decolonizationn.
/ˌdiːkɒlənʌɪˈzeɪʃn/, /diːˌkɒlənʌɪˈzeɪʃn/, U.S. /diˌkɑlənəˈzeɪʃ(ə)n/, /diˌkɑləˌnaɪˈzeɪʃ(ə)n/ 1. The withdrawal of a colonizing state from its colonies, leaving them independent; the acquisition of political or economic independence by a former colony; an instance of this.
ΘΚΠ
society > authority > lack of subjection > freedom or liberty > liberation > [noun] > from imperial subjection
decolonization1836
disimperialism1959
1836 Morning Chron. 11 Apr. Money had been voted for colonization, but..the burning of Mascara seemed to him to be rather decolonization.
1853 App. to Congress. Globe 8 Feb. 141/1 The year 1775 witnessed the opening of the first act in the great drama of the decolonization of the continent.
1928 Communist 7 673 The only road to the independence, to the decolonization of the colonies lies in a revolution of the workers and peasants for the establishment of the democratic dictatorship.
1957 Economist 19 Oct. 213/2 Nor did the postwar return of the colonial powers reverse or halt the process of ‘decolonisation’.
1972 K. Sutton in J. I. Clarke & W. B. Fisher Populations of Middle East & N. Afr. 400 The Algerian economy up to 1966 was still recovering from the chaos and stagnation of one of the harshest decolonizations to follow the granting of independence.
2005 Isis 96 64 The protracted processes of decolonization of Angola, Macao, East Timor, and the Spanish Sahara.
2. The process of eliminating the effects or influence of colonization or colonialism on the attitudes, assumptions, power structures, institutions, etc., of a formerly colonized people or (later also) a former colonial power or culture; an instance of this.In formerly colonized nations, often with reference to the rediscovery or reassertion of (pre-colonial) identities, culture, history, etc., which had been devalued or erased by a colonizer, reprivileging of native or indigenous languages and literature, and the formation of a new, independent national identity. In former colonial powers, attempts at decolonization often include the recognition of the oppression or exploitation of colonized peoples and the racist attitudes which underpinned colonialism, the acknowledgement of wealth accumulated through colonial rule, and the removal or contextualization of memorials to colonialism or colonialists.
ΚΠ
1963 tr. F. Tombalbaye in Daily Rep. Foreign Radio Broadcasts (U.S. Foreign Broadcast Information Service) 12 June i. 11 Although decolonization is not an easy task, we are progressing, gradually. (After the decolonization of our structures?) we will start the building of our nation on new foundations with the worthy elements within our country.
1990 N.Y. Rev. Bks. 22 Nov. 7/1 The decolonization of the mind that took place during the 1950s and 1960s in the third world was followed, then, by a decolonization of the European mind, the colonizing mind.
2001 A. Kirkegaard in M. E. Baaz & M. Palmberg Same & Other 60 The cultural policy formulated at independence aimed at a decolonisation of Tanzanian culture.
2021 Times Colonist (Victoria, Brit. Columbia) (Nexis) 23 June The reclamation of Indigenous place names is an act of Indigenous resurgence, a claiming of history and worldview, and a call for decolonization.
Compounds
As a modifier, with the sense ‘of, relating to, or characterized by decolonization’, as in decolonization movement, decolonization process, etc.
ΚΠ
1938 M. J. Bonn Crumbling of Empire ii. 101 A decolonization movement is sweeping over the continents. An age of empire-breaking is following an age of empire-making.
1990 Times 15 Aug. 17/1 There must be many good skeletons in the Whitehall cupboard from the decolonisation period of the British Empire.
2020 Jrnl. Higher Educ. Afr. 18 58 Shizha..submitted that..the decolonization process entails..‘reclaiming, reconstituting, rewriting, and validating’ indigenous knowledge, and by implication, Africa's history.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, March 2022).
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n.1836