The process of decolonization that began in Asia in the aftermath of World War II was brought about by a combination of post-bellum political and economic fatigue in the European capitals, a dramatically altered post-war international landscape, and the rise of indigenous nationalisms across the region, in many instances spawned and spurred by the defeat of the European powers at the hands of Japan. The ease with which the European powers capitulated to a non-white, Asian power during the war effectively shattered the image of western superiority in the eyes of the subject peoples and unravelled the pre-war social and political order in the colonies. The ensuing social and economic disruption brought about by occupation left a deep political and psychological impression on the local populace in Asia. While the occupied populations often bore the brunt of Japanese brutality and resisted Japan's own imperial ambitions, the idea of Asian liberation from western imperialism caught the imagination of many nationalist groups in the region. The ties which had bound Europe to its empire in the region had been swept away, and under Japanese sponsorship indigenous nationalist leaders found renewed energy and opportunities to attack and undermine the old colonial system to widen their own bases of support. This was to signal the beginning of the end of the European empires in Asia. When the European powers returned to their erstwhile colonies after the War, hoping to “rediscover the grandeur of an imperial past”, they were faced with a very different reality. The Dutch lost their empire in the East Indies in the wake of a revolutionary movement which started in 1945 and ended five years later with the declaration of an independent state of Indonesia in 1949. The French faced determined opposition from the revolutionary communist Viet Minh forces, and after a protracted struggle had to leave their empire in Indochina in 1954 under rather ignominious circumstances. British decolonization in South Asia was effected in a more peaceful and orderly manner; in 1947, power was transferred to the independent states of India and Pakistan with Sri Lanka and Burma following a year later.