Map showing the progress towards independence of the French and British colonies in the Middle East.

Map showing Belgian, French, British, Italian, Portuguese and Spanish colonial possessions in Africa in 1920.

Map showing the decolonisation process of African states.

‘The white man, then what?' For the German cartoonist, Behrendt, the end of 1959 experiences a strong wave of decolonisation in Africa. Increasing numbers of Africans countries gain their independence and, in so doing, bring about an end of the absolute supremacy of European powers in the world.

‘New people’. In January 1960, the cartoonist Fritz Behrendt takes an ironic look at the decolonisation of Africa and at the handing over of power to new despotic regimes.

On 13 January 1959, Baudouin I, King of the Belgians, makes a statement to the Chamber of Deputies in which he announces the Belgian State’s resolve to initiate a self-determination process in the Belgian Congo. In its news programme, RTL broadcasts an extract of this address before handing over to Maurice van Hemelrijck, Minister for the Congo and Ruanda-Urundi, who outlines the Belgian Government’s determination gradually to enable the Congolese people to take a decision on their political independence.

Map showing the colonial possessions of the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Portugal and the Netherlands in Asia in 1945.

Map showing the decolonisation process on the Asian continent from 1945 to 2002.

In this interview, Edmund Wellenstein, former Field Secretary in the United States for the World Student Service Fund, describes the attitude of the general public in the United States regarding the decolonisation of the Dutch East Indies after 1945.

Map showing the colonial possessions of the United States, the United Kingdom, France and the Netherlands in the Caribbean in 1945.

On 20 November 1960, the Soviet weekly magazine Krokodil satirically portrays the Western colonial powers mourning the end of colonialism.