The End of Empire

In today's society we do not have open empires. We may have countries that act like empires in terms of being a superpower but no set empires like the Ottoman or British empire. Empires ended because the oppressed people under the empire decided to revolt. There were multiple revolutions occurring simultaneously amongst the empires in early 1900s. African and Indian people were the main peoples that revolted against their rulers. In India, they revolted against the British empire. Their revolution was a journey instead of a quick event. This revolution introduced new tactics for change such as non-violence. Gandhi rose up and gave new rise to non-violent peaceful protest and civil disobedience. On the other hand though sometimes the initial revolution from their "mother" country can be violent and one revolution is not enough. For example in South Africa, they did originally revolt from the British empire in order to take their independence. However, the result from the first revolution was another power taking control and oppressing South Africans again specifically black Africans. Another revolution needed to take place for all people black and white to have equal independence and rights. In order to get equality there was horrific violence, wars, and there is still instability in political/societal structure in Africa. The main result of these revolutions was ultimate freedom. Freedom is great but it does not solve everything. There were various issues that still came up despite earning freedom. Once the empire left, they took away their structures of society, economy, government. The people who were once under someone that had control of everything now had to rebuild for themselves. It was a struggle. Structures and cultures changed in all the freed countries including in Turkey and Iran. New culture of Islam developed because the old form of culture was now no longer forced upon the people from the British. Freedom from old ways allowed new ideologies to rise up. Being free is something we as Americans can take for granted. It may not solve all the problems in the world but it sure a good place to start.