Known energy producers such as Persia and the Dutch East Indies gained a new lease on life, becoming the independent countries we now know as Iran and Indonesia. Budding energy producers that were technically independent but in reality were half foreign-managed (think: Iraq and Saudi Arabia) were allowed to come into their own. Somewhat unsurprisingly, some European countries resisted decolonialization, but the Americans proved uncharacteristically patient and would often wait until revolutionary movements within the colonies reached critical mass before pressuring their allies, or until the
...more