the.com/decolonization
Empires don't retire gracefully; they get evicted, paperwork and all.
means The process by which colonies throw off foreign rule and become independent states — politically, and ideally economically and culturally too.
from Built from 'colony' (Latin 'colonia,' a settlement of transplanted farmers, from 'colere,' to cultivate or till) with the undoing-prefix 'de-' bolted on. The word itself is a 20th-century coinage, gaining real traction after the world wars as empires across Asia and Africa were dismantled; its grammar is almost mischievous — 'colonization' described planting an empire, so 'decolonization' describes ripping it back out, roots and all.
- peak wave
- 1945 to 1975, over 80 nations exited empires
- not just flags
- economic and cultural dependence often outlived the treaties
- borders problem
- colonial lines stayed, ignoring the ethnic maps beneath them
- still ongoing
- UN lists 17 non self governing territories today