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Non-sovereign territories today account for more than half the states in the Caribbean but regional and global histories of the twentieth century tend to exclude them from narratives of protest and change. This book argues that our current understanding of global decolonisation is partial. We need a fuller picture which includes both independent and non-independent states, and moves beyond a focus on political independence, instead conceptualising decolonisation as a process of challenging and dismantling colonial structures and legacies. Decolonisation is neither an inevitable nor a linear process, but one which can ebb and flow as the colonial grip is weakened and sometimes restrengthened, often in new forms. Using the Cayman Islands, the British Virgin Islands, Martinique and Guadeloupe as case studies, Grace Carrington demonstrates that a focus on the processes of decolonisation in these non-sovereign states enriches our understanding of the global experience of twentieth century decolonisation.
List of contents
Introduction; Part I. Non-Sovereign States in the Context of Global Decolonisation: 1. Political futures after the Second World War; 2. Decolonisation and the global Cold War: the US, the Cuban revolution and anticolonial mobilisation; 3. The colonial state: assimilation, interference and repression; 4. The political economy of non-sovereign states during decolonisation; Part II. Local Dynamics of Decolonisation: 5. Local elites: economic and political power factions; 6. Local politics: the dynamics and failures of political parties; 7. 'We got to take back our country': popular protest and independence activists; Conclusion; Appendix A: timeline of key events; Bibliography.
About the author
Grace Carrington is a Research Fellow at the University College London Institute of the Americas. She is currently part of an interdisciplinary research team working on the AHRC-funded Visible Crown project. As part of this project, Grace analyses the relationship between monarchy, republicanism and anticolonialism in political debates across the Caribbean during decolonisation.
