Preface vii 1 Decolonization as Moment and Process 1 2 Nationalism, Late Colonialism, World Wars 35 3 Paths to Sovereignty 71 4 Economy 119 5 World Politics 139 6 Ideas and Programs 156 7 Legacies and Memories 171 Notes 193 Select Readings 225 Index 237

"This clear, concise, and new interpretation will be welcomed by students, scholars, and general readers interested in one of the most defining and consequential developments of the 20th century."--Publishers Weekly "This is a work not only valuable for its discussion of the topic, but for placing it in a context sorely needed in today's hydra-headed discussions of the term and the word from which it is derived... Perhaps this book's greatest virtue is reminding us of what a global phenomenon it was by concentrating on the vast French colonial empire, as well as the Portuguese, German, Japanese and, yes, American realms."--Martin Rubin, Washington Times

"This rigorous yet accessible book is perhaps the finest survey anyone has yet offered in this fast-growing field. Jansen and Osterhammel have seemingly read almost everything important in a vast relevant literature but also go far beyond to provide rich stimulus for much future study and thought."—Stephen Howe, University of Bristol"Jansen and Osterhammel's Decolonization will quickly establish itself as the most penetrating, thoughtful, balanced, and comprehensive short history of decolonization and its consequences. A major contribution to the existing literature."—John Darwin, University of Oxford"In this remarkably insightful book, Jansen and Osterhammel place the processes of decolonization within their proper framework of anticolonial resistance, European transformations, and the global Cold War."—O. A. Westad, Harvard University"For those waiting for a nuanced, comprehensive, yet readable account of decolonization in the twentieth century, Jan Jansen and Jürgen Osterhammel provide it here. In six crisp thematic chapters, the authors succeed brilliantly in explaining this complex historical phenomenon for the specialist and general reader alike. A major achievement."—Christopher Goscha, Université du Québec à Montréal"This accessible synthesis provides an empirically rich and analytically important map of the history and process of decolonization. It is particularly useful in explaining how decolonization intertwined with larger forces of global history across the twentieth century and how decolonization fit within the millennium-old history of empires."—Todd Shepard, author of Voices of Decolonization: A Brief History with Documents"A very systematic and concise introduction to the key aspects and events of decolonization that takes into account many of the current scholarly debates in the field."—Andreas Eckert, Humboldt University of Berlin"A succinct introduction to the history of decolonization. This book discusses the various phases of the process as well as its core dimensions, and convincingly concludes that decolonization is arguably the most important historical process of the twentieth century."—Kiran Klaus Patel, author of The New Deal: A Global History