascended the throne of the Emperor of Ethiopia under the name of Haile Selassie I.

Liberia, which declared political neutrality shortly after the start of the war, at first tried to maintain its former ties with its main foreign trade partner Germany. But due to the tight naval blockade established by the ships of the Entente and separating the country from the economically important German market, the Liberian leadership, under pressure from the governments of the anti-German coalition, declared war on Germany in 1918, which subsequently allowed the Monrovian delegation to participate in the meetings of the Versailles Peace Conference.

The First World War, accompanied by huge casualties, increased economic oppression, endless requisitions and the introduction of new taxes, contributed to the growth of anti-colonial sentiment and became the motive for a large number of uprisings among the indigenous inhabitants of the African continent. Massive anti-British demonstrations took place in the territories of Sudan, Nigeria, the Gold Coast. Against the oppression of the French colonial administration, the population of Chad, as well as the Upper Volta and Niger river basins, repeatedly rose up in arms. In the Belgian Congo, rebel detachments fought with particular tenacity against foreign enslavers in the Lomami district. Portugal had to fight not so much with the German troops as with the sharply intensified liberation movement of the Angolan people, which engulfed primarily the southern regions of the country. The destruction of the traditional way of life, combined with increased exploitation and unsustainable exactions, caused numerous riots in Southeast Africa, the most significant of which was the Nyasaland uprising of 1915.

Despite the fact that the spontaneous and scattered uprisings of the Africans were ultimately suppressed, nevertheless, the sacrifices made became for them an important school of gaining experience for further anti-colonial struggle, which entered a new phase after the end of the First World War.

Division of the Germanic- Colonial possessions of the countries defeated as a result of the colonies of the First World War were distributed

in Africa between the victorious countries as early as May 1919,

i.e. before the official creation of the League of Nations. The latter confirmed the new frontiers of the colonial empires.

The division of the colonial possessions of Germany in Africa, an area of ​​2.5 million square meters. km and with a population of about 13 million people was legally formalized by the mandate system of the League of Nations. The creation of the mandate system reflected new features of the post-war period. The authors tried to find somewhat more respectable forms for the colonial "repartition" of Africa than it was during the division of the continent at the end of the 19th century.

In accordance with the mandate system, the German colonies were divided into two categories "B" and "C" (parts of the former Ottoman Empire fell into category "A"). German East Africa, Togo and Cameroon fell into category "B". Category "C" included only one territory - South-West Africa, which was considered the most backward of the former German colonies. The League of Nations, in issuing a mandate to govern, demanded that the European power that received this mandate fulfill its duty as a civilized country to ensure the well-being and development of a territory that is not able to self-govern "in the difficult conditions of the modern world." The text of the mandate stated that the mandate-holder country receives full legislative and administrative power in the mandated territory and can consider it as its integral part. In other words, as a new colonial acquisition. True, in the mandated territories, in particular group "B", it was forbidden to build military bases and other military installations.

German East Africa was divided between Britain, Belgium and Portugal. England received the main part of the territory of the former German colony. It became part of the British Empire under the name Tanganyika. Rwanda and Urundi were placed under Belgian administration and annexed to the Congo. A small area in the southeast of German East Africa with the city of Kionga was given to Portugal, which annexed it to its colony of Mozambique.

The South African Union received a mandate for the German colony - South-West Africa. The territory of Cameroon was divided between England and France. France received the mandate for most of the territory (5/6 of the territory). The same thing happened with Togo. France received a mandate for the eastern, most of it, Great Britain for the western. So on the political map of the colonial

Africa, new formations appeared: French and English Cameroon, French and English Togo. In fact, each of the divided territories was integrated into the system of border colonial possessions of England and France.

The creation of the mandate system, which is nothing but a new form of establishing colonial domination, aroused protest and indignation among the progressive sections of the European public, gave impetus to the African peoples to take decisive action against the colonialists and the colonial system as a whole.

Tropical and South Africa in the interwar period. The origin of the national liberation movement

The hardships of life in the conditions of the colonial market, increased exploitation and racial discrimination, and the deprivation of the opportunity to live in one's own way caused a new surge of resistance after the war in the African colonies. During this period, food riots, strikes, protest demonstrations, open disobedience to the authorities become everyday facts.

Many of these performances were still spontaneous. However, since the early 1920s the forces of African resistance, represented by peasants, workers, the petty bourgeoisie, the intelligentsia, and figures of various religious cults, began to move from unorganized uprisings to organized forms of struggle.

During the period between the two world wars, political parties began to emerge in Tropical Africa, usually created by representatives of the educated elite. One of the first anti-colonial organizations in Black Africa was the African National Congress in the Union of South Africa. In 1920, the National Congress of British West Africa was created, uniting representatives of the four West African colonies of Great Britain. In East and Central Africa, "welfare associations" are being formed ("native associations" of Northern and Southern Rhodesia and Nyasaland, the Association of Africans of Tanganyika, etc.). These parties and associations did not yet advocate the destruction of colonialism, but demanded an easing of the colonial order, easing the tax burden, expanding the educational network for Africans, etc. They became the embryo of those political parties that led the mass anti-colonial movement after World War II.

The interwar period is rich in examples of Africans establishing ties with the democratic circles of European countries, with the national liberation movements of Asian countries, and with Soviet Russia. Particularly active at that time was the participation of African workers and intellectuals in the International Committee of Negro Workers, which arose at the turn of the 20-30s. The committee brought together African Americans from the USA, Canada, the West Indies, and representatives of the African colonies. He actively opposed racial discrimination, demanded the liberation of African peoples from colonial dependence.

Pan-Africanism had a significant influence on the formation of the ideology of the liberation movement in these years and its activation. The first Pan-African Conference took place in London as early as 1900, but as a movement it took organizational shape in 1919, when the First Constituent Congress met. Pan-Africanist congresses also met in 1921, 1923, 1927 and 1945.

During the period between the two wars, Pan-Africanism was guided by the idea of ​​a joint struggle against the oppression of the peoples of the Negro-African race. The leadership of the Pan-African movement during these years was carried out mainly by representatives of American and West Indian Negroes. The initiator and ideological inspiration for the convening of the Pan-African Congresses was Dr. William Dubois (1868-1963), the author of many works on Negro-African history and one of the recognized leaders of the African American movement in the United States.

The decisions of the first four congresses were generally moderate. The movement was in its infancy. It has not yet clearly defined its ultimate goals, has not developed a program of radical political action. On the whole, the Pan-Africanism of these years was more of an idea than an action. And at the same time, despite the moderation of the political positions of the movement, it played a significant role, if only by drawing the attention of the world community to African problems. The movement had an impact on the political awakening of Africa, on the formation of a program of national liberation. Raised a voice of protest against colonial exploitation and racial oppression. After the Second World War, the Pan-African movement became a genuine and recognized spokesman for the anti-colonial sentiments of the African peoples and their inspirer.

Among the new forms of anti-colonialism, one of the earliest and most widespread were religious-political, primarily Afro-Christian, movements. Afro-Christian churches and sects originated originally in South Africa. Later, the Belgian Congo became the center of their development, and then they spread to the coast of West Africa, in a number of areas of Central Africa.

In South Africa, the Afro-Christian movement arose as early as the 1980s. 19th century as a form of protest against the colonial role of European Christian missions. The anti-colonial protest among adherents of Afro-Christian churches and sects was caused by deep disappointment in Europeans as genuine Christians who betrayed the commandments of Christ, turned into racists and exploiters.

B 20s. religious and political movements of Christian Africans cover the Belgian Congo and adjacent areas. The most significant was the performance of the Simon Kimbangu sect. In his sermons, the thesis about the "God's chosen" Africans was often heard. He was extremely popular not only among the Congolese, but also among other African peoples. Kimbangu's followers saw him as a prophet and savior. Thousands of peasants, workers, townspeople flocked to him. Arising spontaneously, Kimbangism essentially became a broad anti-colonial peasant movement that took on a religious form. By 1921 it had reached unprecedented proportions. Kimbangists opposed both secular colonialists and European Christian missionaries, proclaiming the slogan "Congo to the Congolese!". From passive forms of resistance to the colonial authorities - non-payment of taxes, refusal to work on European plantations, grow food for them, etc. - they moved on to active actions, providing physical resistance. The country was engulfed in strikes. There were mass demonstrations.

The formation of the Afro-Christian movement was directly dependent on specific historical conditions. In one case, the activities of religious communities took on political overtones. In another, political movements dressed in religious garb. An example of the latter is matsuanism, an anti-colonial political movement that emerged in the 1920s. BO French Equatorial Africa. This movement was founded by André Grenard Matsoi (1899-1942). In 1926, he founded in Paris the "Association of people from the FEA". This organization chose peaceful means of struggle for itself, calling on the population of the colonies to civil disobedience. It demanded the abolition of the discriminatory "native code", the granting of voting rights to the indigenous population of the colonies, an end to the abuse of concession companies and the plunder of the natural wealth of Africa. The Association urged the population not to pay taxes, not to join the colonial troops, to move from one colony to another. The population of the FEA believed in the messianic role of Matsua, many considered him a prophet.

In those areas of Africa where Islam was most widespread, various Muslim movements arose, speaking from the standpoint of protecting the "purity of faith" under the slogans of rejecting the power of "infidels".

Africa During the Second World War in Africa to the south during the Second Sahara, no active hostilities took place. The exceptions were the territories of Ethiopia, Eritrea and Somalia. Having a multiple advantage in military equipment and manpower in the northeast of the continent, the Italian formations in July 1940 went on the offensive there. By the end of August, they managed to capture British Somalia, part of Kenya and several strongholds in the Sudan. However, the intensified armed liberation movement of the Ethiopians and the assistance provided to the British by the population of Kenya and Sudan forced the Italians to stop offensive operations. Having brought the number of its colonial troops to 150 thousand people, the British command launched a decisive counteroffensive. In January 1941, Anglo-Indian and Sudanese troops and Free French units (mainly African) were sent from Sudan to Eritrea. At the same time, mixed Sudanese-Ethiopian formations and Ethiopian partisan detachments created in Sudan entered Ethiopia from the west. In February, the British African divisions, which had advanced from Kenya, together with units of the Belgian Congo, under air cover, crossed the border between Ethiopia and Italian Somalia. Unable to organize a stable defense, the Italians left the port of Kisimayo on February 14 and the capital of Somalia, Mogadishu, on February 25. Building on the success achieved, on April 1, the British captured the main city of Eritrea, Asmara, and on April 6, with detachments of Ethiopian partisans, they took Addis Ababa. As a result of the defeats, the Italian army stationed in the East Africa region capitulated on May 20, which made it possible for England to transfer its forces to other theaters of military operations.

Hundreds of thousands of Africans recruited into the armies of the mother countries were forced to fight in North Africa, Western Europe, the Middle East and even in Burma and Malaya. Even more of them had to serve in the auxiliary troops and work for military needs.

After the defeat of France in her African possessions, a struggle unfolded, which, however, did not reach especially serious armed clashes, between proteges of the Vichy "government" and supporters of the "Free France". In January-February 1944, the adherents of General de Gaulle, who ultimately won in it, held a conference in Brazzaville (French Congo) on the post-war status of the French colonies in Africa. Its decisions provided for the formation of representative bodies of power from the aboriginal population in the future, the introduction of universal suffrage, and the implementation of a broad democratization of public life. However, the leadership of the French Committee of National Liberation (FCL) was in no hurry to implement the declarations adopted in Brazzaville.

During the war years, the position of European states regarding the involvement of Africans in military operations was ambivalent. In an effort, on the one hand, to make the most of the human resources of Africa in the fight against the Nazi coalition, the metropolises were at the same time afraid to allow the indigenous inhabitants of the continent to use modern types of weapons, attracting them mainly as signalmen, drivers of vehicles, etc. Racial discrimination had a place in all, without exception, the colonial armies formed by Europeans, but in the British troops it was stronger than in the French.

In addition to human resources, African countries served as suppliers for the metropolises of the necessary strategic minerals, as well as various types of agricultural products. Meanwhile, due to the reduction in imports of manufactured goods caused by the disruption of world trade relations, in some colonies, primarily in Southern Rhodesia, the Belgian Congo, Kenya, Nigeria, and French West Africa, individual branches of manufacturing and light industry began to develop rapidly. A significant step forward was made by the heavy industry of the Union of South Africa. The increase in industrial production led to an increase in the number of workers who, increasingly detached from the countryside, became proletarians who received the wages of otkhodniks. Taking advantage of the sharp decrease in factory exports from Europe, the United States of America noticeably stepped up its penetration into the economies of a number of African countries.

A significant weakening during the war of the authority of the metropolises, which repeatedly, especially at the initial stage, were defeated by the Nazi coalition, as well as the Atlantic Charter signed in August 1941 by the leaders of England and the United States (declaring the right of peoples to choose their own form of government), combined with the success of the world anti-fascist movements, in which the Soviet Union played a leading role, contributed to the growth of broad anti-colonial sentiments in Africa. Contrary to the prohibitions of the colonialists, new political parties and associations appeared. The most important of these was the National Council of Nigeria and Cameroon, formed in August 1944, which decided to seek a regime of self-government, introduce a democratic constitution that provided for the elimination of all forms of racial discrimination, and ensure the comprehensive development of education in the country to eradicate the remnants of colonialism.

The socio-political and economic changes that took place on the African continent during the years of World War II caused a deepening of contradictions between the mother countries and the forces of national liberation and created the preconditions for a further rise in the anti-colonial democratic struggle in the post-war period.

5th Pan-African Congress, convened in October

5th Panafry - p e 1945 in Manchester (England), worked in modern

Kansky chenno new historical setting and signified

congress ^ „

sooo and the onset of a qualitatively new stage in the liberation struggle of the African peoples. The victory over fascism, the weakening of imperialist reaction in European societies, the first successes of the liberation movement in Asia inspired the forum delegates with hope for further cardinal changes.

The congress was the most representative of all pan-African congresses in terms of the number of African delegates. They represented the trade union movement, the peasantry, the radical intelligentsia, various political parties and organizations, veteran soldiers. Most of them were ready to fight. Almost all the reports at the congress were made by Africans and were clearly anti-colonial in nature. William Dubois presided over the congress. Among the 200 participants in the congress, among the most active were Kwame Nkrumah, Jomo Kenyatta, Hastings Banda, who later became presidents of Ghana, Kenya, Malawi, South African writer Peter Abrahams, prominent public figures - Wallace Johnson (Sierra Leone), Obafemi Avolovo (Nigeria ) and etc.

The situation in all the African colonies was discussed at the congress, and strong support was expressed for the revolutionary uprisings of the population, which engulfed many regions of the continent. Among the adopted resolutions, three were of the greatest importance: "Challenge to the Colonial Powers", "Appeal to the Workers, Peasants and Intelligentsia of the Colonial Countries" and "Memorandum to the UN". In the text of the "Appeal" there was a call for the widespread organization of the inhabitants of the colonies to fight for the liberation of their countries and all of Africa, and it was proposed to use all the means at their disposal, including armed struggle.

The 5th Pan-African Congress played an important role in the development of the anti-colonial struggle of the African peoples. He spoke with

new, radical requirements and formulated them both on the scale of the continent and specifically for all major regions and countries.