Between Indian and Pakistani independence in 1947, the African 'year of independence' around 1960, and the collapse of the Portuguese empire in 1975, dozens of European colonies in Asia, Africa and the Caribbean became sovereign states. Decolonisation came through negotiated transfers, mass political movements and, in places such as Algeria and Vietnam, armed struggle, dismantling empires that had dominated the globe within a single generation. New governments sought to assert national identity and modernise rapidly. Many faced surging urban populations and acute housing shortages.
Decolonisation remade the world into nation-states and brought the 'Global South' into being, and many new states expressed their independence by building modernist capitals such as Chandigarh, Brasília and Islamabad and large national housing programmes.
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