Bandung Conference
In April 1955, delegates from 29 African and Asian countries gathered in Bandung, Indonesia, for the first large-scale international conference of states from the two continents, held without the participation of the Western powers or the Soviet Union. Its importance lies in the message it sent: that newly independent and still-colonized peoples intended to shape world affairs on their own terms rather than be treated as pawns in the Cold War. It is often seen as a forerunner of the Non-Aligned Movement, though that movement was formally founded later.
The background was the wave of decolonization that followed the Second World War. India, Indonesia, Burma, Sri Lanka, and others had won independence within the previous decade, while much of Africa remained under European rule. At the same time, the United States and the Soviet Union were courting allies and building rival blocs, and conflicts such as the Korean War and the crisis over Taiwan's offshore islands raised fears of a wider war. Leaders such as Indonesia's Sukarno, India's Jawaharlal Nehru, Burma's U Nu, Sri Lanka's John Kotelawala, and Pakistan's Mohammad Ali Bogra organized the meeting, known formally as the Asian-African Conference.
Delegations included a wide political range, from Communist China, represented by Premier Zhou Enlai, to staunch American allies such as the Philippines, Thailand, and Turkey. Egypt's Gamal Abdel Nasser and the Gold Coast's representatives, among others, attended as well. Debates were sometimes sharp, especially over whether Soviet policy in Eastern Europe should be condemned alongside Western colonialism. The final communiqué nonetheless endorsed economic and cultural cooperation, human rights, self-determination, and opposition to colonialism "in all its manifestations." It also set out principles of peaceful coexistence, including respect for sovereignty and territorial integrity, non-interference in internal affairs, and equality among nations.
The conference's practical results were modest. It created no permanent organization, and unity soon frayed: tensions between India and China, which erupted into war in 1962, and divisions among participants limited the cooperation it hoped to foster. Yet its symbolic effect was large. It gave leaders from Asia and Africa a shared platform, boosted China's diplomatic standing, and encouraged independence movements, especially in Africa, where many more states emerged around 1960.
Bandung's legacy runs through the Non-Aligned Movement, launched in Belgrade in 1961 with Yugoslavia's Tito alongside Nehru, Nasser, and Sukarno, and through later coordination among developing nations at the United Nations. The phrase "Bandung spirit" still evokes solidarity among formerly colonized countries, though historians debate how far that solidarity ever translated into lasting political or economic power.