Answer:
b. World War II had made the countries of Europe too weak and tired to resist the independence movement.
Step-by-step explanation:
World War II destroyed or seriouly weakened the economies of Europe. Countries were ravaged by the war and had to rebuild them. The old colonial powers tried to retain control of their empires, reoccupying the colonies they were forced to leave by the Japanese in Asia, or reasserting themselves in Africa. However, national consciousness and identities gained strength in the colonies, and the aspirations of independence of many African and Asian peoples rose.
For example, national liberation wars were fought in Vietnam and Algeria; the Vietnamese soundly defeated the French in 1954 , forcing a peace conference that put and end to French colonialism in Indochina; and France had to leave Algeria and grant its independence after a bloody and brutal war. Britain granted independence to its colonial possessions in Africa and Asia in the 1950s and 1960s. The societies of Europe were tired of war and their economic might was severely diminished by WWII, so they could not afford colonial empires anymore.