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World War II and empire occupation, and the insatiable demand for military and non-military labor, sometimes ASHLEY JACKSON voluntary, more often coerced. King’s College, London, UK Though seldom viewed through an impe- rial lens, World War II was in numerous ways War began for America with an attack on a a war of empire. Some of the major belliger- colony, while Britain’s first sig- ents fought in order to gain the fruits of nificant victory was achieved by a colonial empire – prestige, living space, land, markets, army fighting in . Following the fall resources, and control of sea lines of commu- of France, most “French” soldiers still under nication. The aggression of the Axis powers arms were African, and free Dutch and was driven by a lust on the part of their French forces fought on against the Axis from leaders for the spoils of empire. Germany overseas colonial footholds following the sought to conquer and dominate the Euro- occupation of their European homelands. In pean . Italy had ambitions in south- China and Russia, and throughout much of ern and Africa and sought to supplant the rest of the world, people fought to resist Britain as the mistress of the Mediterranean. the imperialism of the Japanese and the Japan had long targeted the Chinese main- Germans, or were caught in the eye of a storm land as an outlet for its expansionist tenden- caused by imperial competition between old cies, and now took aim at the colonies of colonial powers and their would-be succes- America and Europe stretched enticingly sors. Beneath much of the “global war” activ- across the Central Pacific, the , ity and action on the major battlefields, and Southeast . Other belligerent powers, in many parts of the world nationalists meanwhile, fought to protect the fruits of and anti-colonial actors sought to throw empire that they already enjoyed, in a war off the yoke of colonialism – be it that of of the colonial “haves” versus the “have-nots.” long-established or newly minted colonial The major European colonial powers fought powers – and to promulgate their own visions to protect both their overseas empires and of future national independence. Imperial their national homelands. All but the British and racial ideologies – Aryan superiority, failed on both counts, and the British war Japanese dominance masquerading as Asian developed as one characterized by the defense “co-prosperity”–mixed with anti-colonialism of empire and the exploitation of imperial and ethnic nationalism. The world was chan- resources in order to achieve it. ging, rapidly, and apparent certainties – such There were numerous wars, and numerous as the strength and stability of colonial empires wars of empire, taking place in different ruled by white men – were being overturned. parts of the world during a period that the Caught in the middle of other people’swars, term “World War II” struggles to encapsulate. the hundreds of millions of people who hap- Though the “world war” known in Europe pened to live in colonial or semi-colonial zones lasted from 1939 until 1945, the Spanish Civil were affected, almost always in deleterious War and the Italian invasion of Abyssinia ways, by the outriders of world war: food which preceded it were connected and were shortages, inflation, violence, migration, marked by the imperial intent of key

The Encyclopedia of Empire, First Edition. Edited by John M. MacKenzie. © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Published 2016 by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. DOI: 10.1002/9781118455074.wbeoe246 2 protagonists. For China, “the War of Resist- glumly that he was “the first to lose a bit of ance against Japan” began in the early the Empire” (Stark 1985: 50). Though this 1930s as it sought to fend off violent Japanese minor colony in the was soon imperialism. For Russia, the “Great Patriotic reconquered as British imperial forces defeated War” commenced with Hitler’s imperial the Italians in with relative ease, thrust in the summer of 1941, which sought much more serious losses were to come. When to steal the land and enslave its inhabitants. Japan entered the war, British territories from For America, despite war-related activity in theAndamanandNicobarIslandsintheIndian support of Britain beforehand, belligerent sta- Ocean, across South and Southeast Asia and on tus began with Japan’s quest for a new empire east toward Borneo, Hong Kong, and the in December 1941. Pacific, were lost. Large numbers of refugees sought to leave war zones, and for many colo- nial people east of Suez, the war brought the THE BELGIAN, BRITISH, DUTCH, AND hardships of conflict and occupation. Britain FRENCH EMPIRES was supported by significant military resources from the empire, including nearly 500 000 The story of the ’s war was Africans, over two million Indians, and the sig- one of imperial success in contributing nificant land, sea, and air forces of the “white” toward Allied victory, on the one hand, and Dominions. Colonies also provided essential egregious imperial failure, on the other. foodstuffs, raw materials, and specialist pro- Britain struggled to protect people and to ducts such as small arms ammunition. They feed them, and failed to win the loyalty of provided infrastructure necessary for prosecut- (for example) the colonial subjects of Burma ing military operationsacross the globe, includ- and Malaya – many of whom viewed the end ing facilities for trainingover 100 000 pilots and of British rule with an indifference that air crew, shipyards, financial aid, and intelli- shocked the British – or anti-British political gence-gathering outposts. The British fought leaders in Burma, Egypt, India, Iran, and Iraq, campaigns and stationed forces all over the men prepared to court the Nazis in their des- imperial world, and utilized the military and peration to get the British out. Colonial elites other resources of Allied powers that had been in many parts of the empire saw the war as an defeated in Europe, employing Belgian, Dutch, opportunity to oust the British, which meant and French forces in overseas theaters. courting the Germans or the Japanese in a The Belgians, Dutch, and French were “my enemy’s enemy is my friend” manner. placed in the bizarre position of metropole– Britain proved incapable of countering the periphery inversion: with their European corrosive effects of emerging anti-colonial homeland conquered by the Germans, their superpowers that were ostensibly on the same overseas territories became bases from which side, or of cordoning off its own colonial to fight back. De Gaulle attempted to rally affairs from the critical scrutiny of the newly French colonies to the Free French cause, founded United Nations. and moved to “liberated” Algiers in 1943 after The British lost colonies in South and South- the Anglo-American “Torch” invasion had east Asia, the East Indies, the , and the finally cleared Axis forces from Africa. Pacific. Their most westward loss was British Though installed, however, it was the Amer- Somaliland: the British garrison escaped by icans who now called the shots. Thus French sea to Aden where its commander, Major- colonies were assailed by the enemy as well as General Alfred Godwin-Austen, remarked by erstwhile allies. For example, Dutch and 3

French colonies in the East Indies and South- The remained under the east Asia were overrun by the Japanese, and control of the Belgian government-in-exile French colonies in Africa, the , throughout the war. Its products proved and the , such as the Comoros important for the Allied war effort and its Islands, Lebanon, , Réunion, soldiers provided “Belgian” representation and Syria, were attacked by the British. France in certain theaters. The Congo’s gold was also suffered the indignity of being bankrolled exported, as were copper, palm oil, industrial by Britain, its old ally and rival; in return for diamonds, and lumber. But uranium was the supporting de Gaulle and his regime in its most significant export in terms of the world colonial enclaves, the British subordinated war and was central to the Manhattan Pro- French resources and sometimes their politi- ject’s creation of the atomic bomb that ended cal future to their own war effort and wider the war. In order to expedite the export of political aims. The French cause was further uranium from the Shinkolobwe mine in hindered by the debilitating civil war between Katanga province, soldiers of the US Army’s Free France and Vichy France that was pur- Corps of Engineers arrived to reopen the dis- sued in the colonies, diminishing the capacity used facility, develop new aerodromes, and of French elites to withstand the impositions build an improved port at Matadi. The large of Japanese occupiers or American and Brit- stockpile of uranium dispatched to New York ish allies pursuing their own, not France’s, in September 1940 by the director of the interests. Given France’s defeat in 1940 and Union Minière du Haut Katanga was then the subsequent incarceration or destruction supplemented by thousands of tons mined of its main military formations, both Free there and sold to the US army. France and Vichy France came to rely on The connection between and this colonial resources for military and security enormous Central African territory during requirements and attempts to regenerate the war provides a noteworthy example fighting power. “The estimated 16 500 Free of how valuable colonies could be to their French military losses during campaigning metropolitan masters. Though it had been in and Italy were primarily colo- defeated and occupied by the enemy, Belgium nial. Villages in Morocco, Mali, and Algeria, was able to gain significant strategic advan- not Brittany, the Ardèche, or the Pas-de- tage because of its ownership of the Congo. Calais, mourned the largest numbers of Tax and revenue drawn from the Congo soldiers killed in French uniform after June enabled the Belgian government and Free 1940” (Thomas 2014: 47). Belgian Forces to fund themselves rather than For many French imperial citizens the war relying on subsidies from allies, and this was a disaster. French North Africa’seco- meant that Belgian gold reserves remained nomic fortunes declined precipitously and intact, easing postwar reconstruction. The normal people struggled to feed themselves Belgian Congo also provided troops in the and keep themselves warm. War brought form of the Force Publique, the Congo’s para- urban disorder and political violence and military force, which grew to number 40 000 aided the rise of nationalists, such as the Viet during the war. Its units saw service in the Minh. Their cause was advanced, and that of East Africa campaign. After this campaign, the returning colonial power disadvantaged, a large Force Publique contingent was by support afforded them by Allies seeking renamed the 1st Belgian Colonial Motorized to weaken the Japanese (the same was true Brigade Group and used for garrison duties in Malaya). in Egypt and Palestine, and over 13 000 Force 4

Publique troops served in Nigeria. There not only the usual deprivations but also was also the 10th (Belgian Congo) Casualty forced labor and famine. Clearing Station, a medical unit which served with British forces in Somaliland, during the occupation of Vichy-held Madagascar, and GERMANY AND ITALY in Burma. Japan’s entry into the war was sudden and The Italian Empire grew in Europe, the Med- catastrophic for the Western empires in the iterranean, and Africa in the years before east. The Dutch Empire in the East Indies . Ironically, failure to expand was entirely vanquished. American-British- that empire as a result of the 1914–1918 con- Dutch-Australian Command had been estab- flict was a major stimulus for Mussolini’s lished under General Archibald Wavell in imperial ventures during the 1930s and the January 1942 to defend the imperial holdings territorial calculations that led to his partici- of all the colonial powers in the , but pation in World War II. To its chagrin, amounted to far too little, too late. With although it finished World War I on the win- the Royal Navy’s Force Z (the battleship ning side, the Treaty of Versailles awarded HMS Prince of Wales and the battlecruiser Italy no territorial spoils. This perceived Repulse) destroyed off Malaya on December injustice and the role played by greater 10, 1941, the remaining naval forces of the powers, such as Britain, in denying Italian four powers were defeated at the Battle of gains, fed a simmering imperial appetite. the Java Sea in February the following year. Mussolini desired a vast empire peopled by Supreme at sea, the Japanese could now pick Italian settlers, and control of sea lanes domi- off colonies of the Allies at will. While there nated by the British and the French, includ- was fierce fighting in places such as Ambon, ing the prized Suez Canal. His colonial Kalimantan, and Timor, this was not the case shopping list included places as diverse as in places such as Bali where there were no Malta, Nice, and Uganda. Dutch troops. Java and Sumatra were prime Italy’s involvement in the Spanish Civil targets. Initially the Japanese were sometimes War was driven by these imperial ambitions: welcomed as liberators –“our older brothers” Mussolini wanted Spain as a client state and come to replace Western domination with Spanish colonies in the Balearic islands and Asian unity. The impact on Indonesian soci- North Africa as prizes. The occupation of ety and politics was profound, leading to the Majorca in 1936 went some way toward rea- Indonesian Revolution against returning lizing these ambitions. On entering the war in Dutch rule at the end of the war. Japanese June 1940, when it believed that Britain was occupation had politicized Indonesian soci- nearly beaten, Italy sought gains in France ety as never before. Indonesians were edu- and began its campaign for African expansion cated, trained, and armed following Japan’s by invading British Somaliland, Egypt, Kenya, rapid occupation as they sought to work and the . Invasions of Greece and through local elites and co-opt supporters. Yugoslavia further signaled Italy’s appetite Remaining Dutch forces continued to fight for territorial expansion as well as its embar- under British command and used bases in rassing military performance, as was also the Ceylon to conduct minor covert operations case in Africa. In both the European and in the occupied Dutch East Indies and sup- North African theaters, German reinforce- ported the wider war in the region. For many ment was required, though in East Africa, people in the Dutch East Indies, war brought the British crushed the Italians swiftly and 5 decisively. With Italy’s surrender in 1943, . Its reward for supporting the Mussolini’s dream of a new “Roman empire” Allies in World War I was further colonial died as ignominiously as he did, and Italy bounty, including some of Germany’s Pacific became a satellite of the Nazi Empire in the colonies and Tsingtao on China’s Shantung north and a battleground in the south as peninsula. the Allies invaded. The interwar Depression and correspond- Though Germany had been denuded of its ing Western protectionism fueled a desire overseas colonies as a result of its defeat in to escape the “encirclement” of Western 1918, the country went to war in pursuit of powers in Asia and the Pacific. Part of the European imperial ambitions: to gain (or motivation behind the 1931 invasion of Man- regain) territory in Austria, Czechoslovakia, churia and the foundation of the Denmark, France, Poland, and Russia, to of Manchukuo was to prevent the constric- conquer living space for Germanic peoples tion of the national economy. Pu Yi, the last in lands held by those considered racially Qing emperor, was established as Japan’s inferior, and to harvest their resources. Ger- puppet ruler in Manchukuo. In 1937, the man-occupied territory spread as far as the “China incident” at the Marco Polo Bridge Channel Islands, , the Baltic, near Peking provided Japan with its pretext the Mediterranean, and for a time North for an undeclared war on China and the next Africa, and German agents and military per- stage in Japan’s empire-building project. sonnel made forays into Iran, Iraq, and Soon, Japan had articulated its imperial plans Syria in an unsuccessful attempt to oust the in the form of the Greater East Asian British. Though remote from the European Co-Prosperity Sphere. heartlands that exercised Hitler’s imperial In 1939, Japanese and Russian forces imagination, German policymakers also clashed on the borders of Mongolia and Man- saw the potential for gains further afield – churia. Japan’s decision to make war on for the establishment of a German America and the European powers in 1941 “Mittelafrika,” for instance, and for hegem- was motivated by the need to expand its ter- ony in a Middle Eastern region swept clear ritorial empire, to widen the “yen bloc,” and of British overlordship. to gain markets and essential resources such as oil. It sought to address the fear of encircle- JAPAN ment with a quick strike calculated to yield colonies bearing raw materials by knocking As Japan industrialized in the late 19th out Allied naval power and obliging the century it grew as an imperial power. The Allies to concede territorial gains. The Greater defeat of China in the war of 1894–1895 East Asian Co-Prosperity Sphere was an established Japanese primacy on the Korean imperialist program devised by the Japanese peninsula and the island of Formosa, though government and intended to dominate a vast opposition from the Western powers obliged region in pursuit of Japanese aggrandizement. Japan to give up its claims in the Liaotung There were attractive elements, in the rhetoric peninsula. Japan was now a fully-fledged at least; the Co-Prosperity Sphere promised a imperial power, a position enhanced by its cultural and economic union of Asian states stunning victory in the Russo-Japanese War free from Western domination. But the of 1904–1905. The subsequent peace treaty sphere was always intended to be under Jap- confirmed Japan’s position in Korea (for- anese leadership, meaning domination, often mally annexed in 1910) and southern cruel and exploitative, more apparent the 6 weaker Japan’s position vis-à-vis the Allies repulsed. Thereafter, for the Finns the war became as the war progressed. The irony for was dominated by resistance to Soviet Japan was that no sooner had it gained a phe- encroachment, which for some time meant nomenally large and rich empire than its abil- cooperation with the Germans. Many other ity to fully exploit it was severely constricted, European nations and would-be nations not least because of the decimation of its mer- found themselves having to resist the incur- chant fleet and the steady decline of its navy. sions of the Axis powers and this often Forced labor – of Allied prisoners of war, strengthened movements pursuing the goal enslaved subject populations, Korean sex of national sovereignty, through armed resist- workers – became a key characteristic. Hun- ance and alliance with the Allies, often invol- dreds of thousands of Koreans worked in ving civil wars. Such countries included Japan, many of them as forced laborers, and Greece, Romania, Ukraine, and Yugoslavia. Koreans also served in the Japanese military By the end of the war, Russia had not only and Japanese-recruited formations. Four to played a central role in defeating and occupy- ten million people in Java were forced to per- ing Germany and created a host of satellite form military work. Japan’s wartime empire states that would become a feature of the Cold included Attu and Kiska in the Aleutian War, it had made gains in Iran following the Islands, the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Anglo-Soviet invasion of 1941 and, right at Brunei, Christmas Island, the Gilbert and the end of the conflict, invaded Manchukuo Ellice Islands, Guam, Hong Kong, most of and other Japanese territories in the Far East. New , the Philippines, French Indo- America gained new territories as a result China, Portuguese Timor, Thailand, Burma, of the war, occupying and then retaining Malaya, Sarawak, Singapore, British and Japanese islands such as those of the South Dutch Borneo, Java, Sumatra, part of the Sol- Sea Mandate (Palau, the Northern Marianas, omon Islands, and Wake Island. It amounted the Marshall Islands, and the Federated to the most astonishing land grab in history. States of which included Truk). But the war witnessed a transformative rise of American power in many other parts of THE SOVIET UNION AND THE UNITED the world where, though it did not gain for- STATES mal rule over new colonies, rapidly growing political, military, and economic power The Soviet Union was the product of centu- carved out new spheres of influence and ries of colonial expansion in Europe, Central new regional hegemonies. Cuba, for instance, Asia, and the Far East, and the war presented helped the American war effort and as a con- Moscow with opportunities to extend that sequence benefited from Lend-Lease aid. It empire while attaining ascendancy over an declared war on Japan on December 8, old imperial rival, Japan. Before Germany 1941, and Germany three days later. It became the greatest threat to Russian national granted America base facilities for aircraft survival, Russo-German cooperation enabled operating against German submarines in territorial ambitions to be pursued: the the , and the use of the important Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact was a green light facilities of the port of Havana. America pro- to both Soviet and German expansion in vided modern equipment to the Cuban mili- Europe. Both powers invaded Poland, and tary in return, and Cuban forces participated Russia made good its claims in the Baltic in the defense of the Caribbean, including the and also invaded Finland, where it was escort of Allied merchant shipping. 7

Across the globe, the war brought American captured, retaken by General MacArthur in military forces, American Lend-Lease aid, and 1944. Guam in the Western Pacific, the lar- – as a result – American political power to gest Micronesian island, was captured by where before the war America had the Japanese soon after Pearl Harbor, inaugu- been either unrepresented or of less signifi- rating two and a half years of brutal occupa- cance than other external powers, usually the tion, before American troops recaptured the old colonial nations. The 1940 destroyers- island after vicious fighting in 1944 in which for-bases agreement with Britain gave approximately 20 000 Japanese troops were America the right to build military bases and killed. Puerto Rico was an American territory station troops on numerous British West that participated in the war in numerous Indian islands. In partnership with Britain, ways. Air bases were created, including a American troops took over important supply major facility at Punta Borinquen used by lines and air routes on the and in bomber and reconnaissance squadrons and Iran, and American military power in the a major naval base known as “Roosevelt “China–Burma–India” theater went hand in Roads,” intended to become the “Pearl hand with a growing American voice in Indian Harbor” of the Atlantic. Over 65 000 Puerto politics, not welcomed by the British but indic- Ricans served during the war, mostly in ative of how the coming superpower would American formations, some seeing action in seek to influence the colonial policies of the Europe and the Pacific, or the Puerto Rican European empires as it fashioned a new, National Guard, the duties of which included American-shaped, world order. protecting American military installations on By 1945, America had replaced Britain as the the island and in the British West Indian most important external player in the Mediter- islands where America had been granted ranean and had supplanted Britain as the guar- facilities. The 65th Infantry Regiment of the antor of Australian and New Zealand security. US army was composed of Puerto Ricans Beyond this, by the end of the war and for long and expanded for war service. It was sent to after, American forces were based all over the the Panama Canal Zone to defend its Atlantic world, occupying and to a large extent admin- and Pacific flanks and then saw service at istering the vanquished nations of Austria, Casablanca, on the island of Corsica defend- Germany, Italy, and Japan and bankrolling ing air bases as the Allied assault on southern exhausted allies such as Britain, and becoming Europe developed, and then in France from the guarantor of their security, too. America’s September 1944. rising power granted it a strong and potentially American Samoans were allowed to join decisive voice in the counsels of the European the American military too. The Supply empires. It consciously sought to enhance its Department, for example, employed 2000 power, dispatching senatorial teams on over- local personnel in its logistics operations. seas fact-finding missions which opened new On Tutuila, a major naval facility was devel- windows on the world and offered lessons in oped at Pago Pago, and the island was pre- what America needed to do to make good its pared for enemy attack. The number of power – to develop telegraph and cable com- military and supply ships visiting the port munications, for example, to end dependence increased significantly, as did the number of on British ones, and to be the leading power US marines and other military personnel; by in postwar civil aviation. October 1942, there were nearly 15 000 Amer- American colonies were heavily involved in ican servicemen on Tutuila and Upolu. Thou- the war. The Philippines was invaded and sands of Samoans also joined the forces, many 8 working as stevedores. The recruitment of forces, the former joined by American troops colonial servicemen allowed American naval as Lend-Lease and other aid was delivered to personnel to be engaged on other tasks. While Russia via the Gulf and the trans-Iranian sup- the war brought economic and social opportu- ply lines. The wartime occupation brought nities to some of the Samoan population, it the Cold War to Iran and deeply marked its also brought disruption. Patterns of land use internal politics. In Europe, Iceland was altered, as, for example, when 5000 acres were invaded by the British for strategic reasons, taken for the construction of an aerodrome. Finland was preyed upon by both Germany Throughout the Pacific and many other parts and the Soviet Union, and the Portuguese of the world, the war had a devastating effect Empire was subjected to the blandishments upon the environment. Wage labor opportu- and threats of Axis and Allied powers alike. nities led to rural–urban migration and Though Portugal remained neutral during swelled the population of Pago Pago. The the war, its colonies were affected by conflict replacement of a plantation economy with a in numerous ways: they were bases for the wage economy gave greater independence espionage and covert operations of Allied for young men from family-controlled lands, and Axis powers and they were coveted by eroding traditional forms of social control. belligerents because of their strategic location. British forces raided Portuguese Goa to destroy Axis merchant vessels that were CAUGHT BETWEEN EMPIRES transmitting intelligence regarding Allied ship movements to submarines in the Indian The extent to which World War II was a con- Ocean; British and Italian spy networks oper- flict that can be understood in terms of com- ated in Mozambique, the object of the former peting imperialisms is further illustrated by being the protection of shipping moving the situation facing neutral states. Imperial through the Mozambique Channel from the intrusion was central to the experience of latter; Australian and Dutch forces invaded many of the countries that were not already Portuguese Timor in December 1941 in order part of one or another empire. Afghanistan to forestall Japanese landings, an unan- was buffeted by Britain, Germany, and Russia, nounced and unsuccessful operation that and Thailand sought to retain its independ- was resented by the Portuguese government; ence in the face of Japanese intrusion and and the Portuguese government permitted Allied pressure. China was ransacked by Jap- Britain to ship 2000 Gibraltarians to Madeira anese troops throughout the 1930s and the when the colony’s civilian population was first half of the following decade because of removed for military reasons. Japan’s imperialist ambitions. So, too, were The Portuguese government came under Korea and Vietnam, and here as elsewhere pressure from the Allies to grant strategic the consequences of colonial rule or imperial concessions. The British and then the Amer- penetration had profound implications for icans desired access to the Azores in order to the postwar world. For example, when Japan extend the range of their forces in the Atlan- surrendered American forces landed in the tic. Bases here would afford better protection south of Korea while Russia occupied the for Atlantic convoys, and offered a more north, setting Korea on course for war and direct route for aircraft traveling from North division. Iran, for long a zone of competition America to fighting fronts in Europe, the between competing imperial powers, was Mediterranean, the Middle East, and beyond. divided between invading British and Russian When eventually granted, these facilities 9 shortened flight distances hugely. By 1944 the to stimulate rebellion on the Russian border. airfield on Terceira island was handling 1800 When Britain and Russia became allies, the Allied flights a month, and Ponta Delgada on Afghan leadership had to pursue a different São Miguel was frequented by both Allied and path. Playing the traditional rivals off against Axis warships. each other was now out of the question, and For centuries Afghanistan had been caught the joint invasion of Iran was a cause of great between the British and Russian empires. concern. Shortly after, the two allies pressured Afghanistan’s buffer role, associated with the Afghan government into expelling all the days of the “great game,” was alive and Axis personnel. Neutrality was now a matter well. So too, therefore, were the efforts not of choice, but necessity, for the Afghan of Afghan leaders to negotiate a path that government. allowed them as much autonomy as possible. China had been the focus of Japanese Like Iran and other weak neutral countries imperialist ambitions from the late 19th cen- fearing for their sovereignty, Afghanistan tury. The “Twenty-One Demands” of 1915, attempted to procure weapons with which and the war between the two powers that to defend itself, though with very limited suc- commenced in earnest in 1937, was a contin- cess. With Britain unprepared to supply arms uation of this. Japan sought natural resources, to Afghanistan in any quantity, the govern- including food, export markets, cheap (or ment turned to Germany. Friendly relations even better, free) labor, and a buffer zone had evolved, signified by weekly flights against Russian expansion. Japan pushed between Berlin and Kabul, growing trade the Western powers out of their concessions and investment links, and German agreement in Shanghai following its attack on the city to equip and train the Afghan army. in 1937, and in the same year captured On the outbreak of war King Zahir Shah the Chinese capital Nanking, leading to the declared Afghanistan neutral, but it was not infamous “rape” of the city involving the enough to keep his country free from the systematic murder of hundreds of thousands competing imperial projects of external of people. Japanese power extended across actors. Germany sought to use Afghanistan China, even to Inner Mongolia and the to destabilize Britain and Russia, and it Great Wall region. As it did so, it fought encouraged Russian ambitions in the region against the Chinese government and its Com- as a diversion. The German representative munist challenger, exploiting divisions in a in Kabul, shortly after the fall of France, land enduring a severe civil war. Despite reported that members of the Afghan govern- the investment of enormous resources, the ment were in favor of joining the Axis war Japanese were ultimately unable to defeat effort and tying down British forces, in return the Chinese, who were supported by the for armaments, territorial gains in India, and Allies, particularly America. The Chinese assistance against Russian encroachment. government retreated to Chongqing, which There was also talk of “liberating” the millions suffered intensive aerial bombardment caus- of Afghans living in British India. German ing thousands of deaths. Most of the fighting, agents and weapons arrived in Afghanistan and most of the deaths in the war against throughout 1940 – some under the guise of Japan, occurred in China, not the Pacific the- a party of scientists researching leprosy – ater or in South and Southeast Asia. and conducted reconnaissance and some Thailand was another of the world’s minor sabotage operations over the border independent countries that was subjected in India. Later in the war German agents tried to the intrusions of powerful nations, and 10 while it maintained significant autonomy, it annexation of the parts of Malaya that the Brit- was occupied by the Japanese and suffered ish had taken from them and also of parts of substantial Allied bombing as a result. Burma. AsJapan’s fortuneswaned,risings were The Thai government had admired fascist planned (as was their brutal suppression) and achievements and encouraged nationalism Free Thai forces were supported by American and militarism, and developed an appetite and British covert operations. for regaining provinces in French-ruled Cambodia and Laos. The Thai government DECOLONIZATION AND THE END OF responded pragmatically to the military and THE WAR political pressures of war, and courted Japanese support for its territorial ambitions. The empires of the European powers were When sporadic fighting broke out between shaken to their foundations as the war accel- ’ Thai and French forces along Thailand s east- erated their decline while simultaneously ern frontier in late 1940 and early 1941, Japan facilitating the rise of new superpowers with used its influence with the Vichy regime their own forms of global imperialism. The to obtain concessions for Thailand. As a European imperial states suffered such a dim- result, France agreed in March 1941 to cede inution of their national power that they were 54 000 sq. km of Laotian territory west of fundamentally weakened and, in the postwar the Mekong and most of the Cambodian prov- world, increasingly incapable of retaining ince of Battambang to Thailand. The recovery their empires. A order dawned, ’ of this lost territory and the regime s apparent one hostile to old-style European imperial- victory over a European colonial power greatly ism. The war, therefore, was a major solvent ’ enhanced the regime s reputation. of European empires and a prelude to the For the remainder of the war the challenge new struggles of the Cold War. facing Thai leaders was to negotiate neutrality and independence, especially when the SEE ALSO: America, United States of: 2. evaporation of British and French power in Overseas empire; America, United States of: ’ Southeast Asia deepened ties with the region s 3. 20th century to the present; British Empire: new hegemonic power, Japan. The alternative 2. From 1914; Decolonization; Dutch Empire: was to fight the Japanese and risk the type 4. East Indies; French Empire: 1. General; of occupation forced upon neighboring Italian Empire; Japanese Empire; Nazi territories. To this end, in January 1942 Empire; Russia: 5. Soviet (USSR) Thailand declared war on America and Britain. This stance meant that the Thai mon- REFERENCES arch remained in place, and the Thai state kept control of its institutions and its military. But Stark, F. 1985 [c.1961]. Dust in the Lion’s Paw. Thai freedom was significantly circumscribed, London: Century Publishing. not least by the presence of over 150 000 Japa- Thomas, M. 2014. Fight or Flight: Britain, France, and their Roads from Empire. Oxford: Oxford nese troops in the country. Japan was also per- University Press. mitted use of strategic and military resources and infrastructure, including the railways, all FURTHER READING ofwhichbecameimportantforJapaneseopera- – – – tions to the south Malaya and the north Anderson, B. 1972. Java in a Time of Revolution: Burma. Later in the war, as part of this game Occupation and Resistance, 1944–1946. Ithaca, of quid pro quo, Japan permitted Thai NY: Cornell University Press. 11

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