Decolonization Essay ⋆ Political Science Essay Examples ⋆ EssayEmpire

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Decolonization refers to the process through which subject territories acquire independence. It forms the converse of colonialism, which entails the extension of formal and informal control over dominated polities. While colonialism establishes a hierarchy between polities, decolonization severs that relationship. When the international community recognizes this severing of ties as legitimate, the formerly subject polity becomes an independent sovereign state.

Historically, the subjugation of one entity by another has been a feature of every empire. However, the term colonialism is more commonly used to describe the expansion of the European maritime powers. From the end of the fifteenth century, technological breakthroughs and emerging capitalism allowed Spain and Portugal to expand their influence to all corners of the globe. They were soon followed by the British, Dutch, and other European powers. During this expansionary phase, the colonial powers formally annexed all of the Americas and much of Asia. This annexation reached its apex with the division of the African continent in the Treaty of Berlin (1885).

History is replete with incidences of resistance to European domination. Whereas many of the indigenous populations lacked the technical and military means to resist the colonial powers, the American settlers succeeded. The United States declared its independence first and was soon followed by the Latin American colonies after the Napoleonic wars ended. The rhetoric used by these revolutionaries would later inform some of the decolonization efforts after World War II (1939–1945).

Nevertheless, although such independence movements might be considered examples of decolonization, in that they shed their hierarchical subjugation, decolonization usually refers to the end of European domination in the twentieth century. Some of the more prominent white settler colonies, for example, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand, early on gained a considerable measure of independence, transforming their status to that of dominions prior to World War I (1914– 1918). After 1918, the colonies of the defeated imperial powers, particularly those of Germany and the Ottoman Empire, were not given outright to the victorious powers but were to be managed as mandates. Thus, the international legitimacy of imperial control had begun to change at the same time that indigenous nationalist movements became more effective. The Asian nationalist movements, such as the congress movement in India, were particularly well organized.

Decolonization, however, only really took hold in the aftermath of the World War II. A variety of factors conspired against the imperial powers. The United States proved unwilling to support the continuation of imperial rule. Also, the liberal economic order of the postwar period delegitimized imperial preference schemes that protected the economies of the colonial powers. Moreover, even the more powerful European states no longer seemed able to bear the military and economic burdens that came with forceful subjugation of the colonies. Nationalist movements had also grown in strength, partially due to the support of the socialist countries. Finally, the United Nations provided an international forum to give voice to independence movements. Almost 100 states thus gained their independence in the three decades following 1945. These processes are well captured by John Hargreaves in Decolonization in Africa (1996), and Miles Kahler explains in Decolonization in Britain and France (1984) why decolonization followed different trajectories.

The study of decolonization has recently been reinvigorated, because scholars have gained greater access to previously sealed government records. New compilations of information and fresh perspectives have generated multidimensional analyses of empire and decolonization (see, e.g., Brown and Louis 1999).

Moreover, although decolonization has come to refer to the end of European empires after 1945, the more recent breakup of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) has led to examining parallels between the two processes. Thus, the study of decolonization has been extended to a broader range of cases, including those of continental empires such as the USSR.

In addition, the study of empire and decolonization has been useful for understanding the partition of territorial polities in general. For years, many multinational states such as Yugoslavia and the USSR seemed quite stable, only to unravel in short order at the end of the cold war. Why such multinational entities ended up being perceived by their composite units as imperial remains a key question for analysis, as it sheds light on general processes of territorial integration and fragmentation. Indeed, arguably the study of decolonization can illuminate cases of territorial domination that are not usually perceived as empires.

Finally, the study of imperial administration, cultural domination, and nationalist movements is relevant to the issue of failed states today. One might, for example, ask whether the colonial legacy retarded African attempts at state and nation building as well as their attempts at economic development.

Bibliography:

Brown, Judith, and William Roger Louis, eds. Oxford History of the British Empire, vol. 4. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999.
Bunce, Valerie. Subversive Institutions. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1999.
Dawisha, Karen, and Bruce Parrott, eds. The End of Empire?:The Transformation of the USSR in Comparative Perspective. Armonk, N.Y.: M. E. Sharpe, 1997.
Hargreaves, John. Decolonization in Africa. New York: Longman, 1996.
Herbst, Jeffrey. States and Power in Africa. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2000.
Kahler, Miles. Decolonization in Britain and France. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1984.
Motyl, Alexander, ed. Thinking Theoretically about Soviet Nationalities. New York: Columbia University Press, 1995.
Spruyt, Hendrik. Ending Empire. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2005.