Decolonization
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]
This article is about the undoing of colonialism. For medical interventions, see Decolonization (medicine).
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]
Scope[edit]
The United Nations (UN) states that the fundamental right to self-determination is the core requirement for decolonization, and that this right can be exercised with or without political independence.[9] A UN General Assembly Resolution in 1960 characterised colonial foreign rule as a violation of human rights.[10][11] In states that have won independence, Indigenous people living under settler colonialism continue to make demands for decolonization and self-determination.[12][13][14][15]
Although discussions of hegemony and power, central to the concept of decolonization, can be found as early as the writings of Thucydides,[16] there have been several particularly active periods of decolonization in modern times. These include the decolonization of Africa, the breakup of the Spanish Empire in the 19th century; of the German, Austro-Hungarian, Ottoman, and Russian Empires following World War I; of the British, French, Dutch, Portuguese, Belgian, Italian, and Japanese Empires following World War II; and of the Soviet Union at the end of the Cold War.[17]
Early studies of decolonisation appeared in the 1960s and 1970s. An important book from this period was The Wretched of the Earth (1961) by Martiniquan author Frantz Fanon, which established many aspects of decolonisation that would be considered in later works. Subsequent studies of decolonisation addressed economic disparities as a legacy of colonialism as well as the annihilation of people's cultures. Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o explored the cultural and linguistic legacies of colonialism in the influential book Decolonising the Mind (1986).[4]
"Decolonization" has also been used to refer to the intellectual decolonization from the colonizers' ideas that made the colonized feel inferior.[18][19][20] Issues of decolonization persist and are raised contemporarily. In the Americas and South Africa, such issues are increasingly discussed under the term decoloniality.[21][22]
: Sudan (1956); Ghana (1957); Nigeria (1960); Sierra Leone and Tanganyika (1961); Uganda (1962); Kenya and Sultanate of Zanzibar (1963); Malawi and Zambia (1964); Gambia and Rhodesia (1965); Botswana and Lesotho (1966); Mauritius and Swaziland (1968); Seychelles (1976)
United Kingdom
: Morocco and Tunisia (1956); Guinea (1958); Cameroon, Togo, Mali, Senegal, Madagascar, Benin, Niger, Burkina Faso, Ivory Coast, Chad, Central African Republic, Republic of the Congo, Gabon and Mauritania (1960); Algeria (1962); Comoros (1975); Djibouti (1977)
France
Indigenous decolonization theory[edit]
Indigenous decolonization theory views Western Eurocentric historical accounts and political discourse as an ongoing political construct that attempts to negate indigenous and marginalized peoples and their experiences around the world. Indigenous people of the world precede and negate all Eurocentric colonization projects and the resulting historical constructs, popular discourse, conceptualizations, and theory. In this view, the independence of European-styled former Western-European colonies, such as the United States, Australia, and Brazil, is conceptualized as ongoing neo-colonization projects of settler colonialism and not as decolonization. The creation of these states merely continued ongoing European colonialism. Any former European colony not free of Western European influence fits such a concept. Examples of such former colonies include South Africa, Australia, Mexico, Brazil, and the United States.[105]
Consequences of decolonization[edit]
A 2019 study found that "democracy levels increased sharply as colonies gained internal autonomy in the period immediately before their independence. However, conflict, revenue growth, and economic growth did not systematically differ before and after independence."[112]
According to political theorist Kevin Duong, decolonization "may have been the century's greatest act of disenfranchisement", as numerous anti-colonial activists primarily pursued universal suffrage within empires rather than independence: "As dependent territories became nation-states, they lost their voice in metropolitan assemblies whose affairs affected them long after independence."[113]
David Strang writes that the loss of their empires turned France and Britain into "second-rate powers".[114]
Decolonizing global health[edit]
Global health, as a discipline, is widely acknowledged to be of imperial origin and the need for its decolonisation has been widely recognised.[115][116][117] Dismantling the feudal structure of global health has been mentioned to be a key decolonisation agenda.[118] Some key leaders of the decolonising global health agenda are Seye Abimbola and Madhukar Pai.
Works related to United Nations Trusteeship Agreements listed by the General Assembly as Non-Self-Governing at Wikisource