Великобритания, процессы деколонизации в Азии и План Коломбо (1945-1951 гг.)

Abstract

After World War II, European metropolises were forced to go the way to decolonization. Processes of the collapses of European empires were caused by a surge of the national-liberation movement in the colonies during and after the war, an increase of the influence of the world's public opinion and the anti-colonial activities of the United Nations established in 1945. The Cabinet of Clement Attlee, which came to power in 1945, headed for a withdrawal from some territories of the British Empire. The article is devoted to a little-known episode in the Russian historiography connected with the establishment of the Organization of the Colombo Plan. The initiative to institute such a structure was initially sounded in India, and Britain supported and developed the Indian idea. The British governmental circles in the circumstances of decolonization processes in Asia after World War II sought to prevent the collapse of relations with the dominions and colonies that became independent. In 1947, the largest British colony in Asia, India, gained independence and two conflicting republics, India and Pakistan, appeared. In 1948, Burma and Ceylon became sovereign states. In 1947, the Attlee Cabinet handed the Palestinian question to the UN. In February 1950, a conference of foreign affairs ministers of the Commonwealth countries was held in Colombo, Ceylon. India made an initiative for such a meeting a year earlier, London willingly supported this initiative on its grounds. The Attlee Government hoped to strengthen relations with the recent colonies and dominions in the Commonwealth format by increasing spending on Asian territories under the Colonial Development and Welfare Act 1945. London also made a lot of diplomatic efforts to convince the United States in the necessity of their participation in the Colombo Plan. The White House expressed interest in the Plan after the start of the Korean War on 25 June 1950. US officially joined the Colombo Plan of the organization in 1951. The essence of the Colombo Plan included two related elements. The first was a course for the implementation of programs of technical and educational cooperation of the member states. The second element of the plan was a broad program of economic development, including the financing of infrastructure projects (roads, railways, irrigation and other activities). In 1951, Conservatives came to power and continued the Labor policy of strengthening ties with the Commonwealth through the Colombo Plan. However, on the one hand, the financial problems of the United Kingdom did not allow to significantly expand the amount of aid to Asian countries, on the other hand, the attention of the British Conservatives in the 1950s was switched to the unfolding decolonization processes in Africa, which became a field of rivalry, along with the Asian region, of two superpowers in the Cold War.