Ends of Empire in Africa and Asia, 1945-1979

The essays in this volume all address the subject of decolonization from a variety of different perspectives and in a variety of different contexts. Some focus on decolonization strictly as a political process of the transfer of power from an alien European regime to an indigenous governing body of one sort or another. Others see “decolonization” through the lens of perception, focusing on how media outlets of the mid-twentieth century covered the significant changes that were taking place in the geopolitical landscape at the time. Still others examine “decolonization” in terms of a paradigm shift in terms of political, cultural, or intellectual conceptualizations. As the European empires eroded, equality, sovereignty, and universality became ideological aspirations in a world still stricken with oppression, dependency, and conflict. As a whole, these essays point to the ways that the ends of empire in Africa and Asia created a space for new possibilities, even as continuities with the past remained salient.