Empire and Decolonization in Portuguese Africa

Abstract

AbstractThis chapter addresses some of the most important historical processes that shaped Portuguese late colonialism and decolonization from 1945 to 1975. The authors argue that to fully apprehend the dynamics that led to the transfers of power, the independence of several former Portuguese African colonies, and its post-imperial aftermath, it is fundamental to understand the profound consequential political, economic, cultural, and social changes that took place in the Portuguese African colonies after 1945. From the reconfiguration of the imperial politics of difference to the modernizing impetuses that marked the empire during the last thirty years of Portuguese colonialism, this chapter tackles the ways in which pro-imperial advocates and anti-colonial activists, among others, engaged in a dispute with global ramifications regarding the legitimacy of Portuguese rule over different territories and populations. Portuguese late colonialism is thus addressed through a comparative framework that brings together the trajectories of imperial demise of other European powers and the universalization of political national self-determination as the cornerstone of the contemporary global order.