European Colonialism

Following the end of WWII and the formation of the United Nations in 1945, there was a renewed view of European colonialism - that is the policy or practice of acquiring full or partial political control over another country, occupying it with settlers, and exploiting it economically by several European states. This changed outlook came from the ‘new’ perceived global notion of racial equality and national self-determination born out of the now discredited ideology of Nazism, i.e. ‘Inferior nations who are unable to govern themselves’. There was no longer to be a justification for the political hierarchy of colonialism. The ‘success’ of the decolonisation of European colonies is not something which can be easily determined, as this ‘success’ is one which can only be evaluated once the definition of what it means to successfully decolonise a nation is established. In one sense of the meaning, the decolonisation of the territories can be deemed to be almost wholly successful (as of 2011 fewer than 2 million people live under colonial

The French colonial empire was the second largest colonial empire after the British with its total population being around 65,598,000 in 1945 . It was Charles X of France who first gave consent for the occupation of Algerian coastal regions in 1830 to both eliminate the threat that existed from pirates and to attain foreign policy success. Algeria continued from this time onwards to be a colonised territory of France up until its liberation on 3rd July 1962 after a horrific war of independence. It is to be noted that Algeria proved to be a particularly difficult territory to decolonise as it had been incorporated into metropolitan France during the establishment of the 3rd Republic. Algeria was no longer to come under the Foreign or Colonial Offices but the Ministry of the Interior