After the end of World War II, the world experienced emotional and psychological tension. Even though the war was over, the problems weren’t over. The world is divided into two parts, namely the West Block and the East Block.
The Western Bloc consists of liberalist countries, while the Eastern Bloc consists of communist countries. The two blocs competed for influence over other nations.
Apart from the division of the world into two ideologies, colonialism and imperialism are still problems for various nations in the world. There are still many nations and countries that are still constrained by colonialism and long for independence.
Seeing the unstable condition of the world, Indonesia as an anti-colonial country and committed as a neutral country initiated an important activity in world history, namely the Asian-African Conference (KAA). Have you ever heard of KAA before?
The Asia-Africa Conference was a world peace conference which was held on April 18-25, 1955, at Gedung Merdeka, Bandung. The chairman of the conference organizer was PM Ali Sastroamijoyo and it was opened by President Sukarno. The conference was invited by 30 countries in the Asia-Africa region, but only 29 countries attended because Central Africa (Rhodesia) could not come due to the unstable condition of the country.
Starting from the Colombo Conference on April 28, 1954, Indonesia raised the idea of a meeting of Asian-African countries. Conference participants who initially hesitated eventually agreed to the idea.
The background for holding this conference is the common fate of countries in Asia-Africa after World War II. In addition, the struggle of the colonized peoples for their independence after World War II continued to increase. Developing countries who see this situation are encouraged to find solutions to help ease tensions and create world peace.
The meeting which lasted for 8 days resulted in several quite important decisions, such as promoting cooperation between Asian-African countries in the social, economic and cultural fields, helping the struggle against imperialism, upholding human rights, and taking an active part in creating peace. world.
In addition to important decisions, the KAA also gave birth to ten principles listed in the ” Declaration on the Promotion of World Peace and Corporations ” or better known as the “Bandung Principles”.
The success of the KAA in Bandung has boosted the name of Indonesia, which is only 10 years old, to the world stage. Not only that, the Asian-African Conference brings a lot of positive impacts for Indonesia, Asian-African countries, and also the world.
Asian-African countries also support Indonesia in the context of the liberation of West Irian. The conference also strengthened the cooperative relations of countries from the two continents. In addition, the world was also affected, such as reduced world tensions, colonialist-imperialist countries began to let go of their colonies, and the abolition of the politics of racial discrimination.
In essence, KAA has shown that Indonesia is not an ordinary country. Indonesia has played an active role in creating world peace. World tensions began to decrease due to the birth of a third world ( non-aligned ) understanding, and that was thanks to the role of Indonesia.
If you are interested in knowing more information about KAA events and other Indonesian history, you can download the distance learning module for social studies subjects on the SMP Directorate website.
Reference: Social Studies Distance Learning Module Class IX Even Semester Published by the Directorate of Junior High School in 2020