Decolonisation and Legacies of Empire Flashcards
What does Darwin say that historians increasing attraction to a looser and more flexible understanding of imperialism has done?
Encompassed a wider variety of “imperial” relationships than just “enforcement of rule”
What variation of things does decolonisation categorise according to Thompson and Thompson? (3)
Different styles of resistance, mass demonstration, and mass displacement of civilian populations
Why have Thomas and Thompson concluded most colonial withdrawals were rarely entirely peaceful?
Because both partitions and enforced territorial unifications left damaging legacies of unresolved arguments and trauma
What did the damaging legacies left by colonial powers of unresolved argument and trauma prefigure according to Thomas and Thompson?
Outpourings of retributive violence against those marginalised as a result of this
Why do Thomas and Thompson argue that state-centric explanations of decolonisation are limited?
Because they equate withdrawal of colonial authority with the “end of empire” and overlook deeper economic changes
Why do Thomas and Thompson conclude we need to think more broadly about the concept of decolonisation?
Because it was less a sequence of events, and more of a globally connected process, the result of decisive methodological shifts
Why do Thomas and Thompson argue we must take the question of interrelatedness more seriously with respect to decolonisation?
Because decolonisation was truly globalising in its effects making it difficult to treat the end of empire or demise of single colony in isolation
What do Thomas and Thompson argue the influence of the Cold War on decolonisation was?
The local impulses behind decolonisation conflicts were interwoven with the geopolitical contest between rival Cold War blocs according to Cold War considerations
What, according to Thomas and Thompson, did the end of 20th century empires mark?
The biggest and most concentrated process of state-making the world has seen
What did WW2 do according to Thomas and Thompson?
It refashioned global politics beyond Asian and European heartlands, just as the Cold War infected the politics of decolonisation
What was the Cold War according to Thomas and Thompson?
A catalyst to global change as much as it was an outcome of it
What does Gildea say there exists a myth surrounding?
The orderly “transfer of power” from imperial capital to national elites
What according to Piero Gleijeses was the “hot” Cold War?
Where blood was shed
Where does Piero Gleijeses argue the “hot” Cold War was fought and why?
In the periphery where it overlapped with the struggle for decolonisation
What does Piero Gleijeses say colonial powers were motivated by instead of the Cold War as they fought to retain control of their colonies?
Greed and pursuit of prestige
What does Piero Gleijeses argue of the US’s stance and perspective on decolonisation?
That they were in principle sympathetic to the end of colonial rule, but out of their perceived Cold War necessities, sided with colonisers instead when armed struggle broke out
What does Holland argue the decline of will to empire in Britain was closely related to?
Her changing economic and strategic position
What does Holland conclude decolonisation resulted from?
The fact that the “workable harmony” of the classical imperial period ceased to exist
What does Holland argue that the “workable harmony” of the classical imperial period ceasing to exist meant in practice?
The developed states found better returns from cooperating between themselves and relationships with the colonies became static
Why does Holland argue that it was to the mutual advantage of colonial powers and colonies to separate?
Because the developed states discovery of better returns cooperating between themselves coincided with the evolution of aggressive political elites in the colonies
What is the historical significance of Holland’s conclusions coming from a 1980s perspective?
It is outdated and did not have access to all of the resources necessary and buying into the narratives perpetuated by colonial powers and newly colonial states at the time
Why are Holland’s conclusions problematic?
They are a rationalisation with hindsight that ignores the time-lag between the reality and its perception by many embattled imperialists
What did dominant elements in Western countries atavistically cling to and for how long?
Belief in the positive economic and political value of empire a decade or more after the more perceptive realised it was a thing of the past
What does Marseille argue we can now see modern colonialism as having been?
A device for expediting the incorporation of parts of the Third World into the world economy at a when the Western states urgently needed colonial markets and raw materials
