The Ends of European Colonial Empires Cases and Comparisons Edited by Miguel Bandeira Jerónimo Instltute of Social Scìences, tJníverslf of Lßbon, portugal and António Costa Pinto Instítute of Soclal Scìences, IJniverslty of Llsbon, portugal pôlgreve rnacm illa n -Y- Editorial matter, introduction and selection @ Miguet Bandeira Jerónimo and António costa Pinto 2015 Contents lndividual chapters O Contr¡butors 2015 Att rights reserved. No reProduction, coPy or transmission of this pubtication may be made without written Permission. No portion of this pubtication may be reproduced, copied or trânsmitted Acknowledgements 1X save with written permission or in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, or under the terms of any ticence Notes on Contributors X permitting [imited copying issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency, Saffron House,6-10 Kirby Street, London EClN 8TS. Introduction - The Ends of Empire: Chronologies, Any person who does any unauthorized act in relation to this publication Historiographies, and Traiectories 1 and civil claims for damages' may be tiabte to criminal Prosecution Miguel Bandeirø [erónimo and António Costa Pinto The authors have asserted their r¡ghts to be identified as the âuthors of this work in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. Part I Competing Developments: The Idioms of Reform and Resistance First pubtished 2015 by PALCRAVE MACMILLAN 1 Development, Modernization, and the Social Sciences Patgrave Macmittan in the UK is an imprint of Macmillan Pubtishers Limited, in the Era of Decolonization: The Examples of British registered in England, comPany number 785998, of Houndmills, Basingstoke, and French Africa 15 Hampshire RCz1 6XS. Frederick Cooper Patgrave Macmiltan in the US is a division of St Martin's Press LLC, Empire? Politics, Culture, Economy 175 Fifth Avenue, NewYork, NY 10010. 2 A Modernizing and in Portuguese Late Colonialism 51 Patgrave is a gtobat academic imprint of the above companies and has companies and representatives throughout the wortd. Miguel Bandeira lerónimo and António Costa Pinto Palgraveo and Macmiltano are registered trademarks in the United States, 3 Commanders with or without Machine-Guns: Robert the United Kingdom, Europe and other countries. Delavignette and the Future of the French-African lsBN 978-1 -1 37 -39405-7 'lmperial Nation State', 1956-58 81 This book is printed on Paper suitable for recycting and made from futly Martin Shipway managed and sustained forest sources. Logging, putping and manufacturing processes are expected to conform to the envÌronmental regutations of the Part II Comparing Endgames: The Modl Operandi country of origin. of Decolonization A catalogue record forthis book is available from the British Library. 4 Imperial Endings and Small States: Disorderly A catatog record for this book is availabte from the Library of Congress. Decolonization for the Netherlands, Belgium, and Portugal 101 lndia. Typeset by MPS Limited, Chennai, Crawþrd Young 5 Myths of Decolonization; Britain, France, and Portugal Compared 126 Bruno Cardoso Reis 6 Exporting Britishness: Decolonization in Africa, the British state and Its clients 148 Sarah Stockwell vll Y- viii Cotúe,lts 7 Acceptable Levels? The Use and Threat of Violence Acknowledgements in Central Africa, 1953-64 t78 Philip MurPhy Part III Confronting Internationals: The (Geo)Politics of Decolonization The editors of this volume wish to express their gratitude to several I Inside the Parliament of Man: Enuga Reddy and the personalities and institutions for their support. First and foremost, Decolonization of the United Nations t99 we are obliged to acknowledge the fundamental support given by the Ryan Irwin Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology to two research 9 Lumumba and the 1960 Congo Crisis: Cold War proiects that are related to this collective volume: 'Portugal is not a and the Neo-Colonialism of Belgian Decolonization 2t8 Small Country': The End of the Portuguese Coloniøl Empire in a Comparative Perspective (FCT-PTDCiHIS-HIS/108998/2008), coordinated by António lohn Kent Costa Pinto and in which Cláudia Almeida was of great importance, 10 The International Dimensions of Portuguese and Intemøtionqlism and Empire: The Politics of Difference in the Portaguese Colonial Crisis 243 C olonial Empir e in C omp arøtiv e P er sp e ctiv e ( 1 9 2 0- 1 9 7 5 ) (FCT-PTDC/EPH - Luís Nutto Rodrigues H15151,7612012), coordinated by Miguel Bandeira Jerónimo. We would 268 Last Days of EmPire also like to mention the Institute of Social Sciences of the University lohn Darwin of Lisbon, Brown University - namely the Department of Portuguese and Brazilian Studies, in the person of Onésimo Teotónio de Almeida, Indexes and the Department of History - and the Institute of Commonwealth Paula Gonçalves Studies of the University of London, given their support which, at dif- ferent moments/ enabled the organizalion of meetings in which the Index - Nqmes 278 majority of these papers were presented and debated: the Ìnternational Index - Geo 282 conference of 2011, in Lisbon, entitled The End of the Portuguese Empire Index - AnalYtic 286 ìn a Comparative Perspective; two panels at the American Historical Association annual conference in 2OI2 and 201,3; and two confer- ences in Providence, at Brown University, in 201,1, and 2012. A special refetence is mandatory to the support given by the Luso-American Foundation for Development (FLAD). Finally, the editors want to appreciate the excellent work made by the anonymous reviewers who critically assessed the texts in this volume and whose comments greatly improved it. The same happened with the multiple commentators who discussed these texts on many occa- sions: William Roger Louis, Martin Thomas, David Engerman, Jason Parker, David Ekbladh, Joseph Hodge, Corinna Unger, Taylor Sherman, Mairi MacDonald, Alexander Keese, Diogo Ramada Curto, José Pedro Monteiro, Andrew Zimmermann, and Perrin Selcer. IX Myths of Decolonizatíott 127 prejudices. This is where I believe that taking political culture seriously 5 is indisPensable. Myth is defined for the purposes of my analysis as a widely shared Myths of Decolonization: Britain, ,traditional story of ostensib-ly historical events that serves to unfold part of the world view of a people or explain a practice, belief'. France , and Portugal Compared A 'popular belief or tradition [...] especially: one embodying the ideals and institutions of a society or segment of society'. This is Barthe's Bruno Cardoso Reis definition in his seminal book Mythologies that significantly provides as an example of the importance of myths in late modernity a cover of Parls-Match with a young black soldier saluting the French flag. He interprets this as an affirmation of the myth of France as a 'great empire' in which 'all' 'without colour discrimination' 'served her Íaithfully'.2 The importance of myths of empire has also been explored This chapter considers the construction of the notion of decolonization in the field of international relations bút with a focus on imperial in the context of national political cultures. It seeks to explore the ques- expansion.3 Surely it is equally worth explodng the myths of the end tion: What was the role of cultural prejudices and preferences in the of empire, the myths of decolonization. end of the three biggest European colonial empires in Africa? Answers There has been some reference to potential myths of decolonization will be provided by tracing the impact of some explicit and recurrent in key works on British or Portuguese decolonization. For instance, John cultural prejudices at the level of senior decision makers and officials in Darwin made a strong case against romantic delusions of a well-planned comparing British, French, and Portuguese decolonization. British decolonizatlon. The imperial legacy was artfully repackaged as It is not possible to show unequivocally here the decisive role of the great work of nation building, but this could not disguise the grow- political culture in decolonization. My aim is simply to present argu- ing fragility of British global power leading to frequent crises and unex- ments and evidence from some relevant sources that it did play an pected accelerations of decolonization.4 Norrie Macqueen has argued important role in both setting the pace and helping define the shape of that the notion of the Portuguese coup of April 1974 organized by the decolonization. Armed Forces Movement (Movimento das Forças Armadas, MFA) as a fourth liberation movement aimed at decolonization was a convenient Why decolonization myths matter façade covering the loss of colonies by the military by turning them into liberators overseas as well as at home.s Decolonization is understood in this text as primarily the formal end of But while these mythical narratives may not be good guides for obiec- colonial empires through 'the surrender of political sovereignty over the tive analysis, they are important social constructions with real impact, peoples of Africa and Asia and the emergence of independent nation- and require careful study. A book that illustrates the importance of this states'.l The end of formal empires as proud political and cultural con- process of cultural construction is the pioneering work on the French structs is one of the cornerstones of contemporary international politics 'invention of decolonization' by Todd Shepard; another is a recent col- resulting in around 200 states recognized by the United Nations (UN).