Factors that led to decolonization in africa and asia
Answers
WWII was a major factor in the decolonisation of Africa. Britain and France, the main colonial powers in Africa, were broke after WWII and simply could not afford to keep their colonies.
America was turning into a superpower, while Britain was on the wane. The Americans had in office during WWII a decidedly anti-colonialist president in FDR, and his widow was among the leading voices calling for freedom and self-determination for all states after WWII (see The Atlantic Charter). Churchill was confronted with several pointed questions in America - one was why Britain could fight to maintain the self-determination of European states while at the same time maintaining colonies in Africa and Asia.
Africans were drafted in massive numbers into colonial armies in WWII. Many came back home from the war having interacted with other colonial soldiers from around the world, and having seen their erstwhile colonial masters defeated in battles, killed, etc. This removed, for many of them, the aura of invincibility that colonial authorities had carefully built over time in presenting themselves as superior to Africans and therefore entitled to be masters of the continent.
Africa began producing a small group of well-educated leaders, many the beneficiaries of scholarships from the USA and the USSR. These leaders came home to Africa in the 1950s and immediately began agitating for independence, organising African citizens into political movements and so on.
Finally, independence was always going to happen because of demographics: the colonial elite and their soldiers were a tiny number in the face of massive numbers of Africans, and pressure was always going to build on them to leave and let the African people determine their own futures.