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One poorly explored subject is that large areas of the globe at the time of World War II were still part of colonial empires. And these colonies including dominions in the case of Britain that played some very important roles in the War. Several colonies contributed important fighting forces and the colonies had important resources needed to fight the war. In fact, Japan would launch the war to obtain the resources of the Southern Resource Zone. Most of the major combatants were either colonial powers or like the Axis countries aspiring to be so. Germany had lost its colonies in World War I, but was intent on building a new empire in Europe, especially Eastern Europe. The Axis countries (Germany, Italy, and Japan) were countries aspiring to carve out and enlarge colonial empires. This was in fact the major reason why they launched World War II. Now because of the substantial left-wing slant of many academics, especially history professors, it is mostly European colonies that come to mind. And of course Britain had by far the largest colonial empire totaling over 400 million people (mostly India). At the time the Dominions were self governing and India had achieved a degree of home rule. But often not considered are the huge Japanese and Soviet empires--the second and third largest empires. Japan had a relatively small colonial empire, until the world began the spiral toward World War II. The Japanese population was less than 75 million with colonies (primarily Taiwan and Korea) totaling about 20 million. With the invasion of Manchuria (1931) and then China proper (1937), Japan amassed a colonial empire of some 200 million. The Soviet population at the time of World War II was 195 million people, but only 55 percent of that was Russia. Of course the Soviets and Russians today will deny that they had an an empire, but unlike the British Dominions and India, there was no semblance of home rule any where in the Soviet empire. Even ethnic Russians for that matter had no home rule. And notice how once given a choice in 1991 that the non-Russian republics chose to part company with Russia. It is difficult to call populations held by military force anything, but an empire. And the nearly 90 million subject people in the Soviet empire was slightly larger than the over 85 million subject people in the French Empire. After the fall of France, the Free French and Vichy vied for control of the French Empire. Several other European countries had empires, but played minor roes in the War. The United States had a small empire. The only substantial colony of any size was the Philippine Island. but this was more like a British Dominion as it had achieved home rule and the United States had agreed to grant the Philippines independence (1935). The issue of colonialism was one of the few major issues dividing America and Britain (meaning Churchill and Roosevelt) during the War. Ironically, given the fact that America had agreed to Philippines independence, it was because of the Philippines that America was thrust into World War II by the Japanese (1941). The Philippines lay astride the sea lanes between the Southern Resource Zone Japan desired and the Japanese Home Islands. The colonial people reacted differently to the War. India was Britain's major colony and played an important role, although complicated by the Indian Congress Party's refusal to support the British. The Arabs reacted to the War in large measure according to who the colonial power was. In most cases most cases this was Britain and France. This meant considerable support for the Axis in the Middle East. NAZI Germany's anti-Semitism was another factor attracting Arab support for the Axis.
The world's largest colonial power at the time of World War II was Britain. After Britain, the largest colonial powers were Japan and the Soviet Union. Belgium and the Netherlands also had colonial possessions. As did Portugal and Spain, but they leaned more toward the Axis. Their colonies provided fighting men as well as the resources needed to fight the War. The Germans in the first year of the War invaded and defeated France as well as Belgium and the Netherlands. The issue of colonialism was the major issue on which America and Britain disagreed. Churchill in fact believed strongly in the British Empire and only the German threat forced him to accept the wording the Americans wanted in the Atlantic Charter. It should be stressed that Churchill's vision of the Empire was more of a romantic one than a matter of colonial exploitation. He truly believed that colonial people benefited from the Empire. Belgium and the Netherlands continued the War, but with little help from their colonies. The Dutch East Indies would play a central role in the Pacific War. The Indonesians generally allied themselves with the Japanese and the oi produced there was one of the primary reasons Japan launched the Pacific War. Britain itself strongly supported the war effort. The British colonies played an unappreciated role in the War. While except for India, the combat role was limited, the economic output of the British Empire was comparable to Britain itself, but not of course in industrial production.
The Soviet Union fought on both sides. First as a NAZI ally (1939-41) and then as part of the Allied coalition (1941-45). The Soviet Union liked to portray itself as an anti-colonialist state, it was in fact next to Britain the world leading colonial power. And with the exception of the NAZIs, the most brutal colonial power. 【 Solzhenitsyn】 The Soviet Union is often not classified as one because Marx was so critical of European colonialism and the Soviet Union was a Marxist-Leninist state. And many authors have liberal orientations that tended to view the Soviet Union in a different light than the other European colonial powers. Yet by every definition the Soviet Union was a colonial power with ethnic Russians ruling over many other national groups in Eastern Europe and Central Asia--and with more brute force than the Europeans employed, except perhaps Belgium. The Soviets inherited their colonies from Tsarist Russia, but Stalin would expand that empire during World War II. The Soviet population at the time of World War II was 195 million people, but only 55 percent of that was Russia. Of course the Soviets and Russia will deny that they had an an empire, but unlike the British Dominions and India, there was no semblance of home rule any where in the Soviet empire. Even ethnic Russians for that matter had no home rule. And notice how once given a choice in 1991 that the non-Russian republics chose to part company with Russia. It is difficult to call populations held by military force anything, but an empire. And the nearly 90 million subject people in the Soviet empire was slightly larger than the over 85 million subject people in the French empire. Curiously, Stalin himself was not a Russian, but a Georgian. Even so, Stalin was determined to recover the several non-Russian populated areas of the old Tsarist Empire. The result was the NAZI-Soviet Non-Aggression Pact (1939). While non-Russians could rise in the Soviet social structure, for the most part the non-Russian areas were treated as colonial possessions. The Europeans had two approaches to colonialism. The first approach was the Iberian (Portugal and Spain) Catholic model centered on the Inquisition in which the existing power structure was destroyed. The population was converted to Christianity. The Protestant model (English and Dutch) was to accept the existing power structure and rule through them. There was no attempt to forcibly convert the population, although missionaries were allowed to varying degrees. The Soviets of course use the Iberian, Inquisition model. A brutal Atheism campaign was an important part of Soviet rule. Smaller possessions like the Baltics were subjected to mass emigration of ethnic Russians to make Soviet control more secure. And any resistance was treated with unbelievable brutality, such as the horrific Ukrainian genocide ordered by Stalin. The NKVD and Gulag made slave labor an important economic support of the Soviet economy. After the War, the Soviets despite the propaganda attacks on European colonialism, proceeded to expand their own colonial empire further into Eastern Europe, accomplishing in part what the NAZIs had tried to achieve, but without the same racial component. The racial component, however was not absent, despite official propaganda. With the fall of the Soviet Union, Africa students in Moscow and other cities experienced attacks. And Russia today is much more resistant to immigrants than Western Europe. The barbaric Russian invasion of Ukraine (2022) is a continuation of the Tsarist/Soviet supression of non-Russia minorities.
The Axis countries (Germany, Italy, and Japan) were countries aspiring to carve out and enlarge colonial empires. This was in fact the major reason why Japan launched World War II. They needed the resources of colonial territories. The major focus was on the resources, not the people living on the territories to be acquired. Here the Axis powers differed, both from each other and former imperial colonizers. Hitler in Mein Kampf waxes enviously about the resources of the European East and Germans need for Lebensraum and resources. One reason that the Wehrmacht High Command was so reluctant about Hitler's initial step for War was Germany's limited resources and industrial capacity. Hitler was intent on war and for war, resource-poor Germany needed resources, especially oil. German had African and Pacific colonies before World War I, but in World War II, it was the European East that mesmerized Hitler. Mussolini was intent on reestablishing the Roman Mediterranean Empire. Unlike the Germans, the Italians had no desire to murder population once conquered. The Japanese were focused on China and Siberia, but decided after getting bogged down in China that they needed the resources of the Southern Resource Zone (SRZ) to complete the unexpectedly difficult conquest of China and deal with the other major powers. Within a few years of the Meiji Restoration, Japan began building a colonial empire with the seizure of Formosa/Taiwan (1894). Korea followed later (1910) Like Italy, murdering the colonial population was not a Japanese goal, but it was willing to kill in massive numbers if it encountered any resistance.
Hitler in Mein Kampf waxes enviously about the resources of the East and Germans need for Lebensraum and resources. One reason that the Wehrmacht High Command was so reluctant about Hitler's initial step for War was Germany's limited resources and industrial capacity. The major powers when Hitler began his meteoric rise was Britain with its Empire, the Soviet Union, and the United States. The idea that Germany could conquer Europe seemed mad. Only temerity and miscalculation by the Allies (Britain and France) and the Soviet Union, gave Hitler his chance. Even so he had to launch the major war of the 20th century involving mechanized warfare without significant oil resources and with an army that still heavily dependent on horses. The highly professional, and brutal, Wehrmacht was to bring Hitler close to wining the War despite Germany's limited resources. Hitler was not anxious to clearly enunciate their war aims in the way that Churchill and Roosevelt did in the Atlantic charter. This was because the aims would only alienate other Europeans. Hitler's vision for Europe, especially the East was a vast colonial empire. The economies of Western Europe were to be reoriented toward the Reich, but the East would be NAZI Germany's European colonies. That vision was expressed in Generalplan Ost. There was a major difference between the NAZI concept of colonialism than that of the other European powers. The first non-German people Hitler seized were the Czechs (March 1939). He had assured Prime-Minister Chamberlain that he wanted no Czechs. Here he was not really lying. He didn't want Czechs--he wanted the territory not the people. But even with this first foreign acquisition, the basic problem for the NAZIs emerged. Hitler and many NAZIs wanted to racially purify not only the Reich, but also the Eastern domains. Yet to fight the War successfully they needed the Czechs to serve as a labor force. Thus there was no major effort at ethnic cleansing. The same problem presented itself with their next step Poland (September 1939). Here there were ethnic cleanings operations, but Hitler had to constrain Himmler so as not to totally disrupt the Polish economy. And this conflict between ethnic cleansing and running a war time economy followed the Germans into the Soviet Union (June 1941). The NAZI impulse for colonial control, suppression of nationalist groups, ethnic cleansing,indiscriminate violence, forced labor roundups, and plunder alienated populations that would have willingly joined Hitler's anti-Bolshevik crusade. Ironically a SS study group warned that Germany could have racial purity or imperial dominions, but it could not have both. 【Kotkin】
Italy had aspirations to become a great colonial power. After World War I it had moved against Libyan nationalists. The first major aggression of the European Axis was the Italian invasion of Ethiopia (1935). Allied complaints in the League of Nations alienated Mussolini who increasingly moved toward Hitler and the NAZIs. Hitler showed some appreciation for Mussolini's support, but the two never clearly set out the demarcation of their imperial spheres. Both countries were expansionist, but there was a major difference. Hitler wanted to expand, but he also wanted a racially pure Reich. Thus the people on the land he wanted had to be removed. The Italians approach was more assimilation and acculturation. The Italians wanted to seize British and French possessions in North Africa and to move into the Balkans. Italy was the weakest of the three major Axis countries. The country, however, did not have the industry to support a modern military. Mussolini's Army proved to be a hallow shell, poorly equipped and trained and with no real desire to fight. Hitler had to intervene to support the Italians both in North Africa and the Balkans. The Italian Navy proved more of a challenge to the British. The only major Italian successes in the War was seizing British Somaliland from a small British garrison (1940). The next year, the British and Ethiopians liberated Ethiopia and seized the rest of Italian East Africa. Thanks to the intervention of Rommel's Afrika Korps (1941),s seizing Libya proved more difficult. The Battle of El Alamein opened up Libya to the British (1942). Mussolini was removed by his own Fascist Grand Council after the fall of Sicily (July 1943). The Italians withdrew from the War when the Allies invaded (September 1943). This also mean the end of their Balkan colonies.
Japan killed millions in their attempt to conquer China, perhaps 15 million Chinese people, the precise number will never be known. There was, however, no genocidal program like the NAZI Generalplan Ost to depopulate the conquered area and repopulate it with Japanese colonists. Rather the Japanese effort was more like the Italians--old fashioned colonialism to obtain resources and markets and with some areas for Japan's surplus population. Japan would launch the Pacific War primarily to obtain the resources of the Southern Resource Zone. Japan had a relatively small colonial empire, until the world began the spiral toward World War II. The Japanese population was less than 75 million with colonies (primarily Taiwan and Korea) totaling about 20 million. With the invasion of Manchuria (1931) and then China proper (1937), Japan amassed a colonial empire of some 200 million. We can see what Japan was attempting to do by looking at the areas that they actually colonized: Taiwan, Korea, and Manchuria. What they were after was the resources and the local inhabitants were to become acculturated and work for low wages. The Japanese were not above seizing locals for forced labor to build important war-time projects like the Thai-Burma Railway where captured Allied POWs were used as the labor force, but unlike the NAZIs, this was not the core of the proposed economy for the Japanese Empire. The subject people were not to be kill led or enslaved as the Germans were planning. The Japanese goal was to exploit the population to produce the resources needed by the war industries of the Home Islands. Education was part of the Japanese plan, but education in the Japanese language as part as a acculturation process. This contrast with NAZI Germanization which meant murdering the conquered population. Again Korea and Taiwan show what the Japanese were planning in their Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere.
China was never colonized by European powers. In fact China had more of a history of colonizing neighboring states or territories than being colonized. This including Tibet Inner Mongolia, eastern areas of Central Asia, Korea, and Taiwan. This ebbed and flowed with the rise and fall of the various Chinese dynasties. Efforts to colonize Japan failed. Unlike the Europeans, the Chinese never established maritime colonies. The Chinese established trade contacts far and wide. The greatest such expedition was the Treasure Fleet led by the eunuch Admiral Zeng He (15th century) just before the European maritime outreach. As a result of the Industrial Revolution, the balance of power in Asia changed dramatically, especially by the 19th century. While never colonized, this was the era of the Unequal Treaties and the disgraceful Opium Wars. The Europeans and Japanese seized Japanese ports and obtained control over Chinese trade which was of enormous importance in the 19th century. Thus did not end until after World War I (1914-18). Chiang and the KMT regained control of the Treaty ports (except Shanghai and Hong Kong) and dealt with the war lords (1920s). It is at this time the Japanese, began their campaign to turn China into a giant colony, first by seizing Manchuria (1931) and then by invading China proper (1937). He worked with both the Soviets and Germans, but would eventually turn to the Americans for support. Often lost in a discussion of China is that China was not just a nation state, but like the Soviet Union a multi-ethnic Empire. And the most brutal colonial excesses have been conducted by Communist China such as the suppression of Tibet (1959) and the current ongoing genocide of the Uyghur, people.
The colonial people reacted differently to the War. India was Britain's major colony and played an important role, although complicated by Congress' refusal to support the British. The Arabs reacted to the War in large measure according to who the colonial power was which in most cases was Britain and France. NAZI Germany's anti-semitism was another factor.
All of Sub-Saharan Africa was colonized with the exception of Ethiopia and Liberia. South africa had the satus of a doninion, but only whites could vote. There was little movement toward decolonization on the part of the colonized peoples until after World War II. Nor was there any effort to prepare the population for indeoendence with steps toward home rule again until after the War. The sole exception was South Africa.
The Arabs reacted to the War in large measure according to who the colonial power was which in most cases was Britain and France. NAZI Germany's anti-semitism was another factor, especially in Palestine and the surrounding countries. Iraq attempted to join the Axis and there was also support for the Axis in Syria. The Grand Mufti had tried to drive the British out of Palestine even before the War began. The Young Officers in Egypt were prepared to offer the Afrika Korps with open arms. The Libyans having experienced Axis (Italian) colonial rule were less enthusiastic. Arab leaders for the most part seemed oblivious to the New Order that an Axis victory would have brought. While British and French colonialism may have been unpleasant to the Arabs, it was nothing like Italian and German colonial rule would have been and that is not even including the NAZI racial attitudes toward Arabs. And even after the War, Arab leaders (the Bath and Moslem Brotherhood) continued to be influenced by NAZI totalitarianism.
Burma was a British colony, but developed separately from the Indian Raj. As in many other countries, there were strings of nationalist feelings after World War I. Unlike India, Britain did not move toward home rule as it did in India. As a result, the Japanese when they arrived were at first treated as liberators. As in India they saw the Japanese as ending British colonial rule. They were not prepared for the brutality and exploitive nature of Japanese colonial rule.
Central Asia was an important part of the world economy because of the Silk Road. It was largely Islamicized, but when European navigators established maritime trade links--maritime shipping is a much more inexpensive method of transporting goods than land transport. And it avoids the costs associated with transport through multiple jurisdictions. Central Asia became economically irrelevant and over time a kind of time warp, remaining basically medieval into the modern age. As a result they were easily added into the Tsarist empire. They became colonial possessions within the Tsarist Empire. This was part of the Great Game which threatened British India. The Bolsheviks as a result of the Russian Revolution (1917), lost several European areas of the Tsarist Empire, but they retained the Asian areas.
The Germans encountered some of the Eastern Asian peoples when they conquered Crimea and moved into the Caucuses. Because of the Soviet atheist campaigns, the Germans were favorably received by some of these Muslim peoples. The failure of German arms at Stalingrad (1943), however meant that the Germans did not penetrate deep into Central Asia. This was an area used by the NKVD for deportations of national groups suspected of disloyalty. There was a Russian population, but the majority of the population were non-ethnic Russians and still largely Islamicized.
The independence movement led by Mahatma Gandhi and the Congress Party gained considerable strength during the 1920s and 30s. The British were having increasing difficulties governing India. India was Britain's major colony and played an important role in the early phase of the War, especially in the Middle East. Indian units helped the British hold Egypt and over through a pro-NAZI coup in Iraq. The Indian role was complicated by Congress' refusal to support the British. Indian units helped the British repulse the Japanese invasion from Burma. India was also an important source of raw materials for the British war effort. Axis efforts to undermine British rule were not effective. The War proved, however, to be the death knell of the British Raj.
Iran (Persia) was never colonized except by Alexander the Great (4th century BC), but had been a great colonial power in the ancient world. As with the Arabs, the Persia declined as they turned toward religious fundamentalism and way from modernity and leaning (14th century). As the West in contrast embraced science and the secular world, Iran became a backward and minor regional power. It required the British to develop its one major resource oil and began to see itself as a colonized state because of the British stake in the oil resource. As World War II approached both the Arabs and the Iranians turned toward the NAZIs in the absurd idea that the NAZIs would allow them to control their oil and were not power that had any colonial ambitions and intentions to exploit other countries. .
What is now Indonesia was the Dutch East Indies during World War II. There were stirrings of nationalist thought after World War I which the Dutch suppressed. Unlike the British in India and the Americans in the Philippines, the Dutch tolerated no steps toward home rule. And the Indonesians nationalists saw the Japanese as providing the only way to end Dutch rule. They were right about that, but had no idea of the character of the Japanese and their intentions to establish a much more brutal colonial regime. Sukarno and the other nationalist leaders collaborated with the Japanese. The Indonesian people would pay a terrible price, enduring a deadly famine killing some 5 million people because of Japanese colonial rule.
The Spice Islands were a major goal of the European maritime outreach. The Portuguese were the first to arrive, but the islands were eventually colonized by the Dutch. Located to the north were the Philippine Islands. They were found by the the Magellan Expedition (1519-22) in his circumnavigation of the Globe. Managerial claimed them for Spain. They did not prove as valuable as the Spice Islands or have the phenomenal silver and gold treasures of Spain's American colonies. The Philippines languished as a Spanish colony. Without any real intention to have a colonial empire, Admiral Dewey seized the Philippines during the Spanish American War (1898-99). From a early point the United states moved toward home rule in the Philippines. After a short period the United States decided it did not want a colonial empire. The U.S. Congress voted to grant independence to the Islands--the Tydings–McDuffie Act/Philippine Independence Act (1934). There would be a 10-year transition period. America would be the first country to begin to grant independence to a colonial possession. That independence was delayed by the Japanese World War II invasion (December 1941). The Philippines were not the primary Japanese objective--that was the oil of the DEI and British Borneo. The American controlled Philippines, however, was astride the sea lanes between the DEI and the Japanese Home Islands. There had been opposition to the Americans in the aftermath of the American occupation. And there was some limited opposition during the Commonwealth era, including the Communist Huks. For the most part, however, the Filipinos and Americans developed a positive relationship, fairly rare during the colonial era. And that was only bolstered during the brutal Japanese occupation (1942-44). Not only was it brutal, the Filipinos had to suffer Japanese incompetence in managing the economy, resulting in food and other shortages.
Latin America was almost entirely composed of independent republics. Many were not very democratic, but they were independent. The major exception was the Caribbean which was composed of many colonies, although the larger islands were independent (Cuba, Haiti, and the Dominican Republic). Other than that only the Guianas in South America and British Honduras in Central America were colonial possessions. Each of the independent countries supported the Allied war effort, but only Brazil made a substantial contribution. President Roosevelt's Good Neighbor Policy had helped prepare a cooperative attitude before the War. A few countries exhibited some support for the Axis (Argentina, Chile, and Bolivia). Immigrant communities and the major role played by the military in these countries were factors here. Here there were substantial inducements, access to the United States market and Lend Lease aid. for most, German U-boats attacks were the deciding factor. Both the colonies and Latin American countries were an important source of food and raw material for the Allied war effort. The Caribbean was a rare source of oil for Britain, other that the United States. Britain could not at first count on American oil because of the country's neutrality. Britain had Middle Eastern sources, bu when Italy declared war, transporting it to Britain became an unsurmontable task.
Kotkin, Stephen. "World War II and labor: A lost cause?" International Labor and Working-Class HistoryVol. 58 (Fall 2000), pp. 181-91.
Solzhenitsyn, Alexsanddr I. Trans, Thomas P. Wjitney. The Gulag Archipelago, 1918-56: An Experiment in Literary Investigation (Harper & Row: New York, 1973), 660p.
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