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During decades of imperialism, the industrializing powers of Europe viewed the African and Asian continents as providers of raw materials, territory, and labor for future settlement. Decolonization is the process by which colonies became independent of the European states which initially colonized them. The newly independent states transformed the structure of the United Nations and bestowed a politically multifaceted composition to every region of the globe. Not only did they transform the practice of bilateral diplomacy, but multilateral diplomacy was changed as they became members of international forums. A new form of diplomacy also evolved which necessitated an improvement of bilateral relations with erstwhile colonies and other states of the globe. The decolonization process might have ended as a zero‐sum game for the colonial powers and the newly independent states, but diplomacy assisted in avoiding such an aftermath. Decolonization also had a definite bearing on the evolution of superpower competition and impacted the highly cooperative nature of Asian, Arab, and African diplomacy in the United Nations.