How did de-colonisation affect the International order.

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How did de-colonisation affect the International order.

The end of the war in 1945 marked the beginning of a new period where (due to economic collapse and national

`exhaustion) peace was at the forefront of most countries agenda.

 

`Many political systems had become discredited due to their inaptness at coping with war time difficulties, whilst others had merely been destoyed by Hitler in his quest to rule the world.

`A major change in world politics came with the decolonisation of many Third World countries. Although the process was quite slow in taking place, once it actually occured it represented a significant change in the stucture of international affairs.

`Many of the states that emeged at the end of the war had little interest in the so called "Cold War" which was dominating the politics of most developed nations. The effect that this had was very influential for it created an alternative direction in the world system, for as these states when combined covered a considerable area upon the globe, by sticking together they attained a powerful negotiating power.

However many states that were decolonised following the end of the second world war found that instead of attaining freedom from the developed nations such as the USA and Britain, they have merely changed from one set of dominating controls to another. In other words in order to survive most colonies have found that to maintain any sort of economic system, they would have to invite the help of the developed nations. The major difference now was that these states were no longer the responsibility of the nations which had once ruled them therefore they now had to bribe them for their help for example with the implementation of low taxes, consequently in mainy ways they were no better off than they had been before decolonisation.

 

`So although the majority of Third World countries have gained independence from the developed world since 1945,the political and economic interests of developed countries are still deeply entrenched in the Third World through the operation of commerce, trade, capital investment and foreign aid programmes.

`This kind of influence is known as neo-colonialism because it perpetuates the pattern of dependence established during colonial times and demonstrates the reluctance of developed countries to change the world economic order - to pay higher prices for Third World commodities and to open up their markets to Third World manufactured goods.

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`However the most serious economic bottleneck is the shortage of capital for investment. Many developing countries therefore take out substantial loans to overcome the difficulty of capital formation but this usually results in the country accumulating larger debts which only worsen their economic prospects.

 

`Multinational corporations are now a powerful influence in the world system. Just a couple of examples are firms like IBM and Shell. At the moment about a third of all multinational investment is in the Third World, particularly in resource rich countries such as Brazil, Mexico and Indonesia. As just the sales revenues of transnationals ...

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