WONGSURAWAT Wasana - The End of Empire: Decolonization in Asia (20h)

This optional course will explain the origins, course and consequences of decolonization in the European empires in Asia. It will begin with the period from the Great War to the Great East Asian Co-Prosperity Sphere. This will be mostly about the rise of nationalist sentiments in Asia in the interwar period and developments during the Second World War in Far East that led to postwar decolonization. It will then cover problems of Decolonization and the rise of nation-states in Asia, focusing on the process of decolonization in South and Southeast Asia, especially in the former British and Dutch empires. The next part will deal with the Cold War and the Non-Aligned Movement, focusing on Southeast Asia, especially the Vietnam War, the civil wars in Laos and Cambodia, the rise of the Non-Aligned Movement and the massacre in Indonesia in 1965-66. After that it will cover the Post-Cold War, ASEAN and return of Europe in the China Century. This part will be mostly on Post-Cold War developments in Southeast Asia, especially ASEAN, the rise of Chinese influence in the region (including the Belt and Road Initiative-BRI) and the return of Europe in Asia in the post-Cold War/Globalized era. Finally, it will briefly consider the impact of migration from former colonies into the former imperial states of north-western Europe. // ECTS Card

Professor: Wasana WONGSURAWAT