The second World War dealt the final blow to European empires. New nations emerged out of the break-up of the colonies, but the process of defining a national identity was a catalyst for old religious and ethnic conflicts to ignite. The year after India was granted independence, Gandhi, its primary architect, was assassinated by a Hindu fanatic who resented Gandhi's friendliness towards India's large Muslim community. The day after the new state of Israel was born, it was invaded by its Arab neighbours.

The Indian National Congress was formed in 1885 to win self-government. India was almost the size of Europe, with a population of more than 300 million (including Muslims, Sikhs, Buddhists and Christians), and represented a significant part of Britain's empire. In return for the large numbers of Indians who fought in the British army during both wars, Britain began to grant increasing powers of self-government to the Indian parliament. The mass campaign of passive resistance led by Hindu lawyer Mohandas Gandhi (later Mahatma: "Great Soul") from the 1920s was also a major factor in the British decision to withdraw.

In 1947, suffering from postwar exhaustion and bankruptcy, and governed by Labour (a supporter of Indian nationalism), Britain gave India her freedom. Two new states were born: India and Pakistan ( a year later Ceylon got its independence). Pakistan was intended to accommodate India's large Muslim community, which did not want to be swamped by the Hindu majority in a united India. East Pakistan became independent as Bangladesh in 1971.

The partition of India resulted in religious massacres and upheavals, with half a million dead and 10 million homeless (five million Hindus and Sikhs fled West Pakistan). Forty million Muslims remained in India. Jawaharlal Nehru became prime minister of the largest democracy in the world. By the late 1980s, thanks to modern medicine, the population of India was over 800 million (more than the combined populations of Africa and South America), half of whom still lived in abject poverty. Although food production increased and India became more industrialised, religious conflict continued, with territorial tension between India and Pakistan, particularly over Kashmir.

Before 1948, Palestine was populated mainly by Arab Muslims, but over the centuries there had been a steady trickle of Jews into the region. It became a flood in the 20th century. Palestine was part of the Ottoman Empire until the first World War when Britain helped to drive out the Turks, promising Arab independence (the swashbuckling "Lawrence of Arabia" had Anglo-Irish origins). With the Balfour Declaration, Britain had also promised "a national home for the Jewish people" in Palestine.

By 1939 there were half a million Jews in Palestine, mostly as a result of the Nazi reign of terror. The Arab Muslims who lived there felt they were being driven off their own land. Under pressure from the Arabs, Britain began to turn jewish refugees away from Palestine, whereupon the US accused Britain of anti-Semitism. In 1947 Britain was relieved to hand Palestine to the UN, which voted to divide the area into two states, one Jewish and one Arab. Since then it has been a hotbed of ethnic and religious tension. With the establishment of the state of Israel, 750,000 Arabs were left in the remaining parts of Palestine - namely, East Jerusalem, the Gaza Strip and the West Bank - or fled to hastily constructed camps in Syria, Lebanon, and Jordan. After the unsuccessful invasion of Israel by surrounding Arab states in support of the native Palestinians, the US-backed Israelis gained more land.

The following decades saw both the Suez War and a series of guerrilla attacks on Israeli villages by Palestinians backed by Arab neighbours, who refused to recognise the state of Israel.

During the Suez Crisis of 1956, Egypt took control of the canal. Together with Israel, Britain and France invaded to gain back control of the canal but were forced by the UN to withdraw.

Another war in 1967 expanded Israeli territory even further (Sinai, the West Bank, the Golan Heights, and the coveted city of Jerusalem). The Yom Kippur War of 1973 elevated the conflict into a potential world war when Egypt and Syria invaded Israel with Soviet missiles. The Arab countries trebled the price of oil and US forces were put on nuclear alert. A ceasefire was arranged with UN forces sent in to supervise.

In 1964 the PLO led by Yasser Arafat took up the cause of the Palestinians, using guerrilla tactics. Their bases, first in Jordan and, after 1970, in Lebanon, were bombed by Israel in return.

Peace between Egypt and Israel was attained at Camp David in 1978, but conflict between the PLO and Israel continued. In 1993 the Israel-Palestine Agreement led to the establishment of a Palestinian National Authority in Gaza and parts of the West Bank.

All of the articles published so far in this series are available at The Irish Times on the Web: www.ireland.com/newspaper/ special/1999/eyeon20/