Burma becomes independent after British rule

The United States formally recognized Philippine independence after decades of colonial rule and a devastating Japanese occupation. The Bell Trade Act and related arrangements tied reconstruction...

A customs dispute and armed clashes in Haiphong escalated into French naval bombardment and extensive destruction. Casualty estimates vary widely, and contemporaneous colonial reporting minimized...

The end of British rule created the states of India and Pakistan amid hurried border drawing, mass migration, and communal violence. Millions crossed newly imposed borders; many were killed,...

Two days after independence, the Radcliffe boundary awards were made public, dividing Punjab and Bengal between India and Pakistan. Many residents learned which state they would live in only after the...

The UN General Assembly adopted Resolution 181, recommending partition of British-ruled Palestine into Arab and Jewish states with an international regime for Jerusalem. Palestinian Arabs, who made up...

Ceylon gained independence as a Dominion within the Commonwealth. The transfer left substantial constitutional and economic ties to Britain and did not dismantle plantation structures built through...

Britain ended its Mandate over Palestine, and David Ben-Gurion proclaimed the establishment of Israel. The declaration came amid war and the displacement of Palestinian communities, many of whom had...

The Nakba—catastrophe—describes the mass displacement and dispossession of Palestinians during the 1948 war. By this point, hundreds of thousands had been driven from or fled their homes; villages...

The UN General Assembly adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, affirming rights and dignity for all people. Yet colonial powers continued governing millions without equal political rights,...

The United States, Canada, and ten Western European states signed the North Atlantic Treaty. The alliance institutionalized a Cold War bloc and linked European security to U.S. power. Many governments...