
African Decolonization
Henry S. Wilson(Author)
Hodder Arnold (Publisher)
Published on 3. November 1994
Book
Paperback/Softback
224 pages
978-0-340-55929-1 (ISBN)
Unfortunately, price unknown
Article not available
Description
Before the 1950s, almost all of Africa was controlled by European empires or white settler states. Since then the empires and settler states have gone, with the exception of South Africa, to be replaced by more than 50 sovereign African states, the largest addition to the comity of nations since the consolidation of the nation state. Providing an introduction to the transformation of Africa since World War II, this study assesses to what extent the change of Africa resulted from deliberate imperial policy, from the pressures of African nationalism or the superpower rivalries of the USA and USSR. It analyzes what powers were transferred and to whom they were given. Pan-Africanism is singled out, in a chapter devoted to its rise and fall, as significant not only in its own right, but as indicating the transformation of expectations when the new rulers, who had endorsed its geopolitical logic before taking power, settled into the routines of government. The meaning of de-colonization is contested throughout Africa and beyond, not just by historians and social scientists, but by all the continent. It is the purpose of this book to show that this living past pervades the present.
More details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
London
United Kingdom
Target group
College/higher education
Illustrations
bibliography, index
Dimensions
Height: 230 mm
Width: 154 mm
Thickness: 24 mm
Weight
350 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-340-55929-1 (9780340559291)
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Schweitzer Classification
Content
Part 1 Preliminaries: paradoxes of imperial power; the Great Depression; 1936 - citizenship betrayed; the Second World War. Part 2 Decolonization achieved: empires and nations in the post-war world (1) - superpowers in a bipolar world, the United Nations, Cold War; empires and nations in the post-war world (2) - nationalism, pan-Africanism and pan-Arabism, calculations of containment; accelerated decolonization (1) - North Africa and the Horn, the dissolution of the Italian empire, French North Africa, conclusion; accelerated decolonization (2) - the turning point in British West Africa, political change in the Gold Coast; Afrique Noire, French West and Equatorial Africa, development - dilemmas and debacles; accelerated decolonization (3) - changing metropoles, debacle in the Belgian Congo; delayed colonization - taking stock, the Portuguese territories, Southern Rhodesia; conclusion.