The French Resistance is often presented as a national liberation struggle. Both Communists and the followers of right wing General de Gaulle saw it as a nationalist movement against German occupation. It is only relatively recently that historians have written about the non-French fighters.
The recent war in the Caucasus between Russia and Georgia has highlighted once again the complex question of national rights. National antagonisms and nationalism are often put forward as explanations for war. Nationality and nations are portrayed as age-old.
When Algerian journalist Henri Alleg published his account of being tortured at the hands of the French colonial regime it became an instant bestseller. Ian Birchall tells us why the book is still as relevant today as it was 50 years ago during the Algerian War of Independence.
By 1967 the US was losing its long and bitter war in Vietnam with the Viet Cong, the peasant-based guerrilla national liberation movement. It was terrified by the prospect of the anti?imperialist movement spreading to the Middle East.
In the 1960s and 1970s, Africa was symbolised by both colonial devastation and the national liberation struggles that swept the colonisers' regimes away.
The socialist Mehdi Ben Barka was a leading figure in the national liberation movement which won Morocco independence from France in 1956. While in exile in the 1960s he continued to play a role in the anti-colonial movement internationally.
Eleven years and nine months have elapsed since the fateful New Year’s Day 1994 when the Zapatista Army of National Liberation (EZLN) conquered San Cristobal de las Casas, the capital of the Mexican state of Chiapas.
One of the greatest myths about the Second World War is that Allied armies liberated Europe from Nazism on their own. The truth is that many national liberation movements played a key role in driving the Nazis out of their own countries.
