Just Finished Reading: Wars of National Liberation by Daniel Moran (FP: 2001) [237pp]

The First World War started it, or at least the END of the War started it – that and President Wilson’s 14 Points and the universal political acid of ‘Self-Determination’. When the major European empires fell (or at the very least shuddered) the colonised around the world looked forward with hope to their independence. For many only disappointment lay ahead as the colonies of the vanquished were, by and large, handed over to the victors to run – most with the fiction of ‘Mandate’ status and the ‘eventual’ move to independence when they had achieved the requisite level of ‘maturity’ – judged by the Empire running things naturally. But what the First World War started the Second finished – by 1945 the Age of Empires was, effectively, over. Unfortunately that realisation wasn’t shared by everyone.

Exhausted by a second global conflict in 30 years the British finally agreed to, slowly, let go of Empire. In a few places it needed a nudge or two but eventually they did get out of the Imperial business. France took a while longer to realise that the jig was definitely up and fought nasty conflicts in North Africa and South East Asia (leaving the Americans to messily finish things off in the 1970’s). Covering many of these conflicts – most of which we are all too familiar with – this surprisingly good if short book looks at wars across the world as local forces fought off their colonial masters and others to achieve the long hoped for state of independence. Naturally things were not often straight forward and the ultimate objectives both messy and bloody. The post-war world after 1945 was the world of superpowers in proxy conflicts and both sides used the wars of national liberation to kick the other side whenever possible or politically acceptable.

The list of wars is a fairly extensive one despite the 237 page size restraints. From the Chinese war against the Japanese occupation and the subsequent Civil War, to the Korean War, to the French in Indo-China, to the French (again) in Algeria, to several European powers in Africa, to Cuba and conflicts throughout South America, to Israeli independence in the war of 1948 and finally the debacle that was Vietnam. A lot of ground is covered quickly but both the text and the many photographs and maps are detailed enough to make sense of what was going on. Obviously this slim volume will not make you an expert on this most important of themes in the post-1945 age but it will give you an enhanced appreciation of what was going on in so many places across the globe and what many of them had in common. Recommended.