Definition
Independence movements are organised campaigns by people living under colonial or imperial rule to win the right to govern themselves as a sovereign nation. They range from armed revolutions to long political struggles, mass protests, and negotiation, and they have appeared in every region touched by empire.
Such movements multiplied as nationalist ideas spread and as empires showed signs of weakness. The American Revolution and the Haitian Revolution were early examples; the wars that freed Latin America from Spain and Portugal in the early nineteenth century followed; and a far larger wave of decolonisation swept Asia and Africa in the twentieth century.
Why it matters
How it works
An independence movement usually grows through stages. First a small group of educated leaders articulates the grievance and the goal. Then the movement broadens, recruiting ordinary people through newspapers, organisations, and shared symbols. Pressure mounts through protest, strikes, or armed action, while the colonial power weighs the cost of holding on against the cost of letting go. Independence arrives when that balance tips — sometimes after victory in war, sometimes through negotiated withdrawal.