Out of Empire : : Redefining Africa's Place in the World / / Volume 8 / Frederick Cooper, Franz Römer, Susanne Weigelin-Schwiedrzik.

• Superior document: Fakultätsvorträge der Philologisch-Kulturwissenschaftlichen Fakultät der Universität Wien
• VerfasserIn: Cooper, Frederick
• TeilnehmendeR: Römer, Franz; Weigelin-Schwiedrzik, Susanne
• Place / Publishing House: [s.l.] : : V&R unipress,, 2013.
• Year of Publication: 2013
• Language: English
• Series: Fakultätsvorträge der Philologisch-Kulturwissenschaftlichen Fakultät der Universität Wien
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (30 p.)

The history of decolonization is usually written backward, as if the end-point (a world of juridically equivalent nation-states) was known from the start. But the routes out of colonial empire appear more varied. Some Africans sought equal rights within empire, others to federate among themselves; some sought independence. In London or Paris, officials realized they had to reform colonial empires, but not necessarily give them up. The idea of "development" became a way to assert that empires could be made both more productive and more legitimate. Frederick Cooper explores how these alternative possibilities narrowed between 1945 and approximately 1960.