1. End of Colonial Rule and Emergence of Independent Nations 🌍✊

• After the Second World War, large parts of the world were still under European colonial rule, where many nations were controlled by European powers. 🌍👑
• Over the next two decades, many colonies in Asia and Africa gained their freedom and independence, marking a significant shift in global politics. 🌏🗽
• These newly independent nations were burdened by poverty and a lack of resources, resulting from their long history of colonial rule, which had exploited their people and economies. 💸🔒

2. Challenges for the Bretton Woods Institutions 🏛️🌍

• The IMF (International Monetary Fund) and the World Bank were established with the primary aim of addressing the financial needs of industrial countries, not the newly independent nations in the global south. 💵💼
• These institutions were not equipped to deal with the poverty and underdevelopment that many of the former colonies were facing in the post-colonial period. 🚫🏚️
• As Europe and Japan focused on rebuilding their economies after the war, they grew less reliant on the support provided by the IMF and the World Bank. 🔄💰
• From the late 1950s, the Bretton Woods institutions began to shift their attention toward helping the developing countries, trying to address their unique challenges. 🔄🌍

3. Continued Influence of Former Colonial Powers 🇬🇧🇫🇷

• Many newly independent countries faced the challenge of being guided by international agencies that were still dominated by former colonial powers. 🌍💼
• Even after independence, former colonial powers continued to control vital resources, such as minerals and land, in many of their former colonies. ⛏️🌱
• Multinational corporations (MNCs), including those from the US, often secured rights to exploit natural resources in developing countries at low costs, limiting the countries’ ability to benefit fully from their own resources. 💸🌍

4. Group of 77 and the Demand for a New Economic Order 🤝🌏

• Many developing countries did not benefit from the rapid economic growth experienced by Western economies in the 1950s and 1960s. 📉🇺🇸
• In response to their challenges, these countries formed the Group of 77 (G-77), a coalition that aimed to demand a New International Economic Order (NIEO). 🤝🌍
• The NIEO sought to provide developing nations with real control over their natural resources, offer more development assistance, establish fairer prices for raw materials, and ensure better access to developed countries’ markets for their manufactured goods. 💪🌍

5. Multinational Corporations (MNCs) 🌍🏢

• MNCs are large companies that operate in several countries at the same time, playing a key role in the global economy. 🌍🏢
• The first MNCs were established in the 1920s, but their numbers grew significantly in the 1950s and 1960s, as US businesses expanded worldwide and Western Europe and Japan rebuilt their economies. 🌎💼
• The spread of MNCs was a notable feature of the 1950s and 1960s, largely driven by high import tariffs imposed by various governments. 🏢🌏
• These tariffs encouraged MNCs to establish manufacturing operations within different countries to become domestic producers and avoid these tariffs. 🏭💡