The Wretched of the Earth begins with Frantz Fanon’s explanation of violence within the “colonial situation.” According to Fanon, the act of decolonization will always involve violence. Decolonization cannot occur with merely a “gentleman’s agreement,” as colonialism itself is steeped in violence. The colonists took control of the colonized through violent means with military tanks and rifles with bayonets, and they maintain control in the very same way. The colonial world is divided by military barracks and police stations, and it constitutes two very different spaces: the colonists’ world is impeccably maintained with modern convinces and opportunity, whereas the world of the colonized is “a disreputable place inhabited by disreputable people,” which is saddled with poverty, famine, and illiteracy. Fanon refers to the colonial world as “a Manichaean World” that is divided into light and dark, in which the white colonizers are seen as the light, and the black colonized individuals are viewed as darkness and the epitome of evil. The colonial world keeps the colonized individual continually on edge with their muscles tensed in violent anticipation. There is a constant “atmospheric violence” in colonial society, and the colonized seem to inherently know that their liberation can only be achieved through violent means. During the Cold War, both the socialist Eastern Bloc (the Soviet Union and their allies) and capitalist Western Bloc (the U.S. and their allies) try to sway underdeveloped Third World countries to their respective causes, and while Fanon argues that nation building is an inherently capitalist venture, the Third World remains politically neutral. They will not support the capitalist West, which, through colonialism, has grown rich through the exploitation of the people and natural resources of the Third World. The masses of a colonized country and the country’s nationalist political parties are usually not on the same page, Fanon claims. Such political parties are comprised of the colonized intellectuals—the urban proletariat—and they represent less than one percent of the actual population. The urban proletariat is the most privileged of colonial society, and they stand to lose everything through decolonization. They constitute the national bourgeoisie, and they live Western lifestyles, espouse Western ideas, and work Western jobs. The peasant masses—which an undeveloped country is primarily composed of—live traditional lives in outlying villages, and they are at complete odds with the national bourgeoisie and approach them with a general mistrust. While the peasant masses are usually neglected by the nationalist political parties, these people are “the only spontaneously revolutionary force in the country,” and they are crucial in the fight for liberation and decolonization. The lumpenproletariat, the absolute lowest rung of society—criminals, prostitutes, juvenile delinquents, and the like—are the most valuable, Fanon argues, and are the “urban spearhead” of the rebellion. While several countries are fighting and winning independence, they cannot rest, Fanon warns, as new forms of oppression are always brewing in the underdeveloped nation.