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Introduction: Britain, the United States and the South East Asian setting

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 July 2009

Matthew Jones
Affiliation:
Royal Holloway, University of London
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Summary

During the late 1950s and early 1960s, both Britain and the United States were still trying to adjust and come to terms with the tumultuous changes brought to South East Asia by the effects of the Second World War. The dramatic events of 1941–2, when Japan, an Asian and non-white power, had confronted Western dominance in the region, had provided a powerful new spur to local nationalist and revolutionary feeling and helped to undermine previous perceptions of European omnipotence and superiority. As the struggle between Japan and her Occidental adversaries was played out, the states and societies of South East Asia found themselves afflicted by the direct effects of the fighting, a complete disruption of the pre-war social order, economic dislocation, occupation and the eventual return of the colonial powers in 1945 (the latter being seen by many as a second occupation). Moreover, the Japanese had brought with them an ideology of Asian liberation from Western imperialism that struck a chord throughout the whole area. By the end of the war, local resistance to Japan's own imperial and racial pretensions had also emerged in such areas as Indochina, Malaya and the Philippines. In the window of opportunity accorded by the sudden Japanese surrender in August 1945, nationalist leaders came forward to assert claims of independence and statehood, transforming the local scene for the returning and much weakened European powers, who despite all the signs that a reversion to pre-war patterns of control and domination was no longer tenable, sought to further exploit the economies of the region and rediscover the grandeur of an imperial past that had now run its course.

Type
Chapter
Information
Conflict and Confrontation in South East Asia, 1961–1965
Britain, the United States, Indonesia and the Creation of Malaysia
, pp. 1 - 28
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2001

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