Decolonization

This article is about the undoing of colonialism. For medical interventions, see Decolonization (medicine).

Map of the year each country achieved independence.

Decolonization is the undoing of colonialism, the latter being the process whereby imperial nations establish and dominate foreign territories, often overseas.[1] The meanings and applications of the term are disputed. Some scholars of decolonization focus especially on independence movements in the colonies and the collapse of global colonial empires.[2][3]

As a movement to establish independence for colonized territories from their respective metropoles, decolonization began in 1775 in North America. Major waves of decolonization occurred in the aftermath of the First World War and most prominently after the Second World War.

Critical scholars extend the meaning beyond independence or equal rights for colonized peoples to include broader economic, cultural and psychological aspects of the colonial experience.[4][5] Extending the meaning of decolonization beyond political independence has been disputed and received criticism.[6][7][8]

  1. ^ Note however discussion of (for example) the Russian and Nazi empires below.
  2. ^ Hack, Karl (2008). International Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences. Detroit: Macmillan Reference. pp. 255–257. ISBN 978-0028659657.
  3. ^ John Lynch, ed. Latin American Revolutions, 1808–1826: Old and New World Origins (1995).
  4. ^ Betts, Raymond F. (2012). "Decolonization a brief history of the word". Beyond Empire and Nation. Brill. pp. 23–37. doi:10.1163/9789004260443_004. ISBN 978-90-04-26044-3. JSTOR 10.1163/j.ctt1w8h2zm.5.
  5. ^ Corntassel, Jeff (8 September 2012). "Re-envisioning resurgence: Indigenous pathways to decolonization and sustainable self-determination". Decolonization: Indigeneity, Education & Society. 1 (1). ISSN 1929-8692.
  6. ^ Táíwò, Olúfẹ́mi (2022). Against decolonisation: taking African agency seriously. African arguments. London: Hurst & Company. ISBN 978-1-78738-692-1.[page needed]
  7. ^ Kurzwelly, Jonatan; Wilckens, Malin S (2023). "Calcified identities: Persisting essentialism in academic collections of human remains". Anthropological Theory. 23 (1): 100–122. doi:10.1177/14634996221133872. S2CID 254352277.
  8. ^ Naicker, Veeran (2023). "The problem of epistemological critique in contemporary Decolonial theory". Social Dynamics. 49 (2): 220–241. doi:10.1080/02533952.2023.2226497. S2CID 259828705.