# Decolonisation of Asia

The decolonisation of Asia was the gradual growth of independence movements in Asia, leading ultimately to the retreat of foreign powers and the creation of several nation-states in the region.

## Background

The decline of Spain and Portugal in the 17th century paved the way for other European powers, namely the Netherlands, France and England. Portugal would lose influence in all but three of its colonies, Portuguese India, Macau and Timor.
By the end of the 17th century, the Dutch had taken over much of the old Portuguese colonies, and had established a strong presence in present-day Indonesia, with colonies in Aceh, Bantam, Makassar and Jakarta. The Dutch also had trade links with Siam, Japan, China and Bengal.
The British had competed with Portuguese, Spanish and Dutch for their interests in Asia since the early 17th century and by the mid-19th century held much of India (via the British East India Company), as well as Burma, Ceylon, Malaya and Singapore. After The Indian Rebellion of 1857, Queen Victoria was declared Empress of India, thus solidifying the British rule on the subcontinent. The last British acquisition in Asia was the New Territories of Hong Kong, which was leased from the Qing emperor in 1897, expanding the British colony originally ceded in the Treaty of Nanking in 1842.
The French had little success in India following defeats against the British in the 17th century, though they held onto possessions on the east coast of India (such as Pondicherry and Mahar) until decolonisation. The French established their most lucrative and substantial colony in Indochina in 1862, eventually occupying the present-day areas of Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia by 1887.
Japan's first colony was the island of Taiwan, occupied in 1874 and officially ceded by the Qing emperor in 1894. Japan continued its early imperialism with the annexation of Korea in 1910.
The United States entered the region in 1898 during the Spanish–American War, taking the Philippines as its sole colony after a mock battle in the capital and the later formal acquisition of the Philippines from Spain through the 1898 Treaty of Paris.

## Asian colonies from the 17th century to the end of World War II

The following list shows the colonial powers following the end of World War II in 1945, their colonial or administrative possessions and the date of decolonization.
* /// China:
** Tibet (1912)
** Jiangxi Soviet (1931)
** Fujian (1933)
** Mongolia (1924/1946)
** People's Republic of China (1949)
* France:
** North Vietnam (1945)
** Lebanon (1946)
** Syria (1946)
** Cambodia (1953)
** Laos (1953)
** French India (1954)
** South Vietnam (1948)
* Indonesia
** East Timor (1999/2002)
* Japan:
** Manchuria (Manchukuo), Northern China (1945/1946)
** Second Philippine Republic (1945/1946)
** Burma (1945/1948)
** North Korea (1945/1948)
** South Korea (1945/1948)
** Taiwan and Penghu (1945/1952)
* Malaysia
** Singapore (1965)
* Netherlands:
** Taiwan (1642)
** Dutch Malacca (1825)
** Indonesia (1945/1949)
** Dutch New Guinea (1962)
* Portugal:
** Portuguese India (1961)
** East Timor (1975/2002)
** Macau (1999)
* Soviet Union ( Russian Empire prior to 1917/1922)
** Mongolia (1924)
** Manchuria (Manchukuo), Northern China (1946)
** North Korea (1948)
** Kyrgyzstan (1991)
** Uzbekistan (1991)
** Tajikistan (1991)
** Turkmenistan (1991)
** Kazakhstan (1991)
* Spain:
** Taiwan (1662)
** Revolutionary Government of the Philippines (1898)
* Turkey
** Kingdom of Yemen (later became the North Yemen in 1962) (1918)
* United Kingdom:
** Afghanistan (1919)
** Bangladesh (1947) (1971)
** Egypt (1922)
** Iraq (1932)
** Jordan (1946)
** Pakistan (1947)
** India (1947)
** Burma (1948)
** Ceylon (1948)
** Israel (1948)
** Malaya (1957)
** Cyprus (1960)
** Kuwait (1961)
** Sabah (North Borneo) (1963)
** Sarawak (1963)
** Maldives (1965)
** Singapore (1965)
** South Yemen (1967)
** Oman (1970)
** Bahrain (1971)
** Qatar (1971)
** United Arab Emirates (1971)
** Brunei (1984)
** Hong Kong (1997)
* United States:
** Philippines (1946)
** Marshall Islands (1986)
** Federated States of Micronesia (1986)
** Palau (1994)

## Individual countries

| Country | Date of acquisition of sovereignty | Acquisition of sovereignty |
| / Afghanistan | 1919 | Treaty of Rawalpindi ends British control of foreign policy |
| Bahrain | 15 August 1971 | End of treaties with the United Kingdom |
| Bangladesh | 26 March 1971 | Independence from Pakistan declared |
| Bhutan | 1885 | Ugyen Wangchuck ends a period of civil war and unites Bhutan |
| Brunei | 1 January 1984 | Brunei regains its independence after an agreement with the British on 4 January 1979 |
| Cambodia | 9 September 1953 | France grants Cambodia independence |
| Cambodia | 26 September 1989 | Becomes free from Vietnamese occupation; it gets back its name instead of the People's Republic of Kampuchea |
| Taiwan | 1 January 1912 | On the first day of January of 1912 The Republic of China unilaterally declared their independence. |
| China | 7 December 1949 | On the 1st of October of 1949 the Chinese Communist Party wins against the Kuomintang which then retreats to the island of Taiwan. |
| India | 15 August 1947 | Independence from the British Empire |
| Indonesia | 27 December 1949 | Independence from the Kingdom of the Netherlands following their unilateral Proclamation of Indonesian Independence on 17 August 1945 and subsequent Dutch–Indonesian Round Table Conference in The Hague. |
| Iran | 609 BC | After the fall of Assyria between 616 BC and 609 BC, a unified Median state was formed, which together with Babylonia, Lydia, and ancient Egypt became one of the four major powers of the ancient Near East. |
| Iraq | 762 | The Abbasid Caliphate built the city of Baghdad along the Tigris in the 8th century as its capital, and the city became the leading metropolis of the Arab and Muslim world for five centuries |
| Iraq | 3 October 1932 | Kingdom of Iraq |
| Israel | 14 May 1948 | Upon the end of the British Mandate, Jews declared independence, forming the State of Israel; the remainder of Palestine came under control of Egypt (Gaza Strip) and Transjordan (West Bank) |
| Japan | 4th century CE | During the subsequent Kofun period, most of Japan gradually unified under a single kingdom |
| Jordan | 25 May 1946 | End of the British Mandate for Palestine |
| Kuwait | 1752 | Establishment of the Sheikhdom of Kuwait |
| Kyrgyzstan | 31 August 1991 | Independence from the Soviet Union |
| Laos | 22 October 1953 | Independence from France |
| Lebanon | 26 November 1941 | Independence from France declared |
| Lebanon | 22 November 1943 | Independence from France recognised |
| Malaysia | 31 August 1957 | Malayan independence from the United Kingdom was declared in Dataran Merdeka (Independence Square) |
| Malaysia | 16 September 1963 | Malaysia was formed by the federation of North Borneo, Sarawak and Singapore with the existing States of the Federation of Malaya. |
| Maldives | 26 July 1965 | Independence from the United Kingdom |
| Mongolia | 1206 | Mongol Empire formed |
| Mongolia | 29 December 1911 | Proclamation of Mongolian independence from Manchu's Qing dynasty |
| Myanmar | 4 January 1948 | Myanmar (Burma) declares independence from the British Empire |
| Nepal | 25 September 1768 | Nepali unification |
| Oman | 26 January 1650 | Expulsion of the Portuguese Army from Oman |
| Pakistan | 14 August 1947 | Independence from British India in the Partition |
| Palestine | 15 November 1988 | Palestinian Declaration of Independence |
| Philippines | 12 June 1898 | The evolving revolutionary movement in Philippine revolutionaries declared independence from the Spanish Empire but sovereignty remained with Spain, which ceded the country to the United States. |
| Philippines | 4 July 1946 | The United States recognises independence under the provisions of the Treaty of Manila (1946). The 1935 Constitution remained in effect until 1973, when the Marcos regime promulgated a newer one, replaced in turn by the present 1987 Constitution. |
| Qatar | 18 December 1878 | Independence from the Ottoman Empire |
| Saudi Arabia | 1744 | Establishment of the First Saudi State |
| Singapore | 3 June 1959 | Self-government under the United Kingdom |
| Singapore | 9 August 1965 | Malaysia unilaterally expels Singapore from the federation of Malaysian states, creating an independent Singaporean state |
| Sri Lanka | 4 February 1948 | Independence from the United Kingdom |
| Syria | 28 September 1961 | End of the United Arab Republic |
| Tajikistan | 9 September 1991 | Independence from the Soviet Union |
| Thailand | 6 November 1767 | King Taksin the Great reunifies Thailand, establishing a new kingdom and repelling Burmese invasions |
| Timor-Leste | 28 November 1975 | East Timor declares its independence but was occupied by Indonesia |
| Timor-Leste | 20 May 2002 | Independence was recognised by the international community following the UN-sponsored act of self-determination of 1999 |
| Turkmenistan | 27 October 1991 | Independence from the Soviet Union |
| United Arab Emirates | 2 December 1971 | End of a treaty relationship with the United Kingdom |
| Uzbekistan | 31 August 1991 | Independence from the Soviet Union declared |
| Vietnam | 2524 BC | Hùng king established Van Lang, the first kingdom of Vietnam |
| Yemen | 1 November 1918 | Independence of North Yemen from the Turkish Empire |
| Yemen | 30 November 1967 | Independence of South Yemen from the United Kingdom |