Beck

Jansen, Jan C. / Osterhammel, Jürgen | Dekolonisation: Das Ende der Imperien | C.H. Beck | 144 pages | 12 EUR

The new, "completely revised and updated" edition of the book Decolonization: The End of Empires is published at a time when it is clear to any attentive observer that the world is undergoing a profound epochal change. The book is published by C. H. Beck in the Wissen series. The authors are Professors Jan C. Jansen and Jürgen Osterhammel. It is intended primarily as an introduction for students interested in the colonial period, and specifically in the struggle for liberation of Asian and African peoples and ethnic groups from mostly European oppression. The colonies of North, Central and South America do not play a major role, as their liberation almost never occurred in the 20th century. The first edition was published in 2013 and is still available in English and Chinese. This book draws on German, English and French secondary literature up to the year 2023.

Decolonization: The End of Empires is not only interesting for students of history, but also for anyone who wishes, by looking back, to understand the beginnings of an era that is now lurching towards its end. This is particularly relevant for Europeans, Africans and Asians. I would like to mention two recent texts. Firstly, Michael Kimmage's essay The World Trump Wants: American Power in the New Age of Nationalism, published in the current March/April issue of Foreign Affairs. In it, the author discusses how authoritarian leaders - Putin, Xi, Modi, Erdogan and Trump - seek to secure their own, entrenched zones of influence and are not afraid to define their cultures as specific civilisations. A word that sounds all too familiar to us Europeans in a colonial context. Secondly, I would like to draw your attention to the essay Le pouvoir de dire Non by Dominique de Villepin, French Prime Minister from 2005-2007, published online on April 7 in the magazine "Le Grand Continent". Dominique de Villepin takes a "tour d'horizon" of the state of our world and speaks of a "neo-imperialism" that is spreading worldwide. The irony of history: Europe remains the last bastion still resisting this powerful trend.

But now back to the book!

From a historical perspective, the authors situate "decolonization" within a brief period of three decades, from 1945 to 1975. This period is characterised by the decline of empire as a form of political organisation, as well as the end of Western racial theory. Any form of domination perceived as a relationship of subjection lost its legitimacy on all continents during this period. This can certainly also be described as a process of self-awareness. It is generally accepted in historiography that the turning point of the First World War is regarded as the end of imperialism. However, Jansen and Osterhammel point out that it was only after this point that the British and French empires experienced their greatest expansion. Indeed, until the early 1960s, Great Britain, France and Belgium believed that they could maintain a lasting presence in their African colonies, in one form or another. They envisaged a gradual transfer of power to local elites, over a period of several decades. The speed of the great liberation of the colonies south of the Sahara came as a surprise to many.

Three developments affected all colonies, regardless of whether they became sovereign like India in 1947, or in the 1950s and beyond. Firstly, the European colonial powers no longer had any ideological arguments with which to oppose the force and determination of peoples eager to free themselves from the status of second-class citizens and determine their own fate. Secondly, the newly founded United Nations expressly affirmed the right of all peoples to self-determination. Thirdly, the economic upswing of Western Europe to hitherto unknown heights of prosperity greatly reduced the economic importance of colonies. This had peaked in the inter-war period, since it was only then - in the context of a globalisation stifled by the First World War - that the colonies played an important role as sales markets for European industries.

Today, Europeans tend to forget the violence they perpetrated against the colonized populations. The Mau Mau uprising in Kenya (1952-1960) and the orgy of French violence in Madagascar (1947-1949) have been almost forgotten, as has the so-called "police action" by the Dutch, to reclaim Indonesia. This intervention caused "bloody chaos" in the lost colony from 1945-1949, and was undoubtably one of the reasons why Indonesia marked a turning point in the decolonization process, with the 1955 Bandung Conference. (See also: Revolusi by David Van Reybrouck).

The greatest violence, however, was not caused by the Europeans. It was triggered by the partition of the Indian subcontinent into India and Pakistan, imposed by the Indian Muslims against the British position. It is said to have cost up to two million lives, although since nobody knows the exact figure, an estimation of one million is often used. In terms of violence, the authors rank the Algerian War from 1954 to 1962 next, and the Indochina War waged by France from 1946 to 1954 after that. The Korean War and the USA's Vietnam War are considered to be conflicts in the wake of decolonization. In addition, there were bloody civil wars after the end of the colonial era in the Congo, Nigeria, Angola and Mozambique. The greater or fewer the number of settlers very often seems to have played a major role in determining the degree of violence that accompanied the separation from the colonial power.

The book Decolonization: The End of Empires is clearly and convincingly structured. It is easy to compare developments in South Asia, Southeast Asia, the Middle East, North Africa, the Mediterranean and sub-Saharan Africa and to understand the role and significance of economics, global politics and ideologies. The end of the colonial era fundamentally changed Europe's global role and gave a - perhaps decisive - final impetus to the political and economic integration of Western Europe.

The authors point out from the outset that "colonial" ways of thinking have not disappeared with the decline of colonies. A hierarchy-free coexistence of peaceful nation states has not been achieved. Although more difficult to justify, imperialistic behaviour of the powerful over the weak persists. And this is an understatement. Ukraine, Palestine, Greenland, Taiwan and Panama are just some of the most visible recent examples. The catalogue of imperialist "behaviour" continues to grow. The future of the world may no longer lie in the free association of peoples in the United Nations, but in the coexistence of zones of influence of great powers.