Out of Empire Redefining Africa's Place in the World (Volume 8)

• Main Author: Cooper, Frederick (auth)
• Other Authors: Römer, Franz (Editor), Weigelin-Schwiedrzik, Susanne (Editor)
• Format: Electronic Book Chapter
• Language: English
• Published: 2013
• Subjects: Colonialism & imperialism; Political Science; Colonialism & Post-colonialism
• Online Access: DOAB: download the publication; DOAB: description of the publication

The history of decolonization is usually written backward, as if the end-point (a world of juridically equivalent nation-states) was known from the start. But the routes out of colonial empire appear more varied. Some Africans sought equal rights within empire, others to federate among themselves; some sought independence. In London or Paris, officials realized they had to reform colonial empires, but not necessarily give them up. The idea of "development" became a way to assert that empires could be made both more productive and more legitimate. Frederick Cooper explores how these alternative possibilities narrowed between 1945 and approximately 1960.