Revolt, Revolution and Path to independence

Revolt, Revolution and Path to independence

Hey there, Peter here! The history of Southeast-Asia is coming to an end. This issue will be about how most Southeast-Asian countries fight to gain their independence. Some of the countries however, just gained their independence when the Europeans lost interest in them. To make it easier to visualise this crucial part of southeast-asian history, just imagine the star wars trilogy, there are very similar.

Some of the countries who fought their way to independence is usually led by an influential leader like Ho Chi Minh of Vietnam. I will take Vietnam for an example because I think they are the most successful. 

After the defeat of the Japanese, European powers quickly reinstalled their power back into the region, except now, there are a lot more nationalists (people wanting to glorify their country and wanting independence). Many people were educated and Ho Chi Minh was one of them. Ho Chi Minh studied in France and joined the communist party in France. He came back to Vietnam as a communist follower. He influenced many communists in Vietnam to revolt against the French, which at that time, was very weak. The Viet-minh (Ho Chi Minh's army) stood up against the French in 1946 and started the 'Indochinese War'. They fought until they finally succeeded in 1954 at the battle of Dien Bien Phu. The Vietnamese gained their independence soon afterwards after the treaty at Geneva in July 1954. However, the French left Vietnam in 2 pieces, the North and the South (they have different ideologies)

Glorious Vietnamese victory at Dien Bien Phu

Vietnam divided by the 17th Parallel.

Another example of a Southeast-Asian country who fought against their alien ruler is Indonesia. Indonesia was not as successful as the Vietnamese. The Indonesians started fighting against the Dutch  in August 17th 1945, when the Indonesian nationalists proclaimed their country's independence in Jakarta. The Dutch quickly crushed the uprising. In November, the Indonesians revolutionaries  fought a major battle at the city of Surabaya. In 1948, the Dutch captured the old capital city of Yogyakarta and crushed the revolutionaries there. This ignited the ambitions of the revolutionaries even further. Finally, the Dutch gave up on the war and the Indonesians gained their independence in 1949.

On the other hand, there are countries like Burma, which gained their independence without fighting. The British lost interest in its Burmese colony and withdrew. This had negative impacts on Burma because there are many political powers fighting to be at the top after the British left.

After the Europeans left the region, Communism became a very strong ideology in the region (especially the mainland). This will lead up to the Cold War.

Vietnam was one of the countries influenced by Communism.