Twentieth-Century World Affairs and Decolonization
This domain covers the post-1945 order: the Cold War, decolonisation, non-alignment and the crises that reshaped global politics to 1991.
Core framework
- The United Nations (1945) promised collective security, though Security Council vetoes limited enforcement.
- The Cold War pitted the USA and USSR against each other through containment, the Marshall Plan (1948), NATO (1949) and the Warsaw Pact (1955).
- Decolonisation in Asia and Africa was uneven: India and Pakistan partitioned in 1947, Ghana became independent in 1957, Algeria in 1962 and many others followed.
- The Bandung Conference (1955) and the Non-Aligned Movement (Belgrade, 1961) offered alternatives to superpower blocs.
- Crises included Suez (1956), the Cuban missile crisis (1962) and Vietnam; the Berlin Wall fell in 1989 and the USSR dissolved in 1991.
Worked example
'Why did Bandung matter?' Reasoning: it connected newly independent states, asserted anti-colonial solidarity and economic cooperation, and challenged the assumption that every state must choose a bloc. Its limits were real: members differed over communism and borders, and non-alignment did not prevent conflict.
Traps
- Treating the Cold War as a simple good-versus-evil contest.
- Assuming decolonisation was peaceful or identical everywhere.
- Confusing Bandung (1955) with the founding NAM summit (1961).
- Ignoring local agency in independence struggles.
- Forgetting that 1989 and 1991 were different events.