Question

what common ideals inspired the anti-colonialist leaders and organizations in their movements for independence and decolonization?

Answer 1

Decolonization (US) or decolonisation (UK) is the undoing of colonialism, where a nation establishes and maintains its domination over dependent territories. The Oxford English Dictionary defines decolonization as "the withdrawal from its colonies of a colonial power; the acquisition of political or economic independence by such colonies."[1] The term refers particularly to the dismantlement, in the years after World War II, of the colonial empires established prior to World War I throughout the world. However, decolonization not only refers to the complete "removal of the domination of non-indigenous forces" within the geographical space and different institutions of the colonized, but it also refers to the "decolonizing of the mind" from the colonizers' ideas that made the colonized feel inferior.[2]

Answer 2

It is said that colonialism is an outgrowth of nationalism. For example, once the people in leading industrial powers started to strongly identify as British, French, German, American or Japanese (to name the most famous colonialists), they fell in love with the idea of planting their national flags all over the map, hence "Empire".

It is also believed that anti-colonialism is also an outgrowth of nationalism. When people from Asia, Africa and Latin America started to strongly identify as Indian, Egyptian, Argentinian etc. (to name some of the opressed countries), they started to value their own country and fell in love with it and wanted to replace the foreing flags where they belonged.

So we can say that a common ideal was nationalism.