Quit India resolution demands an end to British rule

The Viceroy announced India was at war with Germany on the same day Britain entered the conflict. Indian political leaders and the legislature had not been consulted. The decision exposed the limits...

Governor Félix Éboué and military commander Pierre Marchand declared Chad’s alignment with Charles de Gaulle’s Free French movement. Chad became its first African territorial base, and other French...

Franklin Roosevelt and Winston Churchill issued the Atlantic Charter, declaring that peoples should be able to choose their form of government and that sovereign rights should be restored. Churchill...

Japanese forces landed at Kota Bharu in British Malaya and at Pattani and Songkhla in Thailand, opening a rapid campaign down the peninsula. The invasion exposed the vulnerability of British...

After Japanese troops crossed from Malaya onto the island, British forces surrendered at the Ford Motor Factory. Singapore entered nearly four years of Japanese occupation, marked by scarcity,...

Subhas Chandra Bose announced the Provisional Government of Azad Hind in Singapore. Supported by Japan, it claimed authority over a future independent India and was associated with the Indian National...

Japanese forces launched a coup against the French administration, disarming French troops and ending the arrangement under which Vichy France had administered Indochina under Japanese pressure. Japan...

On the day France celebrated victory over Nazi Germany, Algerian demonstrators in Sétif, Guelma, and nearby towns called for rights and independence. Police violence and attacks on civilians were...

Representatives of 50 countries signed the UN Charter, creating a new international organization after two world wars. The Charter affirmed sovereign equality and self-determination, while also...

Sukarno and Mohammad Hatta read the proclamation of Indonesian independence in Jakarta after Japan’s surrender. The declaration asserted Indonesian sovereignty; Dutch attempts to restore colonial...