Decolonization: A Very Short Introduction By Professor Dane Kennedy
(Paperback, 2016)

Product Description

Millions of Africans Asians & other peoples were the subjects of colonial rule by overseas empires through the mid-twentieth century By the end of the century however nearly all of these peoples had become citizens of independent nation-states The United Nations grew from 51 member states at its founding in 1945 to 193 today Its nearly four-fold increase is one measure of the historic shift in international relations that has occurred over the past half-century Decolonization is the term commonly used to refer to this transition from a world of colonial empires to a world of nation-states in the years after World War II Both ex-imperial states & post-colonial regimes have promoted a selective & sanitized version of decolonization that casts their own conduct in a positive light characterizing the process as negotiated & the outcome as inevitable This book draws on recent scholarship to challenge that view demonstrating that considerable violence & instability accompanied the end of empire & that the outcome was often up for grabs This book highlights three themes The first is that global war between empires precipitated decolonization creating the economic & political crises that gave colonial subjects the opportunity to seek independence The second theme is that nation-state was not the only option pursued by anti-colonial activists Many of them sought pan- & trans-national polities instead but a combination of international & institutional pressures made the nation-state the standard template The third theme is that the struggle to escape imperial subjugation & create nation-states generated widespread violence & produced huge refugee populations leading to political problems that persist to the present day By focusing on these crucial points Dane Kennedy reminds us how the tumultuous even tragic changes caused by the decolonization profoundly shaped the world we live in